Way Back When...Part VI
Hello Everyone,
As promised, I'm going to tell you what happened with our kitchen. It truly was a mess. For example, the floor was linoleum, however, (and this was a good thing) it wasn't glued down. It was just laid on the floor. I had never seen anything like it. It was curling around the edges, so it was easy to just pick it up and move it. I would say the hardest part was cutting and tying it up for the garbage. Everything else, not so easy. As with every other room in the home, we had to sand the floor and polyurethane. Like downstairs, it had a pantry, which was great. Except for the fact that it did not have any shelves. So, we had to buy wood, cut it to length and polyurethane it. We also had to buy the hardware in which to hang them. We had a total of 10 shelves to cut and hang. It took a long while.
For some reason, there were two doorways into the kitchen. One from the dining room, which I get, but another one off of the small hallway from the bedrooms. So, we decided to close up the doorway from the bedrooms and increase the wall space in the kitchen. It was also a good idea to move the refrigerator in that space so that it was out of the way but still easily accessible. The counter top was next to the fridge with the cabinets above and below. Those were the only cabinets in the kitchen. The above cabinets had windows on them and amazingly, they were still intact. The counter top was an old painted wood, so we decided to lay white, square tile on top to make it usable. On the next wall were the two windows and very old ceramic farmhouse sink. It needed a major cleaning, so we used some bleach and water to get out some of the stains and then plain soap and water to get out the harsh bleach smell. Underneath the sink, there wasn't anything except blank space, so we found a small shelving unit and put it under to make a small bookshelf. It did a good job of hiding the plumbing as well.
On the wall that had the pantry, was the combination stove and microwave. They were old but still usable and since we were working on a tight budget, we just gave them some TLC and kept it. They worked great. We were also able to put a small table and four chairs in the corner. The middle of the kitchen was all open with plenty of space to move around.
We had to put new lighting in the kitchen which really brightened up the space. There were only light bulbs hanging in the kitchen and the pantry. We put in a full-size light in the kitchen itself with a smaller flush mount in the pantry. They worked great!
The color of the kitchen when we first started was white for the most part, which included the top half and the ceiling. The bottom half was this god-awful blue. We had no idea how long that color had been up there, but we knew that we had to change it. So...I decided to go with red. Now, I know what you're thinking...that it's a really dark color and probably has no business being in a kitchen, but let me tell you, it came out fantastic. I'll explain why. First, it was a big room - 14' x 14' and it had two big windows. We painted the walls, top and bottom in red and also the back wall inside the cabinet because you could see it through the windows on the doors. The trim and the doors on the cabinets were painted white. The inside panel on the bottom cabinets was painted red as well. The pantry was painted white. I even coordinated the chair pillows and table and chairs to match. The table and chairs were a garage sale find in solid wood, but had a worn look, so I painted them. I was very pleased with the outcome.
We had a usable kitchen in about a month. It was hard because we were both working and trying to get it ready as soon as possible. We wanted to start living in our new home. But, we still had more to do. I'll take you on to the bathroom in my next post. Please stay tuned.
Until next time...Lisa
As promised, I'm going to tell you what happened with our kitchen. It truly was a mess. For example, the floor was linoleum, however, (and this was a good thing) it wasn't glued down. It was just laid on the floor. I had never seen anything like it. It was curling around the edges, so it was easy to just pick it up and move it. I would say the hardest part was cutting and tying it up for the garbage. Everything else, not so easy. As with every other room in the home, we had to sand the floor and polyurethane. Like downstairs, it had a pantry, which was great. Except for the fact that it did not have any shelves. So, we had to buy wood, cut it to length and polyurethane it. We also had to buy the hardware in which to hang them. We had a total of 10 shelves to cut and hang. It took a long while.
For some reason, there were two doorways into the kitchen. One from the dining room, which I get, but another one off of the small hallway from the bedrooms. So, we decided to close up the doorway from the bedrooms and increase the wall space in the kitchen. It was also a good idea to move the refrigerator in that space so that it was out of the way but still easily accessible. The counter top was next to the fridge with the cabinets above and below. Those were the only cabinets in the kitchen. The above cabinets had windows on them and amazingly, they were still intact. The counter top was an old painted wood, so we decided to lay white, square tile on top to make it usable. On the next wall were the two windows and very old ceramic farmhouse sink. It needed a major cleaning, so we used some bleach and water to get out some of the stains and then plain soap and water to get out the harsh bleach smell. Underneath the sink, there wasn't anything except blank space, so we found a small shelving unit and put it under to make a small bookshelf. It did a good job of hiding the plumbing as well.
On the wall that had the pantry, was the combination stove and microwave. They were old but still usable and since we were working on a tight budget, we just gave them some TLC and kept it. They worked great. We were also able to put a small table and four chairs in the corner. The middle of the kitchen was all open with plenty of space to move around.
We had to put new lighting in the kitchen which really brightened up the space. There were only light bulbs hanging in the kitchen and the pantry. We put in a full-size light in the kitchen itself with a smaller flush mount in the pantry. They worked great!
The color of the kitchen when we first started was white for the most part, which included the top half and the ceiling. The bottom half was this god-awful blue. We had no idea how long that color had been up there, but we knew that we had to change it. So...I decided to go with red. Now, I know what you're thinking...that it's a really dark color and probably has no business being in a kitchen, but let me tell you, it came out fantastic. I'll explain why. First, it was a big room - 14' x 14' and it had two big windows. We painted the walls, top and bottom in red and also the back wall inside the cabinet because you could see it through the windows on the doors. The trim and the doors on the cabinets were painted white. The inside panel on the bottom cabinets was painted red as well. The pantry was painted white. I even coordinated the chair pillows and table and chairs to match. The table and chairs were a garage sale find in solid wood, but had a worn look, so I painted them. I was very pleased with the outcome.
We had a usable kitchen in about a month. It was hard because we were both working and trying to get it ready as soon as possible. We wanted to start living in our new home. But, we still had more to do. I'll take you on to the bathroom in my next post. Please stay tuned.
Until next time...Lisa
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