10 Things I Hate About My Kitchen

Sorry Mom, I mean 10 things I dislike about my kitchen. It's true, I don't really hate my kitchen. It hasn't done anything wrong, but it hasn't done anything right either. At first glance it even looks like a pretty nice place (this is the listing photo so it's been doctored a bit).

In the immortal words of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless "She's a total Monet." You know right? It looks great from far away but up close it is a total mess (not going to lie, I still love that movie). I was never that home buyer who expected everything out of our home before we bought it (you know the ones you see on House Hunters who whine if there isn't stainless steel and granite in the kitchen). For what we could afford and where we wanted to live compromises were made.  Honestly I could probably live with this kitchen for a few more years no problem but since I don't have to I'm willing to make it happen. Since it isn't a necessary renovation, I thought I'd explain my complaints to all you wonderful readers out there so you can get the idea behind what we are changing and why.

10 Things I hate about our kitchen:

1. There is no counter space.

Even if the microwave was not there that corner is still pretty much unusable space and the 10 inches on the side of the stove doesn't do much for me either.

2. There is no cabinet space. Because they decided on a peninsula to define the kitchen space where you could have cabinets over the stove we have empty space. Which also leads me to gripe #3.

3. No range hood.

What happens when I burn something? My house fills with smoke which wasn't a problem in the summer but now that it is cold opening the back door doesn't work.

4. Things that could have been great details were done badly (and not by me I might add). It looks good from far away right?

Until you look a bit closer and see this:

All I can say is that I hope the previous owners didn't pay someone to install these cabinets.

5. I have a lovely dining nook

- at the expense of a standard shaped master bedroom.

That awkward corner jutting in to our bedroom is where the dining nook is right now (pardon the mess we still don't have closet doors).  The nook is nice but it makes it very hard to arrange the bedroom in any way that makes sense. No matter where you put the bed you have no room.

6. No backsplash. Easy enough.

7. Awkward layout. When you can't open your oven all the way without pushing the fridge in you have a design problem.

8. Bad lighting.

9. Bad flooring. I know this is just me being fussy but if you have to lay new floor either match the original (or do the whole house over) or get something that is different enough to look planned. I notice the difference even if no one else cares. 

10. Finally, the place is just small. Not much you can really do about that without changing the whole structure of the house but our plan will make maneuvering around much easier. See?

Current layout

Proposed layout

It won't give me huge amounts of space but we will be able to open the dishwasher, stove, and fridge without anything bumping in to anything else. Which to us, will be a huge bonus. Plus the whole project is killing two birds with one stone. We get a new kitchen and bedroom. We are moving everything out of the bedroom today so I can start pulling up carpet and floor in preparation of getting that wall framed out next week. I can't wait to see what is lurking beneath. It will be a surprise (and hopefully a good one!). Luckily with doing most of the demo and drywall ourselves if we need to put in new floors there is room in the budget to do so. I'm keeping to my resolutions on this project though so it may be slow going but it should be an interesting ride.

Cheers!