kitchen | Operation Home

So, the other day I realized that I’ve been a bad blogger. We’ve lived in the house for almost 2 months and I haven’t shown you many of the rooms as they currently stand. Now, I’ll tell ya… We have a TON of work to do still. But, really in the time we’ve lived here we’ve done a lot. New windows were installed in the bedrooms last week, new insulation and radiant barrier before that, new flooring in much of the house prior to move-in, etc. So, now that some of the Need-To-Do things are checked off, we’re finally reaching that sweet-spot where we can start focusing on style and decor. I’m going to break up the tour into a few posts to keep it from being too overwhelming. This time around I’m going to show you the kitchen/breakfast nook, the foyer and the secondary bedrooms that you haven’t seen yet.

So, here’s where we started with the kitchen…

And here’s we’re at now….

All we’ve really done here is accessorize. Obviously, this room needs plenty of work down the line. The appliances are old, mis-matched, and builder-grade. Our black fridge sticks out like a sore thumb. Plus, the stove works only part of the time. We literally have to jam the burners in and smack ’em around to get them to heat up. These will be replaced eventually, but we’re trying to make them last as long as possible to allow us to really consider what we want to replace them with. Oh yeah, then there’s the rest of the full-reno. 😉

On the other side of the room, we have our breakfast nook, which started here…

And now is here…

The large red painting was created by my mother in law, Mac. You’ll see several of her pieces throughout the tour. The table is off center to allow better flow of traffic (although looking at this pic, I can definitely move it a bit closer to center. Noted.). The lighting fixture is off center in the opposite direction, which drives me batty. Plus, it’s way too close to the french doors to allow a table to sit directly under it, so we plan to relocate the lighting fixture over the table (I’m lobbying for a chandelier. Joey remains unconvinced.). Speaking of the table, I really think the space is screaming for a round pedestal table to allow for better flow. I’m keeping an eye out for potential candidates.

Over in this little area by the French door….

We have a charming Ride print that Joey purchased a long time ago. I framed it with a $4 poster frame from Target. Below that we have my chicken-wire Ikea hacked cabinet with the painted baskets that I adorned for our previous mudroom. The baskets hold sunscreen, bug spray, and other outdoor must-haves so we can just grab-and-go when swimming.

A little view from beyond the breakfast nook (You can catch a glimpse of the dining room… I’ll have another post for that)….

And don’t even get me started on that fluorescent light. It will be so very gone. One day.

Moving onto the foyer, we started with this…

Which now looks like this…

I’m not convinced that that art will stay which is why I haven’t hung it yet. I’m still marinating on that.

The other direction…

I’ve simply added a vase with sticks and another awesome painting by Mac (that hallway leads to the kitchen)…

Here’s the view of the painting from further down the hallway… \

I’m still at a loss for what to do with the wall that’s directly across from the front door (this pic is from before we moved in)…

It’ll come to me eventually, I’m sure.

The next two rooms I have done absolutely NOTHING to decor-wise. They both currently boast the same scuffed-up, flesh-colored paint that’s just BEGGING for a change and ZERO style. But, in the interest of keepin’ it real, I’m showing you guys anyways. I figure, every room has to start somewhere. Both spaces have had carpets replaced and new windows installed. So, they’ve got that going for them. Which is nice.

The first bedroom looked like this…

And currently looks like this (brace yourself)…

Pretty bad, right? This is the room where the pipe burst. You can see the sheetrock work that was done behind the bed. This room holds a haphazard bed, my beloved desk chair and every wall art piece that I own that has yet to find a home (they’re all unceremoniously leaning against the wall next to the door). It’s kind of a glorified storage room/office right now. I have a bunch of work to do here. Like, a lot. I’m still deciding how I wanna proceed in this space.

The other bedroom started off here…

And now looks like this….

Again, blank slate. A flesh-toned blank slate that mocks me every time I walk past. This room is going to be painted a similar tone as the rest of the house. A nice, light grey. Since we plan to make this a secondary entertainment space I thought it’d be nice to extend that common-area color into this room as well. Then, curtains, art, TV will be hung, etc. Again, I’ve got my work cut out for me here. Lots to do.

Ill show y’all the hall bath and mudroom soon. And once I repaint the master bath AGAIN (finally), I’ll update you on that as well. Oh yeah, and the dining space has had some changes… and Lucas’s room. OMG. You guys. I’m so behind. I’ll get you up to speed soon. 🙂

Oh, the PLANS!!!! Every room…Plans. I have so many plans and ideas in my head right now. Just swirling around in there. Just marinating. Blossoming. Reconfiguring. It’s.so.dang.FUN!!!!

We finally got possession of the new house Wednesday, and are now in the process of getting a few things done before we move in (more on that in another post). In the meantime, I thought I’d begin our tour of “before” pics of our new pad. I’m gonna break down the tour into smaller segments because… Well… I have a lot to say (feel free to feign surprise).

I thought I’d start at the beginning… with the foyer. This is the view when you walk in (ignore the unpainted door jamb… it’s on the list)…

When you walk in, you’re faced with a small foyer area. To the left are both the hallway to the bedrooms and entrance to the living room….

From the other direction…

And towards the right there is a sizable coat closet and an entrance to the kitchen…

And from the other direction…

Walking into the kitchen you see this…

This kitchen features original cabinetry, chipped laminate countertops, a dented sink and mismatched appliances. It’s not nearly as offensive as it could be, though. Seriously, some of the kitchens we saw when we were house-hunting were epic. This kitchen is livable and is actually starting to grow on me a bit. It just needs a little face-lift. We definitely have a good deal of storage space in the cabinetry. Though, for some reason, whenever I walk in I get the distinct feeling that I’m being watched….

Heehee! Not sure when the whole hardware-in-the-center-of-the-cabinets-thing was a good idea. It seems inefficient and awfully schnoz-like, but what-evs. The 70’s were a crazy time (or so I’ve been told. #eightiesbaby). The kitchen is the space where you’ll likely see the least amount of major changes at first. Of course, I totally plan to decorate and tweak the space. It’s just that we plan on a giving this room a total overhaul down the road. I’m talking opening walls, new cabinetry, new layout, new countertops. The whole chebang. Except for the floors… I really like the slate. We want to live with the space for a while before we decide what we want to do with it reno-wise to be sure that we account for how we truly use the space. We’re lucky that it’s a large room, with a nice eat-in space…

The French doors lead out to the pool, and the closed doorway to the left leads to the laundry room and half bath. We’ve already tossed the idea around of opening the wall that separates the kitchen from the larger dining space (that huge bank of upper-nose-cabinets shown two pics above) and then using this eat-in area of the kitchen to house more cabinetry to make up for the loss of upper cabinets. We’ll see though. Much can change between now and then.

If you go through the door to the laundry room, you see this….

This beautiful blank slate of a laundry room. We’re definitely gonna add shelves or cabinetry for storage and possibly a little mudroom area for pool stuff. That door straight ahead leads to the covered patio out back. I’d love to replace it with a door that has a window in it. Maybe something to match the French doors in the kitchen. This room needs some natural light and that would be an easy way to do it. To the right, is a nice-sized pantry, and the so-called half bath. I say “so-called” because it’s literally a teeny room with a toilet…

You have to use the sink in the laundry room to wash your hands, I guess. We think they put this in to be convenient to the pool, which is pretty genius in that sense. It was just kind of weird seeing it for the first time during our showing. It was like… Oh, hey, a random toilet… (Pause) Mmm’kay, cool.

Now, coming back into the kitchen and facing the opposite direction, you see this view of the kitchen….

That open doorway to the right leads to the dining space….

And just for fun, here’s a better shot of the view out of the window…

The dining area is open to the living space…..

Now, I’m standing where the sliders are in that last pic and looking into the living room….

It’s darker in this part of the room since there’s no overhead lighting or skylights. We plan to add some recessed lighting to the vaulted ceilings and possibly a solar tube to brighten up the space with more natural light. That open doorway back there leads back out to the foyer and hallway.

As for projects in this room: The built-ins will definitely be getting makeovers…

This one next to the fireplace will likely be painted white to allow the fireplace to shine. The two compete visually right now since they’re such similar colors. Then, we have the wet bar….

Joey thinks this is the coolest thing ever. I personally don’t get it. I mean, why a sink??? Wouldn’t an ice-maker make more sense?? Or better yet… a wine fridge??? Just sayin’. I guess I’m more of a dry-bar person. No sense in wasting perfectly good plumbing. In any case, at this point, the sink stays and this little area will look completely different when I’m done with it. I’m thinking: remove mirrors, add a pendant light, paint cabinets white, remove side/backsplashes, apply a concrete overlay treatment to the countertop, add some art. Oh. Yeah. Come to mama.

Here’s the view of the living room when you walk in from the foyer….

I just love it. That fireplace!!! You had me at that fireplace. The fireplace will remain original. We’re planning on changing out the carpet in this room for wood floors before we move in, so stay tuned for that. And the view of the porch through the windows will also change, once we’ve gotten our hands on it. Joey’s already busting at the seams with eagerness to get started on that project. I’ll go over the plan once I get to the outdoor tour, though.

So, my friends, this is where I end today’s tour. I’ll pick up next time and cover the rest of the house. Until then, we’ll be tirelessly working on some of the maintenance issues that were picked up in the inspection (post about that later) and getting estimates for various items. So, wish us luck! 🙂