We are about to embark on a big adventure, the likes of which we have never experienced before and probably won’t ever wish to again once it’s all said and done: the total kitchen remodel! We are still in the planning stages and are gathering quotes from various folks, but we hope to get started in the next couple of weeks so we can finish before the baby comes in October.

The kitchen is small with minimal counter and cabinet space, but there is an adjoining formal dining room that we plan to take in and make part of the kitchen. (We really don’t want nor need a formal dining room.) The dining room is conveniently the same width as the kitchen, so it will be a long galley-style kitchen when it is done, with plenty of cabinets for storage and counters for prep. This will also enable us to shift the work area down a little bit to make the eat-in area of the kitchen larger. It is currently pretty tight (our table has to be pushed up against a wall), and we’d like to be able to seat more than four people. Also, the laundry room doorway is right in the eat-in area, and we plan to wall it off and move the doorway to go directly to the adjoining family room. (You’ll see what I’m talking about when you get to the photos.) This will also allow the family room to be used for overflow dining space when necessary, plus it just makes a lot more sense for traffic flow.

Our goal is something functional here. We don’t want fancy fixtures, ornate moldings, and elaborate decór. We want something basic, surfaces that are easy to clean and maintain, design that lends itself to cooking efficiently, and materials/appliances that are not top-of-the-line but still good enough quality to last a while. Also, we’re going to try to be eco-friendly when possible, and I’ll be pointing that out in the choices we make.

I hope to document the process along the way. First, maybe this will help someone else who plans to go through the same thing, and second, I need to be better about blogging and this seems like a good thing to blog about.

Now, for some “before” pictures!

The eat-in area:

View looking from the formal dining room:

The cooking area, with about a foot of counter space on each side—very hard to juggle everything:

The sink side of the kitchen:

Side note: Tile countertops—who thought this was a good idea? I’m sure they looked pretty when new, but crumbs and gunk get in the grout. Who has time to be scrubbing grout all the time? Kitchen counters need to be easy to wipe clean so you can get on with something else!

View from the formal dining room looking into the kitchen:

This is the view from the adjacent family room looking into the kitchen. We like the little window over the sink and plan to keep it like it is. The new doorway will go to the right of that window, as close to the corner as possible, so you walk directly into the kitchen rather than through the laundry room first:

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