Friday, April 03, 2009

a preview of our weekend

We did zero house related projects last weekend and because of two nights out, we also did zero bike riding. Something about a pounding head on a Saturday morning does not motivate one to hit the trails. So THIS week things will be a bit different.

I'm sure a lot of good things happened in 1986, but I don't count our home's kitchen renovation among them. It's not terrible; the kitchen really is quite homey, but it's definitely due for some TLC. The problem is kitchen remodels are kind of behemoth projects and we don't have a budget for one. Judging from the appliances, which are all a lovely GE bisque color with faux wood trim, I'm guessing a somewhat significant overhaul of the kitchen happened in the mid 80's. At this time, it looks like the counter tops, cabinets and appliances were all brand new. At some point (maybe then, maybe a little later?) pergo-type floors were also installed. The rest of the house has lovely old hard wood floors, so I'm not sure what the deal is with the kitchen. Here's a photo of the one spot where you can see a cross section (from a heat register):

Photobucket

What do you think the odds are there there's a cool layer of 1926 linoleum somewhere under there?!? Anyway- at some point, I'd like to do something better with the floor- be it a return to something that could have appeared in the house when it was built, or something newer, but equally fitting in a modern, functional kitchen. Hopefully a little bit of both?

We're keeping out eye out for lightly used appliances. All of ours work (for the most part- the knobs fall off the range if you look at them funny, the microwave is "finicky" and they all drink up massive amounts of electricity) so we're not in a hurry, but definitely looking forward to someday having more efficient appliances that will serve the house for another few decades. It seems like this is a good time to buy newish used appliances- perhaps folks are trying to sell to sell houses and sell their appliances separately to recapture some of their costs?

Anyway- on the list of things to do:

Refinish the cabinets- cut out the wood panels from a couple and replace with glass.
Install new cabinet hardware.
Remove aging wallpaper and replace with paint.
Get new(er) appliances
Replace or resurface the counter top
Remove laminate floor, restore what's underneath or replace it with something less cheesy looking.



I think we can accomplish this on a modest budget, as funds allow. Because we're not trying to totally remodel the kitchen, we can do these things one at a time, and have a functioning kitchen throughout most of it.
I've already started refinishing the cabinets and so far, so good! I'm making some headway, a couple of doors per day. I also ordered some new knobs and drawer pulls to install, as there currently aren' any. I've learned that lack of draw pulls and knobs is not only a bit annoying, but also has resulted in gross dark areas on each door and drawer where people's hands have touched the surfaces to open/close over the past 20+ years. If there's anything grosser in a kitchen than other people's body dirt, I'm not sure what it is. Let's just say that degreasing has been a major part of this refinishing process...

The new hardware: and


They're darker and less yellow-ish in person.

And here's a before and after picture of some cabinet doors. Sadly, it doesn't really look any different in the after picture...Photobucket

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