UGH.

This is the obligatory kitchen reno post. It seems like every blog has one, and it has been something we knew would need to happen from the moment we moved in.

Since remodeling the kitchen in our condo ten years ago (a decision which, in retrospect, was neither necessary nor financially advantageous), we’ve made do with a number of rental kitchens. Kitchens that, regardless of their utility, could not even generously be considered “designed” in any way.

It has been very hard to even make do in this kitchen over the past year. That stove? It is new. The one that came with the house didn’t really work, and it had a mouse colony living inside of the insulation. The refrigerator on the edge of the photograph? Also new. The old one just stopped working at the beginning of the summer, probably because the door wouldn’t shut without some fancy maneuvers. These replacements made our appliances the only things that did work about the kitchen.

The garbage disposal in the sink was also broken, and while we replaced it and fixed the plumbing, the leaking and flooding that had already occurred had led to water damage and mold that necessitated the whole project.

I have found, however, that starting a project excited by potential and the ability to make it my own is vastly preferable to starting from a deficit perspective. You know what? This space actually has lots of potential, and we pretty much get to start from scratch! The overall space is pretty large, and the ceilings are high, but the old and awkward layout means we don’t have too much choice in terms of countertop/cabinet configuration if we want to maximize storage.

We stumbled on a countertop remnant sale last year that put pretty much any type of countertop within reach. Being the erstwhile lab rat I am, I’ve always had my heart set on slate or soapstone (bonus: soapstone is totally a period-appropriate choice for our 1912 home) and when we went to their spring sale, there were some pretty perfect pieces calling our names!

Look at those veins! We thought we would just provide measurements and install the cut remnants ourselves, but it was actually more affordable for our small footprint to have them measure, cut, and install. The only issue is that we had to have the new cabs installed for measurement, which means living without a sink (our domsjo double farmhouse from IKEA) for three weeks now.

Details on other components when I am not so frazzled!