We know, we’re long overdue for a kitchen “reinstall” update. Well, the kitchen is still “in limbo” so to speak. We’re sure some of you are wondering what in the world is taking us so long. Rest assured, we ask ourselves that same question pretty much everyday. I guess what it comes down to is with this being our first house, we’re just being super slow to make such a huge decision. We’re wanting to make sure it’s the right one and we’re going to be happy with is forty years down the road. Okay, maybe not forty, but you get what I mean.

From time to time, we have a slight glimmer of “maybe we should have kept the old cabinets…?”. But that thought goes right out the window when we think about making all of the “demo mess” now rather than before we moved in. On top of the dust and overall mess of ripping out the cabinets, there was also the flooring… remember, the kitchen used to be tile. We also closed in a window to make a new space for the fridge and ultimately make the layout much more convenient (more about the future layout here). Aaaaaand, if that wasn’t enough, when we ripped out the kitchen cabinets, we found at least two gallons of loose pieces of dog food under the “sealed” cabinets. Who knows how long that could have been there or what that could end up attracting. We wouldn’t have known it was there if we didn’t take out the cabinets. So, yeah. When we think about all that, all of the “maybe we should have” thoughts go bye-bye. No regrets here.

Living in our temporary kitchen has become second nature to us (read more about our current set up here). We’ve learned to use an electric skillet to cook just about anything (even boiled eggs!), storing dishes in moving boxes and super low “countertops” (aka folding tables) are the norm, and we don’t mind grilling out a lot. Come to think of it, we’d probably be grilling a lot even if we had a full kitchen. And the addition of the new refrigerator has been a major improvement on what we were working with the first few months. On top of all that, my parents live not far from here. So if I get an overwhelming urge to bake a cake, fortunately there’s a full functioning kitchen to my disposal 24/7 close by. Focusing on the positive.

As for where we are now in the process we like to call our “kitchen reinstall”, we’re in “extensive research” mode. As you know, we’ve talked about getting cabinets from Lowe’s and Ikea. We’ve gotten to know the ins and outs of both options – the pros and cons, the do’s and don’ts. We’re feeling highly educated in both cabinet options but we’re still not completely sold on either one. We know that probably sounds totally crazy and you’re like, “go ahead and make a decision already!”. We’re getting there. Slow and steady wins the race, right? We hope so.

Now that we’re educated in options one and two, we’re looking into a option number three: custom. Okay, no, not Bob the Builder – but maybe a guy named Bob. Who knows. A few months ago, I got an email from a reader, Megan – who, come to find out, was in my gym class in high school! – asking about our cabinet decision. She went on to say she was just wondering because her parents recently totally remodeled their kitchen (and added a mud room and sun room). They also had a consultation at Lowe’s (the same designer we had) but ultimately decided to go with a local cabinet guy who custom-built their entire kitchen for a fraction of the price they would have paid at Lowe’s and every aspect was customized to their wants and needs – shaker-style cabinets including lazy susans in the corner cabinets, an island, banquette area, microwave nook, etc. Basically, the whole kit and kaboodle.

Megan included a link to her blog with before and after photos of her parent’s kitchen reno overhaul and I must say, the difference is truly amazing!

Here’s the before…

…and the after!

I know, right?! And get this, both of the above photos were taken from the exact same spot! It doesn’t even look like the same house! The cabinets are great and the exact style of what we are looking to have in our kitchen – including the deep bottom drawers as opposed to regular cabinets and a few glass-front cabinets.

Here’s the before and after of the old kitchen wall and their new entry to the mud room…

I also love the thick molding around the windows and doors and who doesn’t love a good banquette area?!…

Needless to say, my response to Megan email included, “Would you mind giving me his contact information?”. We’ve already talked to the “cabinet guy” and we just need to get him our measurements/details in order to get a ballpark figure of how much it would cost. I’m excited to delve into the world of custom cabinets and learn more about the process and the ins and outs. And you never know, we just might make a decision. Ha!

Once we nail down the pros and cons of custom cabinets, we’ll be sure to fill you guys in on our thought process. That’s what this blog is all about, right?

So now time for you to dish the details… have you had experience with custom cabinets? What do you think the pros and cons are? Or how about any other avenues like Lowe’s Street or Ikea Boulevard? Tell us about it in the comments section. We’d love to hear your input…

Oh and by the way, if you happen to notice any weird things going on (broken links, missing images, etc), we’re currently working on publishing some of the upgrades we mentioned in our State of the Blog Address a while back. Thanks for your patience!

Bob the Builder image found here.

We have a question to ask you, but before we get to that, here’s what’s up: Our severe lack of a true kitchen is weighing on our minds. How could it not be, right? When you’re living with a microwave, crock pot, and skillet as your “major” appliances, life is… interesting. As ya’ll know, we decided to go ahead and purchase the fridge (which we are really pleased with!) and that’s made things a lot easier in our “temporary kitchen“. However, as you might recall from the children’s story, if you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk. So now we’re thinking about the other appliances we’re going to be buying down the road — like a stove and dishwasher.

As far as the dishwasher goes, we want it to have a cabinet front to match whatever type of cabinets we go with. Kind of like this…

Since the kitchen is a little on the… shall we say… “cozy” side, we want to make it seem as spacious as possible.  By covering the dishwasher with a cabinet front, we don’t break up the continuity of the cabinetry. This will help the kitchen look a tad larger and more finished to boot. Of course, not having to worry about the looks of the dishwasher makes picking it out pretty easy: just look at the reviews, find the best one for the money, and make sure the panel comes off. Done.

Then there’s the stove, and this is where the question comes in. We’ve found a few models we like, but Ashley is getting hung up on the brand. She’s thinking since we have a Samsung fridge we should get a Samsung stove. My thinking is though it would be nice, they don’t have to match. Ash keeps teetering back and forth…

What do you think? Don’t worry, we’re not asking you to pick a side, we’re just wondering what the rest of the population does (or wants to do) in their own kitchens. Do kitchen appliances have to match? What’s your opinion?

Cabinet front dishwasher photo courtesy of Southern Living.

What seems like forever ago, I talked about wanting a “special doorknob” for the kitchen pantry door (read that post here). As I explained in the post, I know wanting a “special doorknob” may sound completely pointless and a tad bit trivial, but ever since we bought the house there is one thing I knew: I wanted a pretty, unique doorknob for the pantry door in the kitchen. Odd? Maybe. Silly? Probably. Here are the three choices we narrowed it down to:

Keeping in mind that we posted about this just a few weeks (not even 20 posts in) after starting the blog, so we were really excited to see the votes come in (we didn’t even know anyone was reading!). Option C won by a 9 with 15 votes. We were happy that’s what you guys liked because that was the one we were leaning toward, too!

Nearly 6 months later, we finally got around to filling in what was just a hole in the pantry door and adorning it with our new hardware — or the pantry’s “jewelry” as I like to call it. Not to much surprise, we decided to go with Option C: the Tea House doorknob in Smoke!

We really like how the brown (or “smoke”) crystal doorknob ties in the with dark hardwood floors. It tends to “pop” against the white door whereas if we had picked Option A, the doorknob would have gotten lost.

and if you remember reading the previous post, it has the whole Pollyanna-Hayley-Mills-Glad-Game aspect thing going on. And that makes me a happy camper. When I’m happy, Greg’s happy. And when we’re happy, I’m sure happy-go-lucky Bentley has a little extra spring in his step too. What’s a home if it doesn’t make you happy, anyway?

Do you have any little extra special touches in your house that make you happy?