Updating the Kitchen

So it's been slow going over here when it comes to our house updates.  I say update rather than renovation because really we haven't much in regards to "tear it down, put it back up".  It's all been about paint jobs and cleaning up so far, plus there's all that time and especially money that's needed.

Our kitchen wasn't really horrible, I mean, it was completely functional once we put some appliances in.  But seriously, that countertop?  The sponge-stenciling?  No thanks.

This probably looked great in 1987.

It's a bit of a strange kitchen, I guess.  The kitchen in this house used to be in the dining room, which when you see that you'll understand why they put this in!  It used to be a breezeway, the door behind Jed there is actually the garage door.  Here's a look at what it looked like when we first saw the house:

I did not have a pic without Jed wandering around looking surly.

They did some things that we would have done differently, such as moving the sink underneath the big back window.  Plus, the location of the dishwasher means that you can't be in front of the sink when you're loading it, which is kind of a pain.  It's also freezing in there!  We had to put a space heater in this winter to keep it somewhat comfortable.  But, we do have awesome brick walls in there, and vaulted ceilings, so there's that.  Also, those stencils above that little cupboard in the back?  Cats and fish.  They had to go.  So one paint job and a new countertop later:

You can probably tell that these are not the most recent pictures, as it's a nice sunny day outside but really it's January and we just got 3 inches of ice or something (also, I needed pictures of my kitchen looking tidier than it does today).  Hopefully I'll be able to get some better ones too when we do something else to the room.

I'm kind of going for a funky-retro vibe.  I buy accessories in bright colors like hot pink, lime green and orange to complement the colors.  The countertop is laminate, but it's black and textured (and thanks to a former work connection of hubs', free!), so I don't knock it.  We also removed the cabinet that was above the microwave.  It was just completely useless, I actually had to sit on the countertop to get in there, and I'm pretty tall.  We still have plenty to do, the main things being replacing the lighting (ceiling fan and track lights), painting the cabinets (white), adding shelving (above the sink, where the cabinet used to be, and maybe above the "cat corner") and replacing the flooring.

Another big project that I've decided I want to do in there is to add a built-in kitchen bench in the corner where the small table is now.  We would need to take measurements to make sure it fits, but I really think that it's feasible and might help with resale when the time comes for that.  Damn you Pinterest, you fill my brain with too many ideas!