Kitchen Update-My Old/New Kitchen

TIME TO UPDATE MY 80’s KITCHEN

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Hi guys, it has been a year since we moved into our new Stittsville house and I still haven’t really shown you my kitchen. It needs a major kitchen update. The kitchen was one of my biggest concerns when we bought this house. It is pretty dated and needs a lot of work. The kitchen and the family/tv room are also not open concept. Another concern of mine when we decided to buy the house. We plan on a major renovation in the future…distant future…but until then I needed to make this kitchen a little more livable. (Please check out part 2 and part 3 of my kitchen makeover too!)

I thought I had taken some good before shots of the original kitchen but apparently I didn’t. So I am using some of the real estate agents shots to show you what it looked like before I fixed it up. Sorry but they are a bit grainy.

At first glance doesn’t look too bad does it? When you actually get up close and personal you can really see just how dated, dirty and  greasy they really are. The handles were pretty gross. I really didn’t want to touch them at all. Also there were quite a few hinges that were broken and the doors didn’t open properly.

The inside of the cupboards were quite yucky as well. They were covered with old dirty shelf liner. It was super sticky to remove. Took a lot of elbow grease and several different products to get rid of all of that stickiness. My favourite was the Zep Heave Duty Citrus Degreaser. And yes we did find some mouse droppings…………..eeewwww! Thankfully my mom was there to help me clean up the kitchen before we moved in.

After the kitchen was thoroughly cleaned I recruited my dad to come over and make some adjustments to the cabinets. We removed one set of cabinets from over the peninsula completely. The other set we had to remove as well because it stuck out beyond the wall (the one my dad is hiding behind). It had to be shifted over so that it could be re-attached to the wall. We also removed a set of cabinets from above the refrigerator because my new fridge that was on the way would not fit otherwise.

My dad also helped me remove and replace the cabinet over the stove. In order to install the new range hood we had to see what was going on with the venting behind it. The old range hood made super weird noises and didn’t really work that well. As we discovered it wasn’t really connected properly so the air wasn’t being drawn out at all! Got that fixed and the cabinet replaced and the new range hood installed. Yay Dad! (Sorry, no pic of the new range hood with the unpainted cabinets.)

These were the first little tweaks I did to my kitchen. Thank goodness for handy parents that love to come over and help me out with my crazy ideas. One other part of the kitchen I need to tell you about. You might not have noticed but I  don’t have a microwave in my kitchen. I would love an over the stove one but that will have to wait until the proper reno. For now it lives in the butler’s pantry. Yes, I said I have a butler’s pantry. For those who don’t know, it is a little passage way from the kitchen to the dining room.

This picture was taken looking into the kitchen from the dining room door way. Next step for this kitchen to become a little more updated is to paint it! Stay tuned!

To see more you can also read part 2 and part 3 of my 80’s kitchen refresh!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

Karla

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