Kitchen Facelift, Phase 1

Since a full kitchen remodel involves a lot of ripping out, dust, inconvenience and $$$ we don't have right now, and since we cannot tolerate the crappy, 47 year old kitchen an longer, Larry and I have decided (July 2003) to do a facelift. This involves painting the kitchen walls and ceilings, cleaning and painting the birch cabinets, replacing knobs, light fixtures and putting in a snap-together. floating floor. We're planning on spending about $1,000.

This is the kitchen, pre-facelift. We have been living with it for 10 years. It was a very nice kitchen in 1956, with custom cabinets. I'd like to resurface the kitchen sink, since it is porcelain imbedded in the ceramic counter top, but Larry wants to replace it. I don't know how that's going to work without destroying the countertop and jumping up the cost of the facelift. He's thinking there's a magic sink out there he can superimpose over the ceramic sink, but since most of the kitchen was custom as the time it was originally put into place, I don't think this is likely.

We're still disagreeing over this. We might have a newly painted kitchen with new a floor and a crappy, chipped, porcelain sink.

At first glance it doesn't look too bad. But look closer.

Look around the cabinet knobs for instance. Worn down to the bare wood, and so dirty from the previous owner we can't get the ingrained soil out.

It's a bright, open space, and we're keeping that. It's just the dreariness of the details in this kitchen we want to get rid of.

It was re-wired when we moved in because using the microwave while the refrigerator was plugged in used to blow the circuit breakers. I don't know how the previous owners coped --- lots of trips to the breaker box, maybe?

Worn around the handles. The handle holes are too big and the handles swing around, often keeping the adjoining door from closing. Very annoying.

The scallops are okay, but dated. That detail is staying there for the face lift. I can guarantee it won't be there after the full remodel.

Notice the fringed rug. It is there because ...

The floor is worn, the sheet vinyl floor ripped. A tripping hazard. And something about this floor attracts pet hair.

The previous owner had allowed water to leak for a long time before making any attempt to fix it, if he ever made any attempt to fix anything, so we know that replacing the subfloor is a definite piece of the total remodel plan.

The little side shelves is a very 1950s touch. In the previous picture you can see the bottom cabinet has them too. The cats loves these shelves as perches, since we don't allow them on the counters.

This area used to have an in-counter electric range.

First of all I despise electric coils and cannot cook on them; Larry and I both need a flame.

Second of all, after the lack of care by previous owners, the range top had a quarter inch of gunk and grease on it that we could not remove. I remember trying to peel the grease off with a putty knife. It was SOOOO GRRRROOSSSS.

Larry took a saw and cut out that part of the counter and cabinets below, which were unbelievably disgusting. We replaced the electric in-counter range with a regular gas stove, but in the meantime, we have been living with this hideous wound on our ceramic counter top. I am not sure at this point what we are doing about this in the facelift.

Notice the pull out cutting board in the cabinet face to the left. We have never used it. After ten years, it is beyond gross.

The strange fluorescent light fixture over the kitchen sink. Works well, but is hideous. We're thinking a short piece of track lighting here.

The open cabinet is where the old electric range used to be. It's too deep to be good storage; things get lost in the back, a lot.

This won't be getting a door. In the future it will be getting ripped out.

Notice the range hood doesn't fit the space. Larry wants to replace this range hood with one that actually vents outside.