Monday, June 7, 2010

How not to remodel a kitchen...

Sometime ago...somewhere in the last fifty years...this old house received a kitchen makeover. They enclosed the side porch and enlarged the kitchen. Makes for a very open and airy space--part of the charm we fell in love with. However, they failed to add insulation in the ceiling--the only portion of the house not shaded by the massive oak--and the walls. The kitchen becomes an oven throughout the late spring and summer.

Today, we installed a ceiling fan over the the main stove/counter/island area. First making sure that the blades cleared the crown moulding. And it felt amazing! Wonderful cool breeze over me as I started work on supper. Then I opened the upper cabinet by the stove. We...um...forgot to check all clearance issues.

We've discussed various cabinetry remodeling. It was just further down the list then other things. Meh. Plans are fluid when one is the proud owner of an 80-year-old home!

We now have delightful open shelving cabinets. Very airy. And very revealing. There's a reason most kitchen cabinets have doors. But rearranging the contents of our kitchen cabinets is far, far simpler than shifting the light/fan fixture over another foot.

3 comments:

Soozcat said...

Whoops. Hehehe. But open shelving is actually a pretty clever way of handling the problem.

Unknown said...

Hi Dori,

We are friends of your parents; they spoke at our church Sunday and we had them over for lunch.

Your dad was telling us about your blog and saying what an incredible writer you are. Of course, I immediately asked for your web address and I must say that I am thoroughly enjoying browsing through your site.

I loved the story about removing the cupboard fronts to accommodate the ceiling fan. Too funny!

I'll be back soon,

Becky Smith
smithellaneous.com

Dori said...

Sooz, rearranging my little world to accommodate an imperfection...it's a gift! :) I've learned to stretch and bend...and then stretch just a little more. Now we just need to stop reaching for the non-existent cabinet door to close it.

Becky...I'm so glad you stopped by! I've been somewhat lax on my writing...something had to give and this was one of them. I'm getting back into it slowly. It'll always be a little bit of everything!