A Day Late and A Buck Ninety Eight short

Dave over at My Year on the Grill (yeah, I still can't figure out that linking thing-I'm hopeless!) had posted two days ago about another person who thought we should post our kitchens and do it as a yearly post. I didn't see the post until last night since I worked Monday and Tuesday. Honestly, after seeing other people's kitchens, I have a LOT of kitchen envy. We remodeled our kitchen 13 years ago. We have a traditional split level house from 1979. It was awful when we moved in in 1990. Orange carpet, dark woodwork, I won't even tell you about the mirrored wallpaper in the bedroom and the gold angel oil dripping lamp in the entryway. The kitchen was the worst. It was U-shaped with cheap cupboards, a brown dimpled counter top, and the cabinets were the kind dropped from the ceiling so you could put things on top to display-and get totally gross with dust and cooking grime. It also had the cupboard over the peninsula so I had to duck to see everyone at the kitchen table. After we sold a street rod we took the money and did a remodel. We are looking to do an update now. I loved my counter tops 13 years ago, but they are doing nothing for me now. I want some type of solid surface with a tile back splash for counters. I want a new sink and appliances. I love the floor and my cabinets still, but am going to update the hardware on cabinets and get a new ceiling fan and light fixture. I would love to get some hanging pendant lights over the island, but haven't found an electrician yet.

We remodeled into an L-shape with a freestanding island now. Walking into the kitchen this is what you see. I love the window over the sink, I just wish it was a bit lower to enjoy more of the view. We had shelves put in next to the window for knick knacks and pictures.

These were my Mom's. I have received many of her kitchen goodies over the years. My eldest sister does not like to cook and doesn't really care for clutter. My other sister loves to cook, but isn't into old stuff. Me-I like the old stuff. Ties us to another time and place. These are hor dourve holders. The holes you see are to hold appetizers on a toothpick.

I like the stacked microwave over the stove. It is so convenient when cooking if I have to warm cream for potatoes, or melt butter or warm veggies. No extra steps. We are hoping to upgrade to the dual-fuel stove in March after we get our bonus. This stove has served us well for the past 15 years. I have worn all the writing off of the knobs! There is a lazy Susan to the right of the stove on the bottom that holds all my baking supplies and the corner cabinet over my stand mixer holds bowls, tools and all the chocolate I hide from my kids!

We have an eat in kitchen-no formal room for us. I hate this table. It is awful to say, but I do. When I met my hubby he was in the process of buying his parents house from them as they were retiring to the lake for the summer and Florida for the winter. He bought the house and all the furnishings. The chairs are trashed from dogs chewing and kids bouncing and I hate a round table. I want a nice square table. Once our oldest graduates from college, she gets the table (she loves it) and I'm buying a new one! My cookbooks sit on the two shelves at the end of the L. Need about 4 more shelves to hold them all.

The island holds all my pans and bake ware. I wish we could have put in a bigger one, but due to door opening requirements, this was as big as we could go. The curtains you see over the two windows were my grandmother's-another little piece of the past in my home.

Our friend built this cabinet for us. It houses our china, deep fryer, holiday dishes and stemware. It has small lights in the upper part so it puts off a nice glow in the evening. We are looking into a small HDTV to replace my old one as all I can get is satellite in the kitchen. We don't have cable out in the country so we have a big dish and we can't get our local stations on it, so I can't watch the news or check out the local weather in the kitchen anymore after the digital conversion. But you can see Paula's arm!
This is what is going on in my back yard for a couple days. Million dollar tractors rolling around through the corn and half a dozen trucks pulling through to collect.

That is my kitchen in a nutshell. Sorry I'm late with my post :-)

I'm going to take some new pictures and repost. As I looked through this I saw how bad they looked once uploaded. It looks much better than this-too grainy.