Kitchen - minor face lift

Although we love our home, I don't think it has been any secret of how much we hate the kitchen. With its carpeted floors -- how unsanitary, older cabinets, and hideous wallpapered walls (throw back to the "step bitch" - there must have been one heck of a sale in 1989 of this crap!)

Here is a picture of me assessing the situation on the day we toured homes in Wheeling. Wondering whether or not I could live with a kitchen like this. One that didn't have a dishwasher (gasp!) and with a small refrigerator. And the carpet...

Sadly, not much has changed since this photo was taken. We've added a new refrigerator - moving the other one to the basement. We added a dishwasher - as I couldn't live with dishpan hands. And all of the previous owners' nick-nacks are gone. On the cabinet that is in front of me in the picture is where my KitchenAid stand mixer has been - and my TV. Other than that, what you see is what you get.

I've been back and forth in my head as to what colors I should paint in there. I had settled on Benjamin Moore Million Dollar Red for the cabinets (as I would never do something so HGTV crazy as to paint kitchen cabinets, but we're being sensible and waiting until the house in Fairmont sells before really renovating the kitchen!), Benjamin Moore Wheeling Neutral for the walls, and a white trim that as closely as possible matches the trim in Elizabeth's play room.

Until....

Yesterday, Reid and Nick, a nice young man who is a freshman on West Liberty's basketball team, started the demo work on the floor!

The carpet was glued onto pink & green linoleum tile (think Dorthy Draper & the Greenbrier pink & green), which had adhesive and leveling compound under that, which has the original 1915 hexagonal gray marble tile with a pattern of green flowers & white centers. (Now I'm totally at a loss for what colors to use when I get to painting - all ideas are welcomed!) But for now, we'll be dealing with the floor to restore as much of them as possible, we hope! If not, we'll at least be down to the lowest level of flooring to put something on top of them...

What were Elizabeth & I doing during much of this demo work, you might ask. Aside from me getting a sunburn, we were planting tulips and crocuses in the front walk way of our house. I planted a few crocuses in two of the planters in back of the house (that are against the garage). I finished clipping the irises (dang perennials that require work in the off-season -- this isn't basketball!). I removed the mint that was in the landscaped area next to the driveway (and trust me this was enough mint for the Kentucky Derby!). I will be planting tulips and crocuses in some of that landscaped area, but Elizabeth wasn't being as mindful at that point, so we had to go in back of the house where she could be gated in.

Later in the evening, Elizabeth was "allowed" to help. She is so excited to help get to use the tools it's not really even describable!

So, this is basically the end of one long day's work. We are still trying to figure out what we can do in certain areas (like in the back wall of the kitchen, the tile stops, but a previous owner added the width of 10 boards when the kitchen was expanded at one time...and there is wood, too, in front of the sink where the tile ended in an odd area...not to mention that the cabinets were put over the Dorthy Draper tiles...)

Still lots to be done so that Elizabeth can realize her dream of wearing socks and skating on the kitchen floor.