MY kitchen--before and after, people..check it out!

Hello there! well, since I have nothing really at all very interesting to say, shall we got on a little trip down memory lane? Oh, yes.. I knew you'd agree.

Get your coat..oh, you really don't need it. Cm on- lets go.

Here we have a lovely photo of the home we live in now "Pre-wonderfulness"

Looking at my little kitchen, who woulda thunk it, peeps..Its hard to see, but that tile there, the back splash, it had little grey and MAUVE flowers on it. It was a little too much for me to handle. Bob IMMEDIATELY got to chipping that away..far away. {thank you so much- honey}Here this shot is looking into the dining room. The sink is still on the right, you can kind of see it. The sweet old gal that lived here, remember she raised all 4 of her now grown up children in this house, well.. I think she probably needed a little more tending to than she got, truth be known. I was kind of worried about her after a few visits. We wont get into that though, its a before and after, people!! onward...This photo is the only picture of the stove area, albeit kind of a not great photo, you can see what BV and I decided to do..

We (he) took the cabinet next to the sink out, and we put in a wall oven, which is really waaay too small for our family's use, but my Aunt (teta) gave it to me, so we used it!!! recycle people..

We also decided to install bead board and can lighting on the ceiling and on the walls half way up. A wonderful 9 inch crown moulding, you know-- just for the "effect" kinda like the frosting on a cake.. I decided long before we started the renovation that I would like this home to reflect how it probably would have looked before its modernization ..after the war. You know, back to its ROOTS..
Here's where we are today, folks. We ended up with the same cabinets, although the ever fabulous and uber talented husband of mine (bv) sprayed them all out, oh about 4 times. Me being the other helper chick got to do all the "helper type work" you know..sanding and priming and sanding and priming and after I was done with that I got to go to the store for more SANDPAPER and do a little more.. egads, I had no fingerprints left.. Its all good though. I love to work with my man.

So, here is the cooking area now, we decided to take out all of the cabinets above and let it be a little more free and open, like me.. Added a little stainless steel for the counter and back splash. We re purposed a radiator cover for a shelf to hold all of my wonderful restaurant ware dishes. Love how it turned out.

The floor is just a great plain checkerboard pattern, on the diagonal in a really creamy beige and buttery yellow. Yep, my villa did it all.

Another thing I love about this kitchen is the wallpaper I used. Its something I found on eBay, looks like old tin ceiling squares. The roll came to me, it was just white paper with no glue and the pattern was raised by what looked to my like a type of Styrofoam. I said a prayer, got out my gloppy wallpaper glue bucket and a huge old wallpaper brush and went for it. I love it totally, to this day. It painted up very well and I haven't looked back and haven't regretted putting it up! (yet)

~~~

update:

now that I look at this photo of the stove top I have to tell you a little story. One night, after I just had gotten the dishwasher dishes loaded, and hustled all 3 children upstairs for baths and reading I heard a crack crack cracking sound...then a huge crash of a million plates. Then I heard my glass top stove shattering and popping..yes, girls.. It was my wonderful shelf falling down. I had that thing stacked so wonderfully with all my best ironware and restaurant ware..

It makes me cry just thinking about what I lost and how stupid we were for not getting that shelf (one side) sturdily into a stud.

Lesson learned..find yourself a stud girls..hanging anything heavy..you need a big stud.

just my lil bit of wisdom for the night..

(ps to coastal nest winners Timi, Mrs J and Marty--yes, the slacker that I am, I have not gotten your cute little prizes in the mail, YET..) also martster--you need to email me with your addy, still!!

what do you think of the kitchen, people??

Cmon now..serious!