Virtual Kitchen Tour

Click below for a virtual tour of our new kitchen.

Chic Kitchen

Our current kitchen was functional. It had cupboards, appliances, and room for a table to eat at. I can't count the number of times people told us "oh your cabinets are fine". Sure, they were okay, but the lack of space to truly cook in, coupled with me burning the countertop (oops), the constant purge of kitchen utensils and appliances, and rolling of the portable dishwasher was getting a little old.

More than that, though, the lack of freezer space that caused us to play freezer jenga almost every quarter was frustrating.

I think we truly started on the path to a new kitchen after we drooled over the full fridge and full freezer unit. 

It went on sale around the time for a honey of a deal around we had J and we wanted to buy it, but just couldn't swing it financially. So we started to figure out a budget to finish off this project, then we started the tear out.

Believe it or not, that is the last deconstruction that we will do in the Hobo-Chic Project - we've literally torn every room apart. The kitchen was the last hold out.

Being that the kitchen has also been the draftiest & coldest room in the house for the last little while, we opened up all of the walls to check the insulation. We weren't surprised to find a lack thereof.

After adding some insulation to ensure the kitchen is much warmer, and quieter, and removing the cabinets to give to a friend & selling our old appliances online, we found some wonderful retro flooring.

We debated leaving it, but no, the show must go on. Ripped out all the old vinyl (x2 layers, of course), and added a new sub-floor.

We also replaced all the windows and doors in the kitchen and added a new side door to make our side entrance a little easier to come in at instead of a tight stairwell.

More on this crazy door situation & our new side deck next post. We went through the regular routine of drywall, taping, mudding, sanding and painting, no big news there.

About this time, my mom, J and I took off to Edmonton to await baby #2, so every day I would get new update SMS message, they went a little something like this:

Floor done in just 3 days!

Our cabinets were in the week they were suppose to be. They did beat P-baby to Edmonton (she was late by 12 days), however we needed the handyman himself, so the project got put on hiatus for a week or two while we delivered some of our best work.

After only 3 days in hospital, back at home, the guys got right back to work, with my dad in the mix too. And now, we have the pantry and one wall of the cabinets assembled. Unfortunately, our cabinets for over our lovely full fridge and freezer were ordered in the wrong size, so we're anxiously awaiting their replacements.

In the meantime, we are working on the deck outside for the new door, the sink being put in the kitchen, installing the dishwasher, the plywood counters, drywalling the hallway, picking out handles for cabinetry & debating what goes where.

Phew!

Project Update

Been a little lax in my blogging world, but with a newly minted two year old, a 37 week pregnant baby belly, a fully blown kitchen/living room renovation on the go, all of my wonderful gardens, plus two of my favourite house guests visiting, it's a little busy (to say the least).

More on each of these topics... but first, a state of the union before we started our newest (and largest project) since the basement renovation.

D finished tiling the upstairs bathroom, much to this pregnant lady's delight - as now the bathtub was back in order, and the slate is looking amazing.

The living room has been our "go-to" room for any room that needed to move into another room for quite sometime. With the addition of insulation, it has been the same for a while, and we slowly chipped away progress on it.

Starting to drywall (May 2013)

Here is a couple of reincarnations of our living room thus far:

Living Room (2010):

Bedroom (2011):

Disaster/Deconstruction (2012):

Kitchen (2013):

As much as the living room has changed, the kitchen has pretty much stayed the same except for small organizational changes in the drawers and cupboards.

2010:

Before we started (2013):

The new kitchen design capitalizes on the L shape of our kitchen, and I am excited for the many pantries as well as the increased functionality of the work triangle and more counter space.

We are on a short project deadline with expecting baby #2 on July 4. Some families wouldn't embark on such a large project with that deadline looming itself,  but all of the pieces we needed to get this piece of the project moving quickly fell into place perfectly, so we couldn't resist trying to make it happen.

The cabinetry we ordered is suppose to be delivered on the week of June 24, so fingers crossed it's on time or early as we're not sure what will make it first to Edmonton - baby or cabinets.

Operation Organization: 5S & Baking Cupboard

On the phone this week, I was talking to my dad, and when I told him how I was reorganizing my baking cupboard. Being the Lean Manufacturing guru, he is, he said, "Oh! So you're 5S-ing your house."

Cricket cricket.

Then Dad says, "You remember the 5S' don't you?".... I think I got one out of 5.... clearly he's going to make me watch the Kaizen Blitz Toast Video again.

So here's my before picture... the cupboard is functional, however I am always looking for the baking soda, the baking powder, muffin liners and small bags of items (eg. walnuts, other decorative items).

First S: Sort.
This means sorting through everything in each work area and keeping only what is necessary. Things that might be used someday, broken items or waste are removed during this process.

For the pantry, it meant taking everything out of the cupboard. I will spare you a picture of the absolute mess this made of the top of my stove. But I also put all of my jars out on the counter to sort them by size. My jars are an eclectic collection that came between recycling walks, thrift stores, Ikea and pistachio containers from last Christmas.

Second S: Set In Order (Organize).

Organize items into their most efficient and effective order. Common tools and frequently used items should be easily accessible. Label, label, label so that anyone could put things back into their proper place.

I decided in my organization phase that I would sort my ingredients into jars. In a perfect world, every ingredient would fit perfectly into every jar, but alas this is not the case in the real world. Since I now have some lovely full containers in my pantry and some additional bags of dribs and drabs to add into my stockpile downstairs out of the way. 

I also wanted to have the five most used baking ingredients on my top shelf  in the biggest containers, and I would also move my brown sugar into a different, more easily accessible cabinet (as I have been using this everyday on my yummy oatmeal). 

I also created amazingly easy and good looking labels using MS Word Autoshapes, and printed them out on shipping labels and then used my lovely handwriting to label each container.

For the items not in containers, I used 2 recycled containers (an old margarine tub, and a recent sample box received by mail) to corral them into two categories - baking supplies & organic/gluten-free flours.

Third S: Shine.

Regular cleaning and maintenance on a frequent basis.

In this case, I wiped down the shelf and added some shelf liner on the top shelf. Easy peasey.

Fourth/Fifth S: Standardize & Sustain.

Keeping step 1-3 going, and not falling back into old habits.

I think the trick in this one will be not falling back into old habits of just throwing things in the cupboard and slamming the door but taking the 3 extra seconds to put it back into it's proper position!

Here is the finished product in all of it's glory... it's really inspired me to bake more, so far I've baked for more days than usual since everything is so easy to get to.