Father's Day at Greenwood

I asked Matt what he wanted to do for Father's Day and he said, "Work." So, he mowed the lawn in Webberville and then we drove to Greenwood and he mowed THAT lawn. Happy Father's Day! I am truly blessed with a husband who thinks this is fun.

I had a gig in Devil's Lake on Saturday night, and Beth came from Somerset Beach Campground where she's working as a counselor this summer, and brought all of her counselor friends! They danced a lot - such a nice group of kids. After that, she rode home with me and in the morning walked downstairs and surprised Matt! He loved getting to sit and have coffee with her!

We spent the morning with a trip to Walmart and then mowing the lawn, drove the twins back to camp (James had come home Friday night with me), and then headed to Greenwood.

Matt's folks popped out to see us and walked Buddy around, which was great, because he slept in his bed after they left, allowing me to get more work done. While Matt mowed the lawn, I got to work on wall number 2 in the master. This is really hard, slow work, and I'm not even going to put before and after photos, because unless you look closely, I don't think you can really see much of a difference, sadly. But the layer of grime that I take off of these walls is really satisfying. This time I used a sponge mop to get higher on the walls, but the problem is I couldn't really scrub up there at the top, so maybe I'll have Matt fashion me a sponge mop with a scrubber attached. Every time I work in here, the smell is better. I noticed a big difference after Kara removed that soiled carpet.

Still, the kitchen is bothering me with its "heavy" smell. I tried to eat something in there yesterday and I couldn't really stomach it. I think one big reason is that it's so shut up. The windows are screwed shut to keep it secure, and there's just no breeze so the air is super stale. I got one window to open in the master bedroom, and that is really helping. Next time we work, Matt is going to unscrew the windows in the kitchen so that we can get a cross breeze through and see how that changes things.

I've really been thinking a lot about kitchen design. Matt wants to pull up the existing floor (some linoleum covered with a parquet vinyl) to expose the original wood floor, have someone come in to sand it, then we would stain and finish it. However, my long goal is to completely gut the kitchen - I don't have feelings of animosity about anything in this house except the kitchen design. I want to eventually remove a coat closet that juts out into the kitchen space, and remove the upper cabinets, plus a long wall of cabinets. I wonder, if we refinish the floor now, we are just going to have to do it all again when we remove these big items. Why not just pull it all out now and do the whole floor and start from scratch?

The answer of course is money. It's going to be several years before we can afford a new kitchen. The cabinets and counter tops will be the most expensive. Do I leave the current kitchen arrangement and just re-do the floors around the cabinets? Or do I tear it all out, redo all of the floors once, and then just cobble together a workable kitchen that will be temporary?

My hesitation in doing the floors twice (once now, and again when we remodel) is that it may never happen. It's a huge job, tearing out these cupboards, and a huge mess. There's a part of me that feels as though now is the time to do it. I'm not sure people will understand, because honestly the kitchen is the one area in this house that looks sort of usable. But trust me, when you get up close, the cupboards are terrible. Some of the cupboards don't even open and close properly because they're not aligned. They're not very high quality, and they, along with everything else, are covered with a thin layer of grime. Not to be a princess, but the one area that I really want to feel "clean" and "done" is the kitchen.

So, I'd like to tear everything out. Unless we have to destroy the cabinets as we remove them (I know nothing about the process), couldn't I conceivably drag them out into the sun, power-wash some of them (so to speak) and sanitize them, paint them, and then re-use them - sparingly - on top of a beautifully refinished floor that is completely ready for a full new kitchen sometime down the road? Yeah I think I could! Re-use some of the cabinets, find used appliances, but have a completely redone floor.

Here are some photos of the current kitchen and some of my ideas (subject to change). Looking into the kitchen from the side door, you see a closet on your left, along with a bit of counter. I'd like to remove that entire closet and counter. On the other side of the closet are upper cabinets, so these would go too. One possibility is to create a bar/counter with bar stools in place of the closet/counter. There would be no upper cabinets, so this area would be all open.

We love the counter with bar stools at our current house, but this time I'd like the counter to be raised - we tend to hunch over to eat at our current counters. Maybe a raised counter on this side, and a second, lower counter on the other.  Here is another photo of the closet/counter, so you can see how this would really open up the kitchen to take it out. Also, the wall o'cabinets on the far wall (with the range hood) would be completely removed, opening up floor space. It's possible to keep the lower cabinets, but the upper ones have to go. Yep, I know I'm sacrificing lots of storage.

Here is a look at the side door with the closet on the right. A dream that I have would be to put windows all along this wall - maybe from the current window to the kitchen window, which is right on the other side of the closet. We have a small patio/porch outside of this window below, that is eventually going to be extended the length of the house. Wouldn't it be cool to have windows along this wall - I even read about having a small counter on the other side of the wall so that you could "pass through" dishes from the kitchen to an eating area on the patio. That was probably a huge porch, haha, but hey, this is the time for dreaming!

Here is another photo that shows just how much floor space that wall o'cabinets on the right takes up. It also makes the window at the end of the cabinets sort of off-center, coming right up to the edge of it:

I really just want to throw out all of my current ideas of what a kitchen has to be, and create a temporary kitchen that is serviceable and fun, and then later add in the expensive stuff, but have the floors completely redone now. Oh and in case you wondered, all of that thin oak trim will be removed, along with the wallpaper.