After two years of thinking and planning for the new kitchen, it finally feels for reals. you know how? well it happens when you go from this:

to this:

and many many of these:

Pretty cool eh’

We have been working with our architect friends who were kind enough to help us way back when we were just preparing to prepare (i.e. putting together our kitchen registry for the wedding).

We have spent probably a total of 40 hours in the last month just on our own (and over several sessions) with IKEA kitchen book getting the cabinet layout just right. It’s true IKEA cabinets are just like legos, which means that available combinations are quite extensive. And in a relatively small space where every inch counts, a slight shift here and there makes a big difference.

And then of course the real deal professionals have put in quite a bit of time perfecting our ideas. We have met twice now  and should have final plans very soon (so forgive the crappy pictures that I took just now).

The one major change that I haven’t yet touched on in the blog is the swapping out the door and the window on the exterior wall facing the back yard, in favor of french doors in the middle.

Sources: Lynda Reeves kitchen in House and Home, kitchen in I. Abramovitch “Restoring  a House in the City;

it’s going to be expensive (just yesterday we spent a hefty amount on a structural engineer to tell us we can put it in a steel beam to provide support for the load bearing wall), and the prices that we have been getting on just the doors themselves are jaw dropping (at first, then you just learn to think in thousand multiples). i don’t even want to hear what the contractors will say. but at the end of the day, we think the doors will make a huge difference to the layout — allowing us to use both walls fully, and to the amount of light that we will get.

So as soon as we get final plans from architect and structural engineer we will be all set to interview contractors. In the meantime, we have quite a bit of demolition work and finalizing cabinet/appliance/floor tile/hardware choices to make.