I might have bought the table and six chairs ...
So currently then - our kitchen set up -
Well - not entirely - I just sold the Dania bar table and chair set that used to be in this corner -
But now that's what we've got. An old, tiny table I bought from Pier 1 I've had since before Julian was born and refinished plus a smattering of garage sale mission-style chairs. So Katie got me thinking - kind of out-of-the-box thinking that's good from time to time.
My original plan for this place was to gut the entire back of the house - move the bathroom (and reduce it from a full- to a half-bath) and put a kitchen nook where the shower currently is, an island with a cooktop and a pantry. But a while back I came to the conclusion I needed a reality-check and that this place - though I love it - is not going to be my final house and is only worth putting so much into it. Gutting the back of it to put in a bigger kitchen - though a nice amenity and such - just didn't seem realistic. A bit over-the-top for such a small house. This place is what it is - a starter house for someone. It seemed unrealistic to build out a dream kitchen in such a space.
But I miss having a real, big, solid kitchen table that isn't tiny crammed in a dark corner of the kitchen. To come home in the evening and gather at for dinners. To wake up weekend mornings the sun streaming in through the blinds to plop down and have a bowl of cereal. Play a game of Settlers of Catan.
So - I hadn't really thought up a new plan until now ... and while the newly-acquired mission table and chairs sit unassembled in my basement that plan is -
- where that little table is now (and the fridge to the left) - build out a pantry like originally planned and enclose the fridge with cabinets above and to the right (or the left and move it to the opposite corner along the wall) sort of like this (although I'd only have two doors and they'd be painted white and match the 5-panel doors I installed a couple months ago - with cabinets likely overhead as well since the ceilings are 9' tall) -
- completely rearrange the living room - move the piano to the front of the room and put the TV and two couches in the basement (more in a sec) to create a media room space down there
- where the piano is now - put the mission table (I, umm, bought it and six chairs)
- move the recording setup to where the TV and audio equipment are now
- in the middle of the living room, get a small loveseat and matching chair or two, a bookcase (possibly build - this has been on the wishlist ever since I moved in cos I still have all my books spilling out of various boxes stacked against a wall) and hopefully still have room for the coffee table I bought last year - hopefully sort of all centered in front of and around the fireplace
- more or less leave the laundry room and back bathroom the way they are - well, finish the laundry and back entry - do something like this with the laundry area (I like the countertop for folding laundry and stuff and the utility sink that I'll need once the last bathroom is finished cos right now it's serving as my utility room) -
(Sans the random smiling lady)
That'll of course mean finishing at least one room in the basement. Flooring. New tiled ceiling. Wiring for all the audio and stuff. Redoing the corner and gas fireplace there now. So it'll be a work in progress. And I've got a bathroom to start and finish which I think will take priority. I've put that thing off too long.
But anyways - it'll be a lot of shuffling but in the end I'll have a nice, big, solid kitchen table next to some south-facing windows that'll be beautiful and work well for all the reasons I've mentioned.
