Welcome to my Kitchen

So, for the last month and a bit, Dave and I have been working pretty intensively to get our house unpacked and settled. This involved, as I believe I mentioned, building a shed to house our storage, since we have tenants in the basement. Last week Dave's brother and Dad and friend came to visit and finished the outside of the shed and landscaped around it and started on the boys' fort in the back yard. They had lent Dave a bunch of expensive tools, including an air compressor and a nail gun, that he didn't want to leave out in the shed-without-a-door, so they have been sitting in our kitchen on a sheet for quite a while. Since they've left, Dave has put shelves in it, and so we've been finally getting things cleared out of the way and everything sort of in the place we want it. We also had a lot of built-in shelves and closets in our last house, so we've had to buy and put together a ton of Ikea shelving (since it fit our budget and we didn't have time to thrift - we needed to get that box forest in our living room unpacked onto something).

Our kitchen was also seriously lacking in counter space. As you can see, the one usable counter we had, under the cuboards next to the stove, was pretty much taken up with our microwave. We also wanted to put in a dishwasher, and there wasn't really space for it in the existing cupboards. So we solved both problems at once by buying one free standing cupboard unit from Ikea. It holds the dishwasher and gives us just the right amount of counter space to work on. This is especially great because now I have a work area where I have space to have my "helpers" up at the counter with me.


One of our space saving solutions that we are really happy with was this pot hanger. Our ceilings are 9ft high, so and this is over our counter, so it keeps the pots completely out of the way, but very much in reach. And it adds a bit of a kitchen-y feel that the room was lacking.

Along withe the lack of counters there was a lack of cupboard space. We solved this and decorated at the same time by putting up these shelves. We like them because they are pretty sturdy and the shelves are screwed into the posts, and the posts have 8 screws holding them into the wall, so no worries about kids knocking or pulling the shelves down. It also makes me happy to see all our cups and bowls, cannisters and tea things saying hello to me every time I walk into the kitchen. Our back door is just to the left of this photo, thus the shoes piled up on the floor. We're still working on that.

This is our table that has travelled with us since we moved from B.C. We love its chunky pine goodenss, and I like the chairs, although Dave has declared them uncomfortable and refuses to sit on them. We set up a little play corner fro Emma in here, and we hope to put up a shelf and bulletin board above it for the phone, notices, mail, and assorted other detritus that needs a spot to accumulate somewhere. I also need curtains, and I'm thinking something from this yummy fabric line would be great. I'd better decide fast, though, because this stuff is being snapped up like hot cakes.

This spot is going to have hooks with some hand made oven mitts and pot holders on it -- again, a mix of function and decoration. This window needs a curtain too, something that gives a little privacy and a little decoration. We thought all the windows had white vertical blinds on them, but discovered when moving in that many of them were actually wrecked by the previous owners' kids, and had been pulled up so Dave couldn't see the damage when he saw the house.

I also want to make some fabric baskets for this shelf, to put coasters, electronics, and other assorted useful things in. I'm excited because there's a place on Monkland street about 10 blocks from here that roasts its own coffee, so I'm hoping the guy might sell me some coffee sacks. I think burlap buckets would look fantastic in here.

The other sewing I want to do for this room is to make some table-y things. Table runners, so I'm not forced to steal my son's doll quilt when I want to put my coffee on the table, and some extra, fun placemats.

So, that's my new kitchen. Feel free to stop in for tea anytime.