World's Most Famous Kitchen

I'm kidding of course, but our kitchen was featured again in a publication. This time Better Homes & Gardens Do It Yourself magazine.

After the Chicago Tribune, The Reader, and now we've gone national, our humble little 2-flat kitchen just feels so proud.

Nothing like professional photography to make your house look it's best too.

This interview and photo shoot was about a year ago and I had thought it was dropped, but then voila, 4 issues came in the mail this week.

Want to hear the funniest part about this? We actually are not "done done" with our kitchen. It's just hilarious I know.

The pantry is 97% done, just needs some trim work. We decided to add more cabinetry over the stove because believe it or not, we need more storage. And we have just purchased a table base for the kitchen so that we can finally have an eat-in kitchen! Steve will be fabricating the table top soon. And he still needs to make a plate rack too. Then, we'll be "done done," unless we decide to get new counter tops or something.

The saga of our kitchen continues

Almost 4 years ago, Easter weekend to be exact, we demoed our kitchen. You'll be pleased to know that the kitchen was in fact (mostly) finished back in in 2005. But what we were unable to finish at that time, was our pantry.

We had opted not to demo that room to the studs as we had in the rest of the kitchen, and instead the walls had been covered with 1/4" drywall and a new light fixture put in. It was cleaned up, but not very functional(see photo). After that oh so long road to finishing our kitchen, we were weary and took a little break. Then came the 2nd floor and the summer of the wood pile. The pantry took the back burner.

Our kitchen was clean and functional, but we still had loads of stuff stored in the basement. We longed to be reunited with all our cooking instruments, pots and pans. I feel the same way about my books, most of which are as I write, stored in the basement awaiting the creation of built-in bookshelves.

I can't remember exactly when we started on the pantry project. I kind of dropped off on blogging around that time. I have a memory of staining the shelves in the basement in the fall maybe. Steve had to cut open the wall and add more blocking and then do some taping etc... And we had to find jusssst the riiiggghhht braaaccckkettts. These things take time you know.

Then came the holidays and our wedding. But in January, we got back to it. Steve worked outside in the cold like a trooper.


And now...it's mostly done! Just the bottom shelf and some trim remain to be finished.

Look at that- even a place for my beloved Dyson vacuum. At last!

Originally, we had planned to fit a pot rack in the pantry that would hang from the ceiling. This turned out to be a classic eyes bigger than actual space moment. It won't fit! So, we considered hanging it in the kitchen over the stove. Too cluttery for us.

So now, we have decided to add a few more cabinets. One over the fridge and a double door over the stove. Then, we'll be done with our kitchen. Until we decide to redo the counter tops. I really want soapstone...