Half-Way There

I have unusual taste in kitchens. Not everybody wants to rip out all the cabinets, and not put any new ones in. I'm aware that my kitchen (my developing kitchen ... we're not there yet!) will not be to anyone else's taste. That's okay. So -- be forewarned, here's our progress lately:

 Adam put a sheet rock/wood box around the A/C intake. It will make a nice little counter.
And he finished the sink wall, and I painted it with Kilz. Later, we'll paint the kitchen a pale buttery yellow.

 The work of which we're most proud is Adam's plumbing under the sink -- look at this!! It's tidy, perfect.

This is what was under our sink before:

While Adam was wrestling with plumbing on Saturday morning, I went to a local used furniture/antique mall. Such helpful, nice people! They had lots of furniture. I needed two pieces: 1) a bread work table for Adam, and 2) a step-back cabinet for me. They'll go on either side of the sink.

 I love the table - it was $75. It's sturdy. Adam will raise it a good bit and put castors and locks on it. He wants to wheel it into the middle of the kitchen and work dough on it. He may add a shelf underneath too.

 I couldn't fit a massive step-back sideboard affair in this space. But I found this, for $150. Here is the bottom:

 And this is the top of it, which we can't fit in there yet ... until we remove the upper kitchen cabinets too.

 Adam worked very hard constructing a box surround for the sink out of plywood. I stained and sealed it. This is the kitchen thus far:

 I know some of you are sitting in front of your screens scratching your heads, thinking gently, "Really? She ripped out her kitchen ... for that?" And the answer is ... yes, I did. Because I want an old-fashioned rustic cabin kitchen, the kind they had before WW2, before houses in the U.S. became standardized, and all the cabinets and counters and appliances matched. This week I'll buy some lovely fabric and sew a pretty skirt to go around the sink bottom, which is the look I'm going for. Adam wants to make his own concrete sink, perhaps, so this may be a temporary sink -- a few years. 
The other side of the kitchen has one cabinet, plus the corner counter. All small appliances will later be on shelves. All dishes will go on shelves on the sink side of the room, and all foodstuffs will be shelved on the stove side.

 We have done the hardest half, I think. But removing the upper cabinets, painting the walls, and putting up LOTS of open shelving, is no small task. Our ceilings are 10 feet tall, but in the kitchen, there's a "bump-out" of 27" over the cabinets on either side. 

 Those bump-outs are crucial to the entire redo. I want more storage space. I have dishes and items stored all over the house in closets and under beds, that I'd prefer to have in the kitchen. I hardly ever use them, but I want to keep them. Those top shelves will be perfect, and I'll keep a good fold-out stool in the kitchen to reach them.
I do believe you can store so much more on open shelves. The constraints of a cabinet are so frustrating. Why are the cereal boxes on top of the frig? Because they don't fit in a cabinet. Have you ever struggled with tall, long, or wide items that just don't work in a cabinet? On an open shelf, it can take up as much space as it needs. Adam will put up shelves to suit our kitchenware.

Today was 70 degrees. I wore flip flops and a farm skirt for the first time this year. It was lovely!

Daffodils and camellias are almost bursting forth! O Happy Almost-Spring!