Demo Day is FINALLY here!!
Hubby and I have been talking about renovating our kitchen since we moved into our tiny Boston condo two years ago. We’ve gone through tons of ideas, 3 kitchen designers, and interviewed multiple contractors.
Finally, we can actually talk about real work getting done on our kitchen. We came up with a design that wouldn’t break the bank too bad and ordered the cabinets and counter tops two weeks ago.
Today our contractor came to start the job. We knew they’d be able to make great progress on the demolition today since it’s such a small space (~150 sq-ft), but we had no idea they’d get as far as they did.
Just a bit of background about our kitchen. It’s small and a very unique space. The kitchen is actually two rooms, a dining room and a kitchen in one. Kind of “L” shaped. The building is very old, so the pipes are old. As is the electrical system. We have a fuse box above the door in the kitchen. The kicker is that only one of the 5 corners is 90 degrees…
This is my main working space. About 30 inches of countertop next to the stove. Before we emptied the kitchen out, my KitchenAid mixer was on the right near the window. And yes, we decided to stop cleaning the stove a few months ago since we knew we were getting rid of it soon.
This is the other set of cabinets. Looking into the kitchen from the back hallway.
A shot showing some of the obstacles – a radiator under the windows, and a fridge in front of the window. I guess you make do when you have such a small place.
Here’s another angle looking from the hallway door. The room to the back is the dining room portion of the kitchen. You can’t really tell from the picture, but the floor back by that picture from slopes down a couple inches. It’s definitely not level.
Another view from the hallway. We got a little ambitious last year and decided to start ripping up the floor in the dining room. It was enlightening to learn how many layers of floor there were!
As many obstacles as there are in our kitchen, the charming thing is the original subway tiling around the entire room. We knew we wanted to keep that in tact.
Here’s a sketch of the kitchen floorplan to give you an idea about how it looks. We currently have very little counter-space and cabinet space. There is basically 30 inches of working counter-space next to the stove. The space above the dishwasher was used primarily for drying clean dishes.
In preparation for this renovation, I’ve been making freezer meals. We have a small freezer in our living room packed to the gills and a microwave in the bedroom. We’re hoping to not have to eat out every meal during this process, and I think all this hard work will pay off. I made some turkey chili, crockpot pulled pork, turkey burgers, and some butternut squash lasagna.
Stay tuned later for some pictures of what the kitchen looked like when we got home.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I LOVE those spice jars! And the storage for it. I wonder if we could do something like that in our kitchen….
Before I read the sprinkles comment, I was uber eager to find out what spices you were rocking over the sink! Great idea 🙂
Love the idea! What a great use of the space. Thank you for sharing.
your spices were the first thing I noticed when you started showing pics. I love it! I sort mine in alphabetical order, so it’s a little easier for me to find them.
I wanted to alphabetize, but Hubby isn’t the most organized person so I’m not sure how long they would stay organized since he does most of the cooking in the house.
What a great idea! Yesterday when I was looking at the pictures I thought it was tile. (thats the blonde in me) =)
I love it! That is such a neat idea.
I LOVE it! I’m intending to “revamp” my kitchen this spring and add a back splash but wasn’t certain what other changes I might want to add. I’m going to show this to my honey and keep this in mind. Thanks!
Oh, and Happy New Year!
~ingrid
Your renovation posts have me dreaming of updating our kitchen. I absolutely LOVE the backsplash and shelf!
This is a fabulous idea. I love how you color coordinated the different spices across the shelf. It’s very practical and gives your kitchen a very stylish presentation.
Natalie @ gluten a go go
I love that idea! I looks so great with all of the different colors of the spices and sprinkles. And talk about handy, they are so easy to reach!
Love your kitchen posts…the spice & sprinkles jars are what stands out to me..aside from the backsplash. You have such a cutesy kitchen!!!
Oh my! I love love love love it!!! I just sent and IM to my boyfriend that said “I want to do this in our kitchen”…haha.
That is a gorgeous display of spices… I would love to do something like that!
I love that idea! The spices add such good color to your kitchen (and extra space, i would guess!).
Thank you ahead of time for building this in my kitchen when I get my own place.
From all your renovation posts…the spice jars are my favorite. I can’t believe there are 60! I wish I could figure out some place to do that!
I love your spice display! It must be so convenient to have everything right there whenever you need it. AND it looks fabulous in the room!
Spice Rack
I’m amazed on the way you created your own spice rack. It really complements your kitchen design, much more it helps in organizing various spices.