First Kitchen Remodel

today we are happy to feature Good Clean Fun's kitchen. hop on over the www.goodcleanfuneating.blogspot.com for some quick, easy (mostly) healthy recipes!

we are about to move out of a house we have spent 4 1/2 of of 7 years as a married couple. this is the first house that truly felt like home to me. the whole move has me a little apprehensive. i am hoping our "new old house" will feel like home just as this one has.

before we go, i wanted to share our kitchen remodel. as a personal chef and food blogger with a hint of wanna be fixer-upper, i use my kitchen a lot!

for the record, here is what the kitchen looked like when we bought the place 4 1/2 years ago. (after hours of searching for the before pictures on my computer and external hard drive, the photo has vanished and i am so mad! i have a photo of every other room in the house but the kitchen before photo is nowhere to be found.)
but, here is a glimpse through the living room doorway - note the fake brick, dark cabinets, and absence of upper cabinets.

we bought this house under two conditions. 1) all the wallpaper had to go. there was seriously wallpaper in every room of the house, there was even wallpaper on the ceiling of the half bathroom. 2) the kitchen had to be gutted and re-done.

thanks to a lot of sweat and hard work from my dad, we were able to do all the demo ourselves. truthfully, the demo was fun. something about taking a sledge hammer to dry wall is oddly gratifying. tearing down drywall is a heck of a lot more fun than putting drywall up. as a matter of fact, it's such a dirty, dusty, nasty job that requires lots of spackling precision, i have now vowed to leave all future drywall to the experts.

we knew this wouldn't be our "final house" (is there really such a thing? - i hope not!), so i didn't want to go all out with top of the line everything. the counters are laminate and the oven/stove isn't the viking i hope to one day have, but i love this kitchen! it's cozy and functional while still managing to have quite a bit of counter space.

 

some of the features i love are:

the pull-out trash/recycling
this is now a "must" for me in the kitchen. it's so convenient!

slim pull-out
a great use of what otherwise would have been wasted space. i can fit so many things in this pull-out!


drawers in place of cabinets
i love drawers instead of cabinets. they eliminate being unable to see everything.

one thing is would have done differently?

hanging glasses
yes, they look pretty and save cabinet space, but since i cook a lot, it seems they are always dirty. i find myself having to constantly clean them. ugh.

Have a Ball

i love mason jars. they are perhaps one of the most versatile and useful things in the kitchen. i found a box full of ball jars in the basement of meadowvale last year. i dusted them off, ran them through the dishwasher and haven't looked back since.

i use them to store rice, couscous, pasta, quinoa, and other grains. they look all nice and neat and organized on the kitchen counter. and, because they are glass, i can see what the contents are.

i also use them to make homemade salad dressings. empty jam jars work well too (just throw them in the dishwasher to get them super clean). everything goes into the jar and the lid gets screwed on. a couple of good shakes and the dressing is all mixed.

if you peak into my fridge, you can even find some mason jars storing things like simple syrup, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and even nuts.

i have even seen them filled with sand and candles, using them as homemade candle jars.

source

of course, you could also use them for their intended purpose, canning food. there's a great idea if you are super talented and have lots of time (and food) on your hands.

source

i'm sure there are other uses out there i haven't even thought of yet too. do you use jars? if so, what for? do share!

My New Addiction

have you been introduced to pinterest? it's my newest addiction. seriously, the person who came up with this idea is a genius!

it is basically a virtual bulletin board. if you see something you like on a website, all you do it click the "pin it" button and it saves the link to that site along with a picture to one of your virtual boards. that way, you can go back at anytime and find that thing you liked.

i have several boards. one for food i must make as soon as possible, one for DIY ideas, one for home ideas i am currently loving, and one that's my current "wish list".

check out pinterest when you get a chance, but heed my warning, you will become addicted! i promise!

you can check out my inspiration boards here.

i'll leave you with some of my favorite home ideas . . .



how amazing is this painted floor?!

i am crazy about this tile for a kitchen backsplash

i am currently in the process of painting an old wardrobe i found in a barn at meadowvale and am using this one as my inspiration

my husband is a surfer, how cool would this "fence" of old surfboards be?

i love, love, love this paint color. i am thinking my new soon-to-be kitchen

Bar in a Box

i found the coolest thing in one of the attics of Meadowvale today.

at first glance, i thought it was a small suitcase or travel train case. however, upon opening it, i was pleasantly surprised!

i have never seen one of these before. have you? it's an Executair 101 Trav L Bar. it's a bar to go. pretty crazy, huh? this little case would make any picnic instantly better.

this velvet-lined case has everything you need to mix up some drinks on the go. one side holds 4 small cups, 2 shot glasses, a long stir spoon, a bottle opener, and a small platter. each item is held in place with leather straps.

the other side holds 3 bottles. i found it held 750 ml wine bottles and smaller liquor bottles quite well. you could take everything you need for a mixed drink or plenty of wine and bubbly for a party.

i can't wait to clean it up a little and display it standing up somewhere. stay tuned to see this Trav L Bar in it's new home!

Built-in Shelves

have you ever seen those floor to ceiling closet doors? the awful, hard-to-close, always-get-stuck doors?

they are miserable! we are lucky enough to have 7 of them. yep, 7. the closet behind the front door had the worst ones i think. the front door was always banging into them so they were bruised and battered. plus, when the front door was closed, it looked like a wall of closet doors. not too pleasing to the eye.

closet before:

note dirty, dingy beigey color of walls and shelves. yikes:

my mom had this great idea to take the doors off and put shelves in the closet, making it look like the ever popular built-in shelves instead of an old closet. a little paint, measuring, sawing, and help from my dad, and viola!

during:

after:

i am really pleased with how they turned out! i don't miss the closet at all (thanks to the aforementioned 6 others) and now i can showcase some of my favorite pieces.

i decided on bright white shelves and a gray-blue 2 shades darker than the living room walls. the darker color and the white really make the space pop. the baskets at the bottom are from target and they hold blankets and pillows for the couch.

some of the goodies on the shelves are other meadowvale finds.

the blue lanterns,

the messages and papers of the presidents books and the fox,

the fish bottles,

the bird china plates,

and the circa 1930's globe.

Welcome to Meadowvale Finds!

i spent my summers at my grandfather's house in lutherville, md. he lived on the last farm remaining in that area. 40 acres saved from development, surrounded by houses on all sides. it was literally an oasis on top of the hill. he had horses, chickens, fields and barns to play in, a big old house perfect for treasure hunts or hide and seek, and perhaps most importantly, a swimming pool.

it's difficult to put into words my memories attached to that place - meadowvale farm. my brother wayne, cousin genny and i held meetings in our "secret hiding place" (the linen closet) on top of an old trunk piled high with blankets and pillows. there is not a corner, drawer, closet, tree, nook, or cranny of that entire property we have not explored. it will always hold a special place in my heart and my memories.

it has since been sold and will finally become a housing development too - a victim of too high property tax and "progress". the move out process was long and brutal. the house was built in the 1800's and had never been moved out of. what started out as a summer house, because a permanent residence. someone would move in with all their possessions, live their life, and pass on. the next occupant did the same thing, resulting in packed basements and attics littered with old furniture, china, and silver. the barns were even full of antique furniture, saddles, trunks full of clothes, and boxes full of discarded books, glasses, and framed artwork.

some of the treasures we discovered were quite interesting. the best part is the old furniture we salvaged. furniture needing new upholstering or repair of a broken arm or leg. some furniture was in amazingly good shape for spending decades in a barn. many of the pieces don't even need repair just a good cleaning from their years of spider web and dust collection.

this blog will showcase some of my "meadowvale finds" as i fix them up and incorporate them into our "new" old house. i will also highlight some before and after renovations from our current home and the future projects we will no doubt encounter in our new home. i hope you enjoy!