Location and vista views aside, one of the things that really drew us to this house was the layout of the floor plan.  As I’ve described before, the living room is large, with a 20-plus foot high, vaulted ceiling, and the second floor is completely occupied by the master bedroom and master bath.  But, the kitchen was also a huge bonus.  I first shared this photo a little over a year ago in one of my first posts.  It shows the L-shaped counter with the 8′ long island.  Also visible, just to the right of the island, was the very small, practically useless, pantry.

As much as we were drawn to the possibilities for this space, we were less than thrilled with several things:

The floor:  The chipped and peeling, self-adhesive tiles were filthy and outdated.

The window(s):  One was obviously broken and needed to be replaced, and they were the wrong size, with the sills actually lower than (and behind) the top of the counter.

The island:  This thing was 8 feet long with a butcher block top.  We didn’t need the extra prep sink, and that disgusting range was beyond salvageable.  The ship lap siding looked bad and it was just really too big.

The cabinets:  These were actually a pretty good quality and made out of maple.  Unfortunately, there were doors and drawers missing and the kitchen had no upper cabinets at all.

The counter top:  This white, Formica counter top was, like the rest of the kitchen, nasty.  It wasn’t installed properly, wasn’t level, and the joint where the two pieces met in the corner was misaligned.

The overhead light:  I’m not even sure how to describe this mess.  Someone either removed a large piece of sheet rock directly over the island, or it was simply never put up.  They framed the opening with basic, construction-grade lumber, and then hung a couple of fluorescent lights like you’d find in your garage in the gaps between the ceiling joists.

The first step, obviously, was to gut the whole space.

KODAK Digital Still Camera

We tore up the flooring, removed the unneeded plumbing from the center of the room, borrowed two feet from the right side of the kitchen to enlarge the pantry, and then began putting things back together.

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We replaced the three old windows with one larger window, finished hanging the cabinets, built a new island, had the new granite installed, and added two pantry units beside the refrigerator.  We closed up the ceiling and added some new pendant lights over the island and some new fixtures in the dining room.

We installed nearly 900 square feet of new, wood flooring.  Much of that was in the kitchen and dining room.  Once that was down, we began the appliance installation.  Fortunately, we had a little help over the Fourth, though from the photo, my son-in-law seemed to be doing more resting than helping.  (I’m kidding, he’s been a great help through this whole project.)

We still have a few finish projects that we’ll need to get to, like installing a tile back splash, tacking up the molding at the top of the cabinets and around the base, and installing the pantry shelves and door.  But, everything works and doing dishes in the dishwasher is far, far, far more convenient that trying to do them in the little sink in the trailer.