Elephant in the Kitchen

This will be my first in a series of kitchen posts. Get ready for some serious ugliness!

Since the house was bank-owned when we bought it, we can only piece together what happened to it before we owned it based on clues and and stories we can fabricate. That said, we know that the owner prior to us only lived in the house 11 months before they were foreclosed. We have a suspicion that the owner prior to that (so up to January 2008) did a quick "flip" before they sold it. (I put flip in quotes because normally flip would imply they made improvements. In this case that's very hard to believe).

We're pretty sure that this "flip" involved the kitchen, the bathroom, finishing the basement and painting some of the rooms. I would show you a picture of the kitchen from our inspection day, post-"flip" but we seem to have lost those pictures. Consider yourselves lucky.

If I could find photos, I'm sure you'd cringe at the bright yellow walls, the peeling blue linoleum, the tacky thermafoil cabinets, the cheesy, broken blue laminate counter, etc. What you wouldn't see in the picture (but unfortunately it was still there) is the sink that was used as an ashtray, the apartment size fridge from which all the shelves were missing, the broken pipes in the ceiling and the dead mouse that was in the sink on move-in day. No joke.

Anyway, we've made some adjustments to make the kitchen sanitary and livable while we save our pennies for a total gutting. Mouse is gone, sink is thoroughly bleached, fridge is replaced, pipes are repaired (thanks again, Dad), the walls are repainted and we stripped the floor down to the roughed-up old hardwoods. Here's our current interim state.


View from the dining room. The pear green walls are a big improvement over the former Crayola yellow. We still get by with the cheesy cabinets and poorly installed counter.


We replaced the fridge this winter, due to the fact that every time we opened the door to the old one everything fell out. The island to the left of it is a temporary solution to provide additional counter space and storage for the time being.


View from the back door. The wooden cutting board to the right of the stove hides a spot where somebody set a hot pan directly on the counter. Notice the classy trash can, thanks to Realtor Mike!


Looking toward the back door. The hutch is a temporary solution to create storage in an otherwise useless corner.

So, that's our kitchen for now. We get by with it for the most part, but have really enjoyed planning for a major upgrade. More to come on that very soon . . . .