Kitchen rebooted

So, I've been a little stressed lately. OK, a lot stressed. The house we just bought has been completely gutted, the costs are spiralling out of control, and when we're all done the house will look almost exactly the same as when we started, except without wallpaper. (Or paint.)

But it will have a shiny new kitchen. Or at least, it would have, if we could ever decide on the kitchen. However, after trying literally hundreds of variations online, visiting four or five stores, and having a professional design done by a major vendor, we were still struggling to bring everything together. However, after we discovered we would also have to re-plumb the entire house, budgetary reality dictated we were getting the kitchen from Ikea.

So last night we spent three hours with an Ikea designer reviewing the mock up we did online. (Interestingly, they use the exact same program in stores.) We made some slight changes, she costed it up, and I thought we were done.

Jessica's first words to me in the morning were, "I don't like it."

It was not a good start to the day.

After we played with the design a little, and not making any progress, I went to see the house. The builders had finished gutting the kitchen and downstairs bathroom, and I got them to move the new wall 6 centimeters (about 2 inches) over, which was actually crucial because the old kitchen wall was 1 cm short of putting in a full cabinet. I also convinced Jess to put in a smaller, built-in fridge/freezer in place of the pantry, freeing up the opposite side. We moved the cooker, added some glass-fronted wall cabinets, and it was perfect.

I mean, literally, perfect.

We abandoned the professional range for a typical oven and hob (stovetop to you) and Jess wants to build a shelving "box" over the new window (which isn't on the pictures because the software won't let me do it). There will be twelve cells, each about 12 inches square and 6 inches deep -- perfect for planted herbs or other tzotskies (knick-knacks). The shelving at the end of the oven will be for cookbooks, maybe a basket of fruit. There's now lots of shelving, plenty of storage, a ridiculous amount of counterspace, and even a plinth (toe-kick) drawer for baking sheets! It's bright, open, and airy, and we both just love it. Plus, it is only half the cost of any of the kitchens we saw elsewhere, and Ikea kitchens have an enviable reputation for reliability.

Oh, and the fridge cabinet will also keep the upstairs wall from falling down. How cool is that?