Two Part Kitchen Update

Part I: Primer
My parents came Tuesday to help me prime the house, and with 3 of us working, we got it done in a day and a half! I couldn't believe how fast it went!

With 12 ft. ceilings, I knew it would be a challenge for me to try and paint them. I couldn't even move the 10 ft. ladder. And since my dad is over 6 feet tall, he took the day off and came to help last minute. What a difference that made! He did all the ceilings on Tuesday. Mom and I didn't even have to step on a ladder. The living room and two bedrooms were finished the first day. The second day, all that was left was closets and bathroom, which we finished by lunchtime.






Here are the cabinets camped out in the middle of the room:



I have to say, the media goes kinda crazy when the weather is as hot as it has been. "It's going to be record breaking highs today, so stay inside!" There was once a time(not that long ago) when no one had air conditioning and people still lived. People STILL live! Lots of people have outdoor jobs and work in the blazing heat and blistering cold all day everyday. We are a society of wimps. But I wasn't scared. I wasn't scared until the weatherman said it could reach 100 degrees that day. Then I was scared.

But Matt's parents had an old window AC unit and my dad brought two fans. The AC unit didn't make it cold, but it knocked off about 10 degrees. So it was only 90 with lots of moving air. It really wasn't that bad! It's amazing what moving air can do.

The final coat of paint will happen next week.

Part II: Cabinets and Fridge Position
If you remember, we moved the cabinets in last week. And yesterday we moved them into position(sort of).

But first, we had to get the fridge up the stairs. Matt took advantage of having my dad in town but he called his friend Zach for extra hands(this was a 3 man job). We found a great deal on a fridge on craigslist back in December. So it's just been hanging out until now.

The doors came off to take off some weight and to help it clear the doorway.





Matt and I went back a few days later to carry up the stove and dishwasher. *side note: who knew that an oven door weighs like 30 pounds?? That with the awkward size/shape it was all I could do to carry it upstairs! Give me a kitchen cabinet any day!*

Remember our kitchen layout?

Here's a little refresher:



And here it is in actuality(from a slightly different angle up on a ladder):



We have no corner cabinets, so we'll have to have some custom work done to extend the cabinet shelves into the corners. Since we got these cabinets at a liquidation sale(2 or 3 years ago), for $400, we chose the largest set of matching cabinets, not really considering what they look like. Retail cost would be $400 for each large cabinet, so we kinda got a deal. Even Ikea cabinets would be $1500-2000. Yeah, just a little deal. Then, after we move in, I'll paint everything a cohesive off-white color(gotta love a white kitchen!). We don't even have an over the microwave cabinet, so once one is built the white paint will make everything blend in.




The downside is we had to work with what we had. Which made the layout very difficult in the beginning. But I finally got my "work triangle" perfect.

Perfect, until we tried to open the fridge.

This fridge has those extra deep doors that hold gallon sized jugs. And the door only opens 90 degrees before hitting the pantry wall. Functional, but just barely. And really, it wasn't good enough. Even someone as skinny as me couldn't get both arms in there. So no two-handing casserole dishes!

Matt and I threw around some ideas. Or rather HE threw around ideas that were just bad(no offense, honey). But I just knew the "solution" would bug me more than the "problem".

1) We could move the dishwasher to the "island", but that's my work area, and the dishwasher really needs to be next to the sink for loading.
*Update: forgot to mention, that this would make me lose a whole cabinet of storage(all my baking dishes).

2) We could move the dishwasher to the other side of the sink. But that would put my pots way down by the fridge. Too far from the work counter and stove. And we can't slide the sink cabinet down anyway(has to stay centered under the window), so that would help anyway.

3) We could get rid of the dishwasher, since I've never been in the habit of using one. But I was looking forward to having one that actually(hopefully) CLEANS the dishes! Maybe I'll start using it. And everyone has told me how much I'll need one once we have kids and bottles to wash.

Matt came up the a solution. A solution so simple it wasn't obvious at first. And, while I don't LIKE it, it's the lesser of two three evils. He simply turned the fridge on an angle, and VOILA, problem solved.






A little annoying, right? I makes me want to go over and push it back. But the ease of function really can't be beat. What do you think? Could you live with it like this? What would you do if it was your kitchen?