Thursday, November 12, 2009

The before

I thought I'd give you a post that was filled with the before photos of our kitchen. As a reminder here is a birds eye view of the layout of our house. The kitchen is off the dining room and bathroom and has a mudroom attached:



Here is a picture of the actual room as it was on the day of our walk through. These pics were taken standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the mudroom. The rolling island I talked about on the last post would probably usually be tucked against the far wall above that awesome black heat vent.


And here is a picture of the room from standing in the door between the dining room and kitchen:


Notice how there are no lower cabinets along the inside wall, but a stainless table which the previous owners left behind. I kind of like the industrial vibe, but it's pretty horribly stained and scratched. Right now it is our inside work bench and is full of paint cans and drill bits.

What you can't see is that the tile in the kitchen is more than a full inch higher that the original hardwood floor in the dining room. I really hope that the hardwood is under all those little drab dingy tiles. It would be my absolute dream to rip those up and just refinish the hardwood.

If I can't do that, what kind of flooring should I put in?

8 comments:

Robyn said...

slate! I hope the tiles come up easily... leaving them seems pretty out of the question! :P

Maggie said...

If it's tile, make it easy to clean with dark grout!

Anonymous said...

I hope there is hardwood underneath!! Not sure what to recommend - though slate is a good idea (wtih dark grout)

Have you considered taking down the wall to the mudroom to extend the kitchen? And then move the kitchen entrance to the bathroom around to the mud room side? Cuz who wants the bathroom opening to the kitchen? Gah! That way, you would get more counterspace on each wall!!

You would still have a cute little little entry/mudroom nook to the left of the kitchen door to collect boots & hats and such.

TRS

Katie said...

I'd love to use the mudroom space as kitchen space, but it was an addition so the true back of the house ends at the back of the kitchen. A lot of the old houses are like this and I think it might be too big of a job to change for only adding 3" of space.

Plus, the mudroom as stairs down into the basement and I'm not sure how well that would work as part of the kitchen.


The only reason I like keeping the kitchen door to the bathroom is so there is a public entrance to it. That way our guests don't have to go through our bedroom if they want to use the facilities.

Oh the joys of old kooky houses...

Anonymous said...

Right... I thought perhaps the mudroom was an addtion - and that would preclude removing the wall.

But if you could bump into the bathroom from the mud room, that would give you more counterspace on that wall.
However, if the stairs approach on that mudroom wall - it's not possible.
I agree, I would want to keep the main area access to the bathroom as well.

What year is the house? I was wondering if the bathroom and wonky closet were added later.
(I love kooky old houses too - but they do present challenges!)
TRS

Anonymous said...

Ahhh ha! The closet was probably the stairs at one point... that's why it's narrow and long! I get it now!
TRS

Nicola said...

Definitely cork... Added bonus is it can be eco-friendly too!

Nurse Graham said...

I'd say cork, too, EXCEPT your sweet Roscoe would have to become an outside dog because his toenails would rip up those nice, soft cork floors. I'd vote for tile with heaters underneath the floor so your toes don't get cold.