Poll: Your kitchen!

LClaire · January 2009

1. What do you love/hate about your existing kitchen? (bonus points if you post a pic of it for me to visualize what you're talking about since I haven't seen all of your kitchens;)
2. If you could re-build your kitchen from scratch, what realistic things would you want to make sure you have?

RosePks · January 2009

We really worked with our builder to change the plans of our kitchen. Our builder was not a custom builder so when we wanted to change stuff in the kitchen it was a long process but so worth it. I love all my counter space, my 5 foot long island, my roll outs in the cabinets, tilt out trays at the sink and all the extra recessed lighting we put in.

It is so nice to have the bar for people to sit at and talk to me while I work in the kitchen and we like having the sitting space at the island for the two of us to eat our meals together. We also used the bar at our open house for the food line so the kitchen still had space for gathering and the food was up on the bar counter and could be accessed from the other side while drinks were down near the sink. You can?t go wrong with lots of counter space.

I already know in my next house I will want more counter space but the space I have now is more than double my last house so I think it is just great!

This pic is old and taken during the construction phase but you can see the layout and kind of visualize what it would look like now with a fridge and people living there.

pookielove · January 2009

1. Unfortunately no pics. I have some, but not on this computer. I'll try to remember to upload them to shutterfly when I get home so I can post them.

Anyway- Love the Southern exposure. I live in an old Victorian rowhouse so we don't get a ton of light in most of the rooms. The kitchen gets great light, though. There's a cute little window sill that's perfect for a few pots of herbs which we just got last week.

As for as dislikes- It's a decent sized room, so I can't complain about that, but it's laid out poorly. There's only one and a half walls that can accomidate cabinates and counters. That drastically limits storage and counter space. We at least have space to move around and to keep the trashcan, microwave cart, dog feeder and water dispenser, but when DH and I are both trying to do something in there, it gets tricky. The only thing that I hate is the big industrial looking pipe that runs from the range hood to the outside to vent the stove. It's reallllly ugly and it takes up room over my cabinates that I might have wanted to use for something pretty.

2. I don't know that there's much I could realistically do to rebuild my kitchen. I just don't have that kind of vision I would definitely get rid of the ugly vent pipe. Maybe get one of those fancy Italian type range hoods (I don't know if there's a special name for those if you even know what I'm talking about). Even just an over the range microwave with a built in hood would be fine. I'd love it if someone could figure out a way for me to fit a pantry in there. More counter space would be a must. Light colored counters to mask the cat hair a bit. And I'd get nice new tile flooring to replace the crappy linoleum that my dog chewed a huge hole in when he was a puppy

CutesBoots · January 2009

1. Love: the huge size (uncommon in 1960's home), tile floor (thank you desperate sellers), lots of cabinet spaces so I can finally use my wedding gifts (3 years later)

Hate: 60's vintage oven (it's nice to have double ovens, but I really just want to replace the entire unit), white fridge with otherwise black appliance and the fridge's layout stinks too, the light fixture over the breakfast bar that we're struggling with replacing, the missing glass in the glassware cabinet (we tried to buy replacement glass, but hardware store cut it to the wrong size, ugh)

Hated (stuff we've already removed/replaced): old knobs on the cabinets big ugly window covering that blocked out all of the sunlight, gross old wallpaper, light fixtures on each side of the sink (now an overhead can light), Frankenstein-looking chandelier placed just right for head bumping and chopping up the whole room

2. Rebuilding our kitchen from scratch isn't realistic or even necessary. The appliance upgrades aren't in the budget yet, but hopefully someday. I'd love to have stone countertops, but I'm afraid of over-improving for our market. We still need to repaint the chair rail and moldings to be white.

ETA: I wish I had an under-mounted sink. I'd love this for quicker cleanups.

My most recent kitchen photos:

IMG_1325.jpg Kit-eat-in table image by cleocjl

ntnylizard · January 2009

I love the island, counter space, cabinet storage and pantry. The first three were seriously lacking in our old condo. I think there's a picture in the slideshow in my bio.

I'm not a fan of our dishwasher and oven, but only because they're old.

I doubt we'll sink money into renovations of the kitchen, since we'll likely be out of this place in five or six years and everything works perfectly well as-is. But if I were to re-do it, I'd keep the same general design, but knock the one wall half-way out, to set up a breakfast bar between the kitchen and the living/dining area. I'd also do granite countertops and new stainless steel appliances.

enkeli224 · January 2009

I love that my kitchen/dining are one big room. I can't really ever see myself justifying a "formal" dining room.

I also love that they had updated the floor to ceramic tile before we moved in.

That, unfortunately, is all I love about it. LOL

The only pictures I have are BEFORE we moved in....we're painting, putting new baseboard, lights, etc in now.

If I could re-build my kitchen, I'd include new cabinetry and those 'space-saver' type storage in ALL of my cabinetry. Racks for plates, etc. I'd also get rid of the 'chef's sink' and just get a large, one-bin sink. I hate sinks that are separated out. I'd get rid of the weird, off-white/ivory appliances. Finally, new countertop to replace my original 1962 ameoba-looking countertops.

Me&Mr.T · January 2009

These pictures are from the listing. The only things we changed since we bought the house were:

The built ins are no longer that ugly color. Instead they are brown to match the rest of the cabinets. We also put silver knobs on all the cabinet doors and silver drawer pulls on the drawers. We took out that table and put the dog's crate there. We are pretty much just "living" with this kitchen until we can renovate it.

1. What do you love/hate about your existing kitchen? (bonus points if you post a pic of it for me to visualize what you're talking about since I haven't seen all of your kitchens;)

I hate just about everything from my kitchen. It is a decent size kitchen so that is nice, but I hate the colors, the floors, no counter space, etc. I love the cabinets and that is about it.

2. If you could re-build your kitchen from scratch, what realistic things would you want to make sure you have?

We are going to rebuild our kitchen soon and here is what we are going to do. We are going to tear out and close up the nook. Instead that nook will be opened from one of the walls into the half bath to make it a full bath and laundry room. We will be painting the walls a lighter color, and all the trim. We are going to tear out the floor and put down tile. We are going to move the fridge to the new wall that will go in, where the nook is now, and we will add counters to the other side of the stove (which you can't see in this picture). We are going to tear out the counters and put in something much better.

I can't wait. We will do this hopefully in the next year or two, but definitely before we move.

Charlene&Steven · January 2009

We just went through a total kitchen remodel in the Spring/Summer, so we got rid of most of the "hated" aspects. Here are the before pics:

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=09e8fa66e437d3359a16dcf07a6807f9&sid=8AbtnDZs3bNmM9

Hated the horrible chipping laminate countertops with the coordinating laminate on the backsplash and up the walls - nice! Hated the dated cabinet doors and the drawers that didn't glide so much anymore and were falling apart. Hated the drop ceiling! And hated the yucky old sink which never looked clean. And the floor - just bad! The only thing we liked were the appliances since we replaced those when we moved in.

Here are the after pics:

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=c753a6e9d44411232a944dfefaeb216b&sid=8AbtnDZs3bNmNK

I LOVE my new kitchen...the only thing I wish we could have changed was the size, but that was just not in the cards. But we greatly improved the flow by swaping the stove and fridge placement so it feels bigger to me anyway I love my countertops, my undermounted sink, my pretty faucet, my wonderful tiled floor, the lighting! We have more then enough light, especially love the undercabinet lighting. My disposal is super quiet too and so worth the money. I just love my kitchen, period. It will be hard to part with.

jjenkins · January 2009

When we moved in I hated almost everything about our kitchen except that the cabinets were made of solid wood by a local cabinet maker and even though its a townhouse, our kitchen is a decent size. I also love our pantry closet because we didn't have one in our last apartment.

Since we moved in we've replaced old the cabinet hardware, added undercabinet lighting, add the hanging pot rack, replaced the ugly vinyl floor with tile, painted the walls, replaced 2 of the ugly white appliances with SS, and now most recently I painted the ugly oak cabinets a nice winter white color.

What I would I do if I was gutting it (I've done a lot of thinking about this one!). I absolutely HATE the half wall in our kitchen where we currently have our kitchen cart/island and wine fridge underneath it. If it wasn't a load baring wall I would rip it out and put a large island in because it would free up some space in our living area.

On our list to do in this kitchen yet is: Add two false tops to cabinet above sink and above micro to give appearance of raised, custom cabinetry, replace countertops with stone countertops of some sort, backsplash, replace sink with deeper undermount granite, add cabinetry and built in wine fridge to either new half wall cabinetry or into pantry, add light in pantry and additional recessed if able.

here's a dark, small picture from right after I painted the cabinets....i have better ones on my camera but I'm too tired to get the camera out now!

LiptonJL · January 2009

1. We just recently built so there really isn't anything I am unhappy with right now. I tried to plan as much as possible to avoid that. I love the counter and cabinet space and the big deep sink.

2. To go back and rebuild the only thing I might change is add a window on the stove wall to bring in added light...

Pretty sure I have PIB.

LiptonJL · January 2009

Those pics are from right after we moved in. In addition to the kitchen pic in bio, we also built this "coffee bar" in the kitchen - this is where the added cabinet space comes in - instead of a pantry, just adjustable shelving:

And this pic is also from right after move in (I really need to take new pics), but at least gives you ideas:

Poll: Your kitchen!

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