Yesterday morning after breakfast, I went out and took snow pictures and then one thing ran into another and I stirred up a batch of bread . . but I never washed the breakfast dishes. Then I fixed lunch and after lunch is when I felt bad and decided to take a quick nap, which turned into an all afternoon and most of the evening nap. Vince fixed dinner which was grilled steak and baked potatoes, as planned, but after dinner, there were breakfast, lunch, bread making and dinner dishes to be washed but I just couldn’t so he said he would but he would do it “in the morning”. Hmmm . . not what I would have done but I didn’t feel like arguing or doing them myself.
By the time I got up this morning, the dishes were done. To be totally honest, I woke up and heard him washing them and decided to go back to sleep!
I have thought of every way possible to add a dishwasher to my kitchen. I have too much stuff and too few cabinets as it is. In MO, I had a huge kitchen with a ton of cabinets and countertop and even then, a lot of overflow kitchen items were stored on shelves in the garage. The garage was right out the kitchen door. Here, there’s not even a garage. The overflow is stored across the driveway, upstairs in the barn. Need the blender? It’s upstairs in the barn. Need the food processor? It’s upstairs in the barn.
I have thought of making the master bedroom the new dining room and taking part of it and making it the laundry room, then expanding the kitchen into the master bedroom closet . . doing it right, of course, so it doesn’t look like I’m cooking in the closet. That would involve building a new master suite. Getting the eating area out of the family room would also make the family room larger. Expensive!
I’ve thought of bumping out the outside wall in the kitchen and making the kitchen larger, including a laundry room, half bath and a garage. Also expensive!
But, this morning, Vince did the dishes and by the time I got up, he’d figured out a way to put a dishwasher in the kitchen! His proposal was to take out one cabinet and drawer, which I had been opposed to doing because I just couldn’t afford to give up any of my few cabinets. To make up for the cabinet, he said we would take out the small buffet that’s currently in the eating area, and put in a much larger buffet with solid surface countertop so I could also use it for rolling pie crusts, kneading dough, cutting cookies . . all the things I detest doing on my tile countertops.
So, off to Home Depot we went and here’s the plan.
Buffet to add to Dining Area
My preference is to find some old cabinets from an old farmhouse and have our builder make something similar. Vince is going to do some investigating and see what he can find. He thinks new is the better way to go but he’ll see what he can come up with.
Maybe I should get sick more often! 🙂
Freda Henderson says
Maybe just “pretend” to be sick.
Marion Morgan says
Sounds like. Fun, when do we start!
JudyL says
It takes 6 weeks to get the cabinets in and then once they’re installed, it takes about 3 weeks to get the countertop in and installed but we didn’t order anything yet. We want to talk to the builder who will do our installing and I want to see if we can’t find something old before we order anything yet. We have to get the electrician out to install the wiring for the dishwasher and I want more electric plugs where the new buffet will be. I can see it being into the summer before it’s all done! 🙁
Erin says
Yay! You really wil enjoy using all your appliances then! More room, nice counter space! Can’t wait for you to have it done!
Connie in MN says
You’re always six steps ahead of us, Judy,, but just in case you haven’t considered it, you might want to ask the electrician about under-cabinet lighting. You’ll love it when you’re working on that beautiful new counter. Happy New Year!
JudyL says
We looked at under cabinet lighting at Home Depot and the setup I liked best was having florescent fixtures under each set of cabinets. They are simply mounted under the cabinet and plug into the wall so I will have the electrician install plenty of plugs.
Chris says
I think that is a great solution Judy! I agree with Connie’s comment and install under the cabinet lighting or at least some recessed lighting above the new built in. I have recessed lighting over my countertops and it makes a HUGE difference!
JudyL says
I have recessed lighting in my kitchen but the room where the new buffet will be has high cathedral ceilings. It would be hard to add recessed lighting in there, plus it would be so high over my head, I’m not sure how well they would work.
Micki clemens says
Someone who cooks as much as you do, and enjoys it deserves to have a decent size kitchen with work and storage space!! You do more now than I ever did and I was fairly thrifty. Treat yourself- you and Vince really deserve it, especially in your forever home. Micki
JudyL says
It’s the old “ROI” and since we never know how long we’ll be here, the cost per square foot for adding on makes it cost prohibitive right now.
Susan says
Gosh that’s a great idea! You would hate the size of my kitchen. I hate it, and I don’t even do half of what you do. But it does have a dishwasher, and no place to expand.
JudyL says
My grandmother cooked in a kitchen half the size of mine and she cooked and canned a whole lot more than I do plus . . . she had no air conditioning. I can live with what I have but it would be nice to have a dishwasher.
SueG says
WOW Vince is my hero…one morning doing dishes and he came up with great solutions to your kitchen disfunctions….what a sweetie. I can’t wait to see the finished projects..you so deserve all of it.
Lee says
I still think I need to send Marty your way to take lessons from Vince 😉
Ariane says
All you needed was for your hubby to get an up close and personal experience with your workspace to come up with a wonderful plan. I’m sure he will find an affordable solution for you. Sounds like the fun s just beginning!!!
Amy @ Just being me says
Sounds like a great plan and not as expensive as remodeling 3 rooms 🙂
Debbie Rhodes says
sounds like a great plan… our house is finished… wish sometimes we had projects but then again it is the way I wanted it for years.. going on 5 years since we finished the great new kitchen and I still love it.
Terri says
Sweet!!!!!
Barbara says
When you voluntarily go to Home Depot, you must really be sick!
Linda in NE says
Sounds like getting sick has worked for you. Hope it all works out.
Hilary McDaniel says
You just might solve my problem. I have the same dilemma on needing more storage in the kitchen. I have a wall 6’x 2′ deep. I have been looking at different places for the same thing as your picture. Ask Vince if he would send me what he’s finding, please. That would help get me started in the right direction. I need someplace to put all these appliances. (Blender,mixer,steamer,etc). Thank you. I’d love new, not old. I don’t have unlimited funds and I know Vince doesn’t like to waste money. Win, Win.
Tricia says
Wow! Talk about the benefits of “walking in someone else’s shoes”….or doing someone else’s chores! Doing ALL those dishes at once probably gave him a lot of time to “think on it” and what a wonderful solution he came up with! Sorry you are sick (although you are almost NEVER sick that I can remember!), but good things came out of that time in bed!
Feel better soon!
Tricia
Margarita W says
Hi, I get all your posts in my email, love them, but today I just had to comment, your first words are what got me, the bit where you said you went out and took snow pictures. I just sighed…….I am in Australia, and at the moment it is 39 degrees Celsius, and we are fairly cooking. Just the thought of snow makes me feel a little cooler.
I hope your dishwasher eventuates soon, I don’t know if you have them in the states, but I would recommend dish drawers, in Australia Fisher Paykel have them.
http://www.fisherpaykel.com.au/product/dishwashing/
They are more expensive here than just an ordinary dishwahser, but are way better on the back.
JudyL says
Those have been recommended but since we’re in a small town, I’m not sure we can buy it locally or have it serviced locally but I’ll definitely check into that. Thanks!
Bev in NC says
My son has undercabinet lights that are motion detecting. Its a little startling the first few times, but I got ued to it. They also go off by themselves.
JudyL says
That sounds nice but I’ll be happy with something I can turn on and off .. and will be lucky to get that! 🙂
cindy says
Such a thoughtful man… very sweet…
Mary M says
We did our kitchen a few years ago. We used the same footprint 9ft. by 15 ft. because that was the most cost effective. We went to Lowe’s with measurements and they worked wonders with their computer. There was so much wasted space in the old kitchen that with careful planning I gained a floor to ceiling 30″ pantry with rollout shelves. Twice the otherwise storage capacity by extending the cabinets into wasted space areas (removing the two person table and chairs), removing the 18″ cabinet and replacing it with a full 30″ cabinet that filled the space between the windows and replacing the upper cabinets with cabinets that to all the way to the ceiling. I gained nearly 20 square feet of counter space. Besides the pantry the parts I really love are the fold out mixer cabinet, the appliance garage and the verticle baking pan storage and pull out spice cabinet. February and March Lowe’s has specials on their cabinets and we saved a lot. Our Kraftmaid cabinets are in an old farmhouse style which I love, simple and plain hickory. We now have a $30,000 remodeled kitchen for $12,000. The advantage, we did the work ourselves. We added 7 outlets new lighting, LED undercounter lighting that puts off no heat and was no more expensive than flourescent. Our appliances were pretty new so the only thing we replaced was the microwave the instant hot and the garbage disposal. I wish you luck. We literally gutted the kitchen and were without a stove 4 weeks. The gas grill, and crockpot got us through.
JudyL says
Things have changed tremendously since then apparently. We’ll barely get the 10′ bank of cabinets, countertop, installation and electrical work done for what you paid for the whole new kitchen.
Brandy M. says
That would be nice!!
Hey, it makes a difference when our guys get to experience some things for themselves, which makes them better understand why “this or that” would be really helpful. My DH HATES to hand wash the dishes. Cheers to Vince for coming up with a plan. Plus, it looks like you’d get even more cabinets, which is fabulous. I look forward to seeing what ya’ll come up with!
BLM 🙂