I would argue that my culinary skills are improving; however Kyle and the smoke detector may beg to differ. My cooking repertoire is expanding, but my top dishes remain to be coffee (yes, a good pot of coffee is not something that everyone can achieve), banana bread, and most recently the chocolate chip cookie. Currently, my goal is to expand my dinner meal knowledge beyond the crockpot. Thankfully Kyle is a better cook and is perfectly fine with me making the salad while he does the main dish. Even though I am a student of the kitchen, I still believe that it is one of the most important rooms in a house and should be one of convenience and ease. That means that cupboard doors and appliances should all open and be used without blocking walk-ways or making it awkward to cook and live. Kyle and his dad have been brainstorming ideas to make our smaller sized kitchen seem as spacious as possible. Below are the three options they came up with. Option 1: Add a closet in the foyer along the stairs and have an inset for the fridge at the end of the left side. This would mean that our counter space would wrap around the one side of the kitchen in an "L", but the door leading into the cellar and into what will one day be an apartment suite would be awkwardly jammed in the corner between the fridge and stove. I can only imagine the frustration of trying to open doors. Option 2: Build a hallway from the front foyer to the back apartment suite. This would take away some of the space from the kitchen, but would make a clean line of movement from the front to the back of the house. Option 3: This option is to cut back on some of the closet space in the front foyer and to make a bigger inset for the fridge, so that no space is taken from the kitchen. It would leave plenty of space for all of the doors and would allow for more walking area. Because Kyle and I like to prepare dinners together when we can, the more space for two bodies to move from the fridge to the cupboards, the better. Option 3 is our winner, and I am excited to see it come into fruition. Who knows, having a new kitchen may inspire me to become the next Julia Child... Or at least attempt some of the Tasty videos, :p.
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"You can never have enough storage," says every home owner in the Western world, regardless of their house size or number of belongings. As a society of collectors and hoarders, storage is a hot selling point on the house market and something that people renovating or building are advised to take into consideration. Kyle and I are mindful of this, especially in this redesign phase. We need a closet in the front foyer for coats and boots, but we are unsure of the size. With smaller square footage, we also need to keep in mind the fact that wherever we place a closet, we will lose walking room and potentially create an awkward space to navigate through. At first, I thought that less storage doesn't have to be a downfall. We are just two people and a cat and maybe this can be an opportunity to really minimize and simplify. Then Kyle and I started to plan out our kitchen, taking into consideration the necessary appliances and everything that would need to be included in said space, and storage suddenly made complete sense. A few of my friends are in the process of setting up their first homes and are also encountering this storage issue. The inventive and smart ways that they have come up with solutions for space has me taking many mental notes for 212. One friend is using open shelves with chic glass jars and woven baskets for storage in their kitchen. Another has a clothing rack set up in the spare bedroom. I have also seen many people with benches that have storage inside for shoes and boots. I know that I need to do a purge of my belongings in order to help alleviate the storage and space issue, but wherever possible, I am going to find ways to incorporate shelves, baskets, and compartments into the house! Any suggestions for easy storage in the kitchen and foyer/ mud room? At the end of a very grey and gloomy day of work last week, I received a text from Kyle that made me jump for joy: we got a jacuzzi tub for the upstairs bathroom! While I tend to be more of a quick shower and go kind of girl, I think that I could easily be converted to a tub user; after a long day of teaching or on a lazy weekend, those jets and bubbles would be lovely! This sounds especially appealing right now with this chilly, very un-spring-like weather we've been having (why is it snowing right now?!) But how did we acquire this jacuzzi tub, you ask? Again, this was a case of Kyle's family having connections. Kyle's uncle did work for a man who decided that he didn't want to use the tub after already ordering it. He gave it to Kyle's uncle, but not needing a tub himself, he offered it to us as a gift! Thinking that we would purchase a standard tub when the time came to outfit the bathroom, we gladly accepted his offer! Moral of the story: it pays to network, and the old-fashioned system of bartering and labour-exchange is still very much alive and well! I grew up in a home renovation. After my parents got married, they bought a "fixer upper," started a family, and embarked on years of home renovations. Some of the major changes they did to their house were: switching and updating the kitchen and living room spaces, putting down hardwood floor and tile throughout the house after tearing out old carpeting, re-doing the bathrooms, and building an addition on the back. My childhood memories include finger waving through the wood knots in the plywood floor upstairs, hearing my dad busy with power tools in the basement, and my mom constantly painting and making plans for the next house project. Play, supper-time, watching cartoons, doing school projects, along with all of the other everyday life activities took place amid renovations. It's funny, but I cannot ever remember thinking that the renovations were disruptive, because my parents made sure that we were always safe and happy. They were clearly experts at multi-tasking! Now, looking back, I admire my parents for all of the work that they did. They were young and ambitious and smart about how best to go about creating a home that was tailored to their tastes and needs. Having four children within three years and pulling up old carpet, tearing down walls, and tiling could not have been easy; I can imagine that many looked at them with pity and scepticism as they juggled babies and a deconstructed house, but they pulled it off successfully and now have a beautiful home to show for it. Surely, with a mere cat in place of kids, Kyle and I can pull off 212 too. What do you think about the familial passing down of the drive to renovate? Did you also grow up in renovations and take on your own home project as a result? |
About MeKyle and I just became new homeowners. The house we purchased is not what one would classify as "move in ready"; in fact, it is quite the opposite. Built at the turn of the 20th century, our Victorian style house is both beautiful and terrifying in its ancient status and will be a project in renovation. This is a documentation of our triumphs and lessons learned, as we deconstruct and reconstruct this house. The end result? A space that we can proudly say we created. Archives
December 2016
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