Can We Do It Again?

It has been a year since we finished our last construction project, the office/studio. We love the room. Before we built this room I felt like we had a small house but since we build it, I feel like this is a big house. Certainly big enough for all the things we need in a house..........

BUT.......I've never liked the kitchen. And I was planning on starting on a kitchen redo as well as revamping the patio shortly after the studio project. However, I just couldn't bring myself to walk into more construction. The dust, the endless noise of Chip Chip Chip, the loss of privacy, the issues that need to be settled everyday...in another language. I knew that this project was going to close down the kitchen for 6 to 8 weeks and that would really be hard to endure. But the other issue was I didn't have a clear vision of how to renovate the kitchen.

Here are the kitchen problems. It doesn't have any storage, it has Mexican clay tiles with the glaze worn off in the work areas, the grout is different from the USA and impossible to keep clean, the tiles have painted fruits on them which I have hated since we first looked at the house and the tiles are uneven so the cutting board becomes a click-clack seesaw when you are trying to prepare vegetables. There is a three inch gap on each side of the stove. Not big enough to get in there to clean but big enough to catch all kinds of grease and food remnants. There are other issues I could write about but let's just say that I finally have decided that the whole kitchen needs to go......tile, concrete, cabinets, stove and refrigerator so that it can be reborn.

I want a nice smooth granite countertop with Mexican tile backsplash. I want lower cabinets with drawers that pull out to hold pots and pans and if possible doors that open to pull out racks so that under counter corners can be used. I want a convenient storage space for appliances so that they are easy to reach. I want cabinets for dishes. But at the same time I want to preserve the Mexican flavor of the house. I think I've just about figured out how to do this. Now the challenge is finding the people to do the job. Expect more blog entries on the Kitchen Project.