Tuesday Tour: The kitchen (before)

*** Disclaimer: the following photos were taken in their natural, ready-for-demo state. They are not representative of City Dwellin', nor approved by the creators of this blog. Just saying.***

Well, now that we got that out of the way! To add to that little disclaimer, I should point out that the current state of our kitchen is ONE HOT MESS. Back when I was house hunting (pre-husband days) one of my "must haves" was an updated kitchen and bath. Well, I didn't get either. How's that for luck of the draw!? The house was charming & had great bones, so I was willing to overlook those minor details. I figured one day a new kitchen was in the works. And three years later we're finally tackling it!

For starters I apologize for the awful pictures. Apparently the month of November brought with it clouds & gray skies. Hence, the quality of these photos makes our kitchen look worse than it really is. Or maybe it's really that bad & I'm just in denial. Yeah, that's it. So anyway, here we are in the walk-in pantry. It's one of the first areas of the kitchen you'll see when entering from the dining room. The amazing glass front cabinetry & charm were selling points to this home! The awful gray-green countertops, on the other hand, were not a selling point. Also, there's not ONE electrical outlet in this area, which makes the counter space usable, but not totally functional. How's that for charm?

To the right of the pantry is the main area of the kitchen. Also known as the most inefficient use of space known to man. See that awful retro cast iron sink unit & the dinky kitchen cart left behind by the previous owners? Yep, that would be our "usable" workspace. Oh, and how can I forget the charming cabinet add-on to the right of the sink? Mmmm...amazing. BEST part of the kitchen (insert sarcasm here). It adequately holds the tower of electronic kitchen devices we use on a daily basis. Well, if that isn't safe, I don't know what is! Above the sink you'll notice an amazing bathroom light fixture (seriously, did the previous owners have taste or what!). And then there are the yellow walls--YUM. They used to be covered by textured white-turned beige (because the previous owner smoked) wallpaper. Delicious! The stove & fridge are stand alone, which drive me to the brink of the edge. The room is so choppy!

And here we have a view into the kitchen & pantry from the doorway that sits next to the leaning tower of appliances. Currently, this door sits idle & open (for the kitty to access the stairs to the basement). The plan is to drywall this baby up, put the fridge in its place & find a new access for kitty to find her way downstairs. Did you know that our house is full of random doors? Which is actually quite funny as many guests typically find themselves leaving our house through a closet door. Believe me, that humor is not lost on myself, nor the husband! At one point, our attic had live-in maid quarters. The maids had access to the kitchen & entry through one set of doors, and the residents had access to the house through another set. How's that for a little 'our-house-was-built-in-1909' history for you?

And without further ado...I give you the delicious, mouthwatering black laminate that adorns our walls (but not all of them, because apparently there was a shortage of black laminate "wall" covering the day the previous owners tackled this project):

And that's all I have to say about that.

So stay tuned! The demo officially begins next Monday. We'll be a little out of sorts for the next month or so, but I'm sure the end result will be worth the wait. I think. It's just hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel at this point. Hmmm...why didn't I just call Nate Berkus for help??