The Battle of the Kitchen

Conventional wisdom holds that it costs from three to ten thousand dollars to remodel a kitchen. We have a modest paycheck-to-paycheck budget. Fortunately we also are totally without conventional wisdom! We are taking a What-Would-von-Slatt-Do? approach. Conventional wisdom says that you should destroy everything and buy new, but modern kitchen cabinets are very modular. Which means that if you are reasonably careful about how you take them apart you can reuse, modify and rearrange them. That’s exactly what we are doing. The only cabinet I couldn’t save was the one under the sink that was foul with mildew beyond hope. The reason for that is the drainpipe’s connection to the cast iron line in the wall had completely rusted off. The water from the drain was just pouring into the wall. No wonder the kitchen reeked of rot. It smells much better now.

Mrs. Greyshade came up with a kitchen design on the IKEA website that we should be able to approximate pretty well. We found a corner cabinet at the ReStore that fits the plan. We also have some hand me down appliances coming to us that are in good shape. The plan is to put the refrigerator in the left corner with a dishwasher next to it. The counter will form an L with the stove on the right hand wall where there is already a range hood. Eventually we will use two of our cabinet modules to form small a work island in the middle of the room. We will also reuse the upper cabinets and place them higher on the wall to match the range hood. The main L of counter is the top priority. The rest can be done after we move.

Have I mentioned lately that I've never done anything like this before?