Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Tour Continued...

Kitchen.jpgHere is where I spend most of my time during the day. This is also the room that sold me on this house. I love my kitchen! The large cabinets and all the counter space sold me! It seems that one can never have too much cabinet or counter space.
Kitchen1.jpgFrom this angle I am standing on a couch in our family room.
Kitchen2.jpgSome sweet ladies from church helped me decorate above my cabinets. They actually purchased all the fake food that is showcased in the baskets and bowls. When we have large gatherings, I use a lot of the dishes and baskets that are above the cabinets. One year, for Christmas, Jared bought me a speaker system. We have surround sound in the kitchen. He drilled holes that run through the cabinet and to my computer. It's great. Sometimes the kids and I have dance parties in the kitchen. :) Speaking of Christmas, those are Christmas cards and photos hanging on the wall and cabinet on the edge of the photo. They aren't there year round. In fact, they're gone now, so if you come over it's almost a blank wall. :)
Kitchen3.jpgThere are two ways into my kitchen. This is the main "door" I guess you could say. It opens up to the family room.
Kitchen4.jpgIf you know us well, you know that we've moved several times. I am tired of moving, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is not the last house we live in while in Denver. Because my husband likes to track the real estate market and find "deals" on homes and things, I've made ultimatums if we are ever to move again. I first started this while we were still at the seminary. There aren't many requirements, but one of them is a gas stove. I've learned to love cooking with gas and when we lived in an apartment for a few months, I burned everything on that electric stove. So now, I require a home with a gas stove. Our current home did not have gas, so my lovely husband installed a gas line before we moved in. He's a rockstar. Then he spoiled me with this awesome stove. It's got 5 burners and is a double oven. It's also a convection oven. The main oven is pretty large. I can get three racks of cookies in there at one time. It's perfect. The bottom oven has been great for those turkey days and as a warming drawer. I love it!
Kitchen5.jpgMy other requirement is a decent dishwasher. Before moving to Colorado I did tons of research on dishwashers and we found a used Asko dishwasher on Craigslist. It was their bottom of the line dishwasher and I have to say it was the best dishwasher I ever had. Seriously. When we moved into this house the dishwasher was already here. I was little leary of it, but I've now learned to embrace it. This a two drawer dishwasher, so it's like two separate dishwashers. They run independently. It does a decent job cleaning, but it's still not like my Asko. Each dishwasher holds quite a lot of dishes, more than half of a full size dishwasher. What I love about this Fisher and Paykel dishwasher is that I never have dishes sitting in the sink or on the counter waiting to be washed. Since I can run one dishwasher at time I always have one that's running or clean and one that is empty or dirty. The only exception to this is when we have company. That's when I wish I had another dishwasher. I actually wouldn't mind another dishwasher. I know we'd use it.
Kitchen6.jpgHere I'm standing in the corner of my kitchen by my knives and things. You can see the two entrances to the kitchen, that go into the front room and the other goes to a number of places, family room, stairs, etc.
Kitchen7.jpgThis is my little work station, where I am sitting right now writing this post. See that "Keep Calm and Snap On," it plays a huge part in covering up wires and a phone jack. :)

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Did you go to Ikea and buy the knife magnet thing? I love mine.

Oh- and you are making me miss all those holiday gatherings with these posts.

Unknown said...

No, I think Jared got them from Wal-mart. Yes, I love it. Gives me more counter space too.

You need to come out and visit and I'll throw a party. :)

Erin said...

Love the home tour!

Super envious of your kitchen!

Kellee said...

Wow, since you started the home tour I now feel obligated to do it too. Thanks alot! I am working on a few living room items and some paint touching up and then I will get started!

Adriane said...

1) Um, your kitchen is GINORMOUS.
2) Hi, Anna! I see you peeking out from behind the island.
3) Are those chocolate chip cookies of awesome deliciousness anywhere in this picture?

Unknown said...

Thank you, Erin! I will look into the wall clock idea. I think we actually have one. I just don't know where it is.

Kellee, yes! Get moving on your home tour.

Adriane, there are always cookies on the counter. If you find them I will bring you some. :)

Lauren said...

Were the walls painted that color when you moved in or did you paint? I really like the color.

I also love how clean your countertops are. Cluttered countertops make me twitch.

Unknown said...

Part of the walls were painted that color. I just finished it off. Above the cabinets weren't painted and the paint job stopped where the cabinets stopped. I ended up just painting everything. I, too, liked the color so we kept it. :)

Cluttered countertops make me twitch as well. I am still trying to decide if I should do something with those canisters by the fridge. We don't use them.

Vikki W said...

LOOOOVE your kitchen!