Kitchen Makeover!

Two weekends ago, we started phase 3 of the kitchen makeover. Phase 1 was changing out the cupboard knobs and handles. I hate to be picky, but the green "Victorian Glass" chunky handles were just an eyesore, and they were an easy fix. Phase 2, which doesn't have any pics, was changing out the light fixtures, as they were dying one by one (not to mention that they were, on the 1-10 ugly scale, about a 13. Big brown box flourescent lights w/ orange flowers around the sides. I was grateful they started dying, so that they *had* to be changed out sooner than later. Sorry I don't have a picture).



















Phase 3 was the painting! The walls were a dingy old white, nothing horrible, but definitely old and tired. Rebecca was "the paint girl" at Home Depot, and she loves to paint...and knows how to do it well! So she, along with our friend Tommy (who has an uncanny knack for and experience with choosing colors, due to having interior decorators in his family) came and painted the kitchen! I absolutely love the finished effect! In fact, I haven't even yet put back up the framed art I had in the kitchen, I like the glazed wall so much!

Phase 4 is the flooring. The previous owners graciously gave us a cash allowance to have it redone...yes, it's that bad. Thirty-year old linoleum gets random cracks that are big enough to trip you if you're not watching where you're going. And at one point there was an "eating counter" that jutted out from the wall, but was taken out...leaving a 2' X 4' section of linoleum that was cut and stapled down. Like a surgery stitch-up gone wrong. The plan now is to do the flooring this coming weekend. However, the same new flooring would also go into the entryway,but this summer we may move the staircase to the entryway, which would mean chopping a hole in the floor. We just need to decide if it's worth doing just the kitchen now and then do the entryway later after the stairway is done, or if we should wait till later this summer and do the whole thing at one time.
(In case you're wondering about why we're moving the staircase, it's currently a spiral, can't-believe-Jacob-has-only-fallen-down-them-once staircase with wrought-iron railings that are spaced so far apart that I have baby gates zip-tied all the way around them. Which is all well and good till Anna decides to start climbing the gates).