We have an early 1970’s ranch style home. It’s about 1,100 square feet with a (now) finished basement, which could be a post for another time.

We’ve done a lot of work over the years, including remodeling the main floor and kitchen when we first moved in 16 years ago. Originally, the kitchen had dark cabinets, a peninsula on one end with cabinets overhead that seemed to box everything in, avocado green appliances, and carpeting. The refrigerator and stove sat side by side on the far wall, and there was no dishwasher. I wish I had a picture of it, but I never thought to take them then.

Once the moving dust settled in 2000, my friend and I went to Menards, where we used their design center computer to create a new kitchen layout. We moved the stove to a different wall, removed the peninsula and instead created a buffet/pantry on the opposite wall from the new stove. Basically it’s a slightly wider galley kitchen now. It has a lot of good storage, and we were even able to add a dishwasher. We got the cabinets, flooring, and new counter tops from Floor to Ceiling, and this is how the kitchen has looked for the past 16 years:

Now the house is showing some wear and tear, and it’s time for an update, so we’re remodeling again, starting with the kitchen.

We didn’t want to replace the kitchen cabinets since we hope to attach the garage to the house someday. If we’re ever able to do that,  it would give us an upstairs laundry room and we’d expand the kitchen at that time.  So we decided to paint the cabinets, raise them to the ceiling for an updated look, and go with Formica on the counter tops again.

We’re doing much of the work ourselves,  and to be honest, if I had understood how much work this would be, I may have rethought some of it. 🙂