Kitchen Tour

I started taking some pics around the house today. The quality is still horrible, and will be until I find my USB camera cord or buy another one, so bear with me (that just looks so funny to me - BEAR with me - I looked it up and its the correct word, but all I see when I look at it is bear like a grizzly bear. Anyone else ever do that?).

The door leads to the laundry room/back door

I digress. So we'll start in the kitchen. (Actually, I should start at the back door/laundry room, but I'll get to that.) This is my mudroom area. That nook you see to the left of the door? That's where I want to put my faux built-in. The marker board hanging up we got from Goodwill for a few bucks. My lovely wife put a few nails around it to hang things like dog leashes and hats, and it has knobs to hang keys. To the right is my kitchen table (ignore the giant bag of dog food, we puppy-sat for my mother-in-law this weekend and when I took this picture she hadn't picked him up yet). The chairs have any number of jackets and things hung over the backs at any given time, despite that fact that there is a coat closet a bit to the left out of the picture. The whole thing drives me nuts. You see where a good mudroom would come in here? One single place with a designated spot for everything. Shoes, jackets, hats, mail, etc.

There's a sliding glass door behind it

This is my kitchen table. Its pretty much a catchall for crap we have nowhere else to put, and then some. My 13 year old brother-in-law is the most forgetful, airheaded child. Leaves his stuff lying everywhere around the house (see the belt on the table? Bookbag on the floor?) All of it drives me nuts. I think its karma, I was a rather forgetful child myself. I usually try to keep it all nice and neat and cleaned up, and with cute centerpieces I make up from the Dollar Tree, but I haven't been feeling well, so I've been lazy. The table is also extremely shaky and highly unstable. I still haven't decided what I'll do with the table and chairs when I finally get rid of it. Any good upcycling ideas? All I can come up with is making four columns for a four-poster bed, which I'm not interested in. I'll probably just give it away on Craigslist.

I want to replace it with something like this, which I found for $199 (plus free shipping!) at AllKitchenCarts.com. (I chose this one because it seemed to be the best value for what I want. The prices go upwards of two grand!) It has wheels, so I could easily move it to where I'm cooking for extra counter space (another thing I'm severely short on) or if we need to move something in or out through the sliding door. Plus it has 2 drawers and a cabinet with an adjustable shelf. More storage space.

Anyone have any idea how much it would cost to make one myself? Seems simple enough. Put some wheels on a cabinet and the stainless steel on top? And I bet I could use a wall-mounted paper towel holder for the towel rack. Think I could do it for less than $200? Sounds like a challenge to me!




 This is getting long, so I'm going to wrap it up. I feel like all I've done is complain on this post, so I'll leave you with some things in my kitchen that make me happy:

Bamboo Utensil Holder, bought from Walmart

Iron Scroll Utensil Caddy, found at Goodwill for a few dollars

Red Canisters and Spoonrest, also from Walmart

Magnetic Vampire Salt and Pepper Shakers, free

Btw, the story on those shakers is that Jess' parents bought them for her this past Christmas as a goof present because she LOVES all things vampire. They are magnetic where he is kissing her neck. They were my favorite Christmas present and they weren't even for me!