Kitchen Diaries: The Clean-Out

Everyone has a space that gathers stuff; old toys- old jars, stuffed animals, suitcases.  Things that gather dust, or we think have disappeared.  Ours is a crawl space on the same level as our freezer, and as part of prepping for our kitchen renovations we cleaned it all out.

We found a little of everything; toys I played with when I was a kid, a plastic fisher price clock, with numbered pieces Disney puzzles I've done a million times.   Dolls I played dress-up with; I had one I called baby- and I remember playing with one of my cousins when we were young and she'd say the rhyme: "Mama had a baby and her head popped off".  And then she popped it off; I bawled my eyes out I was so upset.  There was even a plastic  tea set, and mega blocks.

We found boxes upon boxes of old jars. I think my mother kept every jar since we moved in here in 1987.  She opened one that was a "Hershey's chocolate sauce," and I could still smell the chocolate; it's probably at least 15 years old.  It makes you wonder how much sugar, and preservatives are in that stuff.   Most of the jars were thrown out.

The toys, and dolls are a different story.  A lot of them went to Salvation Army, and I had such a weird reaction.  The more adult part of my was able to say "when I have kids, I can get new toys.  Why shouldn't someone else be able to fun with these?" But I was reluctant part with a lot of it. 

I changed my mind so many times about the mega-blocks and the tea set. "But they're mine," I thought.  "What if I have kids?" I thought.  It was the pull of them; so many happy memories having tea with the tea set.  It was the realization that life was easier as a kid.  And boy does Fisher Price make durable toys. The mega-blocks, and tea set were joined by the light brite and given to charity. 

And we now have a crawl space that looks more like we're moving out instead of having renovations done.  A good thing too; our cabinets, and counter tops have arrived this week filling our garage.  The contractor is probably coming to start our downstairs bathroom soon.

Kitchen Diaries: The colour scheme

"I miss the steel backsplash" my mom said.  My parents had gone and picked out samples (including the steel backsplash we both grew attached to) at another shop; we had them laying on our floor for a few days before we went back to Rona to check their selection out.

But alas, it wasn't to be.  Steel cost at about three times the price of ceramic; it would've been about $20/ sq ft. The backsplash in question was to go from the corner by our fridge, all the way down one side of the kitchen, down the other wall; above the stove ending at a bulkhead.  In short; it would've been too much money.

We picked the colour scheme out about a week ago.  It's a sandy-coloured with flecks of grey in it to bring in the cabinets, and complement the darker counter top.  The back splash is a glass tiles in a brick pattern with black, grey, and white. She wanted the "wow" factor, and I think the back splash gives it.  But we still want to put some silver in the kitchen; we're thinking a silvery green or blue for the remaining wall.

The flooring will also go into one of two bathrooms upstairs to be matched with a really dark bathroom vanity.

Kitchen Diaries: The quest for tiles

Those cabinets scream '80's don't they?

My parents and I have decided it's time to rennovate the kitchen.  The house is around 30 years old; we've updated a bit- new carpeting throughout plus painting as well.  We've never really touched the kitchen accept for  new flooring (around 10 years ago) and countertop.  This time though we're going for the whole thing.

We've opted for the contractor route through Rona.   The Milton Rona store has just recently changed personnel and has added a kitchen designer. This is the first large-scale kitchen rennovation they've had in a few years.

We've picked our countertop (a charcoal colour), and lighter cabinetry (a vanilla white).  Last night we went shopping for flooring/backsplash tiles.  We've decided on a ceramic floor tile; maybe some kind of combo of the two (either a grey, that would go with both or dark with flecks of white).  We found maybe one floor tile that would go with the colour scheme, a darker charcoal tile; it was nice, but we'd like to see what's on the lighter side of the colour scheme.

The keyword for the backsplash is "dramatic."  There will be an awful lot of it- planning to get rid of the peninsula, and stretch the coutner all along under the windows to the bulkhead; and also put an island in.  Since the countertop/cabinets are pretty simple, there's a bit of room to make a statement. My mother had the idea for some kind of stainless steel.  We found these at Rona along Mavis Rd.:

Peel & Stick staineless steel backsplash tiles.  We chatted with their kitchen designer who priced non-peel& Stick at around $20/ 4 X9 tile- a wee bit expensive for our tastes.  So we're back to square one.  I think we can introduce some colour- I'd like to see a grey-blue or silvery blue kind of blacksplash.  My mom's not a fan of the glass tiles, (I saw some I liked, but she didn't) so we're probably looking at some kind of ceramic tiles.  But nothing has hit us yet; I think we're both waiting for the  "ah ha" moment to look at something and say that would look great in our kitchen.