Kitchen reno starting!!!

Yep, I am finally getting round to doing my kitchen properly! We moved into this house in the year 2000, and never did anything to the kitchen at that time because my mother (the major user of the kitchen at that time) said she was fine with the kitchen as it was, and she had a wet kitchen done for herself as well. So, basically, the dry kitchen never got touched. And since Ken and I never actually lived here (only coming back briefly for breaks from SG), we never used the kitchen!

Now that I am into baking... and I need to use the dry kitchen, I HAVE to get it done up properly as there is absolutely NO, or ALMOST NO, working surface at all! On one side of the kitchen, what little work surface there is, has been been occupied by the microwave. On the other side of the kitchen, where there is a small "L"-shaped work surface, one side has been occupied by rice cooker and kettle... leaving me just a tiny space, approximately 4 foot long, and less than 2 feet deep!

So, we start. Tomorrow! And, as part of the overall renovations plans, will be building in a new room for a maid (as we might have to get a full time maid in the not too distant future), extending my parents bedroom to make it wider (that was the 'original' maids room which we had lengthened but not widened when we moved in), and a new (bigger) ensuite for my parents room as well. The time line to get all this complete? 5 - 6 weeks according to our contractor friend!! Fingers crossed that it does only take that long! In the meantime, it is going to be 'fun' (NOT) to have dust in the air; no access to a kitchen; having a temporary cooking site at the side of the house, but no real facilities to wash dishes; and my parents will have to move to an upstairs bedroom temporarily, till their bedroom and new ensuite gets sorted out; and if we can't find an alternative temp site to put our washing machine, we'll have to go to my sisters place, 3 houses away, to wash clothes!! Oh yes... FUN :-p!! BUT, it will be worth it, to get the kitchen in order, to have more storage in the kitchen, to be able to FINALLY unpack all Ken's cooking and baking stuff, and to have LOTS more work surface, and A NICE BIG NEW OVEN :-) to do all my baking in!

Have a look at the following pictures, to get some idea of the CURRENT kitchen:

1: This is one side of the dry kitchen. As you can see - no work surface. Tall cabinet, oven, microwave, cooker, dish drainer....

2: ... better view of the dish drainer, and the sink. NO work surface! Next to the sink is the door leading to the wet kitchen. Also, there is not a lot of cabinet space either.

3: This is the other side of the dry kitchen. Small "L"-shaped area. The work surface you can see right at the centre of the picture is the ONLY 'available' work surface. Having said that, my Mum usually has stuff lying in that area (bottles, water jugs, fruits, bread, etc) which I have to clear away if I want to use that area! The rice cooker and kettle are in the area hidden by the fridge.

4: This is the wet kitchen. NOT a lot of work surface again. And I HATE the colour!!

5: The other side of the wet kitchen. Don't be fooled into thinking that area next to the washing machine is work surface! It usually is piled high with loads of CDs, tapes, and a mini-sound system - which my Mum has playing from time to time. And in between the little fridge and the tall cabinet is a 3-tier plastic tray with wheels which has onions, potatoes, etc, in it, and which, therefore, makes it difficult to get access to the tall cabinet! Highly irritating!

There you have it. The current state of my kitchen. So, I shall try and remember to take progress photos, as the work goes on :-). And by end-July I hope that it will all be complete and I can put up pics of the completed and fully refurbished kitchen!

Till next time folks, have a good day, every day!