Author: Jodi Green

The kitchen isn’t finished, but it’s finished enough to move in and start using, so that’s what we did over the holidays. Soon we’ll have to move all of our stuff back out from the counters to make room for the tile to be installed but for now we’re starting to get a feel for the new space. We’ve already luxuriously unfurled our mess onto the vast countertops.

We’ve been planning all along to install a grillework in that wall opening, but now that we’re actually living and cooking here it’s kind of nice having a window there so we’re going to take our time and perhaps explore different options. I’m currently leaning towards installing shutters so I can bang them open and shout killer one-liners into the living room like Florence from The Jeffersons.

I’ve never had a vent hood over the stove before and have very much been looking forward to no longer filling up our bedroom with food smells, but so far I keep forgetting to switch it on when I cook. It’s hard to learn new things in old age.

We’ve had a few days of rest in the kitchen work, waiting for appliances and the last bits of cabinet, so I was finally able to get the living room painted. We’ve lived with someone else’s joy killing beige in this room for 20 years while waiting to have the ceiling repaired, but we’re looking forward to spending the next 20 snuggled down in this cozy room with its dreamy green. The wall to the left is closest to the actual colour and I can’t wait to see how my new quilt is going to look in here.

Now to start drawing up plans for the built in shelving we’re planning for the wall that used to have a doorway through it.

Lots happening this week. Our cabinets are almost fully installed. Our countertops came early. They tried a bonkers thing to fix the old oak floorboards that were bowing up so that every step across the high traffic part of the room sounded like babow-babow: sawing a line between two floorboards to give it space to relax. It worked okay but not perfectly, but it’s a 112 year old floor so perfect isn’t really in the list of options. It’s noticeably better, though.

They took down the plastic sheeting and plywood panel from across the wide doorway between the dining room and the new kitchen, so we can finally get a sense of how the spaces feel together. It’s strange seeing that mustardy yellow (“maize”, according to the chip) against the pale chartreuse of the dining room, but I think once the green backsplash is installed it’ll be less strange.

Here’s the view into the room from that doorway. That shelf above the passthrough is the last bit of cabinet still to be finished.

You can see through the passthrough that we’ve started painting the living room a lush, mossy green. Yes, this means the entire main floor of our house is green and yellow now: chartreuse dining room, yellow and green kitchen, green living room, and the front room has two walls baby blue, the wall along the stairs buttery yellow, and the wall leading into that green living room is a beautiful ivory-and-green experiment I haven’t shown you yet. Maybe once we get the old kitchen converted into a bathroom we’ll do it in a warmer colour, but to be honest it’ll probably wind up green.

The trim has been reattached to our original window and door. I nearly had a panic attack watching one of the contractors going at it on my century old wood with the nail gun but it all went fine and looks great.

That drawer with no handle is the wrong colour and is going to be replaced with a better match so, no need to point out to me that it doesn’t match, hah. It sticks out like a sore thumb.

There’s just so much counter space in here. I keep going in and standing in front of the passthrough and rubbing my hands over the counter in a pantomime of kneading bread. I can’t wait to knead bread here.

Here’s a closeup of my bread kneading spot. We chose this quartz countertop because it looks like terrazzo.