3/25/11

Part of the kitchen, part of the dining room- a little bit of nothing....

Between the dining room (which was the original living room) and the new living room (which is an add on to the original house) is a small 8x8 square walk through area that used to be the old dining room. When we got the house it was carpeted in tri color shag and had an old brass and glass light fixture that they pulled up to the ceiling with a bread tie. Really. A bread tie.

It really wasn't a part of anything- it wasn't part of the kitchen, it wasn't part of the dining room. I kept a buffet in here for extra storage. Then, my husband got a huge butcher block top from a friend doing a kitchen remodel and he decided to make a bar/counter/computer area for me. Plus, it would have the added benefit of covering up an ugly heat duct that we had to pull up through the floor and go into the wall because that's an exterior wall and the laundry room add on had no heat. We didn't want to go through the foundation so the wall was the only option- but it was ugly and stuck out like a sore thumb....

BEFORE- Here they are putting up the cleat for the bar area.... the Mr. is standing in the old exterior door- which now goes to my interior laundry room. We just removed the entire door and gave it to my parents for their barn (it was a good door)

 This is opposite the wall above, the kitchen just ended there and the stove was in the middle of the walk way....
 Here is where we extended the kitchen floor another foot to add a cabinet and a cart to extend the kitchen into the old dining room area..... I wish the entire area was the same floor- but it's not and it won't be for a while- no money honey!
We also built a fake wall between the bar area/kitchen to the dining room. It mirrors the wall going into the living room and helps to visually make the dining room a separate room from the kitchen area......

-NOW-
I am going to re upholster these stools this summer- ideas on fabric or should I go with leather?  Past the bar area is the door to the laundry room. I painted all the trim in the house white last spring, since brown was so horrible.

 This is how it looks from the dining room looking into the kitchen/bar area.... and looking into the living room.....we removed the old brass/glass bread tie fixture and added pot lights above for task lighting...
 Below is from the living room looking back into the dining room....
The box to the right of the wine rack covers up the duct work going into the laundry room... this desk is used by me about 6 hours a day- we do homework up here, computer stuff, watch tv and movies on the computer, sort the mail, pay the bills etc... I eat lunch here. It's very useful. I was against building it at first, but I spend more time here than almost anywhere else.

Above  is the new cabinet that keeps the stove from being the end of the kitchen. I will go into this more in depth for my next post which is my doll house sized kitchen. But since this is part of the old dining room technically, I thought I'd add this picture.... I so wish we could put in one new cohesive floor but that is just not in the picture now- not with us needing a new roof.

So, now you've seen the tiny entrance, the dining room and now the computer area. The kitchen is next. Maybe, if I can clean it and keep it clean. That's an ongoing battle in a house full of men.

1 comment:

Alana in Canada said...

That bar area looks incredibly useful. I wish my computer area was more central to the house--as yours is.