Tag: apartment

Kitchen Counters

I have a rather awkwardly laid out kitchen.  Our house was built in the 50s, well before the kitchen tools boom, and we have the perfect amount of cabinets for someone who has less of an, um, obsession with the kitchen.  So in order to make my kitchen tools and appliances fit, I’ve had to get a little bit creative.  And downsize some.  Because honestly, I had some things I wasn’t using.

Counter space is also a premium.  When we first moved in, I had my knife block, bread machine, stand mixer, food processor, flour, sugar and powdered sugar crocks, and utensil caddy all sitting on the counter.  I definitely could use my space, but everything looked so cluttered, and certain culinary projects required a full counter rearrange.   For instance, if I was rolling out pastry to fill a 13 inch pie dish.  (Not that I’ve been making any pastry lately; it has butter in it.  GLORIOUS, CREAMY BUTTER.) Several months ago, we got a little baker’s rack to keep my food processor, slow cooker, stock pot, and some various odds and ends.  I keep it the otherwise useless corner under my pots and pans.  The rack eliminated my food processor on the counter, so at the same time I got rid of the bread machine.  His home is now in the closet on the floor, and I think we all prefer it that way.

This morning, I woke up with the realization that I could hide my stand mixer in a cabinet if I just did a few simple tweaks to my cupboard organization.  Which I did immediately after I fed Analie, of course.  It was 7:30 am and Mondays are not the kind of days where you let moss grow on the clock.

Joey came into the kitchen and admired my  handiwork, then suggested we get a magnet strip for the knives we’ve been talking about.  I was all, YES PLEASE.

So we did.

And I love the results!

The knife block used to be in the corner where the laundry basket is sitting now.  We mounted the knives on the side of the cabinet, which I think is safer with Analie anyway.  I’m not sure the laundry basket will stay in the corner there, but for now I like it.  It’s so lame to be taking dirty towels to the hampers twice a day, but I’m not sure I want to sacrifice the counter space just for that luxury.

Like I said, not a lot of counter space.  But what I have is appliance-free now!  The stand mixer and food processor used to be in the corner where my crocks are now.

Aaaaaaand this is the awkward corner.  But hey, look at what’s NOT sitting on my counters, right??

After years and years of apartment living, having a kitchen this size is super awesome.  Even if the counter space isn’t 21st century style, and we have a random awkward corner over by the window.  Joey has made lots of little tweaks to the space I do have that has made it oodles better than it was when we moved in.

Yay for handy husbands!.

WINNING.

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I Think We’ll Make It

Tonight, our friends Luke & Becca came over to basically save our lives.  (You have saved our lives.  We are eternally grateful.)  We had to sit on the floor to eat our pizza and salad because, well, the dining room table was in the living room and the chairs were stacked up in the den someplace.

After dinner, the boys headed to the bedroom to completely disassemble (no disassemble!) the bed and drag the dressers out into the now-emptyish living room so they could paint the bedroom walls.  Joey shoved the mattress and box spring up against the formerly red wall and wedged the dressers around it, then he and Luke disappeared into the bedroom.  Basically never to be heard from again, or at least for the next 2 1/2 hours.

Becca and I attacked the kitchen.

We boxed up all my dishes and mugs, the last of my Le Creuset pottery, the All-Clad pots & pans, all the utensils and silverware, all the bakeware, and my cookie sheets and cooling racks.  I think we used about 10 boxes doing so.

I have a lot of kitchen gadgets.  I had no idea it had gotten so out of hand.

A couple of hours later, we went to check on the boys.  We discovered the bedframe is now leaning up against the wall in the bathroom, and I think it’s going to be very scary looking in the middle of the night.

The bedroom was about ten degrees warmer than the rest of the apartment because the door had been closed, and it smelled super strong like paint fumes in there.  I was frankly surprised that neither Joey nor Luke had passed out; they both looked pale but still lucid.  That’s good, I guess.

They weren’t quite done painting yet, but Becca and I had had just about enough of packing, so we decided that since the boys weren’t around to tell us not to, we’d just scootch things around so we could get the bed set up in the dining room – the last empty space in the whole apartment large enough to fit a bed.  And we can’t put it back in the bedroom because first of all, the walls are still wet.  And second of all, and perhaps most importantly, it smells like you just shoved your head in a paint can when you walk inside.

Becca did most of the pushing and lifting.  But I helped every now and then when the amount of pushing/lifting appeared to be less than whatever the limit is I am supposed to be abiding by.

Five minutes later, the mattress and box spring were positioned up against the wall where the table used to be.

I’ve never slept in the dining room before.  This is going to be very exciting.

And, regardless of the fact it is now 10:10 p.m., I think I need to take a shower.  I never got around to that today.  But…OH DEAR…I just realized I haven’t got the foggiest idea where my clean clothes and pajamas are.  I think I packed them earlier today.

That wasn’t so smart.

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