Housing Development: The Kitchen

There have been some recent developments in the house that I wanted to share with you.  The owners recently removed their belongings from the house, which gave me some space to rearrange things a bit. Those of you who have been here will recognize (and probably really appreciate!) the differences.

First, the kitchen.  If you've read this blog, you know how much I've griped about the kitchen.  Thankfully, there have been improvements:

Starting with a new stove!  How do I count the ways this stove improves my life?  It has four (count 'em, four) working burners.  There is a built-in clock and a timer.  It beeps when the oven has preheated.  I don't have to crawl on all fours or burn my hand if I want to broil something. And last, but most important of all, there is a storage drawer on the bottom.  A storage drawer!!

Moving clockwise around the room, I'll point out that I moved the dish rack from the left side of the sink to the right side, next to the canisters.  This freed up pretty much the whole left counter, giving me one "whole" countertop space instead of two halves.  And there's still a bit of space on the right, too.

I moved this cart from the right side of the fridge, where it was supporting the microwave, to the left side.  The drop leaves can be raised to add some work space.  This comes in handy especially if I'm baking, as most of my baking goods are in the above cabinet, and I can measure & stir right there.  (It doesn't work as well for chopping, but it does give a space for pulling items out of the fridge.  It really doesn't work well to raise the drop leaf and scoot the coffee maker over to the leaf.  Absent-minded professors later drop the leaf without returning the coffee maker to its original place, resulting in the coffee maker landing in the trash can.)

I found this gem on Craigslist to replace the cart that's now on the other side of the refrigerator.  This gave me some additional workspace, but more importantly, it gave me a much-needed additional cabinet and drawer.  My original idea had been to find something on wheels that I could then move over to the stove for counter space there, but this was aesthetically appealing and the price was right. So I decided to figure out the mobility thing later.

(A certain absent-minded professor, who shall remain nameless, moved the cabinet from blocking the door so that the stove could be brought in.  But said absent-minded professor forgot that the microwave was plugged into the wall and would not move when the cabinet moved.  Fortunately, said absent-minded professor returned to the real world when the microwave tottered precariously off the back of the cabinet, just in time to rescue it from a horrible fate.  Said absent-minded professor sometimes wonders if she should operate heavy machinery.)

Updates on the rest of the house forthcoming!