Things I Won't Miss about the Apartment: the Kitchen

I reluctantly admitted the things that I will miss about living in an apartment. It's a short list,  but it exists. Now, we wouldn't be moving if there weren't things we can't wait to be done with. We'll go through this room by room. Today, the kitchen.

Our Kitchen

I consider our current kitchen a microcosm of what a good kitchen should be: the layout is highly functional (and not too different from the layout of our future kitchen), it's open to the rest of the home but doesn't showcase all the dirty stuff that must be hid in a kitchen, and the traffic flow works.

What I don't like about our kitchen is that a microcosm is by definition a small representation of something and in this normal sized world, a kitchen can't be small. We have three pets who all have their own diets, appliances that take up space, and habit of putting off grocery shopping that necessitates a very large pantry for when we finally make it to the store.

Right now, we have literally one cabinet as a pantry. And we fit Boone's food, paper towels, canned goods, snack foods, and almost all our dry storage in this one cabinet. Boone's treats share a separate cabinet with the crock pot. And anywhere we can spare an inch, you will find cups because we like to stay well hydrated. We even have to use the top of the cabinets for storage. Not pretty or practical.

Our oven features four coil burners and they are all uneven. Really, really uneven. It's ok, if you only like cooking on one side of all your pots and pans. Our refrigerator is standard apartment stock, so we have to bend over ever time we need to refill our cups (first world problem). That's a bigger problem if you have back problems like I do.

One of my biggest pet peeves is the shallow, grungy, divided sink. It's only about six inches deep and I flood the kitchen every time I attempt to do dishes. Our faucet drips constantly and if you use the sprayer, it won't automatically switch back to the faucet. And the sprayer doesn't automatically recoil, so it just lays in the sink all. day. every. day.

Our Soon-to-be Kitchen 

 Image property of Standard Pacific Homes

Our future kitchen has a huge pantry that's approx 6'x4', we briefly considered putting the dog kennel in there, until we realized how unsanitary that would be. I know, don't tell me. We sprung for the upgraded gas range (like the one pictured), all the better for making mac & cheese, and I'm dreaming of a french door refrigerator. And I guarantee my sink problems will be a thing of the past when you see the beauty I picked out.

After some encouragement from my mom and receiving my husband's blessing, I was thrilled to pick the upgraded off-white cabinets, just like the ones in the model. For you Nosy Nancys, our kitchen will have the same cabinets, floor, range, and microwave, similar counters (ours are dark granite with gold flecks). We'll have an off-white subway tile backsplash, simpler cabinet hardware, and we won't have the pendant lights or the glass door on our pantry (who wants to see that?!)

In conclusion: