Kitchen Renovation Begins

Well, we have finally decided to renovate our kitchen. The old one was small, ugly, and not well laid-out.

Problems we had with the old kitchen:

• The crazy former owner blocked off the family room, so he had to put in a sliding glass door where a window used to be so he would have access to the deck. He was a nut. He also had walled off the dining room, but that's another story altogether.
  
• From a single spot in the kitchen, you could see 7 different flooring surfaces.
• The space in the kitchen was very cramped and there was no good place to eat in the kitchen (thanks to the slider)
• Everything was old and hideous.
• We really wanted a second oven as well as a fridge that didn't stick out into the room.
• Not enough storage or light.
  

What we are doing:

• Gutting the entire room.
• Moving the opening from the corner to centering it on the Dining Room wall.
• Moving the Dining Room wall over a foot (toward the kitchen) to make enough room to walk through from the rest of the house to the new pocket doors into the kitchen.
• Putting in a small pantry.
• Replacing the slider with a window, extending the counter down under the window and adding a peninsula that will extend from under the new window.
• Adding Maple cabinets and new floors.
• New counter-depth fridge and moved other appliances.
• Marble counters.
• Recessed lighting.

Anyway, here are the pics of the project. I have been pretty good so far about uploading updates every day.