Remember how we spent a lot of time and a ridiculous amount of money to have it professionally gutted and rebuilt from the ground up? Yeah, I vaguely remember that too. And I was just thinking about what high hopes I had for it. It was going to be the heart of the house, I was going to cook delicious meals involving things like risotto and produce from the farmer’s market and have friends over and sit around the table laughing and eating and drinking wine. I think I could count the number of dinner parties we’ve had on a woodshop teacher’s one hand, and when I do cook I try to find the simplest recipes possible and get out. The cabinets are disorganized, the walls are blank, and there’s a layer of grime on everything.
Well it’s time to do this kitchen justice. For the next couple of weeks I’m going to be giving it some TLC, including a good cleaning from top to bottom, reorganizing the cabinets and drawers and adding some decorative touches.
It’s a small room, but when you start to work on it you realize all of the nooks and crannies involved and it starts to feel pretty overwhelming pretty quickly. Then I start to think about the rest of the house and all the nooks and crannies that need to be gotten into and all of the junk that needs to be sorted through and the dust and pet hair and….and then I start to hyperventilate. So that’s why I need to reel myself back in and focus on the kitchen.
In the mean time, please enjoy the following photos of my shame:
passyunk palace 
i love your honesty! and i feel like this post will keep you accountable :)
I love, love, love your countertops. I am considering butcher-block for my kitchen. How have they held up? Did you stain them or use a water resistant treatment? Who installed them? Please, tell me everything about your countertops.
Sara, I am SO sorry I missed this comment way back when. You have probably already made your decision, but in case it’s any help, the countertop is just from Ikea I believe. It’s been so long at this point that I don’t remember. The contractor finished it with linseed oil four years ago and I haven’t done anything with it since, although it’s getting to be about that time, because they’re starting to stain a bit. I don’t cut directly on them, so that helps a lot. I also try not to let water pool on them, that’s kind of a no-no. I think refinishing them is pretty simple if you just use oil – you just sand off the stains and do a few coats of oil. The contractor did offer to do a water resistant polyurethane type situation, but he said if it starts to get dinged up it’s a much more difficult undertaking to refinish them, so we went with the oil.
Hope that helps, and if not I hope your countertops turned out beautifully anyway :)