DIANE’S NEW KITCHEN

BEFORE AND AFTER

Diane wanted to renovate our kitchen for years. So, while Patrick was home for Christmas, he and Diane went to the International Stone Gallery and looked at about 100 countertops. Patrick liked a Quartz countertop with copper flecks in it and Diane liked it, too. They put in an order.

Next, Diane contacted a contractor to put up a white tile backsplash and to paint the kitchen, living room, dining room, and the hallway up the stairs to our second floor (Diane was tired of the orange walls, preferring some more sedate). Finally, Diane ordered a new light for over our dinner table.

What do you think of the result? Are you contemplating any home renovations?

29 thoughts on “DIANE’S NEW KITCHEN

  1. Dan

    Hey, wait a minute: Didn’t she just get a new kitchen, like 30 years ago? In this time of World Crisis, can you justify the extravagance?

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Dan, the kitchen renovation was completed the week before the coronavirus hit Western New York. Now, everything is shut down as we’re sheltering-in-place…in a new kitchen.

      Reply
      1. george Post author

        Dan, Diane managed everything from choosing the colors, textures, materials, contractors, etc. I just wrote the checks to pay for it all.

  2. wolf

    Looks really nice, though a bit dark for us – we prefer very light wood.
    What I’m missing though is the dishwasher – ok, just found it.
    And what about a gigantic two door fridge with icemaker etc?
    That has always been the base for an American kitchen for me …

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Wolf, there’s just Diane and me here now. No need for a gigantic two-door refrigerator…although we have a second fridge in the basement for “overflow” food after parties.

      Reply
  3. Cap'n Bob Napier

    I can’t see much difference other than the light fixture! It looks nice, though. Our kitchen is pretty small, but we don’t entertain and it suits most of our needs! Yours looks nice! And until next time, this is Cap’n Bob for This Old House!

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Bob, the renovation was completely Diane’s idea. Women are never satisfied with the state of things, they always want to change something. I like stasis.

      Reply
  4. Jerry House

    Nice. Now Diane has to use the new kitchen to cook yummy food and send some to us.

    We’re renting now so no renovations in the near future for us. The various homes we have owned in the past were all, at one time or another, reworked — walls removed, bedrooms added or expanded, larger windows, front steps repurposed for safety reasons, etc. We never added to the basic footprint, although when Erin was three-years-old and very impressionable we did paint the house Barbie Pink to make her happy (thank goodness she grew out of her pink phase soon after and the house was repainted a more traditional color).

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, our big renovations to this house began when we removed most of the carpeting. Our allergist told us that much of our allergy distress was caused by the carpeting. So, we went room by room and installed hard wood floors. About five years ago, we replaced all the leaky windows with new windows. And then there’s the new roof and gutters project. Houses are not inexpensive to maintain (except for maybe…Jerry House).

      Reply
  5. wolf

    cook yummy food and send some to us

    Really good idea! 🙂 🙂
    Because of the Corona virus here all restaurants are closed so that would give us a chance to try different food …

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, Diane’s kitchen renovation was completed just under the wire. Now, all that construction activity is on hold all over Western New York because of the coronavirus. We really lucked out with our timing of this project.

      Reply
  6. wolf

    Re renovations:
    We’ve moved to a smaller house because the old one with its three guest rooms and a large garden was just too difficult to manage and since most of our family members are also over 70 we haven’t got many visitors last year.
    So right now we’re still adapting to the new environment, took me some time to find room for the dishwasher e g – they aren’t so common in Hungary …
    PS:
    The main advantage however is that the house is less than an hour’s drive from Budapest where my wife’s sons live with their families so they can come for a day’s visit.
    Of course right now that’s out of the question, though one of them came with his wife and daughter – but they stayed behind the fence …
    It’s a crazy world – we old people are only allowed to do shopping from 9 am to high noon, starting today …
    I wonder how all this will work out.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Wolf, Diane and I went to BJ’s Warehouse for “Senior Citizen Hour” a few days ago. The store opens only for 55 year-olds and older from 8 A.M. to 9 A.M. There were maybe a dozen shoppers in the vast warehouse. Diane and I never got closer than 30 feet to another shopper. We picked up bottles of vinegar, olive oil, and spaghetti sauce. Diane bought more Arnold’s Bread (15 grains!) and a large jar of Peanut M&Ms. We were in and out of the warehouse in 15 minutes!

      Reply
  7. Patti Abbott

    My kitchen had to be redone when we moved in. The only thing that still bothers me is the floor, which is flagstone. So hard under your feet. And also cleaning the grout is impossible. So I am thinking about getting a new floor. It’s on a slab so it can’t be hardwood. Hard to decide because it is a large area and the front hall matches it now.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Patti, we have a laminate floor in our kitchen that looks like tile. We have a friend who has a marble floor in her kitchen and hates it! She claims that if you look at it cross-eyed, it cracks! Very fragile stuff!

      Reply
  8. Deb

    Very nice!

    Coincidentally, just before the quarantine, we had a contractor give us some estimates for a few things: ceiling fans in the den and all four bedrooms, new light fixtures in the hall and on the back patio, new vanities and sinks in both bathrooms, and a new fan/heater in our master bathroom. Now we’re in limbo—not sure if we’re going to need the money we’d set aside for renovations to instead be used to get us through “the long emergency.” Anyway, we can’t go ahead with anything right now, so it’s a moot point.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Deb, we have some plans to renovate our two bathrooms. We’d like a walk-in shower in the downstairs bathroom (for the future in case we’re wheelchair bound) and a new bathtub in the upstairs bathroom. But, as you say, everything is now on hold until the pandemic is resolved. We were lucky to get this much done before the coronavirus shut everything down.

      Reply
  9. maggie mason

    I like the new color (orange is one of the 2 colors I don’t like, right after yellow). I do prefer the old hanging lamp. though. And I disagree about large fridges, though maybe not energy efficient, it’s nice to have whatever you need on hand. It’s a beautiful kichen, so glad it was finished in time and not left mid project.

    I’d love to do things here, but need to get rid of or figure storage for a lot of “stuff”. For the 1/2 day that left coast crime conv. was active, I did manage to get rid of 4 boxes of books to author Steve Brewer who opened a bookstore in Alburq. NM a year or so ago. He was driving, so could take them. I had a box that I thought was my complete set of michael innes pbs, but was john dickson carr and carter dickson. Also had a signed RC Gorman and Alton Brown and lots of misc. stuff and aerospace items.

    My house is an old house, with a space for a fridge. Sadly, It can’t be as big as I want. I have a floor to near ceiling lazy susan I’d like to get rid of and put in pullout shelves, and that would probably be my 2nd project. replacing ceiling fans with new, better ones in tv room and bedroom and installing them in computer room and living room might be first on the list.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Maggie, those all sound like productive projects. Diane is in her “Maria Kondo” mode right now, decluttering every room in the house. I have a dozen boxes of books ready to go to SUNY at Buffalo for the Kelley Collection…but all universities are shut down right now. I’m slowly listening to my many music CDs and classify them as Keepers or Out-the-Door. I have about 100 CDs ready to donate to the North Tonawanda Library Book Sale…but they’re closed, too. Everything is stalled.

      Reply
  10. Cap'n Bob Napier

    When I retired I got Leaf Guard gutters and I’m glad I did. No more ladders and cleaning. If they clog, they’ll clean them for the life of the gutters.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Beth, Diane has been planning this kitchen renovation for a couple of years. It was just completed before the coronavirus struck Western New York so we lucked out. Diane is really enjoying the new kitchen!

      Reply

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