It didn’t really bother me too much that I had a very ugly, cluttered, inconvenient kitchen until I started doing a lot of cooking. When you’re eating mostly frozen dinners, baked goods, and cereal, you don’t really spend a lot of time in the kitchen, so who cares if it’s ugly?

Besides, remodeling it would be awfully expensive—much more than any of my other projects, such as the new roof, the new furnace, the new air conditioner, the new windows and doors, the driveway, the bathroom, the carpet, furniture, etc. Not to mention the fact that I hadn’t the slightest idea how to go about doing it.

But when I started the Core plan and found my love of cooking again, I found the kitchen to be a very unsettling place. It was cold in winter, warm in summer. There was never enough storage space, no matter how much stuff I gave away, and my roommate’s stuff was scattered all over the place. One door was never used and had a freezer in front of it, as well as a canvas over-the-door caddy where I kept frequently-used tools. The cabinets, countertop, cooktop, and oven were original fixtures when the house was built in 1959. The laminate was starting to come off in places, and it was stained and ugly. The free-standing peninsula wobbled and was always cluttered and I never had enough counter space. Just pulling out a cutting board to chop vegetables was a major issue. I had no place to put brooms or vaccum cleaners. And I was really sick of the dirty yellow walls, the amateurish stenciling, and the dark paneling.

While I enjoyed the creative challenge of healthy cooking, I definitely disliked being in the kitchen. Which is why I would get something started in the kitchen and then leave for the living room or the office. . . and then forget about it. That’s how I discovered—more than once—what happens when you let eggs boil dry!

As I watched more and more home decorating shows, I started thinking about what I would like to do with my kitchen. . . someday. My goal was to remodel the kitchen by the time I retire—about five years or so from now—but I wanted some idea of the cost so I could start saving up to do it. But first I needed someone to help with the design, so I asked Jim Sechler, a seventh grade science teacher whose room was next door to me for somewhere like 15 years, if he had any suggestions. (Jim has a construction business and has done a lot of work for Maumee teachers over the years.)

Jim suggested that I go to Home Depot to have them draw up a plan, and after he gave me a cost estimate, I decided to get a home equity loan and have the whole thing done now. Because Jim saved me so much money by letting me do a lot of the work myself (staining, varnishing, painting, etc.), I was able to get top-notch stainless steel appliances and granite countertops! And I am so proud of my tile murals, which I bought on the Internet. One is called “Village in Provence” and the other “Market Day”. They fit in so well with my French café theme.

Jim custom-made the cabinets for me. . . he says I have enough for TWO kitchens! But. . . strangely enough, I still had to get rid of some stuff. (1) Because there are some things in there that used to be elsewhere, such as the vacuum cleaners and tools, and (2) because I made a commitment to eliminate the clutter. No cluttered countertops means the stuff that was on the countertops has to go somewhere else. But the truth is, a lot of the stuff I got rid of had been in the far corners of the old cabinets and hadn’t been used in at least 15 years, so why hang on to it? I don’t miss anything I got rid of, and now I know where everything is and don’t have to dig out a mountain of stuff to get to it!

Anyway, the cabinets are BEAUTIFUL. . . everybody who comes in is amazed that they are “homemade”! Jim also made the back countertop to match the cabinets. They are gorgeous!

He even made a cabinet with a hole in it for my cat’s litterbox. He put a normal cabinet door on the front and told me “when the cat kicks the bucket” to put a piece of oak on top of it and nobody would ever know it had been a litterbox cabinet! (Mittens didn’t care for that comment when he heard me mention it to my sister, but he got over it when he saw his own litterbox cabinet. I mean, how many cats can say they have such a thing?)

This really was a huge job. They had to take out the unused door, replace it with drywall and aluminum siding, take down the drop ceiling AND the original ceiling (discovered it had been water-damaged in the past and then covered up with a drop ceiling), texture the walls and the ceiling, take out all the cabinets, work with an electrician to rewire practically the whole thing, put in the new cabinets, tile the backsplash, replace the back door, install new light fixtures, etc.

And of course, while all of this was going on, at least half of the kitchen stuff was cluttered around the living room, which made cooking something of a challenge. And the dust was everywhere. . . I’m still finding it in nooks and crannies in the living room. The worst part was not having a sink for a few days. I discovered I can do without a dishwasher and even a stove, but not having a sink is really tough!

But the result is unbelievable! Sometimes I just go in the kitchen and marvel. How could it be that I could have such a beautiful kitchen when such a short time ago it was the ugliest one in America?

I really could not have done it without Jim and Tom (another teacher at our school who works for Jim), and my sister Donna, who helped me a lot with the staining, varnishing, painting, and grouting. The best thing about it was that I didn’t have to worry about things not being done properly or being left in the lurch. I’ve heard of people being without a kitchen for months at time, and that didn’t happen here.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t a nervous wreck most of the time. Every time I heard swear words I started sweating. It seems like the original builders were a bunch of numbskulls, from what I understand. Of course, every time they found a problem and I started worrying, they’d say, “No problem. We’ll just do it this way.” Eventually, I got used to it and didn’t hyperventilate so much. The plumber actually told me that *every* remodel job is like that.

Well, maybe not. Granite countertops don’t always crack upon installation. The installer told me mine was the second one in 18 years to do that. Fortunately, they came back the following week with a new piece and it was installed without incident.

I LOVE my pot rack! Yes, I had to buy new blue pots to put on it, and yes, I do use them! If they get cruddy looking I’ll have to use some elbow grease to clean them, but I like to see them hanging above the island.

I was afraid the post on the island would look kind of stupid. The reason it’s there is that we needed to get some electrical wiring to the island, and we didn’t want to cut up the slab floor, so this was the solution. I actually LIKE the way it looks!

Actually, I didn’t intend to get granite countertops. I spent a lot of time looking at laminates and found several I liked. Anything was better than the yucky stuff I had on there originally! But that was before I saw the blue granite countertop at Home Depot. It had flecks of silver that would match my stainless steel appliances so well! After that, I couldn’t stand the laminates anymore, and I ended up with the exact same granite that caught my attention at Home Depot!

It wouldn’t have happened without Jim Sechler, though. I’m convinced it would have cost twice as much to have a commercial contractor do the work (floor, ceiling, walls, everything), and it wouldn’t have been done half so well. How could I have worked next door to him for so many years and not realized what a genius he is???

So. . . now I LOVE to cook in my new kitchen, and I keep it spotless too. Sometimes when I’m doing a big job like making homemade tomato sauce I turn on the stereo and listen to the Phantom of the Opera. I’m definitely NOT abandoning food on the stove and burning it! I haven’t even taken the cover off the grill yet this summer. . . why would I want to cook outside when I have such a beautiful kitchen?

Nor do I have any excuse to eat a lot of junk and gain weight again. Mine is a “no junk” kitchen, filled with lots of fruit and veggies and lean meat and great cooking utensils. Why would I ever want to eat junk when I can have the good stuff, created in my gorgeous new kitchen?

BEFORE: No commentary needed here!!!