I'm In Love

...with my new gas stove.

As part of our kitchen renovation, we replaced all the old appliances. This is a luxury I've never experienced before, but because they were clearly 20+ years old, the time was right.

This is our old stove/kitchen.

I actually had a better photo of the stove at one time because I posted a "free stove" ad on Kijiji. I must have deleted it as I wanted no further connection with it. When we bought the house let's just say the previous owners could have been a little more attentive to cleanliness. We must have spent two hours cleaning it. I think I avoided using it at all for the first two months out of pure contempt.

Anyway, we knew it had to go. And finally, we had the opportunity to get a gas stove. Working for a natural gas company for the past four years further fueled (excuse the pun) my desire for a gas stove.

And here's my new beauty. It's a Blue Star 30" stove. We hadn't heard of Blue Star, but when we saw it at Costco I started researching the company and reviewing customer ratings. It has the largest internal dimensions of any residential stove on the market (fits two cookie sheets side-by-side), and it has powerful burner. Plus, he's a beauty. When we picked it up, the Costco Manager said "you're getting a great deal on this stove, my wife and I bought a Garland stove a couple of years ago and it's really the same stove for less than half the price".

Best of all, our new stove lives up to his reputation...he's powerful and hard working, while being sensitive and to my sauces. He's also lightening quick and responsive.

I just LOVE my new stove. So much so, I'd find it hard to ever go back to electric.

He's a brute though -- a fact we weren't completely aware of until it came time to bring it in the house. A forklift had deposited it (still on it's skid), in the back of our trailer. We transported it home, and wheeled it right up to our front stairs. Then there was the question of how to get it up the final two stairs and into the house. Fortunately, we had a moving dolly and two strong men. Despite our apparent advantages, Mr. BlueStar put up quite a fight. After a great deal of huffing and puffing, heaving and grunting (and suggestions to call professional movers the next day), Mr.BlueStar finally made his way to the kitchen (still enveloped in his protective bubble wrap).

Here he is in-situ. And partially disrobed. You'll need to wait for my kitchen reno post to get the Full Monty.

Kitchen Cabinetry: Check

While we knew we wanted a traditional white kitchen, we still had to decide on lay-out and cabinetry design...

For that we turned to IKEA. In our minds, IKEA provides real value for money. Their cabinetry is good looking and warrantied for 25 yrs . It's also much less expensive than other suppliers since you have to assemble them yourself. Admittedly, that's no small feat. While I was able to look past the original kitchen to visualize the final look, I was virtually paralyzed by the assembly instructions. Fortunately I had some help.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Step 1 was coming up with a design. I downloaded IKEA's Kitchen Planning tool and set to work. I especially liked the 3D feature which allows you to see the finished design from all perspectives.

We quickly made the decision to eliminate the peninula that gave the kitchen a "C" shape and restricted the traffic flow.

We chose Lidingo (shown above) as our cabinet door style (mixing solid panel and glass panel fronts on the top cabinets) as we thought it would be the best choice -- architecturally-speaking -- with our 1913 house.

http://images.google.ca/images?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLJ_en&q=IKEA+Lidingo&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=Ii02S_-YJ4H2sQO_xMjCBA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQsAQwAA

Kitchen Inspiration

In tackling the kitchen, we knew we would have many decisions to make: floor lay-out, cabinetry, flooring, countertops, appliances.

One thing I was pretty clear about was I wanted a white kitchen that complimented the age/character of our home (built in 1913). Fortunately, this meant we had high ceilings, and could stretch the cabinetry to expand storage space (provided the bulkheads could be removed).

I had been diligently cutting and saving magazine clippings, and sourced a number of photo ideas from the net including several blogs. I found this photograph of a gorgeous kitchen http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefanier/2266251097/ on an amazing and inspirational blog (see my must-read list): http://www.brooklynlimestone.com/

So...Kitchen cabinet colour: check. Kitchen lay-out: to-do

Kitchens Sell Houses?

They say that kitchens sell houses. We may have bought this house, but it was most definitely NOT for the kitchen. Then again, may be it was.

The idea of HAVING to renovate the kitchen had a certain appeal as it meant we would be able to put our own stamp on it.

Everything would have to go:

- good-bye hideous light fixtures;
- adios worn vinyl flooring;
- sianara 1980s cabinetry and appliances;
- see ya later bulky bulkheads.

Most of all, we had to come up with a new lay-out since the awkward "C" shape trapped you in the fifth circle of hell, wedged between the dishwasher, stove and fridge.