But it’s the rental house’s kitchen, not ours. Our tenants, who had lived in the rental for 7 years, recently moved out which left the house empty. It was too excellent an opportunity to pass up, so we put off our kitchen remodel. *sigh* Still, it’s pretty fun demolishing a room and then watching it take on a whole new shape.

We have a great contractor who is all about getting the job done so we hope to have the place ready to rent by mid-March. The original front part of the rental was built in 1912, and has lots of lovely bungalow features. An addition in the mid 1930’s kept most of the cool features, but the last addition, in the mid 1980’s went in a totally modern direction. So our challenge now is to pull the modern part of the house back into the bungalow look and feel.

To accomplish that we are framing the windows and making all of the baseboard match the front part of the house (which will take it from one inch to five inches). And the whole place is getting a new coat and color of paint (and may I just say, eggshell is the bomb!).

The big news is the kitchen, which was, well, pretty darned ugly. it suffered from a serious case of the early 1980’s, with boring light oak cabinets, brown laminate counters, and light fixtures that overwhelmed the space. There was also no dishwasher.

Before our tenants moved out we asked them what they would change about the kitchen, and their comments formed the jumping off point for the remodel (and kudos to Chuck for thinking to ask them!). They said that it would be great to open up the wall between the kitchen and the dining room and put in a bar. This would serve the dual purpose of making the kitchen seem bigger and provide an additional serving/eating space as the kitchen is too small for a table. Taking down that wall meant relocating all of the appliances which is entailing some plumbing and electrical work. But it is creating a much nicer and workable design. We are also replacing the kitchen window box with a regular window in keeping with the bungalow look of the rest of the windows in the front.

The bathroom is also getting a smaller makeover. We’re taking out the ugly cabinet sink and putting in a pedestal sink and replacing the linoleum with tile. And we’re also replacing the very funky lighting and medicine cabinet with classier updates.

At this point, it’s still a gutted space, but I can see the beginnings of what’s it going to be. Pics are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/osheas/sets/72157629005496987/