Our Kitchen

Looking through old posts, I realized the last photos of the kitchen I posted were in June 2008 when the remodel was almost complete.

Now, 12 years later, I can show you how it turned out when complete and in use.

This is how our kitchen typically looks in 2021.  These photos were taken on February 15th, 2021. The house cleaners had just come through, so it is a little extra tidy but for the most part, this is how it looks.

Bananas and Little Cuties are almost always on the island, along with Alexa.   Since Valentine's Day had just passed, there are also flowers.

Ruby has her own section of the kitchen with her kibble and water.  She shares the space with a globe.  No real reason the space is shared except the globe predates the dog.

This is how our sink typically looks.  Dirty dished on the right, clean dishes on the left.   The Franke sink has held up quite nicely.  I bought extra racks when we had the sink installed that are still sitting in the closet - the racks shown are the originals from 2007.

We have a coffee maker for Dave - neither my wife or I drink coffee.  Since meals are typically for one or two people, we often use paper plates so they are a permanent fixture on our countertop.  The scale must be Dave's.  The knives were a gift from Dave & Lucy.

Our Viking cooktop has been awesome.  Very powerful, very reliable.  I'm really glad we chose it.

We get to look out over the back yard while at the sink.  We recently purchased a face and added it to the back yard.  It really gives the yard a focal point.

In this corner, we keep our toaster, microwave and wine.   The house used to have a built-in microwave where the wine is up above,  but it was hard for my 5 ft 1 in wife to reach it, so we got a countertop version when we remodeled.  Besides, I found out at our prior house that built in microwaves cost a lot more than countertops.

Right now we are on a Robert Mondavi kick.  Who knows how long that will last.  The Twin Oaks Winery on the left is from our local winery a couple miles from our house.

We have all of our refrigerator magnets on the side.  Most were given to us.  The beagle magnet was given to us by my nephew Alex.

In this cabinet are wine glasses that rarely get used.  At one point I decided to start shot glass collection but that ended pretty quickly.  I discovered I'm not much for drinking hard alcohol so they became decoration.

The window covering always stays in the up position.  While I love the chocolate brown velvet look, it ended up being a little impractical to use and we don't need to lower it anyway because no neighbor can look in.

The end of the island is devoted to the grandkids right now.  Books, coloring supply, and a cell phone control robot occupy that space at the present time.

Now let's get really personal!  Don't judge us!  This is a fairly typical stock in our pantry. 

Top shelf: breakfast foods such as cereal, pancakes and sometimes breakfast bars. The Honey Bunches of Oats are for my wife and me.  The Frosted Mini Wheats are for my wife.  The Wheaties are for me. The Frosted Flakes are for Troy and Teo.  Shortly after I stocked up on Frosted Flakes, they decided to switch to Fruit Loops instead.

Second shelf:  bread products, chips, and peanut butter.  Ancient Grain bread is mine, hot dog buns are the kids, pita bread is Daves.

Third shelf: Saltines, cookies (usually Oreos for the kids), and whatever Dave purchases.

Fourth shelf: canned goods such as soup, pasta, chili, green beans and corn.

Bottom shelf: potatoes, ramen, tuna, chicken, and extra condiments such as ketchup, mustard, pickles, and dips.

With the addition of Ruby to the family, the top two shelves are now devoted to her.  Water is on shelf 3 and the boys get the bottom two shelves (Gatorade and soda for the kids).  Actually, my wife has sparkling water on those shelves also.

The schoolyear schedule is taped to the inside of the door.

The fridge!  This is a typical look.  It works out pretty well.

The freezer!   Upper left is usually turkey sausage, burritos, and burgers.  Upper right is frozen vegetables - mostly broccoli and cauliflower.

Bottom left is chicken and fish for everyone and hot dogs for Troy.  Bottom right is pretty much devotes to the kids - usually ice cream and overflow from the other three freezer areas.

My favorite thing on our new fridge:  separate ice and water pads!   When the same paddle controlled both on our prior fridge,  I was constantly forgetting to check the setting and getting water in my glass when I wanted ice.  Now that never happens!

The flowers I got for my wife on Valentine's Day.

We only have one indoor plant now.  This little guy that my wife pampers.  It has continued to grow and will likely need a bigger pot soon.

Now that I think about it,  Dave has a collection of cacti in his bedroom so this little guy isn't the only one in the house.

These salt and pepper shakers came from my parents house, originally used in the 1970s and perhaps as early as the 1960s.  I keep them because they provide me connection to my mom's kitchen and because I think the style is classic.

Our Bosch double-oven.  It is nice and efficient, but even after 12 years I am not used to the controls.  It is not intuitive to me.

It does look nice though!

A recent addition to our kitchen:  indoor and outdoor temperatures.  It is a sure sign I'm getting old when I purchase temperature readouts.   My grandparents used to have those as well as a compass mounted to the dash of their car.  Luckily I haven't went that far!  Yet.

The chores list for the boys.  We really don't keep it up any more and just pay them cash on the spot.

And finally, our rotating photos.  I try to add to it every year.   The photo being shown now is from our trip to the Big Island in Hawaii.   We hiked and hiked to get to the lava flow.  The steam clouds behind is is from the lava pouring into the ocean, creating steam.