Space: The Final Frontier

The one outstanding sacrifice we made in choosing our house was the size of the kitchen. Our dream home, when we dreamed about our future home, included a big kitchen that could accommodate lots of cooking and lots of people at the same time. Well, we got the creek, the screened-in porch, the huge bedrooms, and the raised garden beds; but we didn't get the big kitchen. So finding space in the kitchen is now a regular mission.

Thanks to a hot tip from my father-in-law on his last visit, I decided to move the microwave from this piece of valuable real estate (the picture is blurry in order to make unclear the kind of dirt that dwelled under the microwave):

to this red shelf which only vitamins and spices used to call home:

Of course, the move required lowering the shelf far enough that we can put the spices on top of the microwave, but not so far that the toaster oven can no longer fit on the counter. That's about this far:

After tearing and patching two holes in the wall, learning about toggle bolts, and performing a quick paint job, here's the new efficient use of space:

Tight? Perhaps. Cluttered? Only if you don't know what goes where. I prefer to think of it as European.

Here's the new real estate on the west end of the kitchen:

Maybe this will mean more room to make pies.

~emrys