Our kitchen

I finally cleaned our kitchen today so that it's as clean as it's been since we moved in. It will probably never be this clean again. But I wanted to take pictures of my favorite room in our condo to show those of you who live in Seattle.

When we first decided to move back to Charlottesville, we found our apartment on the Internet and sent Heidi to look at the apartment. Based on the floor plan, we were pretty much sold on this place as long as it didn't have rats or a meth lab next door, because pretty much any apartment you could expect to find here would be better than what we had. I don't know offhand of any tiny two-bedroom, very basic apartments in complexes that look like a 1950s motel in this town. Anyway, Heidi said we'd love the kitchen, which had just been remodeled, and that sealed the deal. Also gave us added incentive to buy it when we got the chance. It's like getting a free new kitchen, except, um, we had to pay for the whole house.

This view takes in most of the kitchen.



I love it. There is a ton of work space and storage space (and the cabinets are pretty attractive), and it's very well lit; in addition to the ceiling lighting, there's a light over the counter on the wall. There are more electric sockets than I could possibly ever use, and I do use a lot of them. There is a dishwasher and a gas oven and stove. The only thing I would add is a garbage disposal, but I can live without that.

This used to be a galley kitchen with a separate dining room (and that's what we saw on the floor plan), but they took down the wall and opened it up, so there's a lot more light and work/cabinet space than there is in the other townhouses in the complex. I kind of liked the idea of having a separate dining room, but on the other hand it's nice to be able to talk to someone who's at the table while you're working in the kitchen, or while they're doing the dishes and you're relaxing (which is what happens when Laura-the-best-guest-ever comes over!).

The opposite perspective, from near the stove:



The dining table is cluttered--that's the one thing I didn't clean, because I needed somewhere to put all the junk that's usually on the kitchen island. Oh well. This used to be my great-grandmother's dining set and has made the rounds of nearly all the Crawford households. Two of the chairs are upstairs at our desks because, well, we need more chairs. The two drop leaves are extended, and if we really wanted to have a party we could put in the two leaves that are just leaning against the wall right now (but then we'd need more chairs).

I also have that great little bookcase for cookbooks and my stereo. My cookbook collection is rapidly expanding, and until now I haven't been able to keep them in the kitchen--although in Berkeley they were practically in the kitchen because nothing in that apartment was far from anything else.

Another wonderful feature of our kitchen is that it opens onto a nice little balcony. You can sort of see the plants I'm growing out there--mostly herbs, and a tomato plant. Phoebe likes to go out, but we have to keep an eye on her so she doesn't hop on the railing and visit the neighbors.