I thought I'd share some pictures of our current kitchen (before we started ripping it out!) so that when it's complete you will be able to see the, hopefully enormously wonderful, transformation.
We HATE this kitchen. We despise it. There is not one thing about it that either Simon or I like, and there never has been. When we moved in to our house 4 years ago it was very much "we love the house despite the kitchen", and we always wanted it out.
It's horrific. It's dark, dark, dark. Dark cabinets, dark counter tops, dark tiles on the floor and walls. It has a stupid sticky out counter (not a breakfast bar, not an island...just a BIT) which cuts off the area for the table. It has (had) horrible wall cabinets which were totally useless - we had our wine glasses in them. And we don't drink wine. It has (had) very little useable worktop space due the the aforementioned cabinets. It has (had) a pelmet the whole way round the top cabinets and across the window which blocked out so much light. And lastly....the cooker. There is nothing to like about it. It is a standard built in oven and hob and I just find the oven ridiculously tiny. I don't know how people use them! The hobs are touch pad operated, and since we have moved in the touch pad sensors have been slightly temperamental...often we just can't turn it on. Usually when we are halfway through cooking, and try to turn a second hob on and the whole thing throws a bitch fit!
So, here you go - some pictures of our dark, not particularly useful, current kitchen. You can see that even though it wasn't dark outside, I had to have the light on while I was working in the kitchen the morning I took these pictures. I forgot to take a picture of the left hand side of the kitchen, but the cabinets were similar to the glass one you can see with our lovely tea set in it. I can't take any pictures now as the cupboards are now gone! The very last picture is just a phone snap of what the kitchen looks like today - a massive improvement already in terms of useable space and light.