I am SO proud of this room….I tore pictures out of magazines for years, and saved them, in hopes of having the 1920’s-style kitchen of my dreams someday! After living kitchen-less for 2 1/2 years (I made do with a microwave and a crock pot!), we finally finished, and I am having SO much fun cooking up a storm. I was never much into cooking before; now I’m a Cooking Channel and recipezaar.com addict! Want to get me a Christmas gift? I’ll take a cookbook! Paula Deen? Love her (y’all).

HERE are the pictures of what we started with. By FAR, the WORST room in the house, the floor and north wall were totally eaten up with termites…you had to really watch where you stepped, or risk ending up falling through!

Check out this ancient dishwasher….it opens from the TOP! And it was full of old dishes when we moved in. (And stinky, standing water…ick!) If you’ll notice, its sloping down and to the left…..the floor was completely rotten beneath it from years of leaking water.

The cabinets held much evidence of years of furry little creatures living inside….and a peculiar smell I’ll never forget!

The fake fireplace was torn out to add a set of french doors onto our new deck, and a built-in banquette (fancy HGTV word for ‘bench’) was built below the double windows for seating at our breakfast table.
As I brought friends through our ‘new’ house right after we bought it, this was the room that left everyone speechless, convinced we were crazy. It was that bad!!

Click here to see the ‘after’ pictures!