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Update: 31 Nov 2011 ~ This post has been linked up as part of the brilliant Tara Cain’s Gallery. I suggest you click on over to this week’s theme “My Kitchen” to see who else has shared! Here’s my original post that I wrote way back in March, with some updates in italics!

I thought it might be fun, to share my kitchen with you all. If you’re not that interested, then I suggest you skip it!

So, come on in…

Entrance

The kitchen at the front of the house; the door-way (not that there is no actual door) is directly opposite our bedroom door and you look straight through to the car-port. Don’t you LOVE the chipped 70′s style lino? I knew you’d love it. The hat on the wall belonged to John’s late grandfather. You can see our washing machine in it’s rather awkward spot (Made even more awkward now by a dishwasher under the sink!). The black crate on the floor is for drinking water (we collect rainwater and drink/cook with that because G’town’s water is pretty crap). Directly under the hat is a fish tank-that square green thing! And you can see some wooden spoons and the edge of our stove. Got some landmarks? Good. Lets go in.

Window

This photo is taken standing with my back to the stove, the door is to the left, the washing machine is to the right.

In the bottom right corner is our freezer. It was a gift from John’s Gran and we’d be totally lost without it! It holds all our borewors from John’s hunting trip last year, a whole lot of single portions of soup and curry and all sorts. Freezer diving can be an interesting past time! It also doubles as an extra work surface-a welcome one seeing as our kitchen is tiny!

That cupboard door in the lower left corner never stays closed. The latch is worn. It drives be batty. At least once a week I lose my temper and slam it. Hard. Which totally works. For about 3 seconds.

The white cupboards are new (last year) and they have made a HUGE difference to the kitchen. Previously there was one narrow (coffee mug width) shelf. No storage! The window looks out into the front garden and the front gate. It faces east so we get the most amazing light in there in the early morning. Oh, and the preserves and stuff on top of those cupboards? Not me. Gifts from John’s Gran. Yum!

We’ve since added a shelf at the height of the windowsill which holds all out plants and various things we need to dry like chillis. Our fruit bowls etc sit under the shelf. Extra surface space FTW!

The plant’s name is “Danny” and it’s a Japanese Peace Lily (supposedly - and if you get that movie reference, we’ll be friends for life!). Danny move into the entrance hall. Now we have our lemon grass in that spot. The old ice-cream containers there contain some Clivia seeds that John’s starting to be transplanted out at some point. Done!! And boy am I glad they are gone. Right now there are a whole lot of ex-yoghurt containers on the windowsill playing home to some basil, organum, thyme, parsley and a bit of ginger root that sprouted so I’m seeing if it’ll grow…wouldn’t THAT be cool?! (Sadly all dead now. Boo!)

Then there’s the coffee maker and kettle/toaster in the corner. I do most of my prep work on the counter directly under the cupboards. Photos of food (ha! remember when I used to actually do that!?) either on the freezer or under the window.

The Stove

Ok-so this is the reverse of the previous picture. My back is to the window; the door’s now on the right and the washing machine’s to the left.

You can see our grotty fish-tank better. John claims that the goldfish prefer gloopy water. They haven’t died yet so I’m inclined to believe him. Also. They are his fish.

You can see our sink (and the dishes-more on that area in a moment). The stove is one we saved up for and finally got. Gas cooking has changed my life! I’m not so thrilled with it squashed in the corner but that’s where it got put and it’s a mission to move so….there it stays!

John built those little shelves above the stove & my mixer for me. All our spices and everyday cooking things live on them. it’s also SO good to finally have our often used utensils hanging in easy reach rather than hidden away in a cupboard or a draw somewhere. The green cupboards are my ‘baking cupboards’ and also hide all the bits and bobs for my mixer and stick blender, measuring cups, and so on.

Please ignore that giant chunk of missing paint above the freezer. I hope to eventually paint that whole wall section a crazy shade of blue or something. One day!

Also…I need more stuff on the walls.

Another view…

This is just another angle of the same area of the kitchen. You can see how our stove/cupboard/fridge combo JUST fits into that space. It’s kind of nuts actually! Not a spare centimeter anywhere! I collect fridge magnets from places John & I have travelled. The little triangle says “SAND” and it’s from Namibia. Can you see my Yuppichef card(s)? Love those guys! There’s also a postcard John sent me from when he was in Belgium at a conference and we were sorta-kinda-but-not-really together.

Looking at this photo we actually have tall ceilings. I never noticed before!

The tall green cupboard (hate the colour by the way…) is our pantry. It’s STUFFED full of all sorts of things.

Everything including the kitchen sink

So this is where the kitchen gets a little weird. I suspect at one time it was two rooms? And whoever lived here before us decided to knock through to make it one room, except there’s a pillar in the middle that must be a supporting wall or something. Anyway. Annoying. This space is not wide enough to do anything. The washing machine pipes are too close to the sink for comfort and *moan moan moan*. Excuse the dishes, it was probably my turn to do the washing up. I hate washing up. Also, there’s a different type of lightbulb in here and I forgot to change the settings on my camera. It’s not really this orange. Also (again) that green chopping board balancing on the taps? My favourite chopping board. I bought it from Mr. Price in 2006…it was lumo green…actually, it’s still lumo green, heavy plastic. Love it.

In my dreams (where I have LOTS of money and time….) I dream of building a proper garage out that window. One with walls not a dodgy carport. The washing machine, dishwasher (which we don’t own yet) and all that jazz would go in there. Well out the way. I’d flip the sink around so that the taps are to the right of where they are not, and make the whole space under the window a prep counter. I’d also build a cupboard/pantry thing between the two walls (where the window ends that wall to the right).

Sjoe! A lot’s changed here. That washing machine died (it was a good few years old so not surprising) and we bought a front-loader. And we bought a dishwasher. We flipped the sink around 180 degrees so that the bowl and taps are now on the right. We also raised the whole think by about 10cm so that the dishwasher fits under the sink (on the left) and got rid of that second little shelf. John added two more taps under the sink which are dedicated washing machine/dishwasher taps. Smallish changes but it’s made a huge difference!

Random stuff corner

My back is now to the sin and you can see the other half of the weird-half space. It’s kind of the landing space or all sorts of weird crap and those things that don’t have a home anywhere else. The door does open (reluctantly) onto the carport but we never use it because it’s a mission.

And thats my kitchen. Dare you to show me yours?

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