We are still in the process of battling Ikea’s virtual planner, so while you wait to see the grand unveiling of the 3-D kitchen plans I decided to share the progress we have made on the kitchen addition, fondly referred to as the “kitchen bump”. The kitchen is in the back of the house and faces the backyard; in the picture below you can see the “before”.

Before the removal of the built-in kitchen porch

The hubby and I were both in agreement that the kitchen needed to be enlarged from its original size. Our Harrisburg kitchen is small and does not have a lot of counter space. The appliances are all close together which makes for close quarters if you are trying to make dinner and load the dishwasher at the same time. The decision was made to remove the built-in porch (it was falling down anyway), and to “bump” out the kitchen to create a more permanent addition. The first step was to tear down the porch; the contractors were ridiculously fast at this and it was really exciting to see it come to fruition so quickly.

After the removal of the kitchen porch

Termite damage to the left of the sliding glass door

Finding termite damage was not so exciting, but the hubby did not seem too upset over the discovery. He gave some complicated explanation about the life cycle and leaving the wood to burrow in the yard during the summer, etcetera, etcetera. During his explanation, I realized I probably could have paid better attention in Dr. Yoho’s Entymology class back in undergrad because I still don’t understand why they would not return to munch on the new kitchen come the fall. The hubby assured me we could wait to treat the house after the renovations were complete and that the termites would not destroy the NEW kitchen. We shall see.

Checking out the inside was even more exciting than looking at the outside. As a reminder here is what it looked like before:

Partially gutted kitchen

And here is what it looked like before the porch was gone, but after the walls were out and some of the naked parts were exposed:

Kitchen window to the left; opening to stairs leading to the second floor

Kitchen window and the porch wall to the left of the window

Sliding glass doors with the view of the blue shed

Once the porch was off and the sliding glass doors were gone forever it looked totally different on the outside and the inside.

Prior to the bump being built the exposed kitchen was closed in

A few days later “the bump” was complete and it looked awesome. The kiddo and I drove up the evening it was completed to see it and surprise the hubby with a picnic dinner. The first thing I checked out when we got out of the car was the roof color. I was thrilled to see that it was exactly the color we were imagining. We had chose “avocado green” without actually seeing it in person, so there was some worry that it would not be what we wanted. It was perfect though, and eventually the roof will be replaced on the rest of the house to match.

Avocado green metal roof covering the kitchen bump

New roof, addition of the kitchen bump all closed in

More room and new concrete

Exposed stairs leading up to the second floor-this picture was taken while standing in “the bump”

Maggie approves of the kitchen addition

Once everything had been given my approval and two-thumbs up by Maggie, we ate. It ended up being a great evening to eat outside (not that we really had anywhere else to eat) and it was wonderful to eat some picnic food while gazing at the completed kitchen bump. We are looking forward to more picnic dinners between now and the completion of the kitchen. If you have any good suggestions for picnic foods, let me know. It could be a while before we have a working oven…

Picnic dinner celebrating the kitchen bump

Greens, berries, pecans and raspberry vinaigrette

Maggie excited about moving; Huck excited about fried chicken