Eat in chicken.

I've got 2 whole days off to grocery shop for our belated Christmas dinner, get my hair cut, clean the house, make sure all the presents are wrapped, etc.  You would think I'd have finished that stuff weeks ago, but no.  I left everything for the last minute.  As for the post title, it's one of my favorite lines from "Girl Interrupted".

What do I do when I'm under pressure?  Oh, sleep in, play on the computer, you know, important things.

Pictured above is a cutting board I found recently that is dated 1961 on the back.  I love her little suit, hat and purse!  And it looks like she is Christmas shopping to me, with the packages in her cart and the green and red coloring.  I just realized she is 2 years younger than me.  Yikes!!!  I'm giving her to our city daughter to hang in her kitchen during the holidays.  Since I can't share any of the other vintage goodies I found until after they are opened, I thought I would share some photos of a kitchen from the same era as that cutting board.

Here it is.  Our kitchen as it looked when we moved in just over 7 years ago.  The pictures were taken with our old 35mm camera, so there's not much I can do to improve the quality.  The photos actually soften and blur the loveliness.  Many of the cabinet doors had broken hinges and were hanging kittywampus (a term my old neighbor liked to use).  I know you'll find this hard to believe, but those are NOT real butcherblock countertops.  Yummy laminate reproductions.  But they look so real!  The backsplash is NOT subway tile.  Nope.  Painted Z Brick.  Try cleaning spattered spaghetti sauce off of that. 

Looking in from the dining room.  The vinyl flooring came up in less than 30 minutes.

One redeeming feature.  The large bay window.

When I first viewed the house, my heart sank.  I was so disappointed that it didn't have an open staircase.  And all the plaster walls were cracked.  And it had original 1921 plumbing.  And the updated wiring was a fire hazard.  And I had to leave my two beautiful (to me) bathrooms behind. 

On the other hand, I was finally getting out of the hood!!!  And the kitchen had this wonderful window overlooking the back yard.  I didn't have to see the neighbors junk cars out of every window of the house.  Well, I guess you can see our neighbor's truck.  But, it's parked in his driveway and not in his front yard.

The cabinets are maple and although I would have chosen a different style, we were on a budget (2 daughters in college at the time) so they were there to stay.  The soffit houses wiring, steam heat pipes, and range hood venting, so it was also staying.

Let's start with the lighting.  Fluorescent box lighting.  That was the first thing to go and the start of what was intended to be a simple face-lift.  If you're wondering why there are utensils hanging from the pot rack, it's because there were only 2 drawers in the whole kitchen, and pots and pans would hit you in the head when standing near the sink.

The curtain was my addition .  I pulled out the dishwasher that was shoved into an unfinished opening in favor of storage shelving.  I'm one of the few women who don't mind washing dishes.  For me, it's therapy.  I know, I'm weird that way.

This view is looking up the stairs from the back entrance.  I wish I had taken a picture of the basement stairs before I painted over the John Deere green paint that was everywhere.  The steps, the risers, and the accent trim.  High gloss John Deere green.

Country green mini-floral wallpaper.  And under that another layer of 1960's wallpaper applied with glue.  Which pulled the paper off of the sheetrock.  You can see a little corner of the pantry cabinet on the left. 



As you can see, the vintage black clock is the only item I kept from the before kitchen.  I will do an after post in the next week or two of our kitchen remodel that was meant to be a simple project and snowballed into a much more complex and expensive project than planned.  My mother came up with some helpful money saving ideas during the renovation.  She knows my cooking skills ( or lack thereof ) and suggested I forego splurging on new appliances and just go with a simple hotplate, microwave and dorm fridge.

That being said, it's time for me to plan our holiday meal.  I'll just Google "How to cook a ham".   :@

See y'all next week!

Vickie

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