The kitchen work continues + before and after photos

The kitchen for us was one of the few places in our lives where we felt it actually made sense to try to get more space instead of cutting back on the number of items we owned. The food allergies we have mean that it's not necessarily safe to prepare items on the same surface or using the same spoon/fork/bowl, which means we own two versions of everything. Two sets of plates, two sets of mixing spoons, two sets of pots and pans...you get the picture. In spite of some serious decluttering we still own a lot of stuff.

To get more space, we knocked down the kitchen wall and replaced the wall with a peninsula with cabinets. Here's what the kitchen looked like in October after the wall came down and peninsula went up:

And now. Please ignore the mess!

The kitchen looks awesome and it is so much easier and safer for the two of us to work in together. The backsplash goes in next month and then we'll be finished.

We did a little extra decluttering when we put everything back in the cabinets. The number of kitchen items we own became a small problem when our new stove arrived. Our new stove has a warmer drawer instead of a drawer to keep baking sheets and the like. We decluttered a few things from our baking sheet cabinet so that we can consolidate the two sets of baking sheets into one (separated) cabinet. The five things that went out were a cutting board ($5), two purple cafeteria trays ($8) a broiler pan (free -- it came with our condo), and a small jar that we used as a bud vase. I'm very excited to be so close to done with the whole process.

Have you renovated your kitchen? What was the experience like?