If you have a fairly large kitchen, our next reveal is going to sound a little silly.  

If you have a really small kitchen like us, you just might want to file this under “thoughts to consider”.  You ready for it?

The floor to ceiling cabinets were the first things we built.  We squeezed the frames into place and built three drawers below the oven/microwave combo unit.  The top two drawers quickly filled with standards like utensils and aluminum foil.  We didn’t have a plan for the third drawer yet; we also didn’t have anywhere to put our every day dishes so that they wouldn’t get sawdust all over them.  They landed in the bottom drawer.

Now that the kitchen is done, we’re trying to decide where to put everything.  The dishes are staying in their drawer.  The advantages of this totally crazy approach are:

Dishes in a drawer.  It’s just one more way we managed to squeeze a few more inches out of our kitchen.

Anyone else found some great tricks for maximizing your kitchens?  We’re still on the hunt for a few good ideas.

(Images by Katie for Making This Home)

What could we possibly say after the joy of finishing our kitchen remodel yesterday?  Thank you all for your support and kind comments along our journey so far.  Some of the links weren’t working on our kitchen post yesterday; they’ve been fixed.  So sorry.  Too much excitement, I guess.

We’re so used to the tarp that was dividing our house, all the tools, all the sawdust.  Now it’s just so clean.  

A clean room?  I wrote this children’s poem last night:

MY LITTLE ROOM

I’m really not quite sure;
my room is on the border.
I’m going to need more toys
to call this disorder.

Have a beautiful weekend.  You’ll know where to find us!

After a late night of tearing down tarps, mopping the house (ceiling included!), and trying to remove the sawdust from our house, I’ll admit it.  We’re crashed on the couch right now.  We keep staring over at the kitchen a couple feet away.  We’ve had so many memories throughout this project.  

I don’t think I’ll ever forget the day I was sanding when our doorbell rang.  The neighbor next door wasn’t feeling well and asked if we would stop making all the noise that day.  I said that of course I would.  Martin was at work; it was just me.  I had plenty of jobs that didn’t involve power tools.

Then I shut the door and nearly fainted.  It was my first conversation in German!  Yes, it was rocky.  Really Rocky.  But I did it.  The joy I had that day is the same joy we hold now for our finished kitchen.  (I think that neighbor will have it when she finds out were finished, too!)

I’ve put together a quick rundown of our remodel on the tab above… obviously called “Kitchen Remodel“.  It’s got a few things I’ve never mentioned (maybe a few unseen photos, too), and loads of before/after shots and links to a lot of our small kitchen tricks like the oven/microwave combo unit we snatched.  Go check it out!  I feel like there are so many wonderful and exciting things to talk about now.  

If you have any questions about our kitchen or anything, give me a shout.  Germany has become so comfortable that I sometimes wonder what kind of culture shock I’ll have back in the US.  It means I also kind of forget that things like measuring water usage To The Liter aren’t exactly normal for everyone like they’ve become since we moved to Germany.

Now I just wish the bakery delivered those pretzels that they make every day.  Well you know, and that I could actually call them without panicking.  My German involves a whole lot of hand gestures for words I don’t know.  I’d probably end up accidentally throwing the phone at our new kitchen while trying to gesture “go up the stairs”.

before (click picture for link)

during (click picture for links)

after

Sometimes there are no words.

(Images by Katie for Making This Home)

I expected to change a lot of my habits when we moved to Europe.  Filing wasn’t one of them.  I thought I’d share with you after we talked about getting control of our paperwork yesterday because it’s pretty interesting trying to learn how to file all over again.

My first challenge is the language.

So that’s pretty obvious.  My German isn’t good enough to understand the difference between papers worth keeping or not.  I have to ask Martin to do the final steps in my filing, otherwise I could be throwing away one of those crazy Clearing House Sweepstakes and have no idea.  We Could Be Rich!

My second challenge is the system.

I’m used to filing folders in big drawers like this:

I biked to McPaper for filing supplies.  It’s Germany’s version of an office chain store like Staples is to the US, except it’s like the size of the Staples bathroom.  The hanging files and manilla folders that I was used to filing with were in the back of the store.  They cost around a buck each.  Huh?  My filing system came to a screeching halt.  There was no way I was going to spend that much money.  Like a kid to ice cream, I followed everyone else in the store and gave in to the local system.

I bought a couple of huge binders and clear protective sheets to start building our own German filing system like this one:

Do you ever find yourself stumbling with the world’s most mundane tasks, too?

(Images from Target and Making This Home)

Are…

you…

ready…

??

There’s just a little something we’d like to show you guys tomorrow.

(Images by Katie for Making This Home)