Dear Santa…

I believe in you. So can you please wrap this up and put it under the tree for me? Thanks! Love, Lindsay.

This is seriously the cheapest dishwasher on the Home Depot website.  I figure ANYTHING is better than not having one at this point.  Plus the rest of my appliances are white.  And at only $219 I’m really hoping Santa can fit it on his sleigh (I know, I know – installation costs money, too, but this is all I want!).

I even know where it should go.

I hate those 2 cabinet doors.  They are a shoddy after-thought and it turns my kitchen into a joke!  It’s already tiny, yes, and I will lose that cabinet space, but that is something I am willing to sacrifice at this point.  Did I mention that I hate doing dishes by hand?  Ugh.  Uuuuugggghhhh.

From afar it might look like it matches the rest of the cabinetry, but upon closer inspection you’ll see how weird my kitchen is. The inside edges of the cabinets aren’t routed and they don’t close very well.

See, here is what I think happened.  During the last countertop update, whoever was doing it decided to scoot the fridge over to the right and add another cabinet and more countertop space.  From who-knows-where they got a cabinet door, and they just ripped it in half to make 2 doors.  And then the (fake) drawer panel came from somewhere else, but instead of ripping 1 piece into 2, they glued 2 pieces together to make 1 fake drawer.  Look close and you’ll see what I mean.  It isn’t even centered!  Ugh.  And now that they scooted the fridge to the right, it created this.

So here’s the plan…insert dishwasher ASAP.  Eventually, when replacing the ‘awesome’ faux blonde wood countertop, remove current bar and build new ‘L’ shaped kitchen in former dining room (below, along striped wall, and coming out across the front of the picture), complete with a new bar.

During that kitchen renovation, bump back laundry room wall into garage to add even more cabinet space (on the left), and move fridge from it’s current location to laundry room.  We would put it on the opposite wall (left side) but I think we’ll have to keep it on the right for water and plumbing purposes.  That will get rid of ugly cabinets there but keep it right off kitchen. Currently we keep the trash can in there (and it hides the water heater), but I’d want a nice pantry and trash/recycling center in the new cabinets on the left.  We might open up that wall to make it a more seamless transition, but it all depends on cost.

And what will go in the fridge’s current location? Glad you asked!  Well, I would extend the countertop out to match up with the soffitt, and then either leave nothing there, or add a tall, skinny wine cabinet or something.  There’s only a little more than a foot from the right edge of the soffitt to the sliding glass door, but something might have to go there!

So although I’d be losing valuable real estate in cabinet space right now, I’m thinking an inexpensive IKEA island in the old dining area will do for the meantime.  Oh, the sacrifices you have to make as a homeowner…

And if you’re like me and have strange little shoddy DIY’s around your house, please share so I don’t feel so bad.  Thanks!

xo, L.