Acadiafun- can you draw a layout on graph paper for us to see where things are situated, and how much room you have where you are standing to take a picture? That would help you get some responses.
By your name, I take it that you might be located in Louisiana or Canada? Am I correct?

When I wrote this post I was bummed. Certainly the kitchen could be gutted and started from scratch. But now that I am actually living here it's not so bad at all. In fact it is nice. I have enough storage, there are nice views from both the windows and one doorway leads to the breezeway(with a nice sitting area and tropical plants) and the basement. I think I got carried away from visiting the kitchen forum.

Musicgal I appreciate you response. :) I had a contractor over and I know what to do to make the kitchen "better" but I think I will leave it as is until I gut it. But thanks for trying to help me. I love nice people.

I think it looks fine too! If anything I'd just put up a new light fixture. I don't like those round globes (but you might). I have many in my place and I'm replacing them 1 by 1. So far I've had 4 replaced. 3 more are going in the fall. Everyone has different tastes.

when you do decide to gut it, please come back here for help. I wouldn't trust a gc. Even architects mess up a kitchen - unless they cook a lot. They can still mess it up if they don't hang out on kit forum!

going to the kit forum can really cause one to get off center, can't it?

Your kitchen says "home" to me. And I mean that in a nice way.

Thanks desertsteph and finallyhome for the nice comments and for the advice. In some ways I feel like I entered a time warp and I do miss a dishwasher, sink aerator and kitchen peninsula. It makes me feel almost like a "loser" to "settle" for such a vintage kitchen and house but the house is nice and the location is prime. Also the house is new to me so it takes some time to get that "home" feel.

Next on my list (besides paying the house off) is to try to understand what is happening in my house since we officially moved in a few days ago. The dogs are spooked and will growl and stare at places in the house. Items that were there one minute are gone the next and we can't find them anywhere. We hear loud crashes in some rooms with nothing disturbed. Everyone seems freaked out at the moment but I don't really scare easy. The previous owners of this house died last year and in the house next door the mother and son died within months of each other. So maybe the kitchen is the least of my worries.

I see nothing at all wrong with your kitchen. At least in the picture you shared. You used the word vintage. Vintage is "in".

Wait a minute! I didn't know that you did not have a DISHWASHER!!! I wouldn't wait for a full gut. That and a washer/dryer are mandatory before I move-in.

Acadiafun,

You have spirits still in your house!!! How cool is that?? Leave them some tea and cookies and make friends with them.

I think your kitchen looks lovely. Is what is pictured all you have? I would take the cabinets to the ceiling when you do the gut job. I do not have a dishwasher and never used the two I had in different houses. To me they are more work to use them. always loading and unloading making sure you do not put dirty in clean and so on. I think you can buy aerators for your faucet that just screw on.

I would love to see more of your house. I do not think you are a looser at all.

Welcome to the forum. you and your Spirits. :)

I was kind of embarrassed to come back to this thread because spirits in the house seems so silly. But since you guys haven't laughed me off the forum I will show some other pics as requested. The first floor is mostly done, and we are working on the second floor now.

There is a breezeway off the kitchen which is nice to sit in.

Living room

Office

The bedrooms on the first floor are all similar to this one.

First floor old person's bathroom. I am keeping this shower as is in case I break a leg or something and need a walk in shower. But the linoleum needs to be replaced with tile.

I love canvas prints like this one.

LOVE your house pictures. Looks so pretty.You living room rug i so pretty. I think it is a great idea to keep the shower. We have one similar in our master only it has glass doors. :^( Wish I could do a curtain on it. I do not think it is deep enough. We needed to use this shower as an invalid shower when my hubby came home from the hospital. I had him put an extension on the shower head hose so I could bathe the dogs and it worked well for him too. LOL I used a piece of that soft rubbery like shelf liner to set on the plastic bench to keep him from sliding off. And to cushion his bony butt.

I doubt any one here would run you off for the spirits in your house. Tell us more. LOL

I think I need you to come here and discipline me to not put so much stuff around in my house.

My mom always tells us her first home (as a young married woman) included a spirit or two. The old gentleman, who used to live in the house, had never been allowed into the front room. According to the neighbors, he had usually gotten home dirty from work and his wife wouldn't let him sit in there. Anyway, after he died, she rented out the house. While my parents lived there, my mom's cats would stare at a corner and hiss at nothing. And...she didn't know about the house's past, until she started asking around due to the cats' behavior.

As for your home, I'd paint a few rooms. Say nice things about the rooms...like universal access shower, not old people's shower. Or how much you love vintage, but want to make it your own. Saying you have to gut rooms is probably not winning you any friends, I mean spirits :)

Best of luck with your new home. It looks like it has great possibilities!

I would love that breezeway as a way to not smoke in the house.

"I think I need you to come here and discipline me to not put so much stuff around in my house. "

Ditto.

"Items that were there one minute are gone the next and we can't find them anywhere"

yipes. that happens here but I usually find out it's just....me!

glad you're back. Spirits wouldn't bother us! I've lived in a few homes like that - tho probably just my imagination. Then there was the one house where we'd hear the old rocker in the basement start rocking...

time out to look at your new pics posted.

Thanks guys for the interesting replies. :)

Last week I heard my husband working on the second floor and I thought he was dragging a heavy ladder across the floor. I thought about asking him if he needed help, but he never wants me to help with "heavy lifting" so I thought better about it and brought some goodies next door to my daughter.

Passed my husband along the way as he was getting on the riding mower. That was unusual......

I admit I am kind of a neat freak. But not the kind that makes people uncomfortable. DH can make a mess or anyone- I just clean it up later. My house will never be a trophy house but I like everything really clean and I like to know where everything is at all times. Scars from growing up with a mother who was a hoarder. Honestly when I was a kid I would open the freezer and everything she piled on top of it would come crashing down on my head. lol

Can't wait until the second floor is finished and I can show you guys the rest of the house. Another day I will tell you guys about the basement.

I've not experienced spirits but am not wholly opposed to their existence.... so much that I do not know about the world.

Your house looks charming and very neat. I do find that almost every flat surface in our house is littered with stuff in spite of the fact that we have file cabinets, changed many accounts to online to cut down on paper, diligently recycle.... and there are 3 desks in the house.

I wondered if you miss counter space right next to the stove? My cook top is wedged between a double oven and refrigerator and has a very attractive hood over top. Since it's induction I do find that I use space on glass cook top to put down stirring spoons, pot holders, etc. elements don't get hot so reduced fire hazard.

Hi there! Glad to have some new kitchens and smaller homes coming to the forum. It is like having a new neighbor in the hood.

Don't worry about living in your home a while before you do any remodeling. I've been here since 2006, and we just began the latest installment of updating our 1950 stick built house. It is solid as a rock, something my DH was looking for after our river house was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

I have an active thread now, showing part of the house that is being subjected to demolition, and the part we are hunkered down in to eat and cook for the time being....until they build the addition, and then make it weather tight, and can start knocking down walls.

We did our updates in phases. First we enclosed a screen porch into a sunporch using Lexan panels and a french door. Love it. Put Italian porcelain tile on the floor.

Then I did a tiny bathroom, which cost us the tub until the next phase, which was adding on a bumpout for a complete bathroom with a walkin closet for a master suite.

Now we are biting the bullet for the big job, to include new roof, new hardwood flooring, a kitchen gut with more space added to it, a new sitting area for the master, and a new deck which will include an outdoor shower.

So you see, learn about your house, and see what can be done in stages.

I like your kitchen, except if you have room to move the range into a sort of cooking peninsula at right angles to your sink so you can face that nice light from the window, and put a high bar backed up to the cooking space, perhaps. I'm not sure of the dimensions you have.

Do you have kids? Small/big/grandkids/babysit them?
Here is the street view of our house, which we are not changing....although I wanted to add a small entry, it was scratched due to budget. I doubt we'll do it in the future, since the roof we are adding this time will be too new to mess with.

Sketch us out a kitchen plan and take a picture of it if you don't have a scanner. Welcome to the smaller homes conversations. Nothing is too small to talk about.

I have a spirit in my kitchen too. She doesn't do much around here, unless I move some of my wall stuff around. I discovered that the hard way. :( She knocks things on the floor if I do.

I talk to her all the time, greet her when I come home and tell her about my day. No worries. We can live together in harmony.