kitchen reno justified, I think

Reasons why I felt it was time for a new kitchen:

I've already shared a few of the obvious . . . I HATE the granite.  The cabinets were refaced.  Since they are also cheap, pieces have broken off and the refaced fronts spin around at the slightest touch.  

My outdated kitchen comes equipped with a desk.  In reality this is just a giant dumping ground that only gets cleared off when we are expecting guests.  Oh the bills, notices, and school papers that have been overlooked compliments of my desk.  

The layout is goofy.  Rows of cabinets border my kitchen table, but there isn't sufficient space where I prep food, so I am left to perform a ballet of sorts as I prance around the room gathering up my mixer, a pyrex pan, or snacks for lunches from various off-the-beaten path locations. 

Lack of an island - the u-shaped kitchen never thrilled me when we bought the house.  Now the area where I prep food has become a high traffic area without the necessary traffic signals.  Too many people crowd around and try to make a lunch, grab a bowl, or reach in the silverware drawer - all while I am trying to whip up a meal to serve the masses.

Staggered rooms.  Our family room wall reaches out into the backyard farther than any other point in the house.  The next wall which borders the eating area is recessed about 4 feet from the family room.  The work area of the kitchen is indented another 4 feet from the work area.  Why?  Why?  Why, must the most important area of the house be limited the most spatially?   

The dishwasher isn't next to the sink, which has led to countless issues as this beloved appliance struggles to function properly with hoses stretched thru too many cabinets and bent at too many angles. 

The eating area once appeared so gi-normous to me, but now that the three oldest boys are all over 6 foot tall like their father, we crowd around a table we've outgrown and spend half of dinner listening the bigger kids beg the little guys wedged between them to move an elbow or a knee.  

The pine table that I bought about 8 years ago at an estate sale for $400, deserves to be retired.  That's right, I said 'pine.'  Imagine the fun things the kids have carved into this relic.  Just to make life interesting, the woven seats of the chairs threaten to drop one of us unceremoniously thru the loose openings at any time. 

That is my hand showing thru the growing hole in the seat of this chair.  We do use seat cushions, but still.  And yes, the chair is also stained from where a kid hid food that he (if I had to guess . . . Tank) didn't want to eat. 

No more junior kids - why the junior chairs?  In order to all fit around the table, we utilize two 'junior' chairs for Reg and Curly.  Those two are constantly being scolded for not scooting into the table close enough.  'Lean over!'  Well, leaning over is not possible when your legs don't fit under the table.  The junior chairs were never meant as a long term seating solution, but for our 9.5 yr old and our 11.5 yr old that is what they have become.  The table isn't large enough to accommodate additional regular size chairs.  I hope I can afford a new table that we can all sit at comfortably after this renovation!

These junior chairs are like glorified high chairs.  Reggie's is the solid oak one and Curly uses the hand-painted bunny chair.  Their friends give them quizzical looks when they are at the house for the first time.  My kids don't know any better, so they shrug it off.  Or maybe, they are just glad that they don't have to run the risk of slipping thru the opening in one of the woven chairs. 

The fridge.  How many times on this blog have I posted photos of my overflowing, disorganized fridge?  I stopped replacing the shelving in the door a few years ago.  Although I've replaced some appliances multiple times, my damn fridge refuses to die.  It's a side by side.  Translation:  there isn't enough room in it to fit a fraction of what we need.  Of course I have a fridge in the basement, but jogging up and down the stairs several times a day to find a necessary food item or a gallon of milk is exhausting. Sending a kid to grab a milk gallon often leads to a lonely gallon being trapped in the back of the fridge until it expires!

Are you convinced?  Maybe I'm still trying to convince myself of the financial wisdom behind this decision.  We do have quite a few kids who are heading to college in the next 5 years.  Hey, if we aren't careful one of our kids will still be sitting in a junior chair at their college send-off dinner.