Adding on to the Kitchen: Steps 1-3

I've joked for over a year now that I have "half a kitchen."  When I moved in, the kitchen looked like this on one side, and a completely blank wall on the other:

I remember when I first saw the apartment, Pantene was with me.  She put her right hand on the counter, her left hand all sassy on her hip and said to me, "This apartment does not have everything you want.  This is not your dream kitchen."  I told her it was my dream apartment and I could make the kitchen work.  Here's how I've made it work for the last 16 months:  Last summer, I just had everything sort of sitting around on the counter.  I had the small toaster oven, a crock pot, and a blender.  It was too hot to cook anyway, so I didn't mind the lack of a kitchen.

Why didn't I buy an oven then?  Well, one, I couldn't afford it then.  The essentials (bed, fridge, washing machine) came first.  Sofa and dining room table came next because I'd found the ones I wanted.  Second of all, the technician in my building refused to remove the counter so I could put the oven I wanted in that space.  Do you see the space below the toaster oven?  That's where a boxed in oven would go.  And then he would cut a hole in the counter to place a flat stove top in.  A two piece stove/oven that fits into a counter I do not own is not ideal for a girl like me who moves often.  I wanted the traditional one piece kitchen range that could move with me wherever I go.  

Well, once the summer heat died down, I was tired of looking at that crazy mess, and wasting all that space.  So, I went to Ikea and bought shelves and a door, and turned that oven space into a cabinet.  I bought a handy dandy little rack that fit into the space where the dishwasher is supposed to go, and got myself a temporary hot plate.  Voila!

 So much better.  This would work until I made some decisions about what to do with the stove.

Here's the empty wall.  I bought a cheap bookshelf from Ikea to stand in as a "pantry," and had my little bistro table as some extra counter space.

And just for good measure, I'll remind you what the fridge looked like.  Look at all that open space!  This kitchen is just begging for some more cabinets and countertops!

So...here we are, 16 months after I've moved in, and I'm feeling ready to have a real kitchen.  Mr. and Mrs. X came over one day and we worked towards Step One: Removing the kitchen cabinet that is in the space where the oven will go.

I'd looked at the cabinet and the counter, and had several men look at it, and everyone agreed: it should put away from the wall rather easily.  It wasn't even glued to the other piece of the counter, there was just a bracket holding them together with one little screw.  Mr. X used a utility knife to undo the sealant gluing it to the wall, unscrewed the one little screw, and pulled that puppy right out of the wall!  Easy breezy.  Here's what it looked like all empty:

I moved the temporary rack out from it's normal space to give myself some more "counter" top until all the new stuff was delivered.  So this is what it currently looks like.  The stove won't be delivered until July 10.

Then came the harder part: changing the direction of the fridge door.  With the removed cabinet now on the other (formally empty) wall, the fridge door was opening into the cabinet.  By turning the fridge a different direction, I could create more space, and not have it open into the cabinet.  But it would open the wrong way...so we needed to fix that.  Mr. X got the door off with no problem.  Here's Mrs. X smiling away right before we realized it was about to get complicated.

In order to change which way the door opens, you have to change both the fridge and freezer doors.  And to change the freezer door, you pretty much have to get under the fridge.  Mr. X laid flat on his back while working to get my doors a swinging the right way.

We scooted the fridge out from the wall, and as we leaned it back to tilt it, we realized it had wheels.  So I braced by foot/leg on the back side of it to stop it from rolling back, and used my shoulder to help brace the upper part, while Mrs. X held it steady with a good grip and Mr. X got underneath with a screw driver.  Where was the Artist to take some good shots when I needed her?  Haha.

We finally got it all sorted out and turned around and doors back on and everything.  Here's the final outcome of Step Two: Moving removed cabinet to other side of kitchen:

Step 3:  Wait for oven to be delivered.

Stay tuned for the Adding to the Kitchen Project.  Maybe by the time the school year starts, my kitchen will be all finished.