One of our guilty pleasures is watching House Hunters International on HGTV. We especially love the episodes set in Ireland (go figure), but pretty much any location grabs our interest. The scenery of the countries and getting a glimpse into how different cultures live are fascinating to us.
However, there is one thing that we find really annoying about the house hunters. They talk at length about how excited they are to get the opportunity to live in (insert random European country here). They go on and on about how they want to live “just like a native” and soak up the culture. Yet, as soon as they walk into the house or apartment they immediately start complaining about how small the rooms are or how inadequate the kitchens are with their tiny, out dated appliances. Do they really want to experience the country and its culture or do they want to live there in a house just like they had in the US?
I don't think that we are the only people who feel this way. Over the past week I have had this conversation with two different friends who are avid watchers of the show. One of them stated that she actually wants to throw something at the television as soon as they start whining.
Several weeks ago we posted pictures of the outside of the house with a promise to post soon about the inside of the house. With all of the conversations this week focused on foreign kitchens, we felt like the time had come to show another room of the house. Warning – These aren't the best pictures. When we took them we weren't really thinking about how they would show on the blog, we were more focused on documenting what was in the kitchen and the layout for future planning. So bear with us through this set of photographs. We will post better photos after our next trip.
Kitchen Layout
The kitchen is a galley kitchen and is quiet large for a European kitchen. There are two doors that lead into it. Paul was standing in one doorway when he took this picture. The second door is just to my left. What am I looking at in this picture? Our refrigerator. That's right, it isn't even as large as the one in the picture above. Who are the whiney Americans now?
Appliances
Actually the kitchen has a great layout. Just to my left is a built in oven. Above the oven is a microwave. At the end of the kitchen is a four burner cooktop. Or, as they call them in Ireland, a hob. Behind me we have a dishwasher, a washing machine and a dryer. Yes, the washer and dryer are for clothes. In the kitchen. Doing laundry in the kitchen is something that we will have to get used to, but we are really lucky to have all of these amenities.
Design/Style
Both the countertops and the backsplash are a shocking, bright blue tile. We might have picked the blue to tile either the backsplash or the countertops, but probably not both. However, the blue tiles on the counters and backsplash combined with the terra cotta tiles on the floor, give the space a little bit of a Mediterranean flavor. We are considering taking that theme a step further and painting the cabinets white. Believe me, on a cold, gray, rainy, Irish day, a color scheme that brings to mind the warm, sunny beaches of the Mediterranean will be welcome.
Storage
We have a lot of storage in the kitchen. There are numerous cabinets, drawers and shelves. Another bonus of this purchase is that everything in the house, came with the house. So we will inherit the current pots, pans, dishes, breadbox, and a coffee maker that we have no idea how to work.
That pretty much completes the kitchen tour of Niamh Cottage. Overall, we think we ended up with a pretty great kitchen. We will post a before and after post with pictures with our kitchen updates after our next visit.
Does anyone have any tips on painting kitchen cabinets? We got a quote on having someone come in and spray them. While we are sure that the quote is very reasonable, it was more than we want to spend at this time. So, we will probably be tackling the painting projects ourselves and any tips would be appreciated.
Posted with Blogsy
Leave a Reply