Making this Kitchen Mine: Erica on Home

My kitchen is lovely. We moved to this house after renovating a three family home and selling it as three separate condos in Somerville, MA. In the process I actually remodeled four kitchens. First the kitchen in our second floor of the house in Somerville. We did it in a half-assed, save a few bucks kind of way. When we were going to sell it as a condo, the remodeling we did which was good enough for us, wasn’t good enough for selling at top dollar, so we did it a second time as well as the two kitchens in the other two condos. Four kitchens, four rounds of designing, four rounds of matching colors, four rounds of trying to get it right.

In my current home, here in Portland, my kitchen I inherited is the envy of many friends… But, it isn’t yet mine. It has granite tile counters, which are nice, better than most, but not the same as solid granite counter tops, and they aren’t the colors I would chose. The tile back splash is a matte finish, which is nice, but again, not exactly what I would chose. The floor, I hate, simply put, it is always looks dirty, even right after I wash it, which happens infrequently to say the least. I’ve changed the color of the walls and the knobs on the cabinets I made myself out of gorgeous rocks I collected.

Overtime, when I find the time, I will make it my own. I probably won’t be able to afford to remodel for a long time–but small changes will make this kitchen mine. In the mean time, the floor is never clean because we live a creative and busy life with our two amazing young children. So, that dirt I see everywhere could remind me of the action this kitchen sees every single day over and over.

This piece originally appeared as a comment on Housekeeping.