First, here’s how it looked when I viewed the house before buying. There’s a black dishwasher in place, the range is sitting properly between base cabinets, it’s ugly (and dirty, though you can’t see that) but there’s a 6ft clear counter run and plenty of storage. The fridge is only a few years old.

Here’s how it looked as I was moving in. The dishwasher has vanished and the hole is boarded up.

The range has been pulled out into the middle of the floor and it won’t go back between the cabinets. Between my 6′ 3″ friend and I, we tried real hard, but it wouldn’t go. There was a piece missing off the end of the (almost new) countertop beside it, too. I later found out that an electrician who had been called in to fix the supply wiring to the range while the house was up for sale, had had to cut the counter top in order to get the range out, it was glued in so thoroughly by grease and food-goo. The reason we couldn’t get it to go back in was that the second oven, the one at the top, wouldn’t fit between the upper cabinets (which had been cut years before to get it in, but not with enough clearance. Or maybe they were built around it originally and were cut to get it out. Whatever. There was no bottom shelf to the cabinet over the range.)

You can see from this that the kitchen is quite long - 16 feet. It’s a pity that the range and sink are, to my mind, the wrong way round: I want to move from prep at the sink, to cooking at the range, to serving into the dining room, all in the same direction. Not finish cooking at the far end near the back door!

Here’s the old range in all its glory. It had originally been harvest gold, but then painted white with flat latex paint, and the white was peeling off. It actually functioned quite well (I liked the eye-level oven), and it even came with all the parts to a rotisserie attachment, but it had to go. Off to a friend’s cabin it went.

I replaced it with a lightly used Kenmore self-cleaning convection range. I don’t mind the curly-wurly burners, they work just fine (and I hate the way things get baked on those smooth ceramic range tops) and I love the convection oven. AND it fits all the way back against the wall between the cabinets!

Next up: the weird lacy cabinet handles and the carpeted toekick!

So, pull out the digital camera and snap a load of shots of all the horrible things you’re going to get rid of. Use a video camera (or video mode on your digicam) and walk around, describing how much you hate your kitchen’s special features. And make a drawing - even if it’s only a sketch.