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title: Registry
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[Go Back Up ](https://www.carriemarriesdillon.com/registry#top)

While we're so grateful for thoughtful physical gifts, what would help us the most at this time is monetary gifts as we work towards saving up to remodel our kitchen

[Please find our registry linked here](https://registry.theknot.com/carrie-buth-dillon-sandhu-july-2023-il/55001884)

This summer, we purchased our first home together: a 1,223 sq. ft. 1945 bungalow with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. It's a wonderful little starter home and works great for the two of us right now. However, we hope to start our family in this house and as we think about turning two into three (well, four if we're counting Toby 🐾), things seem a little more complicated with our current set up!

 

Current State

While at face value it's a pretty cute kitchen, if you look a little closer you can see it needs some TLC. The cabinets and countertop are bowing, causing the drawers to not slide correctly. All the cabinetry appears to be original, meaning they've got 80 years worth of paint on them as well! Lastly, all of the countertops that you see here is all of the surface space in the whole kitchen...meaning not a lot to work with!

Another view of the kitchen looking in from the hallway door, showing the kitchen leading in to the laundry room. As you can see here, it's not exactly a tiny kitchen, but there's a lot of open floor space that isn't or can't be used. 

We LOVE to host, so our dining room has gotten a lot of use! But some functions of our kitchen have spilled over into the dining room due to lack of space, for example we have a coffee cart in there since we don't have counter space to make our coffee in the kitchen.

While the Laundry Room is slightly separate from the kitchen, this photo highlights that 1) there is also wasted space in this room and 2) the floors are **very** uneven here, as shown by the angles washer and dryer are sitting at.

Ideal State

In our renovated kitchen, we'll first have to begin with some structural repairs to level the floors and add support to the joists under the kitchen. Next, to enhance the functionality of our kitchen, we'll be updating the cabinetry. Our plan is to add a tall pantry cabinet and more counter space across from the range and replace the existing cabinets and drawers with new ones that are easy to open and close. We'll also move the refrigerator from its present location across from the range to where the door to the laundry room is currently.

This perspective showcases the three biggest changes: moving the refrigerator, moving the entryway from the laundry room to the kitchen and adding more storage and counter space where the fridge once was. These changes will repurpose some wasted space in the laundry room for the fridge, make more use of the otherwise wasted space in the kitchen, and double the amount of counter space in the kitchen.

In our remodeled kitchen, we'll open up the doorway that connects it to the dining room to provide more flow between the two and allow the counter to act as an island / serving station.

The main changes occurring here are the repurposing of some of the square footage of the laundry room to the fridge and (hopefully) leveling the floors and ideally adding some more insulation while we're at it?! We'll see what all is possible when the time comes!