Our Kitchen
turner, maine
main author: Calvin Conant
age: 10
co-author: Charlene Conant
age: nunya business!
As you can see in these photos there was a lot of change from the “before” to the “after.” As you can also see it was not a good kitchen, but we transformed it into something beautiful. And we would love to transform your home too. Our house was very old; it had some beautiful wood called pumpkin pine.
Dad let me and my siblings help on some parts. My favorite part of the process was being able to see the whole project in all its stages.
the kitchen up close
This is the pumpkin pine. When it is sanded down, it is very pretty. We incorporated the pumpkin pine in the countertops and benches. This is not the first time we have reclaimed pumpkin pine.
The paint was done with a paint sprayer; that is why it is so smooth. We would be glad to spray your kitchen too. We worked very hard on the table which is also done with pumpkin pine. We chose a lot of brass and copper. We love making kitchens efficient.
Some cool historical facts about the house
There clearly had been a fire in the house. Some of the boards and beams were black in one section of the kitchen- right near the old chimney. We found some newspaper clippings from 1834 in the sections that had been remodeled after the fire. That likely means our house is at least 200 years old. We did find out at the library that our house used to be part of the stage coach system.
We really tried to preserve the history. We kept some old wall paper clippings and an old hand-made hook to remember all the people who lived here before us.
We ended up with a very nice kitchen. (Panoramic pictures are cool, but they do make things look weird… our beams are not bowed!) Look back for more stories about specific aspects of our kitchen that we really love.
