I’ve been offline for a while, involved in all the details of my kitchen renovation. Here’s the first set of photos: The “befores.” My circa 1975 kitchen. Mary Jane Gable put it in – it was really well done but, well, a ’70s kitchen in a 50s house.

Some of the defining features of the ‘inherited’ kitchen: Dark wood-melamine cabinets. Falling apart after years of hard use. 24″ soffits that, while very functional with their included recessed can lights, made the kitchen feel smaller. A long wall of pantry cabinets, again, while useful, made the room feel smaller. And a small window. The original kitchen was smaller, and in ’75 the Gables expanded it to enclose an adjacent mudroom.