Before/After: Kitchen

The objective of cleaning is not just to clean, but to feel happiness living within that environment. ~ Marie Kondo

I've lived and traveled in Europe, and my most vivid memory of Switzerland is not the majestic Alps, or the charming cities and towns, but sitting on a train at a small train stop on the way to my destination, watching from the window as a woman washed a clean window in her home, looked at that clean window, and then washed it again.

That level of fastidiousness is never one I've strived for. Neither is living in filth, grime, or decay my goal obviously; such an environment would be something I would not tolerate. Filth, grime, and decay are what I found in the kitchen of the adorable vintage house I'm renting for the summer while my regular place is besieged with intolerable roof noise and vibration. I found these in every space of the house, yet they were in full and frankly especially disgusting force in the kitchen. 

"Trigger" warning: If you don't want to see gross pictures, don't look at the Before section below, but just the After, where I list my 4 steps to decorating the kitchen, with cheerful and non-gross accompanying photos. 

Trigger opportunity: Conversely, if you want to see additional gross pictures from the kitchen and throughout the house, see my post here! 

Ready set go:

Before

These filthy and flimsy blinds hang in the kitchen, on the window to a back area used by the landlord to store a disorganized collection of junk. 

What to do with these blinds? They are uncleanable; I've tried. The gunk that is on them hasn't come off. I have continued to spray them periodically with Mrs. Meyer's all-purpose cleaner (we'll count up the number of bottles I've gone through when we reach the end of summer!). These blinds should be destroyed. 

If I owned this house instead of renting it, I would remove and destroy these blinds. I would also reconfigure the back of the house behind the kitchen to be a proper indoor / outdoor room with a solid deck, instead of 2 junk rooms with a rotten deck. That would give the kitchen the ventilation it needs.

As a renter, I wish I had taken the blinds down and hung curtains to hide the back junk area behind the blinds, which you can see directly below.

Horror. 

I think I didn't think long about the horrible kitchen blinds or the horror that they try to hide, because it was all too horrible. 

One of my decor mottos for this summer project has been "decor and ignore," because as a short-term renter I didn't seem to be in a position to change all I would have wanted to.

Plus, the kitchen's vintage drawer pulls and its cottage / farmhouse energy seemed so appealing for a summer stay, somehow it was easy at first to overlook the intense negatives of the kitchen, until I really settled into living here.

Having a toilet seat behind dirty blinds behind the kitchen is not only unappetizing but potentially downright unhealthy and definitely downright disgusting. The filth in, and junk behind, the kitchen are part of the reason I don't cook in the kitchen; I haven't cooked here once. (I assemble fresh salads and fruit plates in the dining room, or cook at my regular place and bring food back to the cottage, or bring in food from one of the excellent spots not too far away.)

The other part of the reason I don't cook in the cottage kitchen: summer has been exceptionally hot and humid, and the kitchen has no ventilation.

I tried to ventilate the kitchen -- and thereby the entire ground floor if I could have set up an air passage flowing from kitchen through dining room to the living room windows (for more on the challenging living room windows, which at first wouldn't open at all, and my colorful and practical solutions, see here). 

The way to ventilate the kitchen would be to open the back door to the other covered area, which lets out to a screen door onto the back porch. The landlord, a semi-retired housepainter, uses this covered area to store paint, solvents, tools, a rotten ladder, and other items, again in a messy and disorganized array. A problem was that this covered area smelled like paint and mildew, a curious cocktail of chemical toxins and other unhealthy aromas. I tried to ventilate and clean this area, but with the paint and solvents there, this proved unworkable. 

Moreover, the rotten wood of the deck, and the apparently junk items stored there such as a door on its side as you see above, made the deck unappealing. I also didn't want sweet Jorji the cat getting tangled in any of this whatnot, getting out into the yard, getting filthy in the filth of the covered area, or breathing in the fumes. I ended up giving up and just never opening the back door to the covered area again, after stashing the disgusting doormats there in plastic bags, and focusing my kitchen energy on cleaning and decor alone, rather than ventilating too. Jorji liked birdwatching from the back area's screen door, and now she likes birdwatching from cleaner and more secure environments within the house. 

(The landlord told me that the door on its side on the deck belonged to his ex-girlfriend. He told me she wouldn't sleep with him, that at age 78 he was still "active," and did I have a boyfriend; I found such advances inappropriate and such information too much, and made it clear I wanted just an arm's-length standard landlord-tenant relationship. At least I thought I made it clear. Later actions by the landlord such as entering the house unannounced (see post) revealed that this was not yet clear to him.)

As a renter, my summer project of contemplation, relaxation, and decoartion definitely involved aggravation I had not expected. Surprise moments of exultation too, of exquisite delight and joy. 

But we're still in the Before of this Kitchen post, and some of the Before is still the Ongoing.

I'd ordered a new set of stainless steel cookware for the cottage before moving in, and when I saw the scene of filth, grime, decay, and no ventilation, I brought that cookware to my regular place, where I needed a new set anyway. (I don't need the cookbooks I brought either, though they are fun to look through whether one is cooking or not.) 

Indeed, I'm going to bring a lot of my cottage decor back to my regular place, and have really been decorating it too in a sense, while I've been decorating the cottage. More story there to come; for now, back to the kitchen:

What you see in the photo below was in the refrigerator. (What you see in the photo above is filth on the refrigerator/freezer's ice maker apparatus, which I assuredly had not planned to use anyway.) I don't know what the mystery item below is, or was, or how long it was in the refrigerator. I don't want to know. The landlord said he cleaned the house, including the refrigerator, before I moved in. The house, including the refrigerator, were coated in filth, grime, and decay when I moved in. I hired a professional cleaning service, who sent one lone person, for 4 too-short hours, and when she left, the house, including the refrigerator, were still filthy and grimy, and this whatever-it-is was still decaying in the refrigerator.

How did the landlord and the cleaner not see this? Why did I have to see this? (And now you are seeing this; egads.)

I do believe the house needed me, like I needed it!

The insides and outsides of the cabinets were dirty with food particles and grime as well as long hard wear and tear, and had a smell, a musty metallic smell of metal that has not been cleaned in a long time and has been without air. In fact, the whole kitchen had an unpleasant decay-laden as well as suffocated metallic smell, and keeping that smell away has been an almost daily endeavor. I believe I would replace the metal cabinets if I owned the house, as somehow they just don't stay fresh, and might retain the interesting vintage drawer pulls and install them onto wooden cabinets.

The kitchen floor was coated in deeply ground-in grime, like the floors throughout the entire house. The floors are also deeply scarred and marked; I wonder they haven't been sealed better or recently, especially as the landlord seemed so concerned about them, admonishing and almost berating me not to get water on them through open windows when it rains. (As though opening windows in this house were easy.) I told him I know how to take care of floors, while wondering why he didn't.

The side door from the kitchen to the side porch was dirty, the side porch was rotten, the screen door was ripped and a haven for bugs, and I decided immediately never to open or use the side door; to add it and the side porch to the parts of the house that due to time and effort required I would simply not be attending to during the 3 months I am renting the cottage. (Side porch, back areas, back deck, basement, upstairs back sun room. Just no. The rest of the house: yes!)

I didn't focus on the 3rd and final door in the kitchen, the one to the basement, until it was too late, you might say, because I wasn't going to use the basement. The washer and dryer are in the basement, but navigating the junk and mildew that are also in the basement simply isn't worth it: I don't like the rotten wooden staircase with no railing, I didn't want Jorji getting lost or stuck or filthy, the landlord does his laundry down there and I didn't want to bump into him, and I can do laundry at my regular place on days I go back for incoming or outgoing chocolate shipments. 

When the landlord entered the house unannounced, he tried to do it through the front door but I had the chain on. So he entered the basement, climbed the rotten stairs with no railing, and walked into the kitchen, through this 3rd door which I noticed only then had no inside lock! Now it does, and I have the only key. Heh heh.

Some positives from the Before phase: the kitchen came with a cute little kitchen island and 2 stools, all of which I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed clean, from top to bottom, table top to legs.

Also, the ceiling fan worked -- the one in the living room did not and still does not -- and keeping it turning and the air moving has been key to keeping the kitchen as fresh as I could make it. 

(One one of the occasions when the landlord came to the door uninvited and ran through the house chattering and trying to order me around and touching my things, before I put a stop to all that, he noticed I had the kitchen ceiling fan on Medium. He grabbed the remote that operates the fan, and clicked it it to Low. Whose kitchen is this, anyway? It's mine. A landlord has ownership and gets to pay property taxes; I have possession and get to expect and experience quiet enjoyment! Indeed, I paid rent for the house, in advance, for June through August. If I want the kitchen fan on Medium, it goes on Medium!)

[Update:] Since "Before" in this blog often means "Ongoing," I'll show you here the stairs from the kitchen to the filthy basement I never used because it had a very unpleasant smell and was junky, rotten, and disorganized. 

The day I moved out, a friend came over to help with final details. I unlocked and opened the door that the landlord breached when he came into the house unannounced, to show her how the interior lock I'd installed worked. She said the smell I couldn't place was mouse droppings, and that you could even see where mice had chewed their way into the kitchen underneath the door. 

Egads! How unsanitary. And the basement is where the washer and dryer were located; I took clothes back to my regular place instead once a week to do laundry there because the basement was so unsuitable for my use -- or for Jorji the Cat. My mother later suggested the scent of Jorji might have been what kept mice from entering the kitchen this summer. Hooray for Jorji in so many ways!]

After

How did I approach this kitchen, to take it from filthy, smelly, and dark, to clean, fresh, and bright? (Or as clean, fresh, and bright as possible?)

Step 1: Clean, clean, and clean some more.

If that woman in Switzerland I encountered many years ago who washed clean windows were here and ran a cleaning service, I would hire her.

I went through Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products in Lavender, Lilac, Peony, Rain, Rosemary, and Lemon Verbena. I'm on another set of Lemon Verbena now.

Step 2: Decor and ignore.

In other words: decorate what I can, ignore what I can't. 

Of course, if something is a dealbreaker, it can't be ignored and must be resolved or the deal is off.

The filthy blinds and filthy junk behind the filthy blinds might well be dealbreakers today if I had considered them more fully before starting the lease. I'm glad I am in the lease, and simply wish I had thought to find a way to arrange for the blinds to be removed and curtains to be put up. But, I made the best decision at the time. With 3 weeks to go before reverse-moving day, technically it's not too late to hire my handyman to take down the blinds and to buy and hang curtains, but, with all the other spills and thrills, my plan is to focus on the contemplation and relaxation portions of the mission at this point, keep enjoying the decoration I have done (and continue to do! : ) and work around these particular issues.

Happily, flowers add cheer, and so do the vintage blue-and-white Spode dishes I bought for the cottage and to add to my collection, plus a bit of green-and-white, plus a couple  Polish ceramics in the blue-and-white-and-saffron pattern I collect, plus cobalt blue Mosser glassware. 

My cottage decorating theme is Great Lakes nautical, and my color scheme is blue-and-white; voila!

I even added a Spode pickle dish, above, because the area where the house is located used to be cucumber farms for making pickles!

Step 3: Art everywhere.

I added just a touch of art to a kitchen wall, to keep the space looking fresh and simple -- I have gallery walls in other spaces of the house such as the living room, and color and vibrancy such as in the guest room, and a balance here is good. I also wanted to let the special dishes shine as the art that they are. 

Also, the kitchen wall is one of the seemingly metal-filled walls of the house, difficult to drive nails into. 

I was able to tack up a bit of Greek key-patterned paper in my blue-and-white color scheme, which I also used in the guest room and dining room, and to tack onto that a pretty little expressionist-style illustration by Anastasia Mak that I found at the Andersonville Sidewalk Sale, at the Stella Lilly art pop-up truck. Woman-made art is a theme at the Summer Serenity Cottage!

I still want to frame and re-hang this work, at which point I will take it out of its protective plastic before placing it behind glass. I love framing and hanging (and making : ) art, and am considering frame options. (Three more weeks!)

Step 4: Practical magic.

Which generates more heat and humidity: a) a traditional tea kettle on a gas stove, or b) an electric tea kettle? 

If you chose a), the traditional kettle, your choice matches my empirical research! The Farmer's Almanac was correct in predicting an exceptionally hot, muggy, and thunderstormy summer for our Great Lakes region this year. My beloved sunny yellow Le Creuset tea kettle was adding to that heat and humidity every time I boiled Fiji water for rooibos tea or craft drinking chocolate. The cottage is un-airconditioned (see my Tech Wreck post if you want the story there!), and the extra degrees and moisture were highly noticeable and highly uncomfortable. 

While I'm not constantly boiling water on hot days, I do find that a warm beverage can be intriguingly cooling to the body. I also find that rooibos tea has ultra-hydrating properties, and that I love hot chocolate any day like some people love hot coffee or tea any day.

So, I bought a cobalt blue electric kettle, and find it generates significantly less heat and humidity. This is an enormous help in an un-ventilated kitchen. 

(For more on the topic of kettle vs kettle and whether it's better to drink hot liquids or cold on a hot day, see my post HOW NOT TO SUMMER: THE GREAT GATSBY REVISITED : )

The heat and humidity are as mentioned another reason I haven't cooked at the cottage all summer. Nor have I used the dishwasher -- or even opened it. Mrs. Meyer's dish liquid does a fine job for hand-washing dishes, and for scrubbing other surfaces as well in place of or in supplement to the all-purpose cleaner. I mention that brand a lot, I know, but am not a paid ambassador for the company; haha!

(A few more photos of surfaces that needed lots of cleaning, before we move on....)

Getting rid of ants also took some practical magic the first several weeks. With no cooking, there wouldn't seem to be anything in the kitchen they'd want. They seemed to come in from the back areas, but no matter how clean I kept the kitchen there and everywhere, they kept coming. These were the tiniest ants I've ever seen. It could have been easy not to see them. But there they were. Sweet Jorji the cat saw them too, and is generally an enthusiastic bug hunter. But these ants were so tiny she was completely uninterested. 

I don't like killing any being. I don't like toxic chemical bug sprays. I don't like the idea of borax which is supposedly natural but which kills an entire ant colony when the ants that come into contact with it carry it back to headquarters, as it were. Plus, I'd have to keep Jorji away from the borax somehow. 

So, I put the ants outside as best I could, scooping them up on paper towels and putting them into the grass outside, showing them that the kitchen was not where they wanted to be. I killed some without wanting to, Swiffering some up or seeing that some had died in a paper towel. With those from their ranks who entered becoming either displaced or dead, their community got the message that the house was a happy place for me, not them. They sent scouts in again every week or so for a while, and I'd put them outside too, and finally the message stuck and they did not come back.

I also hung a new Swiffer and bamboo broom on Command hooks that I applied to the wall, brought a small vacuum cleaner from my regular place, and keep additional cleaning supplies under the sink as well as in drawers and cabinets around and over the sink (I am ignoring the cabinets on the other side of the kitchen, above the stove and refrigerator), so we've come full circle to Step 1: Clean, clean, and clean some more.

And: I enjoy delicious treats in the dining room, which is just in front of the kitchen, on beloved blue-and-white, alone or with guests, and with sweet Jorji nearby. Sometimes very nearby.

It's too bad in a way that that Swiss cleaning phenom wasn't available (30 years later, across time and space!) to handle the kitchen and indeed the rest of the house.

Yet, I am happy here at the Summer Serenity Cottage, and feel that my project of contemplation, relaxation, and decoration is a way to dream the Golden Age into existence, an age where we live by Nature's principles, harming neither people nor planet, and living in empathy and equality, courage and compassion, liberty and love!

Your friend in decorating,

Valerie

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Thank you!