Our farmhouse kitchen

Welcome to our farmhouse kitchen, where all of the magic happens. This is where we cook, hang out as a family, hosts guests, celebrate pretty much everything, the farmhouse kitchen. It is always said, that everyone ends up in the kitchen. We decided that when we renovated we would include a couch and tv in the farmhouse kitchen, so that we could all hang out no matter what.

Our farmhouse kitchen before the renos.

Our farmhouse kitchen pre-renos.

There is nothing else to say, except that our original (to us) farmhouse kitchen was not very pretty. We are sure that when it was first done and full of family and furnishings, it likely didn’t look that bad. However, if I can’t imagine cooking in it for a family of four, then I really can’t imagine cooking for a family of 6!! The cabinets were built to last anything and the sink/cooking area was extremely tiny. We knew we needed to just tear that all out and fit whatever we could back into the space. It took some wrangling of pieces, but we managed to do it.

Our farmhouse kitchen after renos

We didn’t want to move the electrical and plumbing, so we managed to find counter depth fridge and stove (not our smartest move with a family of four, but we make do), a farmhouse sink and great cabinets. The cabinets, sink, stove, microwave, hidden dishwasher and countertops are all IKEA!! Seriously, Ikea should be making their next commercial in our house! We fit the cabinets with mere millimetres to spare, but we did it. The corner where the coffee maker is, is a blind corner at the bottom, there was just no way to make a useful cabinet in that corner. The cabinet under the lower window is a sink cabinet, we (and I use that term liberally, as I suggested it and hubby did it) managed to cut down the cabinet and made it fit beautifully as though it was meant to be. We did all the installation ourselves and had rather awesome praise from the counter installers as they said it was the most flush cabinets they had ever seen! So proud of hubby and all his hard work to make sure they were all level.

Hubby’s great suggestion was to add the glass doors to the row of cabinets between the windows. I am not a fan of the glass doors as everything needs to be matchy matchy and tidy in there, but we managed to put the white dishes and glassware in those cabinets so I don’t twitch when I look at them and the glass reflects light and makes the wall look like a bank of windows instead of just two.

We went with a farmhouse style table, again from Ikea, that opens up to seat a large amount of people. I think the most we have had around the table was 16. We are a family that eats dinner at the table every night. It is our tradition and we have kept it up for over 20 years now, so having a great table to share our day is important to us.

Our completed Farmhouse kitchen

And last of all the couch corner.  All four of us can actually sit here together if we want to and watch a game, we have since installed another tv where we have more room or can use both rooms at the same time if there are lots of people watching together. This is the family room and the kitchen all in one. We love it, we use it every day, and we wouldn’t change it for anything.

Seating area in the farmhouse kitchen

Not long before moving from the suburbs to the country, our wee little Apple started talking about horseback riding. We held her off for a while as we didn’t even know where to begin with it, let alone the fact that I am (was) deathly allergic to horses. But since then, our equestrian has been born.

Once we made the move it was pretty hard to keep her away. Not only do our neighbours own a horse barn and we can see the horses out in the paddock from our front porch, but we are less than a kilometre from some amazing stables, Stratford-Fox Run. We first heard of them from a couple of teachers at our old school who board their horses there. So, we got in touch with them and started Apple off with a summer camp, to see if she even was able to ride. From the first day she has wanted to live at the stables.

From camp we went to lessons and now only a year and a half later, she is doing some in-house equestrian shows. We feel/fear her love of riding and jumping will take us to some shows out of house, but we are hoping to hold off on that for at least another year.

In school she has to do a project on fitness and when she first told her teacher she was going to be showcasing horseback riding, there was some question as to how much fitness was involved. Apple was quite convincing and explained to her teacher how there is stretching and posture and muscles used to stay on the horse involved. She was giving the go ahead and I was asked to capture her riding for her project.

As I don’t often shoot in horse arena’s there is a learning curve for sure. In the winter they aren’t as bright, adding to that it was quite a cloudy day. So, I think, not so bad for a first try and now I know what to do for next time, as I am sure there will be a next time.

And needless to say watching her ride so closely, I can see how much work it takes for both horse (this is actually a pony that Apple is riding) and rider to accomplish. We are definitely proud parents and on the good side, the more time I spend at the barns, the less my allergies act up.

And because we can’t ignore this handsome fella, meet Chubbs. He came sauntering over to see us after lessons were done. Nothing like a frolic in the snow for this guy.