I finally have a new house with my dream kitchen!

We moved to the greater Columbus area approximately four years ago after living our entire lives in rural southern Ohio. This was a career move for both of us. To lesson the impact of our one child that was still in highschool, though he wasn't happy at his school, we let him pick the school he wanted to attend and we had to quickly find a rental within that district. We needed to rent because we owned a house, and the house we vacated when moving from southern Ohio, which, unfortunately took over a year to sell. The rental house was nice, but the split level design, lower square footage, washer/dryer in the basement and small kitchen were neither ideal nor what we wanted long term.

As the end of our lease came closer and our youngest son graduated highschool, we decided to look for another home. At first, we were looking for another home to rent because we were a bit turned off from home ownership since it took so long to sell our previous home. Well, the housing market in Columbus is booming, rentals are only on the market for few days and are extremely overpriced. We made the decision to buy a house, and found the booming market also applied to houses being sold. We would give a list of 10 houses to our realtor that we wantedt to see, but by the time he would schedule the viewings, five of them would already be under contract, offers were in for a few of the others, and those remaining would go to a bidding war.

Our realtor found a few new builds that we were lucky enough to see on the day they went on the market. Fortunately, one of those houses were exactly what we were looking for: full unfinished basement, all bedrooms on the second floor, washer/dryer on the second floor, huge master suite with his/her sinks and whirlpool tub, and a HUGE kitchen with a HUGE island which would be perfect for filming POV Italian Cooking. We made an offer on the spot, which in reality was the asking price because it was a regular occurance for a house to sell for more than the asking price. Since we offered the asking price, the offer was accepted, surprise surprise!!!!

While the kitchen was laid out exactly the way I wanted; it lacked character. There was no backsplash in the kitchen in addition to the overwhelming white walls - everywhere! The gas range was entry level and that just wasn't going to work. If you've watched any of my previous episodes of POV Italian Cooking, I was in a constant battle with the stove in the rental home because it was unlevel and inaccurate.

Since I had my dream kitchen, I decided to buy my dream gas stove. I purchased a GE Profile Double-Oven Gas Range with an edge-to-edge stovetop that had a griddle in the middle. Unfortunately, the installer had never installed a gas range with an edge-to-edge stovetop, set the range too low which caused a burn in our countertop the first time we cooked! Thankfully, the installer is paying for the repair and I've raised the stove.

I've included some pictures below starting with a few pictures from the first time we saw the house. The pictures progress from our moving in, installing the backstop to completing the kitchen with some paint. I'm really excited about filming new episodes of POV Italian Cooking in this kitchen. However, we're still painting, making changes, and working in the yard which has taken the time that I used for filming in the past. I'm hoping that things will slow down soon so I can start cooking and filming again.

Enjoy the pictures below and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you won't miss new episodes once I start recording again.

Picture #1 of kitchen during our first walkthrough of the house before the appliances were installed.

Picture #2 of kitchen during our first walkthrough of the house.

Picture #1 of kitchen during our first walkthrough of the house. Notice the huge pantry to the right of the picture that has tons of storage.

Picture of the kitchen after we moved in, after the backsplash was installed but before we had a chance to paint.

We installed the backsplash under the island so that when you look into the kitchen you see the backsplash under the island and behind the kitchen countertop. It really makes the kitchen look good when sitting in the great room and looking towards the kitchen.

My baby, the GE Profile Double Oven Gas Stove. This picture was taken right after the installer left and if you notice the edge of the stovetop sits below the countertop. About an hour after this picture was taken a nice black burn appeared on the right hand-side while we were cooking. I immediately raised the stove up to where the stovetop now sits above the countertop.

After we finished painting. We went with a greige paint on the walls and a grey that was two shades darker around the window frame. The blinds are a brown that match the countertop.