How it was cooking in the kitchen

Our kitchen is a dust-storm of excitement and discovery. In the grown-up world, this means that we have to be extremely organized, careful, and patient.

The reason? Well, we find that even the best laid-out plans on the drawing table have to have a little flexibility onsite. You never know what you might find waiting for you behind a 100-year-old wall.

We knew there was a chimney inside this wall in the kitchen, but we didn’t know it was the original location for the stove. In the photo, you can see the hole where the pipe vented inside the exposed brick wall.

As I love to celebrate the history of our home, we’ve asked for a hand from a craftsman–an Italian mason and stucco worker–to help us clean up and re-point the brick. You might be able to see Ferdinando behind the dust storm in the photo. He’s going to fill-in the missing brick with other brick found inside our kitchen, too.

What’s fitting is that the new oven will be placed on the wall just next to this brick wall. It’s a total switch from the remodel that we’re uncovering from the 1950s. And more fitting for the original 1900s design.

The best part about this old brick wall? I’m already in love with admiring it. Even inside the dust-storm of the jobsite.