1821 Hacienda Home Tour ::: Kitchen

Living in a portion of an old hacienda for the past (almost) two months has proven to be quite the adventure!  More so than I think we even imagined when we decided to make this crazy leap of ours and trust the Universe that everything will turn out just fine.

The house is full of quirks and character, the property is gorgeous, and the neighbors we’ve interacted with so far are kind and quiet.

While there is still work to do to truly make this new house of ours feel like a home, it is happily on it’s way and, with multiple requests for a photo tour from you all, I thought I’d start with the kitchen and show you around a bit!

Please note, though, before we even start, that nothing in our house is level or plum. Despite my best efforts to take photos that appear straight and orderly, something always looks crooked.  I promise I wasn’t drunk when I took these pictures, the house is just old and a bit wrinkly, if you will 😉

So now, as I’m sure you can tell by the photos, the kitchen is huge!  The whole house is large at ~2,000 square feet, but with few rooms (Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room, Bedroom, Laundry Room with Powder Room, and Bathroom) and all that square footage come…well…very large rooms that require a bit of creativity to fill!

Additionally, it’s an old hacienda, so aside from the few closets our Landlord has put in over the years, storage is seriously lacking in this huge house!  The kitchen, specifically, has a small pantry (for which we are very grateful for) and a small built in shelf where you see all of our spices.  We’ve also put a large wire shelf against the (yellow) wall to the Laundry Room to house the food that doesn’t fit in the pantry and to store (on the floor, under the bottom shelf) all of our filtered water.

Why might we need to store so much water?  Well, because Northern NM, and the little area we live in specifically, has some serious issues with very high levels of Uranium and Arsenic in the wells due to our crazy geological past and massive volcanic eruptions.  While many land owners don’t even get their wells tested, we’re lucky ours did and shared the information with us.  After much research, we decided to bring in our own drinking water and not risk the damage that can be done by the long term ingestion of Uranium and Arsenic.  Yeah…it’s a thing.

Now, let’s talk a bit about the things we love about our kitchen:

• It is large enough to house a small table and chairs for a small breakfast nook.  We luckily found the table (which has an additional leaf to make it larger if we so choose) and chairs on Craigslist for $35!  Total score!
• There is a small fireplace in the corner and it actually works!  It is one of five in the house and we are so.very.excited about them all!
• The (broken, but soon to be replaced) double oven which will be replaced very, very soon and will be absolutely perfect for large meals (like my favorite holiday ever, Thanksgiving).
• The five burner gas stove top which allows me to cook up…well…five things at once!  Not always necessary, but excellent to have as an option!
• The backyard, enormous trees and acequia right outside our back door.
• The colors!  Despite the funky paint jobs happening on all of the walls, the actual colors themselves are so much fun!  I mean, really, could you get away with such colors in anything but an old hacienda?  Maybe, but not easily 🙂
• The details!  The blue and white back splash, the gorgeous light fixtures, the vigas, the (stained and still gorgeous) saltillo tiles!
• The view (up and over the apartment next door) of the gorgeous old trees and their (currently) vibrant leaves!

There you have it!  Our new-to-us kitchen in our crazy old hacienda!  Next up, I’ll show you the Dining Room/Office.

Before you go, though, I’d love to hear about your kitchen?  What are you favorite things about it?  What would you change if you could?

xoxo,
M