What should I keep in mind NOW for future kitchen remodel?

12 years ago

Hi all! I posted on the remodeling forum and they recommended posting here too, since you are all so knowledgeable, and helpful.

So, we are adding a bedroom onto our house by closing off our two story kitchen. (yeah, sorta weird, but that's what the house came with!) It is a 16'10" ceiling and obviously I will have a standard ceiling in my kitchen after they do the work.

I now have 6 pot lights and a center ceiling fan. They need to put new lights in the new ceiling when it is built.

We are not doing our kitchen reno yet, but hopefully will soon. I want to try to think ahead as far as the ceiling/lights so I don't have to re-do them in the future. Does that make sense?

We now have a big center island and I want to put in pendants over it. I just don't want to have a 'why didn't we think of that before??' moment when we decide it is time to do the kitchen.

Any tips/ideas would be great:)

here is an old pic from before we moved in...we now have an island in the space in front of the sink. It is 3' x 5' with an overhang for three stools.

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Comments (9)

fnzzy
12 years ago
They should actually be able to run plenty of electrical wire for any future lights and they'll just leave the wire in the ceiling, not connected to your box . This way now you will have a general idea of where lights will be but you're not committing to anything. Then when your kitchen gets redone they'll simply need to pop through the ceiling and fish out the wires in the proper location.
kitchenkrazed09
12 years ago
Do you have a layout for the new kitchen? It would be easier to plan for window placement, rough plumbing and electric now, if you have a layout. Some under cabinet lighting requires hard wiring and planning ahead of time during the rough electric stage. Also, you should probably at least plan where your range hood will be, so you can have the vent properly run through the walls and/or ceiling.
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If you don't want to deal with much now, just don't close in the underside of the new floor. You're probably stuck with running the joists a particular way already, but if not consider which way would make running venting easier. You can run wires any way you want, but not an 8" vent unless you want to either have a very deep cavity, or soffit in the vent. Also, are you going to worry about noise between the bedroom and kitchen? We insulated all the walls/ceiling around our master bedroom to cut down on noise. Here again, any of that will be done from the kitchen side (ceiling) so can be done when you do the kitchen. You can always nail heavy poly up on the kitchen side to help control any dust that might come through until you are ready to do the kitchen. I'd also be interested in seeing how they are dealing with the support issues. My house is balloon framed, meaning the wall sections go from sill to roof, and the floor joists are attached to the wall with hangers, they don't sit on top of it for support. When we redid that section, we put studs below the joists for added support, but they had been that way for about 75 years with no problem. This room is about 16' across. We also increased the wall depth to 6" to add insulation, so you don't see the 4" stud that is alongside the new one that is underneath the joist. Here is another picture showing how they are attached. This part of the house was added on, so you can see the orignial exterior wall of the first part -including the roof overhang . . .
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I see...thank you Mark. I do like that idea. I had a friend who dabbles in design and remodels a lot come by tonight and she had another thought...shorten the shower pan by 12" to accommodate more tub space, add a wall of glass from the outside wall (your long "L") and leave open (or put in a door) on the side of your short "L" . She favors the freestanding tub for the looks. I'm not sure what to think. Unfortunately I am late with my concerns. The framing was last week and the trusses will be finished up tomorrow. I asked these questions of our PM 3 days ago and will be meeting again on site Tuesday with the PM and site supervisor. I can ask that these can be brought up with the designer too. Thanks everyone for all your thoughts. It is wonderful to reach out to you and get good advice from you all. I wish I had done this earlier!
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Painted Peggies (zone 6a)
Original Author
12 years ago
the only thing I would probably move is the fridge...it is in such a dumb spot that you can't even open the door the whole way!?! I will be keeping the existing window but replacing the counters, cabinets, and appliances. I want to think about future hood placement, but it will be venting up through what will be our new master bedroom...or can I re-route it above the window and out?

I am so new to all this and really appreciate input:)
kitchenkrazed09
12 years ago
You can turn the vent for the vent hood and route it to an outside wall. (There are some rules for it, I believe it is recommended that it have no more than two 90 degree turns, to work efficiently.) The reason I mentioned you may want to plan for it now, is that if you need a larger duct (say 10"), you may want to account for that so it will fit in your ceiling joists, and you can avoid having a soffit. If you know which range or rangetop you will choose, then you will have a better idea what type of ventilation you will need and what size duct.
marcolo
12 years ago
Post your kitchen layout, current and planned, here. The biggest "oops" moment will come when you discover that what you are planning is not ideal, but you can't change it cost-effectively because you didn't plan ahead.

You may think the fridge is your only issue, but I can see from your photo that your DW is in the wrong place, for instance.
Painted Peggies (zone 6a)
Original Author
12 years ago
really? where should my DW be? It seems to be in an okay spot right now!
palimpsest
12 years ago
The DW usually works better on the other side of the sink, not between the range and sink, at least if two people work in the kitchen at the same time.
Painted Peggies (zone 6a)
Original Author
12 years ago
thanks for the advice! we are only the second owners of this house but I really feel like the first owners closed their eyes and threw the appliances in by the way the kitchen is set up...most of the house, actually makes me scratch my head at the decisions they made when building!!
marcolo
12 years ago
For your hood, remember that you want as few turns as possible. As in, straight up.

What should I keep in mind NOW for future kitchen remodel?

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fnzzy

kitchenkrazed09

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