Wow! What a transformation! taking down the wall and opening up the space was perfect for your house. Congratualtions and enjoy.

Congrats!! I liked seeing your pictures over time, what a great transformation. I smiled seeing your night shot; I know that feeling of looking in at night and feeling so incredibly happy that it's turned out as well as it has. Best, oldbat2be

I love taking down walls. What a different space with a wall down. The kitchen is beautiful and practical. The matching woodwork is a great idea. Congratulations.

It's a beauty!! All your structural work (wall removal & windows became sliding door) sure transformed the space. Love your cabinets, crown molding, and floor. What flooring did you use?

You did a great job. Thanks for sharing the pictures in progression. Enjoy!

I want to print out your pics and whir them by like an old flip deck. So cool to see the time lapse. Even cooler to see your beautiful new space. Well done!!

Beautiful! Your kitchen looks polished and elegant while still being warm and comfy. I bet you just love having all that room to maneuver in now. I love the color of your cabinets and the nice contrast with your hardwood floors. Your backsplash is great too. Congratulations on a job well done.

Very, very cool way to display your kitchen transformation. Wow, you must love this space now. It looks wonderful!

Just wondering - how much space do you have between island stools and table chairs? Also, can you share more details about your backsplash, please?

Enjoy!

Wow, what a difference! Congrats!

Congratulations on your new space! Was this mostly DIY? Your documentation is like a stage play. I love the photographs and how they tell the story with your dog keeping vigil. Most poignant to me are the first two photos. The old dining room and kitchen on the cusp of transformation.

Now you need to post the close-ups of the details. I'd like to see the inside of the cabinet door with the LEDS. Pretty please!

That's quite the transformation.
Taking out the wall really opens up the space and makes it infinitely more useful.
Great job!

Thanks for the compliments! It was actually a very enjoyable process.

tea4all,
I had existing 50 yr old red oak floors and didn't want to redo all my flooring. There's a place in Baltimore called Second Chance where one can buy (among tons of other things) reclaimed hardwood flooring. I took in a slat of the existing floor and found some close matches. I had to weave in the additional slats. Luckily there were some good videos on that at YouTube.

momo,
The final layout was for a round table. Using a rectangular table instead gave me 56" between island and table. With a chair and stool pulled out, there's still space to walk between them comfortably. In the layout, I had 9" less space and would have had to turned sideways to pass between if both chair were occupied.

The backsplash tiles all came from Lowes. It was American Olean Cicerone Noche. The mfg must have changed the style because I had to pick through two slightly different colors that were listed under the same name... I don't know about others, but comparing HD to Lowes for tiles, I found Lowes to have a much better selection.

Justin

Lovely! Fun to see the steps from before to after!

Very nice! It was great to see the transition, and you ended up with a beautiful space.

I love seeing the progession! And you space turned out so well. I love the open space and your island. It looks so much bigger. Well done!

What a difference. It looks like such a nice, comfortable and very usable space. I like the pictures over-time presentation. Now, do the dogs like it?

What a beautiful open space you have now. The long wait was worth it!
I hope you enjoy many, many years in your "new" home.

Looks great! What a difference a wall removal makes!
Thanks for the inspiration.
Many happy memories to you in your new space!!

Ahhh... Second Chance!
That's one of the reuse centers I visit occasionally. They have an incredible amount of building materials (move over HD!), kitchens, appliances, doors & windows. Love it. Them? Not so much, but their stuff? WOW!

You've done a fantastic job. I also like the step by step photos. It really looks like a new space.

Congrats!

Well done! I love the space. Please post some close up pics of granite, cabs, and more info on hood.

Wow--amazing how this kitchen was transformed by utilizing that secluded dining room.

Great job.

It creates more running space for the dog, so he's happy ;) I no longer have the dog in the first few pics, the later ones include Zeke. He provided moral support.

The hood came from Kobe (CH8136SQB). It has a "super" quiet mode that is reasonably quiet. I can still hear the TV over it fairly well. I'm very sensitive to noise (transfomers especially) so I picked appliances that received good reviews for their silence. My dishwasher is a Bosch (SHX55RL5UC), the range is GE Profile (JSP46SPSS), and the fridge is an LG with the linear compression motor (LFC25776ST). I've been very impressed with how quiet they all are, especially the fridge.

The UCL took awhile to plan. There were a lot of posts from guys like davidtay that helped guide me. It's dimmable using the Lutron three way and Lutron three way Magnetic LV switches. My transformer is from Magnitude. All the wiring was 14-2 romex until it got under the cabinets. I switched to 16ga? at that point. The EnvLight strips worked poorly with stranded LV wire and I had to use a single strand that was small enough to poke through the solder pads. Some pics are below.

Love your kitchen it looks so great, also love your doggies! I was wondering about the load bearing aspect. Did you have to do anything special after taking out the walls for support?

A few more pics:

Tilt-outs in the sink cabinet were a must.
The ez-reach corner wall cabinet is so much easier to use than the standard angled corner.
I got a full height 18" wide cabinet for dual trashcans. I used a rev-a-shelf kit for dual 35qt cans, but bought 50qt cans and used those instead. The stiles on my cabs are wider than normal and I had to trim the lips off the trashcan lids.

Again, the wider stiles caught me be surprise with the microwave. I think there were options for normal width, but I didn't even think about it. The microwave cavity was 23.5", which is just slightly to small for the common 24" width microwaves. To get power, I cut a hole in the back side and there's an outlet hidden behind the filler strip between the fridge return and mic cabinet.

1' deep pantry cabinet. It's easily enough space for me alone. When I get a family, I would probably need to use half of my base corner cab for pantry as well. Also, I didn't get a toe kick on this and used furniture base molding. I think it would have looked odd otherwise. The crown is three piece per a drawing by buehl that can be found somewhere around here. It consists of the light rail (upside down), 3" filler, and crown molding. In retrospect, it's a little more oomph that I would have liked.

Beadboard on all exposed cabinet sides. With a table saw, pin nailer, and wood glue, this was incredibly easy. I did have to back the island with some 3/8" thick plywood for support.

Almost everything is hidden from view. Using the grate in the sink lets me fill up the sink w/o blocking water flow, and I can place glasses in there upside down to dry. Using the runnels, I put everything on them to dry and don't even have a dish rack.

I chopped the toe kick backing out of the way on the sink. There was a HVAC supply behind it, so using a nice 3' wide valance instead of toe kick lets the air through to my feet and looks nice too.

Justin

gr8day,
The first few pics show work that was done by a GC. They built support walls and replaced the old wall with an LVL beam. I definitely would use licensed people for that work. The other wall that was removed later on was not structural.

Justin

It looks terrific! Great job!

Agree great transformation and love the way you captured it. If only kitchens could be finished as fast and as cleanly as a few click click photos would lead one to believe.

Loved how you incorporated the dining room space. I so wish my layout would allow me to do the same with my NEVER used DR, but even with a bunch of expensive modifications I would have to swap Kitchen with DR and that would put my kitchen too close to my front door and living room and further from the family room which doesn't work at all in my home.

Thanks for sharing!

A real pleasure to look at your pics and read your narrative. I hope you had fun with this. It is creative and unique to you. I know it must make you smile when you glance up as you walk by.
Thanks for sharing.

It looks beautiful! So lovely and functional...what a wonderful transformation :)

Wow, that's a beautiful transformation. *sigh * green with envy over all that space

What a stunning transformation! Really, really beautiful! You must be beyond thrilled. Enjoy that gorgeous new space!

Wow! I'm impressed both by the immense change and by how much work you did. Great job!

What a great picture journal of the progress! It's wonderful. Enjoy!

Thanks Justin for the info on the load bearing aspect. The kitchen is fabulous. Congrats on a great job!

What a great transformation. The photos are an amazing diary of what you did. Congrats and enjoy!

Great job! Congratulations on a beautiful transformation! You will have so much fun cooking in this kitchen!!!
Love how warmth and coziness of your kitchen (OK - I have to confess - I like warm kitchens! and am just about finished with ours!!)
The floor looks amazing!!!
Love the picture diary and now want to see pictures of your favorite food dishes made in your new kitchen.
PS - Also have to congratulate you as an alumnus of the ABT club (all but backsplash)