Harvey remodel. My dream HAS to be a reality, now!
Hello!
My modest house is in disarray and we've been displaced. While we wait for rebuilding funds, clean up, and let it dry out, I thought to put my old kitchen diagram up to see what the TKO minds thought. I'll be able to re-measure starting Monday, if there are inconsistencies.
Family of five w/ kids aged 13, 12, and almost 10. Everyone likes to be in the kitchen but not everyone is doing a job. I'd like to get them all working ;) so work zones that allow more than one butt at a time would be great. They do like to help,. It just takes longer and the zones were in one spot.
I'm the main cook, and like to work alone, but the reality is that people gather in there. I participate in Cookbook of the Month, Baking book of the quarter, etc on Chowhound. I love to play with new ways of doing things and new flavors. My kids are pretty adventurous eaters, and they eat a LOT. I baked bread weekly and prepared 1-2 meals a day.
We have an overnight guest about once every 2 months. We don't entertain couples or larger groups frequently but when we do it's casual. Saying that, I use my china (nothing is a full set) once a month or more because it's pretty and makes a meal special. I have a lot and want a dedicated spot for it with some display space for some pieces. I have some gorgeous ironstone pieces, as well. Though these are usually used decoratively.
We have a small dining room that we ate dinner in every day. There is a header and half wall between it and the living area that can come out. I'm happy to use it for every meal. I don't care if there's an eating area in the kitchen, or not.
Regarding windows and doors. Now is the time to re-think their placement. The existing window over the sink has brick on the exterior. I look west at a privacy fence. The sliders face north and have Hardi-plank. There is a deck out the sliders that needs to be removed but the view is of the backyard and very pretty. I'd rather have a patio due to maintenance of wood in a coastal area and connecting with the backyard in some way is very important. My kids are out there a lot. We all are when the weather is nice. My husband loves to grill.
I don't care if the sink is near a window but I'd like more natural light in there, overall.
I don't care about an island and I liked the pantry closet.
Appliances I love and desperately want to keep are 30" Bosch induction cooktop, 27" Gaggenau wall oven, Electrolux icon all fridge. Also have a working Kenmore upright freezer that was in the laundry and very handy for us. I love my 33" Silgranit single sink (could be laundry sink) and had bought a 15x15 version to replace the bar sink, but it and the new faucet are not installed. My Bosch d/w is toast. I think that I'd like two. We always had a bunch to hand wash because we had filled the d/w. I have a small m/w that we use to melt butter and steam veggies but wouldn't miss it. I use our Breville Smart Oven several times a week for kid lunches, reheating, and as an extra oven for sides and plate warming. I wouldn't mind an ice maker but it's not a must. A combi-steam is looking very attractive.
The wall between the kitchen and dining/family is load bearing. Since we're doing a whole house remodel, I'd rather not put our funds toward moving it.
I like Ikea cabs and am pretty sold on them with a store in Houston for access. I'm considering aftermarket doors, though.
I'm going to investigate taking over the 4th bedroom for our master bath and laundry since all of the bedrooms are on one side. We do use it for an office and overnight guests but I've been convinced that daily use makes so much more sense.
In brief...
House is on a slab and about 1980 sq ft. Kitchen is 23' long and 13' across at the widest point by the sliders.
Family of 5 who are always in the kitchen
Total re-think of the work zones and without moving the load-bearing wall, if possible
This is a work space for me most of the day
More light, more function, not married to symmetry, want to get to backyard from kitchen or family room, keep costs down due to entire home needing work.
I'm begging, here. I'm at the tedious stage of dealing with a natural disaster. Finding temp housing for the next few months, waiting for FEMA adjuster, finding a contractor, replacing cars, thinking about money etc. Working on this will help me focus on a positive outcome...I hope! Thanks for any help.
Some interior pics pre-flood, old oven and sliders to the right. 7 ft ceiling that can be raised to 8 ft.
Laundry to the left of the fridge. Counter closest has bar sink at the other end.
Tall windows on either side of the fireplace (which can be shrunk in width and hearth removed) The one, or both, could be a door. Two kid rooms on the right off of that hall beyond. Straight is main bath, left are guest room then master on an L orientation to the main rooms. I'll post a full floorpan, later.
Comments (16)
alex9179
6 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (41)wow - thanks for all the great responses feisty68 - does it feel dark or cramped or unfriendly in the kitchen? There is a lot of natural light in all the rooms - good point, I don't want to mess that up. chiefy76 - I read your response to DH - he was like - ya' - did I say that? Robotropolis - thanks - I printed your sketch - many thanks for your time to do that. I am trying to envision how that would look with the change in ceiling height going from 12' in the Family room to 9 ' in the nook - I guess there would just still be the 4' top of the wall there. raee - we use every inch of the dining room - often we fill it up with the Sunday lunch bunch - it could stand to be double that size. We eat on the porch as often as we can for the extra space but the dining does get used a lot. Gooster! Yes I have considered closing off the door to the porch - especially when I thought I was going to duplicate your to "die for" kitchen! That is something that will probably happen - depending on the final plan. elizardbethday - I wish, but there is no place to go with the bottom stairs - there is a half bath just behind the kitchen off the laundry room. I have an onsite meeting tomorrow at 2pm to discuss it all - keep it coming. I think I may need to post pictures of the actual rooms. THANK YOU ALL - I want to hear more of your thoughts, you are a bunch of awesomeness!...See MoreSo you've dreamed big on a remodel and need to cut back. Now what?
Comments (22)Hello all, for some reason not all of the comments seemed to load before? Some other potentially helpful info. I have not asked our architect how he felt about sharing his work online so would like to refrain from doing so without asking. I work in a creative field and understand while we didn't sign anything that we couldn't, we also didn't ask and I feel that would be inappropriate. The overview of our thoughts are as follows: we have a 1200sqft cape on .4 acres. It is currently 3 bed (one small master) and 2.5 baths. There is no full bath on the second floor with two of the bedrooms, and the master is on the first floor. The living room and kitchen are both about 12 x 14' so small and a bit cramped for us. There is no dining room/other living spaces. We have had issues with the water table rising that we need to run our sump pump in the basement a few times and don't think finishing it would be the best idea. We have no access to the outside except from our front door. We're dog parents and thinking about having kids, but not there quite yet. We're lived a few places in the country and see this as our forever home. We have a 170k house looking to do a 200k renovation. Houses in our neighborhood typically sell for 190-250, BUT most houses in our neighborhood have zero updates and are being sold by original owners. One house in a near but different neighborhood that was flipped just sold for 425, so it's a bit difficult to tell if our neighborhood could go the same way as owners change or not. We're talked a lot and are comfortable with this budget and the potential for that loss. Our realtor that helped us purchase the house thinks with the renovations we're talking about would sell in the 320-350k range. I'm mostly interested in general ideas as we have the wants/needs list and are working to refine it but are struggling in a few areas to come up with that final determination. Are we okay without a master bath? Can we live with just a one car garage? For both of these we think so and are ready to go without. How we feel about open concept, and is it worth moving the laundry out of the basement we feel more conflicted on....See More
mama goose_gw zn6OH
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoalex, I'm so sorry about your home being damaged by the hurricane, and so sorry about every little aggravation that comes along with it, but I hope we can help you get a great kitchen. This might be more of a shake-up than you want, but I widened the opening between the kitchen and FR, with a new laminated beam. I also flipped the door from the former laundry, to divert traffic away from the kitchen work zones.
The fridge is still near the DR and back door, with the DW and dish storage on that end also. The full-depth fridge will provide more storage for the teenage appetites. The hood is a focal point from the FR, sharing top billing with the island. I know you're on a slab, but with lots of help in the kitchen, a prep sink on the island would improve function, and could become the primary prep space, facing the FR. The support wall under the island could also be shallow storage, for home-canned foods or the Thanksgiving turkey platter.
The slider wall is now a triple window/door. The existing window, and sink plumbing do not change. I moved the freezer in the former laundry, and drew several cabinets/shelves, which could be either pantry or mudroom storage.
I couldn't read the measurements on your plan, so I counted boxes and based it on 29' x 13' total, including your stated 23' x 13' kitchen space. The long wall is broken up into clean-up zone and cooking zone.
Click to enlarge
The plan can be adjusted for the appliances you want to keep (and are still serviceable).
alex9179 thanked mama goose_gw zn6OHalex9179
6 years ago
PROAnglophilia
6 years agoalex9179
6 years agomama goose_gw zn6OH
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoThe third pane I added on the slider wall could be fixed--more of a full-height window than a door. Possibly similar to CarrieB's patio door:
Does the oven open left-to-right or right-to-left? I can't tell by the pic, and I'm not sure about right hand swing. If left-to-right and you're worried about it hitting the window, the cabinets beside the cooktop and hood could be narrower, to leave space for a pull-out pantry on the end.ETA, actually on such a long wall I had drawn a 36" cooktop, so your current induction cooktop is 6" shorter.
alex9179
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoHandle is on the left and opens towards the right. I think a pullout at the end would solve the problem. It needs to open past 90 degrees to change the racks around easily.
ETA, I like the idea of the larger hood for versatility down the road.
sena01
6 years agoHere's another idea.
I didn't change any windows/doors. I just assumed you can have pantry/mudroom in the former laundry.
If you can move the LR entry towards the exterior wall you can have a second DW.
alex9179 thanked sena01alex9179
6 years agoalex9179
6 years agoalex9179
6 years agoWe finally found a place to rent that has 3 bedrooms and isn't insanely expensive, Yay! I've been playing with the ideas off and on while buying new cars, visiting potential rentals, and working on the house.
I talked with the family about converting our 4th bedroom to expand bath and move laundry. My kids were aghast! Where were guests going to sleep? Where were we going to put the desk top (they watch movies on it occasionally, too)? Middle kid thought that it was going to be his room when ready. So, we've decided to keep laundry in the original place. I'm still stealing some of the 4th BR for our MBA, though.
The island plan looks fantastic but I kept wanting more storage options once the laundry room had to stay. Also, there is significant cost savings by not digging out concrete for plumbing and installing a beam for the load-bearing wall.
Some ideas I had:
1) Widen the existing 32" doorways from garage and into kitchen to 36". Those doors are a huge pain when moving large items through, like the washer/dryer/fridge etc. I can use a barn door or pocket for the kitchen entrance.
This will shorten the pantry a bit (measurements are existing on drawing are existing).
2) 1-2 d/w in clean up zone. Bring the existing pass through to counter level so kids can help put dishes away on DR/FR side. Maybe have space for cookbooks under that counter, as well.
3) 30" deep counters
4) Love to keep Mamagoose's 3 panel doors to the patio. With the wall shortened over there, it will bring a lot of light into the house and northern light isn't so bad in the South.
I'm not sure what to do with the cabinets between the fridge and sink. I'd like to plan for the future and have some kind of narrow pullout to the left of my 32" all fridge that can be removed if going bigger. The wall on that side can be shortened for french door swing and the pantry remain as sized. Maybe a narrow pantry using cabinetry and store packages of paper towels, grocery bags, etc, above the appliances in the laundry...or in the garage.
alex9179
6 years agoA terrible drawing of the entire floorpan. Squiggly line mean "oops, shouldn't be there."
alex9179
6 years agoMore tinkering. Money towards a beam but not for plumbing in the island, though moving it over will cost a bit. I can get a smaller sink under the window and move it to the left so that prep to the right has more real estate. The island would get use as a gathering spot and dough making. I like this one a lot if the budget can handle the beam but the pantry would be in the same area as the washer and dryer. I'm not sure doors in front of them would help with temp control.
alex9179
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoalex9179
6 years ago
suzanne_sl