Frustrating Foursquare kitchen layou
Isaac
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
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My almost finished kitchen! LOTS of pictures
Comments (32)Thanks Breezy! It means a lot coming from you since I tend to respect and agree with so many of your opinions and design opinions! I love your vent hood - wish I'd thought of or seen something like that when I was looking! I was just thinking earlier that I can't wait to see your finished kitchen! I know I will love it. Unfortunately, I do not remember the stain I used on the floors. I know it was a combination of two darker stains - one might have had a coffeeish name. They painted samples on our floors and I picked based on those, so didn't really pay much attention to the names! The cabinets came painted white. It was the brighter white that Holiday cabinets offered. This is the reason that my kitchen is STILL just almost finished. The paint job on the doors is AWFUL! You can't see it in pics, but where the stiles meet on the doors is splitting on just about every door and drawer front. Not just a line, but splitting apart. This is on top of numerous mars, dents, and nicks on teh doors in various places. We are getting all new drawer fronts and doors that the KD is ordering from a different cabinet company (Downsview), but he has TOTALLY been dragging his feet on it. Besides the doors, he STILL hasn't put in the little fillers around my appliance cabinet. I'm so mad - he has lied to us over and over again about whether or not he ordered it and why it was delayed - blah blah blah. Luckily, I have our builder who uses this KD A LOT and owes him a big check for another job. Essentially, he is not paying the KD until he shows him the proof of order for my new cabinet door/drawer fronts. I also am FINALLY getting all of my drawer inserts and organizers a week from today. I do have my shades, but b/c of the issues above I still have no glass in the top of my cabinets and don't feel fully done! I WILL post pictures when all is done. Thanks again Breezy!...See MoreIdeas for reconfiguring the back of my bungalow?
Comments (36)Congratulations on acquiring such an appealing bungalow on such a charming block. I am just finishing renovation on a 1923 Sears kit house (not a real bungalow, but a small foursquare with a bungalow porch running across the front), also in DC. My house was in such bad shape when I bought it that I was able to do some minor reconfiguring in the original footprint, but I was not able to add on because of the lot size, which is truncated. Were I you, I would take plenty of time sketching out the current addition or a slightly larger version. If you are going to be plumbing what is now the back bedroom, you might want to consider whether it is worth your while to make your main bathroom a bit bigger. More to the point, you could have a really spectacular space overlooking your back garden. If you altered the roofline of the addition so that it continues the slopes of the original house roof, you would even have the option of a vaulted ceiling with exposed framing. For what it's worth, I don't think porches with tapered piers screen in very well. In a neighborhood of like houses, an open and modestly furnished front porch just has a nice communitarian vibe. I think I may get a roll up shade for the west side of my porch, to keep the sun from heating the concrete so relentlessly in July and August. Linked is a crude slide show -- you have to go through it manually if it is to be coherent -- that will give you an idea what went into my renovation, including really goofy decision making at the end. Cheers and congratulations. Here is a link that might be useful: here...See MoreUpper frustration help!!
Comments (25)I prefer the first one...but the one you got from Allwood has the sink moved back right next to the refrigerator...so it looks like very little work room to the left of the sink. Which means, conflict while trying to prep and someone cleaning up. One note: you say you live with the issue of prepping over the DW, but you don't sound like you're thrilled with it. If you're spending $$$$ on a remodel, don't you think you should try to fix the existing problems? It's up to you, but in all honesty, I would not want to spend all that $$$ just to have the same problems I started with. I won't say any more about it, but I hope you think about it. I just want you to have the best kitchen you can have...both functionally and aesthetically....See MoreRemodeling family room to kitchen...layout help!
Comments (47)I like your inspiration photo. In fact, I think you can glean some good ideas from it with your layout. Gosh, that angled upper-view is hard to work from, isn't it? The red cabinet is the new pantry. You will want to check your aisle spacing there. You may need to go with shallower cabinets to keep your aisles wide enough. Actually, that is a good thing as pantry shelves should be shallower to allow for better access and less risk of losing food that gets hidden behind other items. While that cabinet may need to be shallower than when it was on the other wall, it can be longer so I think, in the end, you have just as much storage that is also more accessible storage. I definitely like the lack of traffic through the kitchen so much better with the door moved here. I was trying to decide if it would be better to have a counter in the red cabinet area or just floor to ceiling cabinets. Your inspiration picture gives a good mix of both. I think I'd be inclined to make that area into a beverage/snack center. Maybe move the microwave there, built in over the middle counter area, the toaster, and the coffee maker. It would also be a good space for a fruit bowl and such. This way if you're making dinner....and let's pretend it's a dinner that is going to cook for a few hours, maybe even something you're starting around lunch time, the rest of the family can come in and make a snack to tide them over without impeding on the cooking space. DH can make the morning coffee while you're making breakfast. Whatever. It would create a nice separation of space for different tasks. Think about what all you would store in the "red" cabinets. You may not want so many glass uppers if it will be food pantry storage. If you anticipate any nice glassware or serving pieces being stored there, the glass would be nice. If mainly pantry items, I think the open shelves would keep it open enough looking without needing the glass, too. Again, it depends on what you're storing there. I think you should keep the fridge where it is for easier access for snacks but also for grabbing that extra condiment or anything else forgotten....this is more important if you're sitting at the dining room table but I think it just fits better there.. And I'm not really one who likes looking at refrigerators that much. I think they tend to be big hulks in the kitchen. If you move it to the lower-right corner, you will see it from the dining room. Is that what you want to look at? Or would you rather look at your beautiful cupboards? All that said, moving it to lower-right would better fit the ice-water-stone-fire layout which is a great work flow. We move from fridge to sink/prep counter to cooking. If you recall, this is why we have been pushing you to consider a prep sink. So...hmmmmm...I'm just musing out loud here. If it were my kitchen, and because I have such a dislike for hulking fridges, I would really have to think about the extra steps from fridge to sink in this layout and weigh that against my fridge dislike to make a decision. You will be walking extra steps in this layout. I walk extra steps in my own kitchen just so I could put my fridge in a less-noticeable niche and I'm quite happy with that decision. It's only about 1.5-2 steps farther than the previous fridge placement but it has allowed me to have a baking center and made the view through my over-sink window better and easier seen from the rest of the house without the fridge sticking out and blocking it. So carefully consider whether those extra steps will be a bother for you. In the end, most of us have to make a compromise or two to get what we want. And, in the end, since we're all different, only you can make that final decision. It's really best to have as many options as possible to consider before pulling the trigger. If SIL is willing, I think you should have her draw up a plan with the door moved to the lower-left and the fridge in lower-right and share it here so we can all give you feedback on that plan. Or maybe someone else will pop in here and create one. I'm better at seeing problems than I am coming up with solutions so I'm not seeing a good way to do that and keep your sink under the window that you so desire which also keeps the DW out of the prep zone. And, to me, those issues are more important than a few extra steps to the fridge. Oh, gosh, sorry to ramble on so long. I probably wasn't much help, was I?...See MoreIsaac
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