Galley Kitchen Remodel - what do's or don'ts and make sure's?
Buder Shapiro
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Comments (24)Gardngrl: What a great post! Your very good at expressing yourself. My wife and I bought a country home 2years ago. It just kills me to leave the big city and step back into time. Yes the wave thing, kills me. We have great neighbors, but your right bad neighbors can make you move. I am in a very expensive area and when meeting the locals I don't like to tell them exactly where my house is, because then they say oh your in one of those mansions. It's not a mansion but many local people live in trailers. So when you go some where your better off being vague. But they like local residents better than tourists. Then they ask, where you live. You might as well tell them, because they want every detail and the color of the house. The also know the names of everyone and your house is named after the person you bought it from. I love them all but they follow the beat of a different drum. Had my farmer friend grade my driveway, I paid him. He did a nice job so I asked him if he wanted a 25" color TV I had. He looked me in the eye and said what would I do with it. My gravel driveway needed repair and put 70 yards of gravel in it. Can be very expensive to maintain. Especially if not done properly like mine was. To drill a well by me cost $42,000.00, so you better check out what a well cost and septic, electric run to the house etc. You could drop a fast $75,000 real fast. The locals will help you anytime you need it. Just mention you have a problem and you get offers, use of tools, wanna borrow the dozer etc. In my opinion big city people and city life you can keep it. We dress down and accept everyone for what they are and make no judgements. It really was a wake up call for me to see what is really important in life. My town is about 160 people, and yes they all know everything about everyone. They like to know, where your from, what you do. But they do it in a friendly way, like breaking the ice and some small talk. What I like if some one works on your house, they would rather take trade than cash. Great system if you have a skill or service to trade. Very handy people, can just about fix or build anything you need. I would also recommend that you get as much land as you can afford. The last thing you want is to have a neighbor close by whey you move to gods country to get some room. I just purchased the land west of my property and I am in negotiations with the owner of the land east of me. Just want to make sure I am secluded. Neighbor down the road has a beautiful log cabin home and someone bought the land next to him and put up a house that looks like a garage, with plastic siding and on the lot line. The guys nice and a builder from the same city Iam in but when his neighbor looks out the window he sees white plastic siding. I cannot see any homes around my house and I am going to insure I won't either. When I first bought the house I wasn't sure how much we would use it, or would we get tired of it. Was worried that maybe this was a very expensive mistake. But we love it and I am so glad I bought it....See MoreWhat to do with my galley kitchen?
Comments (14)Thanks so much to all of you! @pricklypearcactus: You're exactly right, I do have to get a professional in here to tell me what is reasonable. The house layout is bizarre in part because it was expanded twice by the previous owners - bumped up once from a small Cape or tract house to one with a full second floor, and then pushed back and out, possibly overtaking a porch. The latter reno was meant to add a first floor master bedroom after the homeowner remarried; that's the reason why we have a full bath off the dining room (complete in 80s style, maroon and grey tile plus a jacuzzi tub!) We're here for the long run not because it's the most amazing house ever, but because the schools and commute are great, and the fact that it is on a busy road means we would probably pay double to get the same size house in even marginally better condition in this neighborhood. @eelena - we don't have a family room in addition to a living room; we are just outside DC and (some) houses are smaller here. The living room is where we spend ALL our time, and I probably can't or wouldn't change that. The room gets tons of light and has a picture window that overlooks the backyard where the kids play. @herbflavor: The den and office (which were probably small bedrooms in the original house) function well as is; the wall between them had been removed previously and we added French doors just so that we could use the den for closed toy storage and a pullout couch for guests. However, as you all point out it's insane to have 2 dining areas in a house of only 1900sq ft. I've lured the kids into this front "breakfast" room to eat most meals, but it's not the best defined space. The actual dining room is a wasteland of lego creations - it NEVER gets used. If I could transplant the kitchen there, and tear down the wall between it and the living room, that would be perfect... but our main plumbing stack is in the center of the house, and I can't imagine that there is any way to remedy that easily. My realistic options - at most - would either be to steal some space from the util/laundry area as above, or as suggested by Joaniepoanie, whose beautiful appropriately wide galley kitchen I've been admiring here, somehow push the kitchen forward to the breakfast room. I haven't gone there yet just because it would literally mean the kitchen is at the front door... and as much as I hate my galley, I like that I can talk to my kids in either the living room or the front room while I'm cooking. Well, back to the drawing board (courtesy of Ikea software). If anyone knows any great kitchen people in the DC area who might have good ideas for such an awkward space, I'd love any recommendations....See MoreGalley Kitchen Remodel...suggestions anyone?
Comments (11)Your kitchen has really great natural light, some of which would presumably be given up if you took the door out of the end. It is hard to tell from your photos how the computer room is configured to the kitchen or whether there is or could be any space available in the laundry "porch." I am coming at this having made the cranky discovery that, as a rule, small older kitchens cannot readily accommodate today's huge looming refrigerators without having the room's proportions thrown out of kilter and giving up a lot of usable space. The rightly much admired enigmaquandry started out a different kind of galley kitchen, one that had less light than yours and a blind end to boot. As brilliant as her entire project turned out, I think it was relocating her fridge from the galley proper that allowed the space to blossom. Even sandyponder, whose much larger and wonderfully imaginative kitchen you can easily find here, decided to place her refrigerator in her pantry. As you might imagine, I too have just escaped a finite set of bad options by deciding to put the refrigerator into the just-large-enough pantry of the Sears kit house I am renovating. The fridge will be immediately outside the 10' x 11' kitchen, and the main space will be much more useful and well proportioned for its absence. I may even be able to make the two windows in the room bigger. The alternative, from my viewpoint, would be one of the wonderfully tall but shallow and relatively narrow Liebherr refrigerators, all of which are well outside my budget. Good luck. Your cabinets are great. Here is a link that might be useful: enigmaquandry's brilliant solution...See MoreWWYD - galley kitchen partial remodel help
Comments (5)I have a similar kitchen... builder grade cabinets, the awful soffits (yes, I hate mine too), etc.... I painted my cabinets a little over 5 years ago, new counter, backsplash, and appliances, and new flooring - I love the updates but the soffits still haunt me. I hate them. No matter what, I hate them. My next plan is to remove them, buy new uppers, and get new doors for the bottoms. I wish I would have just saved up money and got all new cabinets 5 years ago but I was eager to paint mine after seeing everyone on Pinterest paint theirs. I think you have a great space to work with, but I feel your pain on the soffits. I do like your idea of open shelving in some areas. I've seen people remove their soffits, build boxes, and then get new door fronts - it looks nice, but I think I'd rather just get new cabinets after all that work....See Moredecoenthusiaste
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