Care to give layout feedback?
Background:
- Recently purchased circa 1985 brick ranch
- Completely gutting the cramped kitchen (it's gone now)
- Removing tiled kitchen floor, adding hardwords and refinishing all hardwoods to flow throughout first floor
- Raising first floor ceilings to 9' (maybe 9'6") - there's plenty of room in attic per builder
- Closing one entrance to kitchen to add a mudroom from garage and extend the main kitchen wall. (This was not an idea everyone loved (hi Mom) but it was the only way to get more wall space in the kitchen)
- Adding a skylight with venting and built in shade, to aid circulation now that the one entrance will be closed; skylight will be centered over island
- Adding windows to take advantage of beautiful yard that slopes down to a creek and wooded area
- Two people will live here, plus visitors a few times/year
- I don't need the dinette area (was to the right of the kitchen); the dining room at left plus island are fine for seating; previous dinette area will transition into fireplace room
- There's a patio off the back door and another off the walkout basement
- Part of kitchen on full basement, part on high crawl so plumbing can / will be moved
- Budget is ~275k (will expand if needed and includes some renovations in lower level)
- Yes the garage is big - multiple vehicles and bicycles
- I'm living elsewhere but nearby while all the work is being done
Wants:
- Functional for two cooks, plus small gatherings, plus a few times/year large gatherings & parties
- Comfortable, welcoming place for friends to visit, or for us to sit by a fire to read or enjoy the view
Draft design (sorry I realize the writing is faint(:
- Note: Plan is for main kitchen cabinets and island in white; section to the right of the fridge will be a coffee / beverage station in wood to transition to the fireplace area, which will have some wood accents (like the mantel.)
Adjacent spaces / walls to be torn down marked:
First floor / new walls marked:
Comments (10)
rebunky
last yearlast modified: last yearCongrats Chicagoens! What a fun project, and the view to the backyard sounds so peaceful.
I must admit, I am totally with your mom on not losing that kitchen entrance, lol!
I love how it is a nice straight shot into the kitchen from the garage entry for bringing in groceries.
Since the dining room is going to be wide open to the kitchen anyway, I would rather have the dining table in front of that North window looking out to the backyard view. Also, then it is more connected to the the cozy fireplace room.
If you kept the existing entrance to the kitchen, would you be able to extend the kitchen wall into the existing dining room area instead? You can still have the mudroom, just leave the doorway to the kitchen.
The left over space in the existing dining room could be used for whatever you want. If you need more storage, you could do pantry cabinets across the top bedroom 3 wall. There are a ton of ways you use that space.
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The alternative to care-giving
Comments (5)Fairegold, it happens with younger people too... It happened to my best friend last year... He was only 62 years old... He did not live alone, he was married and had two boys who usually stopped by 5 or 6 time a week... He had tons of friends who talked to him on a regular basis, at least once a week and a few every day... We used to exchange e-mail 10 to 15 times a day... Yet he died alone and wasn't discovered for 3 days... His wife was out of town, visiting with her family... He had been at his oldest sons house on a Friday night and sent me e-mail when he got home saying he had a long day and was heading for bed... On Saturday I sent a few more e-mails but I wasn't too worried that I didn't receive any replies because I figured he was working on one of his classic cars or went to one of the car shows... Sunday morning when he still hadn't answered any of my mail I called... The phone only rang... He was found, by his youngest son, Monday morning, lying on the kitchen floor, dead... He had an aortic aneurism so ( thank God ) it was quick but for a man with a large family and hundreds of friends...See MoreKitchen addition layout; would you please give some feedback?
Comments (6)The island is almost 11 feet long. I really only want seating for 4 at the most. I believe the fridge is 361/2 inch wide and with 30 inches (minus doors) for the depth because the addition is a few inches wider. The dishwasher that is on the west side is the second dishwasher. The main clean up zone is by the main sink on the east side (bottom of the plan). I am not sure of the placement of the second dw but we do have our larger gatherings in the dining room and it would make it close to that area and there is a sink on the island. Thanks for looking....See MorePlease give feedback on layout!
Comments (4)I think I like the first one better. I don't know what that white square is though, so I'm not positive. In the first one, you appear to have landing space on both sides of the refrigerator, the refrigerator door doesn't open into the doorway, it's on the perimeter where snackers can get to it w/o getting in the way of someone working in the kitchen while it's still close enough to be easily accessed from the working area. You have a good flow from refrigerator to sink to range. But, where's the MW? Do you plan to have one? I recommend putting it next to the refrigerator b/c, like the refrigerator, you want it accessible to both kitchen and snackers and you also want it convenient to where the food will be reheated or cooked (like frozen veggies). The only real negative I see is the outside door placement. Someone coming in from the outside will probably cut right through the main work area. Can it be moved? I think I'd rather see it at the other end of the wall ("north" in the pic in your first post). OR, perhaps you could swap the counter run & empty wall. But, you'll have much less room for cabinets on the shorter wall (unless it could be extended) plus (1) it's always easier to vent on an exterior wall, (2) it's nice to have window over the sink, and (3) it's nice to be able to look out the window when seated at the island. Other comments... Your clearances look pretty good everywhere except b/w the island and the cabinets...and that's only b/c you have that traffic going through there. Your DW will open into the outside doorway if it's left of the sink. If it's right it may block the the aisle (and with that traffic....) Think about where you will be storing your dishes, glasses, and flatware. Do you want them convenient to the DW or the eating area? That's it for now! HTH!...See MoreLayout review needed- please give feedback!
Comments (20)I am thoroughly confused now! Lol Regarding pantry size: I have split them up because of not wanting fridge placement too close to the door to the DR or too far from the island. It's an all fridge, because we have don't freeze much and have a freezer in the garage. The sz drawers are for ice and a few things, such as ice cream and frozen berries. Our current pantries are 21" wide each and I am reducing the size to 18" because I don't need all the space. I have a hall pantry a few steps from the kitchen where I keep cans, bulk items, etc. Are the 18" pantries looking especially narrow in this design? My KD wants a single 84" door on each for aestetics, but I think they should be broken up into two doors for practical reasons. The one on the right is a pull out and the one on the left has roll outs. I stand corrected on the space between the right edge of the sink and the right upper cabinet resting on the counter. It is currently 24" which has been fine for us. I will definitely think about it some more. My KD actually wanted to do the same thing on the left side, but that is an area where I definitely need counter space, plus I worry about it looking too boxed in. The island has been a cause for concern from the beginning. It is now 2 levels, with a counter height working side and a table height side for eating. I have been told by so many people, including on this forum, that having it all one height will be more functional and look much better. I resisted the idea for so long, and now that I've come around, I'm being told it's not working. I am actually laughing about it. Well, at least I saw some beautiful soapstone slabs today, which made me ridiculously happy. It's one thing I'm sure of and dh agrees. I guess no matter how this kitchen turns out, I should at least finally love my counters!...See More
sena01
last yearCan you move the new mudroom towards the exist. foyer to have a straight wall on the kitchen side? If I'm not mistaken that could give you about 1,5 ft more behind the island, so traffic can move more smoothly when you have large gatherings.
Then I'd consider moving the island a little towards the exist. LR to sort of balance the island with the cabs behind, if that makes sense.
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chicagoans
last yearlast modified: last yearThanks all! You have given me a lot to think about, and I will consider your ideas! A few answers:
- Would you be able to extend the kitchen wall into the existing dining room area instead? Yes, I considered completely moving the kitchen to where the DR is. Two things hold me back: 1) The hall to the bedrooms; it's already kind of a weave around the LR wall into DR then cut back right and up that hall. By shortening the middle wall (between kitchen and LR), we can line up the walk way past the DR and to the BR hall. Can't eliminate it altogether because it's a load bearing wall. 2) When I have big family dinners, it's nice to expand the DR table and set up extra tables in the LR, right near the main table.
- Can you move the new mudroom towards the exist. foyer to have a straight wall on the kitchen side? I would love that. Tricky, as that's a load bearing wall and we're already planning some kind of big beam work in the attic just to open up the wall a few feet more and move the header between LR and DR up to the attic. I'll see if the builder faints at this suggestion.
- When you stand at the front entrance, is the sight line directly back to the powder room door? Yes, in the original flow the sight line was past the closets, then a peninsula, to the PR door.
- Do you need three main-level toilets? No, and there's even a full bathroom in the lower level. But I can't close off that little vestibule, even if I moved the back door, because the stairs down to the lower level are there.
- Is some part of this home an addition? No; the whole thing is circa 1985 when it was built.
- As built drawing below, from the listing. Sorry so squishy.
chicagoans
last year
3onthetree
last yearSo looking at the initial drawings, I went back to try and review the goals. The goals are not very pronounced, but maybe that's relative to the amount of change required. But then after seeing the existing plan later in the comments, I don't see the new Kitchen layout moving the needle much - in function, flow, view to the back, or increase in cabinetry. Less cabinets, just walling off the garage entry, and creating a flow-through galley-like layout instead of an arrival into a room, with a dead space (since no Dinette table) between Kitchen and Family Rm.
I would guess that's more closer to a $100K refresh, including higher-than-middle grade cabinets and counters, not a $275K remodel. And I would assume you have intersecting gable roofs, so the skylight placed there might not work, and have a very deep tunnel if it was. And be aware that raising a ceiling in an existing roof has some caveats structurally that many contractors and pinterest pictures aren't aware of.
So in my mind to meet the level of a $275K redo, throwing this out there just to get some other thinking going. Some heavy assumptions are being made that there is a full-sized Family Room at the walkout basement, and the view is to the back. This is not showing specific room walls, hallways, doors, or windows, just an adjacency diagram.
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