Until now, I've been calling this a kitchen 'face-lift', because that was all we had planned. As often happens, one thing leads to another, and we've planned a few more improvements. You can skip to the bottom for a link to pics.
When we decided to add on a family dining/play room (used when the extended family gathers), I told my hubby that all we would need to do would be finish off the new openings (one from the kitchen/one from the LR), and replace the counter-tops in the kitchen--probably with laminate. We'd have someone else take the measurements, finish the tops in their shop, pop the old ones off, and install the new ones. We could even cut and re-use one piece of the old counter-top in our new addition. I was going to repaint, remove wall-paper, and add a backsplash myself, because he does not enjoy those activites. ;)
But, then I found some beautiful black marble tiles, found Gardenweb while searching for info on black marble, and found a wonderful resource in all of you! I also found some epoxy-resin table tops from an old school, for counter-tops, and some vintage cabinets, salvaged from another old school. The cabinets will fit our North wall if we move the stove out. I've always wanted a vented hood, which I can have only if we move the stove to the South wall, where the fridge has been for the last 16 years. (This is the best spot to route the vent through the roof, with no turns.) That would work out great, but the fridge would have to find a new home.
So, I had the idea to remove the kitchen door, from the mud room, cover the back of the opening (to create a shallow alcove), and slide the fridge into the vacated alcove, which would also make it counter-depth, and leave a little more floor space in our small-to-middling kitchen.
But then we had to cut a new 'back door' to the mudroom, from the dining room--just outside the kitchen, about 2 1/2 feet from the old door. The new door makes more sense, and I wish I'd thought of doing this 16 years ago when we bought the house. One can now enter from the mudroom, and go either upstairs (where the kids' rooms are), to the LR, or to the hallway which leads to the bathroom, laundry, and master bedroom, without walking through the kitchen. Since the original four-square house has additions on the East, West, and South sides, the dining room is now the geographic center of the home, so I think the new entry will work out very well, once we get used to the idea. (LOL, right now we seem to be walking in circles, trying to follow old traffic patterns.)
Not to get all 'Kitchen Forum' on everyone, but the remodel will achieve the following:
1) Allow us to install a vented hood.
2) Divert through-traffic around the kitchen.
3) Allow us to make the fridge counter-depth, without spending our daughter's college tuition for next quarter on a real counter-depth fridge.
We could do that without replacing the North wall of cabinets with the vintage cabinets, but the vintage uppers have a lot more storage than our current upper cabinets on that wall. And besides, the vintage cabinets are the same type commonly used when our house was built, and I love the vintage look. :)
To date we have:
1) Finished the two new openings into the addition.
2) Installed the new door in the dining room--still need to finish trim.
3) Enclosed the old door opening, and moved the fridge.
Next, we need to move the 220-volt plug from the North wall to the South wall, so that we can move the stove. We'll probably also move the old non-vented hood, and use it for a while longer, until we decide what kind of hood (low-end) to install.
I'd like to take out part of the wall between the kitchen and dining room to make the kitchen a little roomier and further improve the traffic flow, but that's a decision that we'll have to put off for now--it seems that there are more electrical lines in that wall than we suspected.
We also plan to build a shallow pantry underneath the stairway, on the kitchen side (East wall), and add some cabinets or open shelves on both sides of the refrigerator, in its new location on the South wall. We'll replace the flooring, and install matching flooring in the new addition.
We plan to do everything DIY, one wall at a time, while still using the kitchen every day, and still hosting extended-family meals, which we do at least once a month.
I'm adding a link to the pictures I've organized so far--if anyone has advice or comments, I'd love to hear them. You may have seen some of the pics before, and I've tried to add captions to explain the pics, if you haven't read my other threads. I'll try to add pics as we make progress.
Wow, this is a long post. If you haven't become bored and left to watch 'Pawn Stars', thanks for reading to the end.
Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen album
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