Kitchen remodel questions

[Aliceacc]

Hi everyone. Hope you had a delightful Thanksgiving.

My husband and I are starting to talk about remodeling our kitchen. Our current kitchen is original to the house, built just after WWII. Our house is a Cape if that gives you an idea of its size.

What we think we want to do is knock out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, and create one room that would serve both functions. Perhaps we'll request a peninsula separating the two areas, perhaps not.

While I don't mind doing dishes, there certainly are times when a dishwasher would come in handy.

We're not even at the stage where we have a budget or an architect; just at the "it's time to start thinking about this" stage. Realistically, though, we're both teachers, so the budget is most definitely a concern. I don't want to be paying off this loan for the next 30 years.

What I'm looking for is any warnings, suggestions, ideas, whatever. What did you include that you're glad you did, or what would you have done differently?

So... what do you think?

 

[Candlelady]

You will get the best advice in the Kitchen forum on GardenWeb.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/ Don't be intimidated by the high end makeovers. You'll find awesome ideas in these forums.

Also check out Houzz.com.

Good luck

 

[Ambassador]

Start with an overall budget number that you can afford: $40K, $60K, $80K? Then fill-in line items: framing, flooring, electrical and plumbing trades, venting, cabinetry, appliances, countertops, sink and faucet, backsplash tiles, light fixtures. Eventually it will be helpful to work with a kitchen designer you trust. Fortunately you now have the luxury of time, and should feel no pressure to make decisions.

 

[Aliceacc]

Thanks.

We actually just started the discussion yesterday. So right now I'm looking for little tidbits of ideas that I'll eventually want to mention to the designer.

 

[allison443]

Things I got in my kitchen remodel that I love:

-French door fridge with freezer on the bottom (with this you need to allow less space for the door to swing open than with a regular fridge)

-quartz countertops (silestone) - not the cheapest but depends on how much counterspace you have.

-Full height cabinets that go to the ceiling (we use the upper shelves for storage of things we don't use that often)

-lazy susan in lower corner cabinet

-appliance garage in the corner but not with the accordian door-it has a hinged door like my cabinets (holds toaster oven, toaster and can opener out of sight)

-cabinet above fridge with vertical dividers to hold all my cookie sheets, platters, trays - so easy to get them out! (I didn't buy the cabinet with the dividers installed-Just got a full depth cabinet and bought metal dividers at Lowes)

Have you thought of an island instead of a peninsula? I like the idea of something with a couple of stools. Depends on your space though.


I also suggest the garden web site. It was great for ideas. Also people post photos and it's good for getting ideas of color combinations, etc.

 

[faith]

I love the bottom units I had made with the deep drawers. So easy to pull out my cookware, large mixing bowls etc!

 

[Aliceacc]

Thanks... this is exactly the type of info I'm looking for!!!!

 

[bokolo]

We have a colonial and knocked down the wall between the kitchen and dining room to make a huge kitchen across the whole back of the house. We LOVE everything about it and couldn't be happier with the results.

We have an prep island and a peninsula that has seating for 4-5 as well as room for a kitchen table. The cabinet that I love the most is a floor to ceiling pantry with 4 huge roll out drawers. It is unbelievable how much food can fit and space isn't wasted because all parts of the shelf can be used. If it's in your buget, I would suggest getting the roll outs when possible.

 

[KandD]

We have a cape and just redid our kitchen. We knocked down the wall in-between the kitchen and dining room and it looks AMAZING!! It opens up the entire first floor. We did put a peninsula between the rooms which gives us more counter space, more cabinet space, and a place for stools. We did granite countertops that are beautiful.
I never realized how DARK our old kitchen was until we remodeled. We have recessed lighting, a light over the sink, lights under the cabinets, and a light fixture over the peninsula-the lighting really makes the space more open and beautiful.
We didn't use a kitchen designer-we ordered our cabinets through Lowes and the woman we worked with there did all of the dimensions and drawings on their computer system. We just gave them to our contractor.
feel free to ask me any questions, I'm sure we have similar houses!

 

[moopdog]

You just described my exact current kitchen project. We are going to knock out the wall seperating our kitchen and dining room, and have a peninsula in between. We are also changing our plain single door to french doors, and exapanding the size of the door way leaving our kitchen into our hallway...we are making it a double width with an arched top. I got new stainless steel appliances in July because Sears was having amazing sales over July 4th weekend. We also ordered tile flooring to replace our linoleum, and hickory cabinets to replace our 1970 painted cabinets. We will basically have a brand new kitchen!!

I guess I don't have any advice yet except for this: in our case our interior work was to be completed in August and our exerior work (roof & siding) was to be done in September. Well....we are nearing December and nothing is complete. We have some new things outside and some new things inside...but the project itself is not even half done. The more people I talk to, the more I realize this is close to the norm.

 

[moopdog]

I am kind of sorry we didn't order this particular one. It was the one thing we kept going back and forth on, finally deciding to have the contracter custom build us a pantry instead. The reason I think I went with that plan is because it was a picture I saw on (pinterest ) and I fell in love with the fact that the pantry had frosted glass doors on it...kind of decorative looking. I think I was also thinking that he could make the shelves exactly how we want them. However.....like I said, I'm a little sorry we didn't go with the one you have. We really did like it A LOT.

 

[moopdog]

We have a cape and just redid our kitchen. We knocked down the wall in-between the kitchen and dining room and it looks AMAZING!! It opens up the entire first floor. We did put a peninsula between the rooms which gives us more counter space, more cabinet space, and a place for stools. We did granite countertops that are beautiful.
I never realized how DARK our old kitchen was until we remodeled. We have recessed lighting, a light over the sink, lights under the cabinets, and a light fixture over the peninsula-the lighting really makes the space more open and beautiful.
We didn't use a kitchen designer-we ordered our cabinets through Lowes and the woman we worked with there did all of the dimensions and drawings on their computer system. We just gave them to our contractor.
feel free to ask me any questions, I'm sure we have similar houses!

Jumping in on this thread since we still have a few decisions to make regarding lighting... is there any way that you can post a couple of pictures of your lighting set up? I'd like to get a feel for what we'd like to do? Thanks and sorry to the OP for chiming in so much.

 

[piglet50]

just finished a reno with new granite countertops, new backsplash, and hardwood flooring. Our cabinets were fine but I did have drawers put into my cabinets for my pots, pans, and large bowls. We bought a few organizers for some of the upper cabinets. I love the drawers! Put them everywhere you can.

 

[ariel71]

You will get the best advice in the Kitchen forum on GardenWeb.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/ Don't be intimidated by the high end makeovers. You'll find awesome ideas in these forums.

Also check out Houzz.com.

Good luck

This! I did a complete gut reno last winter and was my own GC. Would have gotten into heaps of trouble without the GardenWeb kitchen forum. It's like disboards for kitchens - they know their stuff. I also relied on the Lighting and Flooring forums on the same site.

 

[disneymom2003]

You will get the best advice in the Kitchen forum on GardenWeb.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/ Don't be intimidated by the high end makeovers. You'll find awesome ideas in these forums.

Also check out Houzz.com.

Good luck

YES! i cannot tell you how helpful this board was to me before, during, and after our remodel. There are tons of pictures and they are happy to give you an opinion on ANYTHING if you ask. I remember I was going to use stainless knobs and pulls until I saw a kitchen with ORB. The light went off and I knew that was what my kitchen needed. From layout, to appliances ( by the way the have an appliance and flooring board) to flooring this board cannot be beat. I would go and peruse and see all the wonderful things they have. I agree, you will see kitchens of all shapes and sizes. By the way my kitchen is in the Finished Kitchen BLog under mdmc if you want to take a look. Good luck

I also added Drawers. Lots of them. They hold all kinds of things including my pots and pans. I had pull out drawers in my last kitchen but these are much more convenient

 

[crjack]

We did a total reno on our kitchen several years ago and here are my tips:

Gardenweb is definitely your friend! Loved the forum, saved lots of pictures from the gallery for inspiration and also got some great contractor/vendor recommendations from posters who happened to live in my area. (Probably the biggest benefit)

Cabinets today hold a lot more. There is a lot less wasted space with pull outs, adjustable shelves,etc. We used some pull spice drawers and cookie sheet/cutting board holders in narrow spaces to fill in and they are my favorite cabinets.

You don't always need a kitchen designer. There are so many places to buy cabinets and they all offer design services. Also, there are great computer programs you can use to play around with your lay-outs.

We preferred a kitchen specialty store for our cabinets vs the big box stores. Definitely compare prices because you may be surprised.

If you are thinking of granite countertops there is a huge range of prices. There are colors very common that can be quite inline with other options and there are some that are much more limited that can cost more $$$.

Things like the edging of your countertop (on any material) adds in extra $$. You can have bullnose, ogee, bevel, etc. To save money we made our perimiter a traditional eased edge but put a nice ogee on our island where it is totally exposed.

We watched for sales and picked up some things long before the construction began. We got an unbelievable deal on a double oven and cooktop vent. Just make sure you factor in their dimensions to your layout and you are comfortable with the choice.

Best of luck.....we actually enjoyed the planning stages and spent a lot of time playing around on the computer with different ideas. We love our kitchen and are so glad we did it.

 

[SaraJayne]

Here are some tips/must haves for my kitchen...some I have, some I desperately want.

Pull out shelves ~ lifesaver on your back and knees.

Plenty of counter space ~ essential for prep and having more than one person in kitchen

Dishwasher ~ self-explanatory.

Under cabinet lighting

Good task lighting ~ one complaint I have now when working on our large peninsula...the light source is behind me, so in front of me is always in shadow

Large pantry ~ Even though I have tons of cabinets, I *need* a pantry, with pull-out shelves

Make sure you put an outlet at one end of peninsula/island, if not both

Expect the work to take twice as long and cost at least a quarter more than expected.

Also, think about how you will be eating during the reno ~ will you be eating out the entire time, trying to cook in a different part of the house or a mixture of both?

Good luck! I imagine it will be quite a frustrating process at times, but the end result will be on-so-worth-it!

 

[cornflake]

First thing - be positive you can take out the wall before you count on doing so. It's not load-bearing, it doesn't have anything running through it, like plumbling, etc. Some of that you can still work with but will cost more and maybe look different (if you have to put a header or whatnot).

Second - whatever you decide to do, HAVE EVERYTHING before you start demolition. Don't think the cabinets will come in during. Have it - and the flooring, accessories, sink, etc., etc. on site before you begin. It'll save some of that potential delay.

Third - make sure your list of stuff to think of/buy/etc. has *everything* like, say, sink, faucet, outlets, undercabinet lighting, etc. People forget half this stuff all the time (like 'oh, we didn't think about adding outlets/adding another light switch - that's a good idea, can we do it now....?') and it costs time and money and if you don't think of it until too late, you'll kick yourselves. Be thorough.

Fourth - As above, those little cabinet things are more valuable than you might think, like the pull-out shelves, or drawers for pots instead of shelves, or this, which is the thing you really, really want -

 

[semo233]

I would recommend hiring a designer that specializes in kitchens. For a few hundred dollars, here's the most valuable information I needed and got from ours:
lighting: I had no idea what to tell our contractor, how much, placement, etc.

cabinet placement: by recommending moving a cabinet from one side of our stove to the other, she created a much more useable work space. Simple, but made all the difference.
We have an 8 foot peninsula. She recommended adding one foot depth to the breakfast bar side and putting in upper level cabinets all along the side. So, when you sit at the bar, there are 8 feet of 12" deep cabinets right in front of your knees. I never would have thought of that!

appliances: I wanted to exchange the placement of our stove and sink. Our designer said that the cost of a downdraft range was WAY less than the work involved in the plumbing and electrical involved in a move. She actually saved us money.

I also had a different picture in my head of how the addition on the back of the kitchen connected to the kitchen than what the contractor explained to me. I called the designer and we made an appointment for a time when the contractor would be here to iron it out. She had an idea of how to make it look more like what I wanted that I don't have the structural knowledge to ask for.

The things I love best about my kitchen were her ideas!! Worth every penny.

 

[Aliceacc]

Thanks, folks, keep 'em coming!