Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm in need of some feedback as to go with best optional design for our kitchen reno...which won't happen for couple of years, so gathering ideas now.
Kitchen itself is a good size room with 19'5" by 11'4". My problem is the narrowness of the kitchen as you can see from the pictures. i have few ideas of how to max the useage of the dimensions, another problematic area is no deck door/french doors from kitchen to our deck. We've to go out there by way through our sliding door in the den room. I have this idea of expanding the kitchen into the den, making it one big open space but the powder room sits between kitchen/den wall space.
Hence the idea of moving the powder room to where the laundry room is, which is behind the stovetop wall and converting the office into a big laundry/mud room as the office is within the two car garage. Previous owners had the option of having 3 car garage or 2 car garage with third "space" as a legit room. So, we used that room as the office but could alternatively be used as a 5th bedroom since it has windows and closet space.
First picture is the view of kitchen from dining room behind me.
2nd pic is looking out towards the kitchen, stepping down into laundry room and office beyond from the den.
3rd pic is looking at an angle towards the powder room/den (sliding door is on far side of left side) with kitchen behind me.
4th pic is standing by my stovetop looking towards office; left door leads out into garage, right door leads into laundry room. That step down area is considered as a mud room but no room to do anything!! very narrow space.
last pic looks into expanse of kitchen from the "mud area"
so....feedback is appreciated based on your ability to read my pictures! Thanks
Staying within the original walls has a somewhat limited variety of different layouts. You have what I would call a galley kitchen. There could be endless design choices depending on budget.
So, before everyone gets carried away with outrageous or outlandish design proposals- WHAT'S YOUR BUDGET?
And then keep to the budget- there's nothing worse than blowing a budget on a kitchen remodel. It's the single most expensive remodel one can do to a residence.
Right, and if you do just the things you mentioned in your post, you'd have to move out for a while. You would lose use of your kitchen AND laundry area, which as a mom you know is not even close to ideal.
I like your ideas for switching the functions of the rooms. Your kitchen still would be narrow, but if it were open to that den it would be easier to tolerate.
Those changes would all be major construction, of course. Unless you have very understanding family willing to put you all up for at least 6 weeks, you would need to factor in the cost of temp housing.
Hubby and I are at a stalement with ideas; my suggestion of switching powder room over to the existing laundry room is being met with resistance. I told him it's either that or expanding our kitchen outwards which I'm not too crazy about since the structure of exterior won't be uniform.
Budget would be 80K to renovate the kitchen AND remove the powder room to expand into the den. It'll also include switching out our existing sliding door in den into french doors. The main galley kitchen would be the actual kitchen with an island whereas the den will be more of seating area for the kitchen with tv above fireplace.
I had another idea but that'll take years to save up for it, so not very feasible. Add a new addition by our sliding door in den room to make that a bigger den area. The new addition would be over our existing deck. But that'll be very expensive option, so not very feasible unless i win the lottery
in responses to other people's suggestion of temp housing...i agree!! I'm a mom of 8 month old and will be planning on getting another baby later this year, so the kitchen/laundry is pretty essential to me....this is why i had the timeframe of doing the renovation the summer of 2014 and rent out a shore house for 2 months for the duration. Already have monies for that set-up. Just need to finalize the budget of 80k in the meantime.
so....doable?? 80k to knock down a half wall, switch laundry/powder rooms?? and have a decent functional kitchen. The picture where I'm looking towards the kitchen from the den...on the left side, i have pretty decent deep wall pantry so that's how i've been managing to function in our kitchen for the past 4 years.
the only problem with temporarily moving out is that you lose the ability to constantly pester and annoy the contractor with questions and changes.
Have thought of that....since we'll be renting a summer house during the summer for 2 months, hubby can't be off work for that long anyway. Hence, he'll be staying at his parents during work week who only live 10 mins away from our residence...therefore, will be a pestor to the contractor!
Hmmmmm Branchburg huh? Money is no object then. Not being a smartazz at all. Lived there a long long time and know what it costs to live there quite well. You are planning 2 years away? Not a day goes by some one don't walk into my showroom without saying that. I am torn on spending all the time they need or just being nice and saying goodbye and hope they come back in 2 years. What on earth will you be told now and remember in 2 years?
I know that's not what you wanted to hear. Just had to throw that in to get your attention. That kitchen is fine size wise. I suspect your house is very very large since the smallest home in all of Branchburg is about 6000 SF unless the Mount Laurel Act intruded on your nice town forcing those human filing cabinets called condos on you.
Your cabinets are from the Biblical times, well not quite but they gotta go. You can do an inexpensive remodel or spend bank on a depreciating asset (not smart), meaning your beautiful home. Moving walls and utilities puts dollar signs into your eyes, just doing the cabinets, fresh walls and flooring do not (unless you buy from Home Junkpo). Lose that soffit and take your 42" upper cabs to the ceiling. I wish I could see the fridge side too. You can lose the blind corner cabs and do a lazy susan on the base and a pie or wall angle up top. It appears you can extend the sink wall run closer to the bay window.
Other then that it's really hard to make many more recommendations without a proper drawing/rendering showing me the lay of the home.
If you move the powder room to where the current laundry room is (behind stove), then where would you put your laundry room?
So, let me get this straight:
*Powder room is gone.
*Wall gets knocked down -- kitchen now opens to den.
*Island goes in (but where?)
Will the island be large enough to seat 2-4 people? Can it be designed closer to the den (not in the middle of the kitchen)? If so, then lose the table and chair set.
I would knock out that bay window in the kitchen and turn that into the double French doors instead.
And keep the location of the sink, stove, hood in the same place.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Budget
