Room by room we’re getting there

Ah, yes.  How well I remember the day we decided to remodel my old family home and call it our own.  It was a little over a year ago.

When one walked in the back door, this is what greeted you (above).

And now…

I think this is a good improvement.  The walls were pushed out and the place was gutted. All new cabinets, appliances, floors, electrical and counter tops were installed.  My husband did not want the support post next to the counter, but the engineer said that it was absolutely necessary structurally.

The original home, built in 1961 for my parents, had a small kitchen with linoleum floors, copper cabinet pulls, no microwave or dishwasher, a copper overhead stove fan (which I destroyed when I put some bacon on the stove to cook and promptly forgot about it until I smelled the smoke.  I was 12.) And we had an old brown electric stovetop.  My parents remodeled the kitchen somewhat and had the wood floors installed, along with new white cabinet pulls (which I never liked), new stove top and a micro.

We opened up the far wall and…

we gained a lot more space.  The width of the kitchen is the same but the length of the area is greatly increased even though we only added 80 sf to the house.

The countertops are a white quartz which is as tough as nails even though it shows every speck of dirt.

The island is now 9’x4′, which adds more prep space. The length of the counter on the bar/eating side is exactly the same length as the original bar/eating area.  But, the counter is much wider.

The entire room has been opened up and modernized while keeping the character of the home.

Before, looking into the family room was a tough view.  I remember my mom constantly ducking down to talk to people in the family room while she was cooking in the kitchen.

We’ve solved that issue…

Now the cook, who happens to be my husband, is a part of whatever is going on or whoever is in the family room. We still have space at the counter for at least 4 people to snack comfortably.

Before there was a double oven in the wall, which was also located in a major walkway thru to the rest of the house.

Now, we purchased a slide-in Induction/electric oven with double oven capacity and the cavity of the old oven has been turned into a pantry.

with motion detector lights.

Table seating for more than 4 had always been a problem.  Growing up, there were only four of us in the family and so there was enough room for our family meals.  But we always held the family celebrations here and we would have at least 8 people if not more.  My grandmother was in a wheel chair which made it all the more difficult.  We managed to cram in as many people as we needed, but it was very tight and very crowded.

Now we have room for a table that expands to seat 10 and we have plenty of room because we extended the wall to add an extra 80 sf.

Other niceties is an Induction stove-top with double electric oven.  If you have never cooked with Induction, you should give it a try.  It heats pans much faster than a conventional electric or gas stove due to the ability to heat the whole pan at once rather than starting at the bottom of the pan and working it’s way up.  It also is a much cooler method of cooking and does not heat up the kitchen nearly as much as conventional stove tops.

We did not want to put the microwave over the oven so we chose a microwave drawer that we placed next to the oven.

The good thing about the drawer is that there is no bending over.  The not so good thing is that it is much harder to clean and liquid spills a little more due to the movement of the drawer opening and closing (if the container is overfilled.)  We had this microwave in our other home and liked it very much.

The water heater was stored in a little cupboard in the family room.  We now have a tankless water heater outside and we will be installing a wine cabinet into the space…as soon as we can afford it.

There are 3 skylights in this room…two in the family room area (above) and one in the kitchen, which all provide plenty of light during the day.

Extra storage was added under the counter for items that are not regularly used.

We still have some work left, such as adding the wine cabinet and adding some wood blinds and window coverings, but in general, we are quite pleased with the result.

Now for the rest of the house…