Kitchen and Dining Area

The room that is now the kitchen originally had four doorways.

The north door opened to a bedroom.  The east door opened to the back porch/basement stairs.  The south doorway led to the previous kitchen.  The west doorway led to a hallway.

It's unclear what this room was originally meant to be.  It was a nice size, but the layout sucked.  The previous owner used it as a utility room, housing the refrigerator, washing machine, and dryer.  The dryer sat in front of the long window.

The built-in shelving unit/pantry (shown above) jutted into the room, making things even more awkward.

The adjoining bedroom felt crowded, thanks to the closet parked in one corner.

  The above photo shows the closet door on the right.  The bedroom door is on the left.

The bedroom had two windows.  The north window (you can see its curtains on the left) was tiny and didn't have much of a view.  The east window let in great light (once the curtains came down), but the view was mainly of the back porch.

We tore the wall separating the bedroom and the utility room down.

We demolished the built-in shelves, the bedroom closet, hall closet, and the other bedroom's closet.  All of the walls were gutted so we could redo the wiring; it also made the plumbing easier.

Once we saw how pieced together the walls were, we rebuilt 95% of the interior walls, and the entire north exterior wall.  In most places, we had to take out one board, grind off the nails sticking through the top and bottom plates, and then pound the new board into place.  It was slow going.

We widened the doorway to the hallway.  You can see the new header here.

We left the south doorway where it was, but surrounded it with walls, forming a closet for the new bedroom where the old kitchen was.  We took out the long window and put a shorter one in its place.

We rebuilt a closet for the other bedroom.  You can see part of the closet on the right side of the left photo.  The right photo shows its full eight feet length. 

Both bedroom windows were removed.  The cost of new windows + energy loss on north side + crappy view = no windows.

Here's how the new dining area turned out.  The new breaker panel (fuse box) is on the left wall.  The back wall has one receptacle (electrical outlet) and a cable television jack.  

Here's the new kitchen.

Before: a doorway led to the previous kitchen.  After: the backside of a closet eliminated the need for corner cabinetry.

We widened the doorway from the kitchen to the hallway and the doorway from the hallway to the living room.  We laid new tile in the kitchen, hallway, and bathroom.  We ditched the green carpet in the living room and replaced it with a neutral brown.

The hallway used to be a square room, but with the hall closet removed, we were able to push the kitchen out and eliminate wasted space.  The widened doorway opened things up.

The walls aren't eight feet tall, so the soffits above the cabinetry are only about 3 inches.

 

The new kitchen window doesn't let in as much light, but it is ten times more functional than the old one.

The kitchen is so spacious.  It turned out very well.

Click here to see the floor plans

Click here to see the exterior photos

Click here to see the living room

Click here to see the south bedroom

Click here to see the hallway

Click here to see the bathroom

Click here to see the north bedroom

Click here to see the basement