The Plan - Layout

It took us about a year to seriously decide on a layout for the new kitchen and the looming expiration of an IKEA kitchen sale to push us to make the move. Since it's a weird shape and pretty small, after many drawings on scrap pieces of paper, we decided to stick with a very similar layout with a few minor adjustments. Yeah, not that exciting.

We kept the appliances on the right side of kitchen in basically the same spots. The stove and sink are the same locations, but the dishwasher moves over a bit to be next to the sink. The big change for that side of the room are for the cabinets that are under the window at the end of the kitchen - they are gone! and the kitchen goes to a true galley layout. With the cabinets under the window gone, we will be able to have a better view of the backyard - primary to make sure that the dog isn't eating a squirrel or a rabbit. 

You'll also notice that we are living on the edge with having no uppper cabinets flanking the stove and no microwave/fan combo (more on that below). I know, CRAZY! Depending on how it goes, we may add open shelving to that wall if we need more storage. What we are adding, are two 24" wide drawer cabinets for plates, bowls, pots, and pans.



Now for the other side of the kitchen! In the picture below, we have the fridge, a pantry, and then an upper and lower 12" wide cabinets. Our microwave will be going into the pantry to keep the counter tops free of appliances.

Due to code regulations, we have to change the swing of the door that currently goes over the mudroom steps (located near that upper/lower cabinet. It's the ivory door that you can see here) and have it swing into the room which eats up precious kitchen space. In order to make it work, we are going to switch the location of the fridge and pantry from the rendering above's layout and hopefully still be able to get a shallow depth bottom cabinet in there too. By switching the fridge and pantry, we will not need to have 7 inches on the left side of the fridge (for the filler strip) to be able to open it fully and will only need 2 inches for the pantry doors to open against that wall.

I'm depending having that single upper and lower cabinet for the coffee maker and baking supplies as well as having a home for an USB outlet above the counter top. Since the room has been gutted, we have done a lot of double and triple checking our measurements and it will be close. Fingers crossed it works!

Hi, remember me.

Hi, all! Remember me? Lisa from southern New Jersey, owner of The Pilot, partner in crime to the Dude?

Well, it's been some time since I posted last but I'm starting up the old blog again to share what's been going on with our house projects and to share a new project we are currently working on. 

A few weeks ago we finally got our act together and decided to create a bit of a mess with a full-gut of our lame, sad, kitchen from 1984. Who doesn't like some organized destruction...perhaps our neighbors who could not park in front of our house for a few days?

I think our old kitchen had the potential to win one of those "World's Worst Kitchen" contests but we aren't that motivated to make a stupid video, send it in, and be actor-y.  I'd rather pay good money for a kitchen that I like than be stuck with one of show's "designer's" wacky ideas.

Here's our kitchen all cleared out and in it's former state of being...

Okay, let's discuss the ugly:

• faux parquet floors
• faux butcher block countertops
• faux wood cabinets
• faux brick paneling
• faux wood plank ceiling
• two boob lights
• no good soffit
• peeling painted over wallpaper (my mother decided the day we moved in to start ripping off the wallpaper because it was "fun" - that was nine years ago)

This kitchen was filled with fakes like a New York city street corner. 

After we filled up those two Bagsters, our kitchen became a shell of a kitchen. You'll note that prior to the kitchen's last remodel in 1984, there was a large window to the right. That was the only surprise we found and lots of bad electrical wiring.

Thanks for reading to this point and I hope you stick around for more updates at a higher frequency.

Yay for a kitchen remodel!