It’s gonna be PRETTY FLIPPING AWESOME when I’m done with this renovation. It will still be small but it will have a lot more storage that’s done smarter. I’m replacing all the cabinets, the floor, of course the countertops, putting in an apron sink with just one bowl, etc. I am very excited. My house is full of un-assembled cabinets.
ETA - I also have no space for a garbage can except on the heating vent, but unfortunately that isn’t going to change.
We did all this too. Except we did a stainless sink.
Anyway…
Seriously awesome. We just spent $45,000 remodeling the kitchen and downstairs bath. Took it down to the studs.
Double oven, smooth stove top.
Armstrong laminate flooring.
Silestone eco counter top - Silestone Eco - Silestone Quartz Countertops
Birch cabinets with all the fun stuff like spice racks and stuff.
Under counter lights. 7 of them.
This pic doesn’t do it justice at all.
The new bathroom is wonderful too. Heated floor, oversize tub, quartz counter top the works.
Good luck.
In the pic of the kitchen in the post above, we have 11 outlets, and it isn’t that big of a kitchen. This really allows you to change things around too.
We also have a special outlet and the CATV for a small wall mount TV that is going to go to the left of the sink.
Renee, the exposed beam in your kitchen is very pretty!
I also have a hanging pot rack, which is completely wonderful for saving cabinet space. We did it because you don’t want to stack Calphalon but it’s so much more awesome than I’d ever realized. You have to be judicious where you put it of course, and with some kitchens it wouldn’t work.
We remodeled our kitchen when we bought this house and most of our great ideas have been mentioned above.
I’ve got one good one for you and one huge mistake for you to avoid.
We put cupboards everywhere. We built our breakfast bar out of upper cabinets so there is storage underneath behind where people feet go and also on each end. They’re shallow cabinets but very handy. One end faces our dining room table so I use it for napkins, salt/pepper etc. It’s nice to be able to keep the table clear and yet have all the stuff for the table within arms reach.
Warning - when they say leave 4’ between cabinets they are NOT kidding. In fact if you can make it wider do it. We’ve got a choke point in our kitchen that’s 3’6" wide and it’s incredibly annoying.
Another thing that we really like is a in counter soap dispenser. Not sure how hard it’s going to be to fill, but it’s nice to not have a soap bottle on the counter yet always have soap available.
My kitchen is functional but average.
Not awesome at all. Our kitchen is large but completely disfunctional in its layout. It was built in the ‘50s where we think it was a dine-in kitchen and hasn’t been updated since. The fridge is in the wrong place, there’s no triangle prep space, and there’s a real lack of well placed storage.
Oh and no granite nutin’ nor stainless steel whatevers.
still pretty awesome. It’s a step saver. 
what i like -
[ul]
[li]undermount sink[/li][li]counter to cab backsplash[/li][li]flush mount fridge[/li][li]garden window[/li][/ul]
Only spot for the hanging rack was next fridge where it hides the electric panel. Unfortunately for the cats, their food dish is below. I have been known to drop a pan onto a eating cat’s head. any clatter in teh ktichen now, sends her scurrying, nails sliding, out of the room.
Ditto this. My house was built in the 40’s and moved physically to this rural location in 1983 then added onto. You know those people on* House Hunters* who walk into a kitchen, sneer at the 10-year old fixtures, and immediately say, “Oh, this HAS to be updated”? They would drop dead in my kitchen and their bodies would have to be hauled out. Fortunately I have enough acreage that we could just bury them with no fuss, muss, or bother.
My countertops are fake-wood material of some sort… formica or something—and the undersides of the countertops shed some sawdust-y material into the top drawers. The tile behind the stove is yellow and goes with NOTHING else. The stove is one I got when I was in a barter organization and it was used when I acquired it in 1989. I yanked a section of counter and cupboard away to make room for my portable dishwasher, and when you roll the dishwasher away, you see bare, naked, weathered floorboards, which I haven’t the skill or inclination to fix. No garbage disposal.
The cupboards make me nuts because they go all the way up to the ceiling where no man or woman has ever gone before. Also the cupboard doors don’t close because the house is shifting (I guess) so I use a hair scrunchie and loop it over both knobs to hold the cupboard doors closed.
I like my kitchen.
I have a vacation home that was built in the late 50’s and the countertops are the ORIGINAL boomerang formica. So if you hang onto stuff long enough, it comes back, right?
One of the things we did was have the cupboards go all the way up. Before, we would just pile stuff on top of them and it was a mess. Now we have a place to put things like steamers and rice makers. To each his own.
I think my kitchen is fairly awesome, and the missus agrees. The features that we are happiest with now that the remodel is done are:
The wallpapered ceiling. The installation was a bit of a chore, but I think the end result was worth the effort.
The stove. It’s a dual fuel, with natural gas on the cooktop, and electric dual ovens. The larger lower oven is convection.
The countertops with the undermount sink. I wanted to build countertops out of plywood/durock and large format granite tile, but the boss really wanted an undermount sink. This was our “splurge” item.
We have mixed feelings about the faucet. If the spigot arm was about 3 inches longer, we would absolutely love it, but it doesn’t extend quite far enough into the sink. We will probably replace it with one of the magnetic base pull out models in a couple of years.
I echo the suggestion made above regarding a countertop to upper cabinet backsplash. I am also very happy with the way the window over the sink turned out, but I will not go through the hassle of that type of install again. It was very fussy.
I recently changed out our kitchen faucet, and it came with one of these soap dispensers. When I installed it, I filled up the bottle with soap, climbed under the sink and carefully screwed the bottle on the dispenser. I thought at the time refilling it would be a pain.
Last week I noticed that the soap changed color, so I figured my wife refilled it. I asked her how hard it was to refill and she said it was super easy - she just pulled off the top of the dispenser and poured the soap in. The way it’s designed to be done. :smack:
Thanks, I was sort of wondering about that. Thinking that it might unscrew. I will try just pulling it out.
My kitchen is not that awesome. But I did replace the white tile countertops with silestone (which I love!) and the kitchen came with double ovens, which only comes in handy a few times a year but I certainly appreciate it during those times!
I have awesome vertical pull-out shelves in my kitchen, which I love. They are about 10" wide, I think, with adjustable shelves accessible from either side. Canned goods do not get lost in the back, and I can keep a pantry’s worth of food in a relatively small space. I looked online for a picture, but couldn’t find quite the same thing. The shelves have about a 1.5" lip on top so you don’t push something out the other side while fitting things in.
I agree, put in twice as many outlets as you think you will need. Make sure they are GFCI. We also did the counter-to-cabinet glass tile backsplash, and it looks awesome. We used horizontal “subway tile” style, which visually makes the tiny kitchen look somewhat less cramped.
Also - you might find it surprising, but real granite counter tops were MUCH cheaper than the Silestone I had planned to get, especially if you don’t look for some bizarre pattern or color. We got the traditional “Baltic Brown” granite for HALF the cost of the equivalent Silestone.
Wow..lots of good stuff here!
I’ve been doing some research on induction. What I’ve read is:
Upside: Faster heat. Less waste. Stovetop is cool immediately when done.
Downside: I need to replace some of my pots and pans. I may not be able to reheat something a guest brings over in their pot.
Is that about right?
Just about all of that is on my list! I actually added the under-cabinet lights to the list last night..I remembered a friend who did that.
Ooh..reading material! I love it.
[QUOTE=Maastricht]
Rotating cabinet racks are the bomb for you pans. Get a lid rack for the inside of the cabinets. Make one yourself, that is pretty easy.
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Good idea. This, or the deep drawer cabinet-ish stuff mentioned by someone else (I’m getting lost already!)..sounds like a good solution.
While I’d love a hanging rack, I just don’t have available wall or ceiling space.
[QUOTE=Maastricht]
Create space for awkward stuff like brooms, fire blankets, serving trays, and cutting boards.
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Trays and boards need to be handled. Brooms and such have a completely separate room. 
[QUOTE=Maastricht]
Make cabinets all up untill the ceiling. otherwise you will just have an extra useless surface to clean.
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Check! On the list.
If only I had the room to make that kichen.. But I’ll check out the link at Garden web. Thanks.
I think that’s kind of what I’m going to end up looking like. Wood cabinets. Wood flood. And just glancing at that, and then my kitchen..I can push things out a bit along one wall and get the extra full top-to-bottom cabinet. That would solve SO many storage issues!
Bathrooms are on the list too. I’m redoing at least two of the three. Not sure how crazy I’m going to go there. I have a Jacuzzi tub in the master, but I’d like a bigger one. That, or put a real hot tub in the back yard, with a cabana. I could go either way.
Yes! I keep getting annoyed at having to pick up a soap bottle. And I hadn’t even thought about that. I’ve added it to my sink list.
I’m debating the double oven question..haven’t decided that yet. I rarely feel like I need it, but I’m thinking that if I had it, I’d find a use. I haven’t decided on convection..but it’s certainly in play.
Undermount sink is a must have for me..for cleaning.
Good tip on the spigot arm. I’ll watch for that.
Thanks, all! I saw several more messages come in while typing this, so I’m going to post and get back to reading.
-D/a
Yeah..I’m loving the pull-out shelve options. So many ways that can help!
I need to see how much of that my friend can hook me up with.
-D/a
My kitchen is very new and very awesome. It’s not big by US standards but has a garden window (thanks for that turn of phrase Chela) a diamond pattern gas hob with a powerful wok ring, a dedicated under counter cat feeding space and, most awesome of all, a mid level oven – no more bending down, no more manoeuvering very hot dishes in the very tight space that the original design left. Oh and not only counter to cupboard tiles but, as chosen and arranged by me, very beautiful tiles.
Edited to add that as well as making more room the diamond pattern hob makes it easy to keep the handles of the larger pans away from the counter edge, so it’s safer.