If you cook a lot, consider a double oven. Not the type incorporated into the stove but above the lower cabinets. I know this all depends on budget and maybe more importantly room. But the the cabinet space the oven takes up is basically moved to be under the stove. So we have pots and pans down there on a slide out drawer.
We moved our refer and a microwave to the laundry/mechanical room. There is a utility sink in there so it worked pretty good. YMMV of course, we have a big utility room.
And again the under the counter lights are good task lighting. And also just a nice source of light during the evening.
This is FUN playing with other peoples money Let’s see…
I didn’t have room for a double oven, and I don’t cook THAT much to need it. But I found that Samsung has standard sized ovens that have a removable heat shield insert. Basically, with the insert in place, you have separate temperature control for the top half and the bottom half of the oven. Remove it, and you have a standard sized oven. Most of the time, I just cook in the smaller bottom half. For Thanksgiving, I remove the insert and use the space for my turkey. The downside is that there is only one door.
My microwave functions as a convection oven, so I kinda have the regular double oven capability. One year I was short on time prepping a meal, and I did have three different things cooking at once. It’s a nice option to have.
Thirding or fourthing drawers for everything, especially pans. Our last 2 kitchens have had virtually no upper cabinets (we have the luxury of a pantry, however). Loving our induction top. Depending on your height, non-standard counter heights are nice. My wife is 5’ tall and our island is at 34", which is a nice working height. Farm sinks have had their day, but we definitely prefer a single-bowl sink.
Yeah, I’m 5’1" and Tom_Scud is 6’2", so I think we are sticking with standard counter heights. Which also means we can use standard cabinetry parts.
I am on the fence about whether to stick with stock cabinets or go for semi-custom ones all the way to the ceiling. Let’s see what the numbers come back like. The cabinet guy we met with yesterday said they range from about 65% more expensive than analogous stock cabinets on upward.
We just ordered our cabinets at Lowes. Maybe they where considered semi-custom, but I don’t recall a big price variation 65% sounds like a lot. But I’m sure they are more difficult to install. And you’ll need a piece of trim along the top. That’s sold with the cabinets. So that number may not be far off.
I am not remodeling my kitchen, but i am replacing the backsplash, adding a bunch of outlets, and adding under cabinet lights. It’s not cheap, but I’m very excited about it.
Grrrrr
That’s an interesting perspective. For the other side, when our kitchen sink was out of view from the rest of the apartment, i hated doing dishes. I felt outcast. Now that the kitchen sink is prominent in our eat in kitchen, and you can’t see from it into the den, I’m much happier doing dishes. I don’t feel cut off any more.
But it’s still about how the kitchen relates to other parts of the house. That’s definitely something to think about.
Man, ain’t it the truth! My wife basically does ALL of the contracting for our home maintenance. Yet if she ever anticipates there being an issue, she’ll ask me to be present, just because the workmen will act differently if a man is present. Just crazy!
I haven’t tried that. My husband doesn’t care, and it feels like a waste of his time to get him involved. But I have had issues with contractors not wanting to worry my silly little head. I talk shop with them, though, which helps.
Yeah - the GOOD workmen/contractors realize that my wife knows what is being done and is the “decider.” But there is a category of workmen and salesmen who just act differently - more respectfully - when another penis is in the area. Jerks.
You said it was a 100+ year old house?
Budget extra for everything, nothing will be square or plumb, and you will have to do a bit of customization to get almost everything you put in new to fit properly (meaning square and level)
It’s a bungalow, so except for the living/dining room which has minimal division, all the rooms are closed off from each other by doors, and the kitchen is separated from the main living area by a bathroom and a built-in china cabinet. It’s very typical Chicago bungalow architecture. No major architectural changes are happening. The closest thing for now is that I think we will end up having to replace the window over the sink because the bottom foot or so is actually behind the kitchen sink. But that’s OK; the windows are the original ones and are really leaky and need some major love anyway.
Right now that one is essentially not usable because in order to open it, you would have to reach down behind the counter, and even the one of us who is 6’2" can’t manage that!
The cabinet guy on Saturday floated the idea of moving the window on the back wall that was blocking the old refrigerator door. We are pondering solutions for that issue (one of which is putting a tall, skinny cabinet next to the window, then the fridge), but haven’t settled on anything. If only the @%@@%^ window were a couple of inches further from the adjoining wall - right now it’s 22.5", so a standard 24" cabinet won’t fit right in the corner. Anyway, he is coming over on Friday to look around and measure and brainstorm.
I’d like to know where you folk live that - assuming there is a window in the bathroom - or elsewhere in your dwelling - there isn’t enough ambient light to allow you to “do your business” without incident in the middle of the night.
And - yes - the GFI lights and other LEDs do create a ton of light. IMO&E, people often overestimate the amount of added light they need to navigate in the dark. My wife is on the extreme end WRT disliking such light such that when we used to use a family vacation cabin, she would tape over or otherwise block the various LEDs and such.
When we did our kitchen we hired a General Contractor who brought in all of the subs and designed and ordered everything. We took it down to the studs and ripped up the floor and opened up the small pass through to a wide open space.
The one lesson that was successful for us was to plan plan plan and get everything (appliances, tiles, flooring, countertops, cabinet measurements, etc) ordered and scheduled properly in advance. That meant the actual work in the room, from demolition to finish, was 8 days. We had heard stories of people taking months to complete, there is no reason for that. Sure, it meant that the electrician and plumber were bumping into each other, and the cabinet cabinet guy was crawling over the flooring guy, but it worked and it was a beautiful thing.
Among many other things, we found that custom cabinets were a better and cheaper option than working with pre-made. I think it’s partly that we were in LA and there is an oversupply of custom cabinet makers, so they are competitive on price. And they were able to handle quirks and oddball issues, which would have been a bigger problem with pre-mades.
When it falls down eventually, these things are great for remounting them. It took ours more than a decade, but it eventually did detach somewhat on one side, and I used one of those to get it back right.
Let’s see…