Kitchen Remodel: Day 0 (Before Pictures)

Why remodel?

 I first saw my current home in the Summer of 1999. The house was custom built in 1960 by an architect who made it his family's home.  We knew we wanted our new home to be 

• located close to my husband's new job (he could walk to his office) 
• be close to schools (elementary school is across the street)
• be welcoming to our aging parents who we hoped would visit often (it's a ranch style with gentle stairs to the basement)
• be close to a bus line to get to campus (8 minutes to walk to the bus stop).

This house met all those requirements but the kitchen was dated and needed updating.  We made an offer, it was accepted, and we moved into the home in August of 1999. A short twenty-five years later we hired professionals to gut and re-build our kitchen.

Our primary goals are to update our cooktop and oven, gain more counter space, gain more storage space, and get better lighting. 

Here is a picture of our galley-style kitchen unchanged since we moved in 25 years ago.  We will remove the soffits and our new cabinets will go all the way to the ceiling. 

You see the plastic waste bin? When we did our final walk through in 1999 the seller asked whether he could leave the bin for us.  I said yes and we have used that bin every day since. Because we avoid sending anything useful to a landfill we will likely repurpose the bin for use in the basement laundry area.

We are replacing these light fixtures so the tallest family members will no longer hit their heads on them.

(Let us know if you want the fixtures. We have three of the ones shown here. We'd love for someone to get even more use out of them.)

Storage area now

When we first moved in we had our dining table under this window.  More recently we've used this space to change and store shoes 

Storage for extra kitchen necessities 2022-2024

We bought this used dresser from a resale shop for more kitchen storage space. We donated it back to the resale shop in the fall of 2024.

Appliances I've wanted to replace for 25 years

Very MCM stylish but noisy fan.  This vents to the outside through our roof. We have limited storage in the overhead cupboard because of the venting.  The new kitchen venting will go through the wall before going up through the roof.

Electric cooktop is very hard to keep clean yet all four elements still work. It takes a long time to boil water or heat up a pan.

This oven was installed August 28, 1980. It is a non-standard size. We would have been without a built-in oven if it had died before the remodel.

Other than the clock only being accurate twice/day, the oven still works.  I've replaced the lower element once. I have purposely neglected cleaning it for the past several months.

Once a coat closet now a kitchen pantry

Sometime along the way we removed the shelf and the coat hanging bar to gain more pantry space.  The sliding doors were removed while cleaning up a nasty spill (my fault) on Thanksgiving Day in 2023.  The doors will be re-installed and the storage space improved in the remodel. Also note the jugs of water on the floor. Our remodel includes a reverse-osmosis filter and dedicated faucet so no more need to buy water for use in coffee making.

Deconstruction starts January 6th.  Stay tuned for occasional updates!