Our gracious blogger, Katie, has allowed a guest post. I thought it might be interesting to show some of the layout and see what people think.
To start out, here is a picture of the kitchen as Katie and I have come to hate :).
You can't tell in the above picture, but the side of the island (is that really just a peninsula?) has carpet that runs up the side. The soffit will be yanked out. Cabinets will eventually goto the ceiling.
Below gives a better perspective. Nothing like having to vacuum the walls lol...
Another picture showing the inside of the kitchen a little bit more:
Of course here is the highlight of the kitchen. A zodiac cutting board...
So now that you have an idea of what we currently have...here is the new and improved hotness...
One of the nice things about the new arrangement will be the traffic pattern. The entrance to the kitchen is located next to the fridge with another entrance to the right of the sink and a third doorway to the left of the wall oven. Instead of congregating in the peninsula, we can now loiter around the island. Additionally, it is the thought to put a love seat below the island which would be at the bottom of the screen where the picture is being perceived from.
So in the above, this is where the stove will be with the island removed for the purpose of the picture. One of the major things that Katie and I wanted to do was open up the kitchen and first floor in general. So here we have a pass thru that ties in the "red room" to the rest of the house. Once everything is complete you will be able to stand in the red room and see through the kitchen, through the newly enlarged hallway and into the tv room.
The below picture shows us currently standing at the sink. The remodel will demo the black "X" portion of the wall and will make the opening as wide as the black X along with the current doorway. Going further in the hall, the red X is the wall in the hallway. The opening will be shifted so that we will be able to see into the TV room from the kitchen.
Moving into the hallway, we are getting rid of the closet (hence the red scribbles). The doorway is being enlarged to the back of the closet. This enlargement of the doorway allows us to see all the way through the house. Oh yeah, take note of the awesome tile in the hallway! See-ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Old door:
New hotness!!!!!!! At least that is what I like...we are still trying to track down all of the details on this one...
Moving into the TV room. Good-bye awful wood panelling.
Good-bye bookshelves...
We are getting rid of the rustic beams along the ceiling
The mantle will be redone, somehow, someway, but we have no clue yet...
So what did I leave off? 1000sqft of hardwood floors and that means no carpet on the first floor. All new appliances in the kitchen. I did not include pictures of the laundry room which will be more or less gutted also. The bathroom will also be modified. New overhead lighting through-out the entire house. Lastly, and most importantly, new white baseboards, trim and door casings throughout the first floor. I can't wait for that part.
I think that about covers it. I hand you back over to Katie's emotional rants about this process.
Cheers,
Matt
