Our Home Renovation

There are a few things in the Sheridan House that I have spent literally hours trying to figure out the best way to make them work. One of those things is the kitchen cabinets. A few things we know for sure:

• We want to keep the existing cabinets
• We need to add a section of cabinets for the area next to where the stove will go
• The base cabinets are about 4″ lower than normal
• The upper cabinets come down lower than normal
• A dishwasher (we’re not 100% sure we’re going to add one) requires about 2-2.5 more inches below the countertop.

Here’s some photos. (click to see them larger)

So, we can leave everything as is and build the new lower cabinet to match, and have the stove surface stick up 4″ above the counter. Or, we can build the new section at normal height and have most of the counter low, but the new ‘end’ high. Or, we can raise the whole counter a full 4″ to normal height and the stove fits normal and there’s room for a dishwasher. But then there is almost no usable counter space because that leaves about 9″ between the counter and the upper cabinets. You see the dilemma? I’ve literally spent hours pondering this and trying to come up with a solution.

Here’s what I think will be the best compromise…Raise the counter 2.5-3″ so it’s barely lower than normal, probably not noticeably so. Shorten the upper cabinets by a total of about 2.5″. I should be able to take about 1″ off the top and 1.5″ off the bottom of the cabinet doors. I think that between those compromises, we’ll get everything we’re hoping to - a dishwasher would fit, there’d still be about 14″ of clearance between the counter and upper cabinets, the stove would only be ~ 1″ higher than the counter and the character of the original cabinets can remain mostly intact. There’s still the issue of how to raise the counter, but that’s another kind of problem that is more fun to figure out because one way or another it can be done.

Any other ideas? There’s a bunch more photos of the kitchen posted on Flickr.

One of the hardest things in renovating a house is figuring out what to do first. Especially since I love to start new projects, but I am horrible at finishing them. With our house, I can remember gutting the bathroom at the same time as I started reglazing a window from another part of the house and at the same time as tearing out carpeting in the house and at the same time as tearing out the previously-enclosed front porch. It’s been that way all along, but lately I’ve been getting better at pushing myself to finish a project before moving on (as much as possible).

These were all taken on the same day (the day we closed on our house - April 17th, 2005):

As we started working on the Sheridan House, we decided the first priority HAD to be the roof. It was in really bad shape and there were several leaks. So that was an easy decision to do first. We decided the second priority overall needed to be the front exterior of the house. If we do end up selling the Sheridan House, we want the curb appeal to be there as soon as possible - if there are a few details left inside that need to be finished up, there’s no reason a ‘for sale’ sign can’t go up out front. If the front of the house still needs obvious attention (or lacks the eventual curb appeal), then we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot (feet?). With our current house, the outside has ended up being the last priority - the inside of the house is almost complete and here we are 2+ years later and the outside (front of the house, anyway) still hasn’t had anything done to it really and we have yet to paint the house and give it any measure of curb appeal. But, that’s what the priorities are all about - we decided that livability was the highest priority overall, whereas with the Sheridan House, visual appeal was.

Plumbing was up there on the priority list, though, because it’s really hard to work without running water. (Thanks, neighbors!) Getting the bathroom done is high up because, again, it’s hard to work without any toilet or sink. The electrical service upgrade was essential because that would allow us to sleep at night not having to worry about the ancient electrical service.

Personally, I love problem soving and planning out priorities is really just one big puzzle; you just have to figure out the best place to start and then put the pieces together one by one. Hopefully this gave a little insight into the method behind the madness when starting to tackle a project like this. It’s been a lot different not living in the house while we’re working on it.

On a different note, it’s been hot this week (90+) and working inside without A/C is killer, especially when it’s as humid as it has been. I’ve still been getting work done on the house, but unfortunately at a bit slower pace than I would have hoped. Expect more progress updates this weekend.