New Kitchen - Finally, the before and after shots archived

It's time - 12 years in the house and we still haven't done the kitchen. It's the original kitchen. As in 1935.

First I'll start with the pix - and then I'll start with the dilemmas.

The counter - just you love love the powder blue formica?

Next - the butler's pantry - we love this and will some how keep the look.

The pantry closet - we want to move the door/opening to the other side so we can push the fridge up against the wall - so I can have a real table.

A view from the opposite wall - note the floor. It's fake ceramic tile. I hate it.
The cabinets were once painted in oil - then acrylic - so the acrylic paint is coming off and bonding with the floor.

The stove - the cutting edge in 1982? Still works really well and has 5 burners....

Considering all the good food you cook--keep the stove!!

My first suggestion is make a floor plan. Then you can go to various places--Brook Cabinet or even Home Depot, Ikea- and see what they design for you and get some ideas. I believe if they just do a 'design' it's free. I know HD will charge you $100 if they come out to measure-but you don't have to use them.

I know a few designers/architects-- I can give you their names

This looks EXACTLY like my old kitchen before we redid it (also after 12 years). What are the dimensions? I can show you what we did.

I'm measuring tonight.

The first dilemma - the stove is 36" wide. Friend is pressuring to replace it - we don't have a lot of money - and we're doing the installation of the floor, the painting and tile work ourselves. Lowes would get the cabinet/counter top installation and we'll need someone to do the demo of the cabinets and floor. We have a plumber and electrician. The only thing we'll need a contractor for is the moving of the pantry door.

If it works and it's 36 wide, just keep it if you want. When you need to replace, just get a 36. Otherwise, if you are short on funds right now you will end up with a 30 I suppose.

Congrats. How exciting. You're not doing demo yourself? That part is the most fun!

I agree with shh about the stove. That can always be replaced another time.

Doing the demo yourself is the easiest, but messiest way to save money. Be prepared for surprises behind the walls-like old rotting galvanized pipe.

The floor may be the biggest headache because they are not level in old houses. This effects the type of flooring you can use (ceramic tile will crack). Also measurements for the cabinets should be taken after the floor is in.

Don't keep a stove that old. It willl look really bad once everything is re-done and you will be sorry you kept it. Appliances are easy- open a store card and get the 12 or even 24 mths financing they offer. Not worth skimping on that part. Totally agree on demo- you can asave tons of $ doing that yourself. Just be sure to coincide it with the Saturday drop off day so you can get rid of it the day after you rip it all out. Painting i also easy to do yourself. Get some pricing on the tile/floors. That part turned out to be much cheaper than I thought and the time saver and professionalism (leveling, cutting tile, etc) from having a pro do it was well worth the $. And piecing out the job by hiring your own plumber, etc is the way to go. We cut the contractor's price for re-doing it soup to nuts in HALF by demo-ing ourselves, painting urselves and hiring the pieces out to the vendors we worked with directly.

Unfortunately, finding a 36' replacement stove isn't always that easy. When we updated our kitchen a couple of years ago there was only one brand in our price range and it was an off-brand with poor reviews. Some of the really, really expensive stoves are sometimes available in 36". We ended up with a 30" and added a 6" dummy door to the missing space (gaining 6" of counter space). I'd bite the bullet and get a new stove.

Joy, I think our kitchen is even older than yours, but it has an awesome glass-paned upper cabinet. We ended up puting on all new doors and hardware and a granite countertop (and stainless appliances). We like the effect, but I must admit that our wooden drawers made out of wood that is probably 3/8" thick with no glides probably won't meet the standard of many buyers!

It's not that difficult or expensive to get new drawers and doors made. I did for my butler's pantry.

KRNL, I think now it is much easier to get 36 stoves. Many main stream brands offer that size now, not just the higher end.
If Joy was selling I would certainly tell her to put in a new 30 inch, but if she likes the old 36 and it has a few years left of life, I would say put aside some $ each month for when it dies and you'll end up with a nicer 36.

I know you're probably itching to get rid of all those vintage details, but check out this site for great inspirations for updating a retro kitchen:

http://retrorenovation.com/

The same woman runs a site to save the pick bathrooms:
http://savethepinkbathrooms.com/

I agree, a stove that old has got to go. Aren't you getting new cabinets? If so, no need to keep the same size appliance, just replace with a standard size range instead; lots of great options these days (including 5 burners) for well under $1,000.

For example, for ~$600:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Frigidaire+-+30%22+Freestanding+Gas+Range+-+Stainless-Steel/9798762.p?id=1218176211368&skuId=9798762&cmp=RMX&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=9798762

How exciting! I finally did my kitchen last year (after living in the house 11 years). We had to blow out the back wall of the house because the kitchen was way way too small. And as much as I loved the idea and look of the butler's pantry, it just had to go. Now I have a real pantry (5'x5') and my fridge is in the actual kitchen! I can't believe we waited so long to do it.
Don't worry about uneven floor. There is a liquid "self-leveler" you can use and then the tiles come out perfectly even.
I'd post a photo here but I don't know how to.

...

look at Marmolium Click for the floors.

There's a place in Honesdale PA called Green Demolition. They have cabinets and appliances from remodels of homes in CT and elsewhere that if it were you and me, we never would have taken them out. I once saw a green viking stove for $500.00. Great place to visit and the town is a nice walking town as well.

Wow. I would keep that kitchen. I dig it.

My stove is WAY older than that and still works great - a Caloric Compacto. Save the pink bathrooms!

I'll have detail pix up by tomorrow.
While the concept is great - it's worn and broken.

Like krnl, we replaced our 36" with a 30" stove and a 6" wine cabinet. We had so little counter space that the extra 6" is wonderful. Are you keeping the wall tile? We have wall tile just like it. We recently considered selling and our realtor said the tile was a plus, I guess it is considered "charm". It's hard to get it to go with modern kitchen anything, however.
Consider Jaeger for the countertops- we went to the one in Madison, they have a wide selection.

I'm sort of with mcgregorj. I love the period details of the cabinets (I might get rid of the scalloped cornices---but they reflect the butler's pantry -- I LOVE that!) and if they are not damaged, I would just change out the hardware (although I think the wrought iron is charming)and countertops. Does this have to be a complete demo, joy? Are you going to change the footprint? Suppose you were to cut a door in the hallway for the pantry , and walled up the door into the kitchen, would that work?
As for the floor, did you check to see if there is wood under that tile and subfloor?

I would keep the butler's pantry and the wall tiles. Saving these will give a more authentic look to your kitchen. Match your cabinets to your butler's pantry. Doesn't have to be exact but maybe do the lowers in a painted finish and the uppers in a natural. Are you keeping the soffit above the cabinets? For countertop, I would not go with a shiny granite. A honed finish is a much better choice if you are keeping the period look of your butler's pantry. If a honed granite seems to be too expensive, look into solid surfaces such as caeserstone.

Get a good handyman to move the pantry door and shelves. I don't think that is a big deal. Keep the 36" stove. As others said, it's fairly easy to find 36" stoves today. Get a good 36" vent hood and make it vent outside.

We did our kitchen fairly inexpensively by going with Ikea cabinets but then splurged on honed slate and higher end plumbing fixtures and also a Miele Dishwasher.

Posted By: honeydoThere's a place in Honesdale PA called Green Demolition.

And if you go here, you can stop by for a visit in Pennsyltucky!

I do love the original butler's pantry and, if it were me, I'd try to find a way to salvage that. It's really pretty and adds so much charm.

I agree about keeping the kitchen! I love it - I'd just put in new floors.

A couple of things to think about and a couple of 'eyes wide open' points:
Are you changing the layout? I didn't see that you were. Keeping lines where they are helps reduce costs.
One of the things you might consider is if you want to demo the soffit, the boxed off space above the cabinets to increase your cabinet height and space.
You may also find, once you remove/demo the old cabinets the walls will need to be patched so as you budget, plan to spend some $ on restoring the walls before you put up the cabinets. This will be esp. true if you demo the soffit.
While the kitchen was probably built to code in 1936, codes have changed so your electrician *may* need to do additional work to bring things up to code. Just to be aware that this might be an expense, although it is hard to budget for.
The above goes for your plumber too.

You can get some cabinets in a complimentary style to the pantry and keep it if you want. Having multi colored cabinets - particularly highlighting a unique or different piece - is very popular right now. You may want to simply paint the butler's pantry a color (sage being popular now, but i've seen blues as well) and have the rest wood or off white to coordinate.

Good luck!