Kitchen Remodel- Part 1

When I was "condo hunting" and toured this unit I knew I would have to make some major updates to the kitchen (and a long list of other areas as well).  Not only was it just not my style but it was also completely outdated and barely functional.  The oven even had to sit at an angle to the counter tops so that the dishwasher could open!  The few existing cabinets had were awkward and didn't make the best use of space.  The positives were that it was an end unit with an incredible amount of natural light, hardwood floors, and the previous owners just put in brand new appliances.  As a single female, living in the city this was both exciting but scary at the same time.  I grew up having extremely handy relatives around me but no one lived close to where I was moving.  It would take a lot drive (or fly!) a few hours just to work on my 1 br condo. Luckily, my super handy dad was with me during the showing and saw the incredible potential of such a small space!  He of course promised he would make the voyage up from Florida within the next few years to do it for me.  How could I turn that down?

So here it is:

Odd cabinet placement- lots of empty unused space in the corner between the dishwasher and range.  Just in general I felt like the appliances were all jammed together with no real counter space.   

Extra small pass through hole.  

Positives-I didn't have an enclosed galley kitchen

Negatives- view from the living room looked like an awkward hole.  

Here's the entrance where the refrigerator narrows the doorway.  

I had a love hate relationship with the large window for a while.  I loved the light the size made that entire wall almost unusable and it went down low enough that I couldn't put anything under it.  

After living in it for a year I started brainstorming of how to fix the layout to create more space and modernize it!

Wish list:

• Open the opening between the kitchen and living room all the way (but still not lose all of my cabinet space).  
• Move dishwasher to left side of sink so that I could put a lazy susan in the corner and gain all of that extra storage space.
• Somehow utilize the wall that was pretty much non-functioning due to the air duct and large window. 

I knew it was a lot to ask but I also knew if I was going to spend the time and money to re-do it I wanted it to really think through all of my options.  

One day Dad came up with the perfect solution!  It was so perfect e that I of course told him it wouldn't work multiple times! Once he drew it out and explained in language that I could understand and visualize I knew we had found our plan!  

Incredible Solution: Move the refrigerator to the space on the back wall, in the opening that holds the washer and dryer.   Move washer/dryer elsewhere.

It was an incredibly perfect solution but it also brought along a new problem...what to do with the washer and dryer and in a 700 square feet condo the options are definitively limited?  My genius solution was to move it to the bathroom.  After all, I'd prefer to do laundry in the bathroom over the kitchen any day and I had an unnecessarily large linen closet that I could learn to live without in exchange for having my perfect kitchen. And since it was the bathroom, plumbing was readily available.  If only it were that easy...

As I started to get quotes from different contractors and review things with my condo association I ran into a few problems.  I was told that I would have to run the dryer vent from the existing location to the bathroom which would involve opening up the entire ceiling in between (a fairly large distance) and that it would be a major plumbing operation since the pipes differ in size.  Ugh, the saga of where to put the washer and dryer continued...

Final solution: the hall coat closet!  In the picture above if you turn the washer/dryer 90 degrees that's basically the back wall to the hall closet.  It was a relatively simple move construction and plumbing wise and luckily it fit!  As much as I want to be 100 % ok with this, I'm still not.  I agree that it was worth it to open up the kitchen but I'm still bitter about losing my largest storage area and not having anywhere to put my coats.   Dad promised he would build me a new coat closet by splitting the giant linen closet in half sometime before I start needing all of my winter coats again :)

Stay tuned for the first steps to renovation....