Little Feet: Kitchen Update #1: the plans

May-August, 2016

After much deliberation, Ed and I decided to leave our house-project hiatus, and start talking about the last main area that we haven't touched, the kitchen. It'll be the almost last house project, unless we finish the attic, which is unlikely. The upstairs bathroom is likely the last house project.

To recap what we've done so far:

Upstairs master suite - full remodel (including removal of plaster and lathe) of bed and bathroom, plus installation of washer and dryer. (started this ourselves but hired a guy to finish it, except for painting)
Enclose side porch, install Pella windows and french doors (hired out construction but not painting)
Remove and re-brick entire front of house (hired this out)
Jack-up and wench-in garage, re-roof, install new side-door and entry (all Ed)
Remove existing brick patio and install stamped concrete patio (hired out)
Remove roof to studs and replace (Brookside Roofing)
Paint entire interior of house, except for foyer and kitchen (we did all of this)
Water-proof basement, install full bath, shelving, sheetrock, egress window, paint concrete floor and walls, fabricate murphy bed, including jackhammer of concrete floor, relay pipe, and remove whole house trap (Dry Basement Solutions)
Replace stack pipe (iron) with PVC (hired plumber, Pat Corti I think)
Build stairs to attic, and installing attic sub-floor (still in progress, all Ed)

All of that in 12 years. Whew! Despite all of that work, our house looks shabby! Peeling baseboards, worn out wood floors, creaky staircase and floors, peeling wall paper, and broken kitchen cabinets in an outdated kitchen in which there is no seating and inadequate lighting.

We struggled for months, our discussions bringing us no closer to a plan until we threw up our hands and decided it was time for professional help. After visiting the home of a fundraising colleague, I obtained the name of his talented designer, Erica Krzykowski, Prairie Home Design. She has 4 boys so she understood us, and worked with us to come up with the designs below. We met with her in May, 2016 and had a final design by August. Because we decided not go use a GC, Erica only consulted on the design, so we lost her after she completed this work. Maybe this email Ed sent her from his plane ride back from Hong Kong is part of the reason:

(Email from 8.23.16:)

Thanks for keeping on this Erica. Not trying to throw a wrench in things, but in a previous email you discussed that you weren't sure how to deal with the column. Once again I was on a plane and had time to think. It seems to me that the trick is to figure out how to make the column a 'feature' of the kitchen, so I did some brainstorming and came up with a huge list. I want to be clear that none of these ideas hold any specific desire to incorporate into the design. They are purely tied to free associated brainstorming on my part. Take this with a big grain of salt. Shelly is gonna kill me for this.

So here goes: