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I have finally started my small kitchen (5'x7') renovation. The new and level tile floor is in and grouted, the re-plumbing is almost finished and walls and new lighting are being installed shortly. And now the dilemna... the kitchen is actually shade less than 5x7 with appliances and cabinets on the two slightly less than 5 foot walls (58.5" and 59.5"). This means that I can have only one full sized appliance and I cannot decide which it should be. At this point, I am leaning towards an 18" Miele Incognito dishwasher on the 59.5" wall and either a 24" or 30" Liebherr fridge and either a 30" Dacor Millenium electric range or 24" Kuppersbusch electric oven (EEB 6800) and ceramic sensor cooktop (EKE 602.4) together in a single 24" cabinet. So it's either full size range and small fridge or full size fridge and 24" range components. I bake, so fridge/freezer storage space is about as important as oven space, to me. The Kuppersbusch oven is surprisingly roomy inside. So, I wonder if anyone here has experience with these brands and models and also if the there are any strong views on the advantages or disadvantages or choosing the smaller fridge or the smaller oven/cooktop combo? Gas is not an option in my coop, otherwise I would just go for the Viking 24" gas range and the 30" Liebherr fridge. I'm also open to suggestions for alternative combinations. I'm just at my wits end and need to start placing appliance orders very soon. Thanks Azlee

We are starting to noodle with the idea of renovating our kitchen, and while I have about four dozen questions, the primary design issue at the moment involves the following. In an ideal world, we'd like to obliterate the wall between our kitchen and dining room, so that we could open up those two busy spaces and allow me to interact with people while I cook. Unfortunately, there is a chimney and heating duct smack dab in the middle of the wall. As a result, we believe that we will be able to open up a space that is 4 1/2 to 6 feet wide, and it would be Our contractor friend has indicated that this space is simply too small to provide anything that will feel remotely "open." We're not quite giving up, though, and I thought I'd ask you for help. Do you have any spaces between your kitchen and dining room -- or, frankly, between any two rooms -- that are only about this wide? How do they work (or not)? What function do they provide, and what can't they provide? I've thought about lazy susans, dumb waiters, sculpted arches, and so on, but it's very hard for me to visualize anything. I'd thus especially be grateful for any photos you might be willing to share.

Hello, everyone. At long last, we're able to seriously think about redoing our kitchen. Since I've never had the opportunity to do one myself before, I thought I'd ask the Great Collective Wisdom to add input before it gets much more expensive to do so. In fact, the GCW has already been of tremendous help with some past threads, in particular this one because it's fairly recent. We're hoping to begin this project about a year from now. Why the wait? Because first we'll need to have the electric system in the house upgraded, and that probably won't happen until fall. Then, since we both live in the academic world, we'd prefer not to have massive chaos around us during the school year. But once summer comes, we're able to devote our attention to other places. (Furthermore, this is upstate NY, where we get an average of 120 inches of snow a year. I don't think we could get through this without being able to use the grill.) And the kitchen isn't so bad that I curse it out every day, although should something die in the meantime I may change my tune. The main reason for the upgrading is to modernize. Our house is about 40 years old. Our kitchen is also probably about 40 years old; we don't think anything significant has been done to it since the house was built. We've now lived here for 22 months, which has given us plenty of time to figure out what we like and don't like about the kitchen. First, though, here's a rough drawing of the kitchen (courtesy of the Ikea kitchen software, with a bit of Photoshopping afterwards), as it currently stands: The narrow dimension, measured wall to wall, is 8 feet. The kitchen floor is 16 feet, 3 inches long (and the cabinets add another 2 feet). The dining room adds an additional 7 feet of length to the far wall (with the window). All the dark areas are walls. We plan to leave all walls as they are. The large open area at the left side of the picture is our dining room. The flooring in the dining room is the same yucky off-white carpet (with no padding left) that flows through the opening to the living room and hallway. We would eventually like to put hardwood in the hallway and living room, since that's what we have in the bedrooms AND the closets. (I don't get that myself. Someone who knows, please enlighten me?) The lighting in the dining room is hanging from a ceiling fan over the table. We're planning to keep the fan or a replacement thereof, although I'd probably choose a different lighting fixture. (I'll try to snap a few photos when there's decent light.) The door at the back of the dining room is a heavy sliding glass door that leads to the back deck. There's a floor-to-ceiling window on the other wall of the dining room. The deck is on the back side of the house; it faces south. Between the window and the door, we get a fair amount of light coming in, particularly in the mornings through the window. I should add that our house has baseboard heaters for the hot water heat; there's one baseboard heater running the length of the wall with the window, and another heater that starts just to the right of the sliding door that extends nearly to the edge of the cabinets, behind the semicircle in the drawing. That semicircle in the drawing is a set of three semicircular shelves. They aren't the right size for much of anything, mainly because there's a support pillar right at the outside of the curve that makes it tough to fit anything bigger than a softball inside. We do, however, have a couple of platters for fruit storage resting on the top shelf and some odds and ends on the two lower shelves. We nearly took a Sawzall to the shelves our first winter here, because the heater was clanking and the bleed valve for that heater is at the edge behind the shelf. And then we get to the cabinets themselves. I'm guessing the doors are made of plywood, because the edges of each door have grain wrapping around, and because the entire cabinet unit has matching veneer that seems to be cut from one giant sheet of the stuff. I wouldn't have a problem with the looks, but I have a huge problem with the function or lack thereof. I don't think there's a single door or drawer that actually opens and closes or otherwise works properly. For instance, the base cabinet on the left of the sink can't be opened without also taking the drawer above it. And the drawer refuses to open without also popping the cabinet. (The wall cabinet is mostly fine, although it doesn't latch too well due to deterioration of the little roller-thingie. But the kitchen has a soffit, which doesn't serve any purpose in our minds, and we'd just as soon get rid of that and let the wall cabinets go all the way to the ceiling, using the highest shelves to store the stuff that only gets brought out for big fancy meals, like the gravy boat and the fancy water pitcher.) There's not much counter space. That's another of the huge problems in the kitchen as it currently exists: it's a large space, with very little work area. My grandma refers to it as a "one-butt kitchen." And she's right: my husband and I trip over each other if we both need to be doing things in the kitchen at the same time. Forget about having one person at the stove while the other preps salad at the cutting board! But the good part of having so little of it is that we don't have to look at much of it: sort of marbled yellow laminate that I'm sure was much more "in" 40 years ago. I like the sink's position in front of the window. This is very important, because we spend an inordinate amount of time there doing the dishes. One priority of the remodeling is to put in a dishwasher. (We realize the cabinet on the left of the sink would be perfect to hold a dishwasher. But there's nowhere to plug such a beast in right now, and no room in the breaker box to add a new circuit for the dishwasher until we upgrade the house's electrical system.) I'm not overly fond of the sink itself: it's a stainless double sink, both basins the same size, with a garbage disposal in the right basin and a dish drainer in the left basin. Because this isn't large enough to hold everything we'd like it to hold, we have a secondary drainer on the counter next to it. The disposal functions, but is an older model with a wimpy engine. Whoever did the plumbing decided that both basins needed traps, so there's not much room underneath the sink for anything other than the garbage can. I wish the sink basins were large enough to hold even one cookie sheet flat, much less my roaster! The stretch of countertop is our main...no, make that our only prep area. That's also where the toaster oven lives, since that's the only place it would go and still be able to plug in. (The other option would have been in the corner, at the other outlet, but we put the microwave there, on a diagonal, and periodically pull it to one side or the other to rescue whatever's fallen behind. In the new kitchen, I want enough electrical outlets that my power does not determine where I can work, AND enough counter space to leave both the mixer and the food processor out but still have room to work. If I'm shaping bread dough or rolling out pie crust, I shove the toaster oven to the side so I have room to slide my wooden pastry board onto the counter. The stove isn't bad for an electric stove, from a temperature-responsiveness point. But it's 40 years old, horribly designed from a usefulness point of view, and placed such that the right edge of the stove is bumping up against the oven cabinet. As long as you don't have anything in the oven, or don't want to saute anything in a large pan, it works. There are cabinets up above the stove. This is bad, because it means that the hood under the cabinets doesn't vent anywhere other than back into the kitchen. The hood is dark brown ugly, and useless for anything except as a light bulb holder. (More on the lighting later.) The backsplash is (get this!) GLASS. Not plexiglass, but the real thing, held in place with little clips like the ones that hold mirrors up. The glass protects the faux brick that runs all the way to the end of the cabinets on the left of the sink. As I alluded, to the right of the stove is the oven. It's nominally a double oven, but they're tiny (24 inches wide on the outside) and horrendously uneven (hot spot in the back left corner of the main oven that's only partially corrected by leaving the quarry tiles in all the time). There's a clock that's stopped at half past 6, so anything timed is out of the question. And I wish there were some kind of indicator when the oven is up to temperature! The tiny bottom oven does broil decently, though. I suspect there might have been a third oven rack at one time, now long lost. There is a cabinet above the oven and another below the oven, but since the oven's insulation is notably lacking we don't put anything too delicate there. On the other side of the doorway (open doorway; hall on the other side) is a tall cabinet with no soffit above because we took it out. That happened when we were given the generous gift of a new refrigerator by my grandfather last year about this time. The new fridge (Amana freezer drawer on the bottom; whatever name they call off-white or bisque or almond or whatever it is) was about half an inch too tall to fit under the over-the-refrigerator cabinets. So we took them out, but to do so we had to remove the soffit on that side as well. The biggest problem this has created is that one of our cats has decided that the cabinet top is a great place to sit and watch the world. This in itself isn't a problem; the real issue is that he can't get up there without making intermediate landings of places he's not supposed to go! This refrigerator is the one thing that is likely to remain of the old kitchen after the remodel. In the big empty space, we put a small table gleaned from a yard sale. The cats are not permitted on tables, but this one's apparently irresistable as a stepping stone to the top of the fridge and beyond. And the lighting? The entire lighting in the kitchen consists of two fluorescent fixtures in the ceiling, each of which takes a large and a small circular tube; a 60 watt bulb over the sink; and the light in the otherwise useless hood. Seeing what you're doing? Forget that! So what will we do? Here's a first approximation, also roughed out with Ikea software and then cleaned up a touch in Photoshop: The dishwasher will go just to the left of the sink. The sink will ideally be an undermount, although if countertops that permit undermounting are prohibitively expensive, that may need to wait a few years. The cooktop will be gas, 36 inches wide, 6 burners with continuous grates, and the hood will take advantage of that outside wall and vent such that my husband can make mole indoors without smoking me out for the next few hours. We're debating the oven still (one or two? dual-fuel range or separate wall oven and cooktop?), other than it/they will be electric and convection, and large enough that I can bake two 9-inch round cake layers at the same time on the same shelf. The fridge will stay about where it is now, but there will be counter and underneath storage where we now have empty space and table. I'd prefer to have no wall cabinets between the window and the sliding door, I think. And if we can remove the baseboard heater between the sliding door and the cylindrical shelves, we'll extend the counter all the way there. Flooring is a question mark still. One big point of debate is whether to make the dining area part of the kitchen floor, or part of the living room floor. I'll post more details of what we're thinking, how we tend to use our kitchen, and potential questions or options, along with some photos tomorrow. (We haven't even begun to think about budget yet; we figured we would wait and see how much our realistic-dream kitchen would cost and then work from there.) In the meantime, let me know what you think. (But be aware that I, like some others who have done renovation threads, am apparently not known well for my ability to take criticism well. ) MelissaH

Last fall my wife and I purchased a small house in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Given the outrageous house prices in this neighborhood, we settled on a single-family frame house that, well -- left a kitchen to be much desired. I have a fairly extensive background in construction, both from work when I was younger, as also having to do with the fact my parents totally gutted their brownstone when I was a teenager, doing all the work themselves. There is nothing like living in a construction zone for 6 years to appreciate a home renovation. That said, myself, my wife and a few very very good friendshave been gutting and renovating the kitchen for the past few months with some pretty impressive progress. We have been living without a kitchen for approximately 4 months now, surviving on a slop sink, fridge and microwave for our eating (and tons of freshdirect food). I have been taking pictures along the way -- it is quite a show. Given that work has slowed down recently (I failed to mention I have a day job, so this work is taking place after work and 3 day weekends), I thought by maybe opening up this process to everyone would give me some new found encouragement to pick up the pace. With that said, I start with a old floor plan the realtor gave us showing the first floor layout (it is a 2 story, + finished attic building)

Good morning, y’all, and welcome to the party chez Therese. As per the teaser, this week’s foodblog does indeed come to you from Atlanta, where I live with my two children (hereafter known as Girl and Boy) and husband (hereafter known as The Man). Girl is 11, Boy is 14, and The Man is old enough to know better. Atlanta’s huge: the total metro population is about 4 million, and there are no physical boundaries to growth like rivers or mountain ranges, so people just keep moving (and commuting) farther and farther out of town. Atlantans can be divided into ITP (inside the perimeter) and OTP (outside the perimeter), the perimeter referring to the interstate freeway that encircles the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods, separating it from outlying suburbs. The politically minded may note that these areas could be designated red and blue. I’ll let you figure out which is which. We’re about as ITP as it gets, with home, work, school, and restaurants all in walking distance. The neighborhood’s called Druid Hills, the setting for the play/movie “Driving Miss Daisy”. The houses date from the 1920s, and because Atlanta has so little in the way of “old” buildings the neighborhood’s on the National Register as a Historic District. Charming, sure, buts lots of the houses need some updating, and ours (purchased in 1996) was no exception. So we remodeled last year, including an addition with a new kitchen, and this week’s blog will look at the finished product. So, some encouragement for those of you presently involved in kitchen renovation, some ideas for those who are considering it. But never mind all that for the moment: What’s for breakfast? Dutch babies, that’s what. And even better, these Dutch babies are produced by my children, the aforementioned Girl and Boy. The first picture is right from the oven, the second is after the somewhat messy job of sifting powdered sugar on top. They are delicious (the Dutch babies, I mean, not the children) and a great weekend treat. The Man drinks coffee in the morning whereas I prefer tea. He's not up yet, having played poker last night. I'm hoping he makes it out of bed in time for dinner. I also eat fruit whereas he prefers, well, anything but fruit. This is not such a bad thing, as it means that I don’t have to share the fruit. Pomegranates are a pain to eat, but not so bad if you’re reading the newspaper at the same time. This one’s from California, but you can also grow them here if you’ve got enough sunshine (which I don’t).

It started as a simple idea. I wanted to replace the ceramic tiled counter top of my kitchen island with a granite slab. From there, well, maybe we ought to redo all the countertops, and since I'm going to replace the island top, maybe it's time I put in a new cooktop there as well. Then I started looking at new 30" double ovens, and alas, my GE combo microwave/thermal oven unit started looking dated. And it must have realized I was lusting for a new oven, because the microwave decided to quit last night! And since it is a combo version, the oven's controls are in the microwave panel. (My wife insists that I in some way sabotaged the microwave to help speed up the process!) Well, now I am to the point where I am considering gutting the whole kitchen and starting anew! That's where I hope you all might help! I need some ideas on design, appliances and placement of appliances. First, my kitchen is all electric. And I want a gas cooktop. The present cooktop is in the island and I like being able to cook all around the island. There is no gas line plumbed to the island! I live in Oklahoma and we don't have basements. Or crawl spaces. Concrete slab foundations are de rigueur. As I said, I like cooking at the island, but unless I gouge out a trench in the floor, I don't know how I could get gas to the island. OTH, my present oven setup is on a wall that backs up to the garage, and my GAS hot water tank is on the other side of that wall! I suppose I could remove the oven combo and put a nice big dual-fuel range against that wall. But that would mean that I would have to cook in front of and looking at the wall, as opposed to being free to move around the island. I like the way things are situated in the kitchen, the flow and all, but I really don't like my cabinets. I have a lot of cabinet space, I just don't like the way they are constructed. I also want to get rid of the flourescent lighting in the kithcen, and we also have what, at first glance, appears to be a vent hood above the island. Don't I wish! But, no, it is a ceiling fan! One that is NEVER used. Dumb placement of a ceiling fan. So, I guess I am leaning toward gutting the whole kitchen and embarking on a major renovation. Any ideas!? I also need some help with the cooktop/range/ovens. I have been looking at Thermador and like what I have seen, but I also know that Wolf, Viking and DCS make comparable units. If I can't have the cooktop situated in the island, I will likely go with a 48" dual-fuel range. Any reviews, pros/cons on the available choices? I think my next step should be to visit a kitchen planner. Any qualifications I should look for, or questions I should ask? I am really scratching my head at this point. We need to have a new oven, but I don't want to do a quick fix for now and get what I really want later. So...any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for listening to my ramblings!

When Mrs. Varmint and I agreed to buy her family home from her parents 6 years ago, I did so with one condition: that we'd renovate the kitchen within a year -- 2 at the most. Well, after a 6-year wait, we're ready to go. Thanks to all the great suggestions from our great members here at the eGullet Society (all of which is contained in this monstrosity of a thread), I've come up with a solid plan. This thread will focus on all the details of the renovation. I'll include drawings, budgets, permitting, costs, and all the highs and lows a family of 6 could experience. First, however, I should show you the plans. I drew these, following the ideas y'all helped me develop and refined by Arne Salvesen CKD (aka Daddy-A), who has provided great advice from a professional design perspective. Let me go over the plans briefly: Along the counter where the main sink is located (bottom right), we'll start with a 27 inch full-height double-doored pantry that'll house the microwave. We'll then have 36" of base cabinets/countertop (two cabinets, one of which will be a trash pull-out) with about 33" of upper cabinets. The sink will consist of a 39" base cabinet housing a Blanco 510-874. The dishwasher is next, followed by 22-1/2" of base cabinet. To the right of the sink (if you're standing at the sink) will be 42" of upper cabinets. There's currently a circuit breaker box on that wall, which we'll flip to the other side. We'll also consolidate an existing 6 light switch panel down to 3 switches. The baking area (the complete "L") will likely consist of a slab of white marble cut from the existing kitchen (the short side of the "L") and the rest will be tile -- likely granite. Arne has suggested using a "magic corner" in the blind corner of that region. This is a new product to me, but I think it's pretty cool. Go to this page, and then click on the first thumbnail for a video showing how this works. My Kitchen-Aid mixer will sit on the counter in the corner -- an area that rarely gets used anyhow. After the magic corner comes the oven and then 33 inches of base cabinets. We're expanding the pantry by about 4 feet. This makes for a very narrow doorway (27"), but I'm thinking of installing a restaurant-style swinging door there to make things easy. If anyone wants to research this type of door for me, please do so. Over to the cooking area, we'll have 15 inches of base and upper cabinet, then the range/hood, and then 24 inches of lower cabinet (with pull-outs for cookware) with 36" of upper cabinet. The corner of the eating bar will be a bit unusual: I don't want a lazy susan in this corner, so the unusually shaped cabinet will have the doors facing out, with no hardware. This gives me some storage space for rarely used stuff. Note that the closet is new, too. Moving clockwise, we'll have a 21 inch base cabinet followed by a prep sink (Elkay LFR 1915) and then a second dishwasher. The little block with an "X" represents a post, as it will be replacing a load bearing wall tying into an I-beam over the eating bar. Down to the Sub-Zero refrigerator and freezer, there will be a 2 inch wall built in at the end which we'll paint with magnetic paint, creating a giant place to hang our refrigerator magnets. It should be pretty damn cool. To the right of the freezer is a strange configuration of "desk" area and bookshelves. I've marked it with an asterisk. This is strange because the base cabinet will be almost functionless, as the area under there houses some return-air ducts from the adjacent room. This surface will likely consist of a slab of marble from the existing countertop. Above the marble will be a high bookshelf for "some" of my cookbooks! I've worked out a number of other details, but I'll provide those as we go along. I met with one contractor on Monday and will meet with another tomorrow. I'll also fill y'all in on those details later on. I'll be sure to include lots of photos, specifications, equipment choices, price lists, etc. I'll try not to hide anything from you, as this should be a learning experience, and if mistakes are made, you can pick on me! It should be fun, however.

My girlfriend and I just bought a condo in Brooklyn, NY. The apartment was a pit, but a pit with promise. We've laid floors in the bedrooms (floating bamboo), painted nearly every nasty wall left by the previous owners and have been furiously planning for the kitchen. It's a complete overhaul: floors, cabinets, countertop, appliances, lighting... you name it. We are cooking enthusiasts but not pro cooks. We figure to cook some bacon now and again but not likely to be canning or serious cooktop activity too often. Our current kitchen is a one sided galley about 5 x 5 so we are definitely gaining space (esp counter space). We figure to have a budget of around $15k for the renovation and already have some "grand" plans. I figured I would ask for some opinions given the wonderful ideas given in other kitchen renovation threads. I will post some current pics of the kitchen when I can (hold yer nose!). Here is a floorplan: Some fairly firm ideas we have had: - Knock down wall in middle of kitchen and wall to left of stove abutting Dining Space to make an open concept kitchen/LR/DR - Expand kitchen a foot or so into the DR, and add an extra base/wall cabinet. The dining space is large enough that losing a foot won't hurt our ability to have a table and chairs. We think that our gatherings tend to be more informal so having the kitchen island as a central gathering point would be great. We will need to figure out how to get lighting down from the ceiling for the island. We have concrete ceilings that were just professionally plastered so lighting installation is a little more complicated than if it were just drywall. The concrete is probably 1-2" thick at least but we think has airspace that was used by the developers to run the wiring for the Kitchen and Dining light fixtures. - Add an island with stool seating on the non-kitchen work area side when we buy cabinets, running electric under joint between parkay wood in LR/Foyer to electrify island (the wall to be demolished has DR/Kit lightswitches and an outlet on the far side already). A few thoughts: - We'd love to vent the oven but we cannot vent into the fresh air chase on the other side of the fridge (currently washer) space (vents from bathrooms) as I don't think that is its purpose and I doubt the blding would let us punch out through the wall in the DR to the backyard. (sucks, but such is life) - We are thinking of putting a wine/beer fridge in the island facing into the kitchen (where the 24" cab is drawn). - We were thinking silestone for counters... Dark Cabinets (chestnut), Light Counters (diana pearl). We priced counters on Ecounters.com (silestone merchant), should we buy silestone through there or Home Depot? Or should we think about Granite or another material? The online silestone quote I worked up for the counter including the new island was $4100 or so. - Probably will do a tile floor. Don't want to clash vs the wood in the rest of the place right now. - Range, refrigerator and dishwasher, I figure I can knock out for about $2200. I am not looking for top of the line, just better than you'd put in a rental. Probably a 'nicer' top freezer fridge, a gas range with power burner/programming features and a quiet dishwasher, plus an above range microwave ($300 or so). Here is a Lowe's workup of the cabinet design (walls knocked, island in place)... We found Kraftmaid cabinets (all plywood frames) we can live with for just over $6000 at Lowes (we may get them priced through brother in law's supplier too) and have a 10% off coupon we can use also. Is this a good price for the room? We liked another door front design but it takes the price up $1500!! We don't intend to be in this apartment forever, but if we are here 5 years we want to have a quality kitchen. I hope you will share any thoughts that you have on our strategy, choices, purchase ideas. If you have any questions, please fire away! Regards, -MJR

It seems like everyone in the world is renovating their kitchens today. so why should I be the exception? Here's the deal. We've recently purchased a new house. The house has already been extensively renovated and it has a pretty decent kitchen to start with. There are a few things I want to do to it though, and I could use some advice. First, here are the pics of the kitchen. I've had to do them in three shots, because the kitchen is huge. In the first shot, you can see the microwave/oven combination in the wall, and there is a small cooktop over by the fridge. Underneath the micro/oven thing are two pot drawers. Underneath the cooktop is a huge utensils drawer and two more pot drawers. The second pic shows a table and chairs which we won't have because that island/breakfast bar is huge. The third picture shows the built in bar fridge and wine fridge as well as the back area of the kitchen where a desk is. Here's what I do. Even though this kitchen is particularly large, 25'3 x 17'9, I have less cupboard space than I do now. In addition, this kitchen was recently renovated, so I don't want to rip it up completely. Keep in mind as we go through this that the basement ceiling below is finished which will make any wiring we want to do more complicated. 1. I need to get a second oven in here somewhere. 2. I'd like to build some sort of worksurface/island where the table and chairs are now 3. I'd like to replace the small 30 inch cooktop with a gas cooktop, preferably 36 inches. 1. Here's my thought's and resrictions on the oven. I could put it in under the cooktop, but that means losing the two pot drawers and large utensil drawer. I'm less concerned about losing the pot drawers becauase I could build more into the island in the middle of the room. Losing the utensil drawer would be worse as it's a perfect place to grab wooden spoons, spatulas etc as one cooks. I could remove the micro/oven combination and replace with a double wall oven, but then I need a place to build in the microwave. yes, I need the microwave built in, because I don't want it cluttering up my counterspace which will have enough stuff on it. I could, if I could get power to the new island put the new oven there, but I'd rather keep the second oven as close to the work triangle as I can. 2. The worksurface in the middle could either be butcher block on top, or more of the granite that already exists in the kitchen if I can find it. Ideally, if there's room, I'd have the top overhand on one side so extra people could hang out there. I'd like to have power at the island, but that may not be possible given the status of the basement ceiling. In the island I'd like to have , a place for cookbooks, pot drawers, and anything else I haven't thought of yet, but I will. Probably more drawer space since drawers are at a premium in this kitchen. 3. I'm pretty sure that gas is available right outside the kitchen as they currently have a gas connected bbq on the deck. So bringing gas in shouldn't be a problem. What do I lose in cupboard space underneath by bringing in a gas line? In addtion, I'd have to find a way to make the granite bigger to hold a bigger cooktop and of course, I'm going to lose the utensil drawer and possibly at least one pot drawer since gas cooktops are deeper than electric cooktops. So there you have it. I'll try to get a floorplan posted in a few days, but in the meantime, I figured I'd give you experts a few days to ponder this.

Hello everyone, and sorry that my debut post is a request for help. I found these forums while researching my kitchen remodelling project, and the creative energy here was irresistable. My wife and I have a tiny 1930's bungalo, and the kitchen isn't working for us. It's a galley sort of layout, and shares the same room as the only dining area in the house. The whole room is 19.5' long and just over 8' wide. The dining area consumes 7' at one end of the space, with the transition to "kitchen" indicated by a switch from hardwood flooring to vinyl and by two built-in, glass fronted cabinets that are about 4 1/2 feet tall, hiding the countertops from view. As it is, the kitchen is reasonably functional for one cook, but virtually impossible for two. The tall cabinets seperating kitchen from dining room make the adjacent countertops uncomfortable to use (no elbow room) and the lack of a dishwasher means that about a third of the counterspace is perennially occupied by a wilting plastic dish drying rack: a real eyesore. The good news is I'm very handy; I'm a custom furniture maker with a fully equipped woodshop on the other side of one of the kitchen walls. I'm not scared of building round cabinets, new doorways, moving windows or any other such mischief. There are, however, some challenges I'm unsure how to deal with. Principal among these is the budget; we've got $2-3k to play with, which I'm realizing isn't a huge amount, even with the expectation that I'll do all the work. Another is that my wife is short (5'2") and has a mild case of cerebral palsey, which means her balance isn't so hot; she can't reach high shelves and though she's requested a stepstool I can't imagine her using one without creating more excitement than one likes to be involved in when reaching for the flour tin. Also, since the only indoor area we have for dining shares a room with the kitchen, I'm hoping that whatever we come up with can be kept tidy-looking during meal prep; I don't want guests to see a lot of chaos in the kitchen and feel obligated to clean up after me. My thinking so far is based on normal household occupancy of only two, with occasional dinner parties for about four others. My best plans to date involve blowing away the tall cabinets and extending counters over that area. I've found an affordable 18" dishwasher that I like, which would get the dish rack out of the picture. I'm thinking concrete countertops, because I can make molds in my shop and cast them on the back patio next spring, and because they will facilitate an undermount sink (I hate the rim around our drop-in sink and Corian is out of the question). There's space for a pantry closet in the adjacent hallway. I'm also thinking of a bank of shallow cabinets along one wall of the dining area, with a built-in, U-shaped table extending from it. The table could be relatively small most of the time, but be extended with additional leaves when necessary. I'm open to rethinking any part of this plan. One particular problem I'd appreciate comments on is the sink. There don't seem to be a lot of functional small sinks available, particularly in the U.S. I've found a neat one made by Franke, with a large bowl that is just big enough for a half-sheet but with the large dimension front-to-back rather than side-to-side. It also has a smaller, oblong bowl next to it, and the whole thing is only about 21" wide, which would allow me about 28" to the left of the sink and 19" between sink and range. Unfortunately it's only available through U.K. distributors, so with transatlantic shipping I'm looking at ~$650. What do you think? --Jon

I have an opportunity to redesign a small (5x7) kitchen into something better and more functional. This is my first time undertaking such a task and I will have to live with the chosen components for a very long time. I will likely need to break down a wall and create a kitchen/dining/living greatroom. Not sure how anyone was ever able to cook in that kitchen with only 24 inches of uninterrupted counter space. In any event it's pretty much a gut job and I am in desperate need of guidance as far as choosing appliances and kitchen cabinets and I welcome your comments and alternate product suggestions to my preliminary product wish list. Appliances are most important, then the beauty/functionality of the cabinets. Here's the wish list: AGA 24" Dual Fuel Range (need 220 electric service, which may not be possible) Bosch 30" Gas Range Bosch Microwave w/ vent Viking 24" Gas Range Fisher & Paykel Refrigerator Fisher & Paykel double Dish Drawers Miele 18" Dishwasher Boffi Cabinets Bulthaup Cabinets (probably aluminum touch system w/frosted glass doors) Stainless Steel Countertops Boos Butcherblock Countertops Soapstone Countertops Granite Countertops Bamboo Floor Linoleum Floor Tile Floor Many Thanks for your guidance, Azlee

It's funny--I started looking for a place to buy our first house by proximity to ethnic food and good supermarkets. But I fell in love with a place that has neither. Then I said I need to have a spacious kitchen and a dishwasher. My husband and I fell in love with a 1925 Craftsman-style bungalow that has neither. Hey, at least it has a gas stove. We intend to do some remodeling in a few years to get some extra space in the kitchen, so I don't want to do anything major right now, but I do want to preserve the original features while making the space more workable (and add a diswasher!). Prep space especially is very limited. The kitchen is 9x10 with a 5x5 attached pantry. There is beautiful built-in cabinetry in the pantry but just one original cabinet above the fridge in the kitchen itself. There is a standard Home Depot-type cabinet with sink that has been added. That's where we'd like to put the dishwasher--either carve out a space for it in the existing cabinet or get a new unit for that space. The main limiting factor is the built-in table that swings down from the wall. I love it, but allowing space to eat around it cuts down on the possibilities a lot. Here are some pictures, going clockwise around the kitchen starting from the living room entrance: Believe me, there will be more hanging from this area than 3 pans and a potholder. This area is too shallow for cabinets (the fridge, which the owners are taking, is sunken in) but I have lots of ideas in mind, such as using medicine cabinets for spices, etc. Here is a shot of the cabinet over the fridge, the pantry, and the built-in table: To the right of the table is the door to the outside/basement, then a radiator in just the wrong place: And we're back to the living room doorway: All comments & suggestions welcome!

I have to say designing the Alinea kitchen has been one of the most exciting experiences thus far in the opening of this restaurant. I have been fortunate to have been “raised” in some of the best kitchens in the country. When I arrived at the French Laundry in August 1996 the “new kitchen” had just been completed. Often times you would hear the man talk about the good old days of cooking on a residential range with only one refrigerator and warped out sauté pans with wiggly handles. When I started about 50% of the custom stainless steel was in place. The walls smooth with tile and carpet on the floors. I recall the feeling of anxiety when working for fear that I would dirty up the kitchen, not a common concern for most cooks in commercial kitchens. The French Laundry kitchen didn’t stop, it continued to evolve over the four years I was there. I vividly remember the addition of the custom fish/canapé stainless unit. Allowing the poissonier to keep his mise en place in beautiful 1/9 pan rails instead of the ice cube filled fish lugs. Each advancement in technology and ergonomics made the kitchen a more efficient and exacting machine. When I returned to the Laundry this past July for the 10th anniversary I was shocked that it had metomorphisized once again. The butcher room was now a sea of custom stainless steel low boys, the pot sink area was expanded, the walk-in moved, and an office added to the corner of the kitchen. The kitchen as I left it in June of 2001 was beautiful and extremely functional, of course it is even more so now. It is the relentless pursuit of detail and concise thought that allows the French Laundry kitchen to be one of the best for cooks to execute their craft…..16 hours a day. This was good motivation. When it came time to design my kitchen I drew on experiences at Trio, TFL and other kitchens I was familiar with to define the positives and negatives of those designs. We were faced with a 21x 44' rectangle. This space would not allow for my original kitchen design idea of four islands postioned throughout the kitchen, but ultimately gave way for the current design which I think is actually better than the original. But most the important aspect in shaping the final design was the cuisine. Due to the nature of food that we produce a typical layout with common equipment standards and dimensions do not work. Here is where the team drew on our experiences from Trio. By looking at the techniques we utilized we came to several conclusions. 1. A conventional range was not our main heat source. We do need the flat tops and some open burners for applications such as braising and limited stock work. But our overall use of this piece of equipment is somewhat low. Given that we wanted four open burners and two flat tops with two ovens I began to source out a reliable unit. We settled on the Molteni G230. 2. Upon analyzing our other heat source needs we decided to place a large focus on induction. By utilizing portable induction burners we are allowed the flexibility to give as much power as needed to a specific station in the kitchen. Obviously induction’s radiant heat is very low, and this allows us to keep the temperature in the kitchen reasonable, yet the power is quite high. 31,000 BTU's of highly controlable heat. But the main reason for choosing this flexible source of heat is the fact that each chef typically employed at least four different cooking applications on a given night. This huge flux in technique and the realization that the menu would change entirely in 8 weeks time meant that we had to design a kitchen that could evolve on a nightly basis. And last, we are very specific with temperatures; induction makes it easier for us to hold a liquid at a predetermined temperature for long periods of time without fluctuation. They operate between 85 and 500 degrees farenheit. We did a great deal of research on the different producers of induction and favored Cooktek. The fact that they are the only U.S manufacturer of commercial induction cooking equipment and located in Chicago made the decision easier. Their innovative approach to induction may prove to be even more exciting as we are already talking about new product development in the future. 3. a. The complexity of the presentations and a la minute plate-ups of the food require a great deal of surface area devoted to plating. This was one of the most critical factors in determining the basic shape of the kitchen. The size of some of today's popular plates, the amount detail in each composition, coupled with the fact that producing tasting menus vs. ala carte means sometimes large waves of same dish pick ups made it necessary for us to have over 44' of linear plating surface. b. Virtually nothing goes vertical above the 36” counter top in the space. All food, plates, equipment, and dry good storage are contained by under counter units. There are a few exceptions such as the infrared salamanders, the three-door refrigerator, and the hood. This allows all the cooks a clear line of communication between each other and the front staff. It allows me an easy sight line to survey the entire kitchen’s progress with a quick glance. Given these two points it seemed obvious that we needed to combine the two and create custom pieces that would fulfill both needs. Large spans of plating surfaces with all food and equipment storage below. As you can see we ended up with two 22’ long units. Each function as a pass and under counter storage. The building is 21’ wide wall to wall. This allowed us just enough space to create two lines on each exterior wall with their passes forming a 60” corridor for the pick up of plates and finishing of dishes. 4. We decided to add a station to the kitchen. At Trio we had five including: a. pastry b. cold garde manger c. hot garde manger d. fish e. meat Now that we had more space, and the ability to give each station multiple heat sources regardless of their location in the kitchen, we could spread the workload even further. We also realized it doesn’t make much sense to identify each station by classic French Bragade terms. A saucier did not solely cook meat with classic techniques and prepare various traditional stocks and sauces…in fact quite the opposite. This holds true with most of the stations, with the exception of pastry, but even they will have very unconventional techniques, menu placement and involvement in the kitchen systems. We will add a station that will be responsible for a large majority of the one-bite courses both sweet and savory. 5.Given the size constraints of the building we realized a walk-in would not be possible in the kitchen. If we were to have one it would be in the basement. Having experienced this at Trio we decided to design the kitchen without a walk-in, making up for the space in various lowboy locations and a three-door reach-in. I experienced the walk-in less environment when I worked at Charlie Trotter’s. It is certainly different, but as with most things if done properly it provides a very efficient environment. It works best in situations where fresh products are brought in daily for that days use. And prevents ordering in large quantities. It also provides us with very specific units to house different items. We will utilize the 3-door refrigerator to store the majority of the vegetables and herbs along with some staple mise en place, and items that cannot be made in very small quantities like stocks. Raw meat will have it’s own lowboys as well as fish, dairy, and all frozen products. 6. At Trio we found ourselves using the salamander a great deal. It is very useful for melting sugar, bringing on transparent qualities in things like fat and cheese, cooking items intensely on only one side, and it is a highly controllable non-direct heat source. Due to the air gap between the foodstuff and the heat elements the cook can control the degree of heat applied to the dish based on the technique he is using. It becomes a very versatile tool in the modern kitchen, so much so that we will install three Sodir infrared salamanders. Again, this is to insure that all the cooks have access to all of the techniques in the kitchen. As I said before it is important for our cooks to be able to sauté, simmer, poach, fry, grill, salamander, and freeze at the same time and sometimes for the same dish. We have a few unusual pieces of equipment in the kitchen; the most is probably a centrifuge. A few months ago Nick and I were driving home from a design meeting and ended up talking about signature dishes and menu repetition. Of course the black truffle explosion came up and he asked if I would have it on the menu at Alinea. I replied a firm no, but shortly thereafter said I would enjoy updating it. We threw around some tongue and cheek ideas like White Truffle Implosion, and Truffle Explosion 2005….I said it was a goal of mine to make a frozen ball with a liquid center….but then dismissed it as nearly impossible. Within a few minutes he said …”I got it…we need a centrifuge” His explanation was simple, place the desired liquid in a spherical mold and place on the centrifuge…place the whole thing in the freezer. Within days he had one in the test kitchen. I guess this is better suited for the kitchen lab topic that we will be starting in a few weeks… We are working on a upload of the kitchen blueprints. When those post I plan on going into more detail about certian aspects of the design. Doing so now would be pointless as the viewer does not have a reference point.

We live in NYC and are looking to completely renovate the kitchen (approx 8ft x 10ft) in our 2 bedroom apartment. This means destroying everything and starting all over. I've read through some of the previous threads on kitchen renovation but I hadn't seen any for NYC apartments. My wife and I don't cook that much but my mom does come over and cook chinese food sometimes (lots of grease). I think I read something on NYC apartments and the rules against venting? Not sure if I read this right. Anyway, we've just started seeing contractors and would look for any recommendations on how to proceed. Do we need a designer? Since we don't cook that much, I'd think that we wouldn't need any super high end appliances but wouldn't want to go cheap either (resale value). Also, everyone seems to say that it will take twice as long and cost twice as much. Where have the additional costs been in your experience? So: 1. Designer? Do I need one? 2. Contractor recommendations 3. Cabinet recommendations 4. Counter (I think we've decided on granite) 5. Refrigerator recommendations 6. Range recommendations (we like gas) 7. Hood/vent/fan? 8. Dishwasher recommendations 9. Hidden costs 10. Where to shop! Thanks for any help you can give me! Howard

O.K.-Two weeks ago I was ready for my families big Fishing Adventure in Ontario and a couple of days in Winnipeg when I came home to water all over the tile floor of my kitchen. It would seem that my dishwasher blew a hose and then blew water all over my kitchen. Unfortunately the only way to get the dishwasher out was to remove some of the flooring. No big deal, the boys and my wife were out of town and I figured I could get it out and repaired in one day. Well, it turned out that there must have been a slow leak and that the subflooring was soaked. I was gonna have to tear out all of the tile. Well, that's ok, we had been talking about doing it for a while. Somehow, eight hours later, without asking anyone or thinking it through beyond the end of the tear out, I had removed two walls and torn out the laundry room. Leaving myself with no kitchen, no cabinets worth saving and nowhere to cook. So there you go. My wife, well she's kind of a trooper after twenty years of living with me, took it pretty well and said that it was about time. My kids, they don't care much as long as they get fed. So here we go. As you can see from the photos the place is a mess. But the good news is that it is a very big mess (13x30 rectangle plus the area where you can see the pots hanging and the floor still down-that is a very large island with a pot sink in it and it now houses a large griddle, a hot plate, a rice cooker, and a crock pot. I also have a nice bullet smoker, a cool brick pit, and a just purchased stainless steel BBQ Pit of undetermined brand from Sams which has two burners on the side of it as well-so we won't starve) The long boards that you see there (with the yellow paint on them are cypress and perfect and straight and you couldn't buy them for love or money these days) came from the interior of my plaster walls (the ones I hammered out) and they will be planed and become cabinet fronts. We have measured (or the cabinet guy did) and there is plenty for what I want to do. We are having new cabinets built, I am replacing the ice box (which has needed to be replaced for about five years ) and adding an ice machine. The laundry room will be moved (actually that should be complete by Monday afternoon) and the kitchen will then be huge. There will be a sitting area by the fireplace that you see there and pretty much the rest will be cabinets (primarily drawers-big ones) in the base cabinets and open, glass fronted ones on top. All of this will be farmhouse style (for lack of a better term-I live in the country, but we don't decorate that way and in fact artwork display is a major consideration-my wife is an artist and a dealer and we have been collecting since long before we could afford it) cabinetry as that is what should be here given the age of this place (100 yrs) and the way that it is designed. It will all be wired for sound and there will be a cool built in desk for a computer and stuff (replacing the desk that you see the computer on now). As I said, I have done all of the tearout myself and I will do most of the electrical, plumbing, and rough in. Someone else is making and installing the cabinets. I will put down the floor (8 inch heart pine tongue in groove, just like the rest of the house) and finish out all of the walls. Here are my questions for today- My wife seems to think that a refrigerator freezer with a bottom, pull out freezer is the way to go. Is this the case? Yes or no and why not. I need a new ice machine. Ice is key to a good life here and we go through plenty of it. Any recomendations? My old whirlpool was prone to conking out, so I need some fresh ideas. I am keeping my OKeefe and Merrit Stove because I love it, but am thinking about putting in an electric oven. Convection or no? Why? Any suggestions? Incidentally-don't bother with telling me about commercial grade appliances. I'm not falling for that and am not interested. Top quality home appliances are where I am looking and any advice would be most welcome. I will update the photos as we go along for those of you that are interested. And no, this is not the first time I have done something like this. I once hooked a chain to my Ford F350 4WD and hooked the other end to the back support post in my old garage/barn/tool shed. It looked worse than the kitchen, but it was really fun and the neighborhood boys were VERY impressed (the adult neighbors seemed less so ) So that's what I did today. If I'm lucky the whole thing will be finished by the time it starts cooling off (mid October is what I am shooting for. Once I get the floor down (this week) I can kind of start living in it again, so it won't be that bad.

I know several other kitchen renovations have been covered here, but I have some specific questions that I can't find the answer to elsewhere. We've just bought (well, we have a contract on) our first house. It was built in 1953. 1200 square feet. Kitchen, including eating space (there is no dining room, though we could turn the small bedroom into one) is 16.5x9. Not tiny, but not huge either. We want to spend under $7000 total, including appliances. Oh, we only really need a range, but depending on the condition of the dishwasher, we'll need one of those, too. The fridge appears to be in good condition. I agreed to buy this house on one condition: that we could redo the kitchen upon closing. Immediatly. It's very mid-late 80's, with the cheap looking "oak" cabinets, white/pink/blue wallpaper, oak trim, and vinyl floor. There will not be any major work. No tearing down walls, no new/ripping out cabinets, no reconfiguration, etc. We will have to have countertops installed eventually, and that (other than appliances) will be our major expense. Basically, it's a small first house, and we don't want to put too much money into it for fear that we won't be able to get it out when we sell it, but I want to be able to enjoy my kitchen for the 5 years or so I'll be in it. Appliances are a big deal, something I don't find spending more on, since we can take those with us when we move. We do plan on ripping up the vinyl, which will be likely be replaced by hardwood. The wallpaper will be removed. I'm going to put wainscoting in the dining nook. I'm going to paint the walls and cabinets and build in a couple of floor to ceiling shelves around the windows in said nook. If we run into major problems (rotten wood underneath the floor, something like that), we'll hire help, but barring that, we're DIY. Now, on to stuff I'm not even sure I know how to ask: the ventilation is unlike anything I've ever encountered in a kitchen. It's vented through the roof, but the fan is like a bathroom vent fan...set into the ceiling, no vent hood or anything. Is this normal? Is this going to cause problems? The range is at a place where a hood would be difficult to put in...it's in an island type place (but not really an island). It would have to suspend from the ceiling, and because the kitchen is pretty small, I'm afraid it would dominate the room. I guess that's the main problem for now. I don't know what range I'm going to go with, but it's going to need to be around 30'' to fit in existing space. Seriously, I'm pretty baffled about what to go with, even after reading all these threads. I want something pretty high quality, but I don't want to spend a ton. I can handle around $2000. Any ideas? I'm afraid most of the brands I would be interested in would be priced out of my range, but I'm open to suggestion. I'm thinking about a Miele dishwasher (hate, hate, hate noise), but was wondering if anyone had experience with less expensive dishwashers that were almost as quiet as (or as quiet as) the Miele. Oh, also, the house is heated by gas, but the appliances are electric. Anyone have any experiences with having the house converted to gas in the range area? Since we already have a hook up, I don't think it will be a problem, but I'd like to know if anyone knows for sure. Sorry if all this has been covered before or if my writing style makes no sense.

Hell, I couldn't be satisfied with my story of buying a knew chef's knife -- now I'm about to start a kitchen renovation. Whereas the Perlows told their saga beginning with demolition, I'm still in the planning stages. First of all, my kitchen is a maze. It is utterly dysfunctional. Two people cannot pass by each other in parts of the kitchen unless both of them are anorexic or extremely friendly. The dishwasher resides under a marble slab that hangs nearly a foot over the door plane. I cannot open my lower wall oven unit if the dishwasher is slightly ajar. The ancient Jenn-Air cooktop with a non-functional downdraft vent sits 2 feet below a cupboard. The kitchen is lit with incandescent canister track lights (and some nasty recessed cans). Unless you see this kitchen in person, you could not believe it. I'll eventually get around to posting pictures. The house I live in was Mrs. Varmint's family residence -- we bought it from her parents 5 years ago. I agreed to buy the house on one condition: that we renovate the kitchen. Well, 5 years later, and the time has come. This will be a fairly simple renovation when you get right down to it. Most of it involves a single day of demolition and a couple of weeks of moving things around, a couple of appliance installations, and some carpentry and floor laying. The end result will be profound -- it will eliminate the maze, open the kitchen to the living and dining room areas, and give me some functional appliances. I initially wanted to go with a 6 burner gas cooktop and 2 electric wall ovens. Unfortunately, because this process will remove a bunch of existing wall space, I won't have enough remaining for any ovens. Thus, I need to go with a range. I've looked at 48" dual fuel ranges that have double ovens, but I can't stomach paying $8,000 for them. I want the dual fuel so the ovens will be self cleaning, which are generally not available with gas ovens (except for Viking). I may have to live with a 36" single oven range instead. I use both ovens simultaneously about 8 times a year, but I think I can manage with just one for now. Or can't I???Can I live with a non-self cleaning oven? I don't think so -- I despise maintenance. I'm leaning toward a DCS for its power, but is it really worth $1800 for a self cleaning feature between the gas and the dual fuel???? I've met with two contractors already and have appointments with 2 more. The first guy is really just a cabinet maker who does renovations in conjunction with a contractor. However, I've seen his work, I know people who have had him do their kitchens, and he's really talented. Also, he may be the cheapest. A couple of contractors told me that my project was too small for them. I'll add some of my thoughts over time. Oh, and my budget for this renovation is not to exceed $20,000, including the appliances. I think we can do it. I hope so. I'll need the contractor to run a hood through the roof and ceiling. Fortunately, the distance isn't too great.

Just shy of three weeks into a kitchen remodel, I thought I'd share some of the highlights: 1. The job started 6 weeks after it was originally scheduled. Every week they said they would come, so every week we kept bare-bones essential foods only, and ate out a lot. 2. When they tore out the old kitchen, they didn't bring a dumpster, so they piled all the cabinets, drywall, appliances, and trash in the driveway and on the back porch. They took some away in a truck, but the rest is still there. 3. The plumber put in the pipes for the sink in the wrong place, because he was too lazy to drill through an extra floor joist. He subsequently suggested that we change the plans so that the sink would be where he put the pipes. If we didn't like that, he said we could run the pipes from one cabinet to the next and loose some storage space. 4. If I don't call the contractor each and every morning, nobody comes to the house. If I work at home, they are forced to stay, but it I leave the house for any reason, they take off right after me, leaving no trace but a pile of trash. 5. When they disconnected the old refrigerator, they did not turn off the water supply to the ice maker. They frantically tried to turn off the spraying water, and in doing so, broke the valve. So they just crimped the line and hoped that it would hold. 6. When the cabinet guy made his final measurements, he discovered that a wall the plans claimed was 88-1/2" long was only 80-1/2" long. Another was off by 4". The designer had been to the house and measured twice before he finalized the plans. Now the cabinets won't fit. Initially, they said I still had to pay for the cabinet that wouldn't fit, since that's what the plan said, and I had approved it. They only backed down when I pointed out that according to the plan I was getting a kitchen with an 88-1/2" long wall, and it was their problem to figure out how to deliver it. 7. When the designer's boss came to investigate #6, he accidently kicked the crimped copper water pipe (see #5) and it started spraying all over the kitchen again. We had to shut off water to the whole house until a plumber could come out to fix it.

I'm interested in people's experience using the 12" Gas Char-Grill on Viking Stoves. Does it work well? Is it worth the effort to clean up? Do you spend the extra bucks for the extra 12" and then never use it after the first time? We are redesigning our kitchen ... and are at the decision point between 36" & 48" stove. We're planning to get the Griddle ... but the the Grill will probably tip the balance one way or the other.

Finally on Monday they will begin the total destruction of my kitchen in order to build my dream kitchen. As I've been packing up this week, it occurs to me wonder, short of eating out every night. what I'll be able to cook for the next 6 weeks or so. i will have a fridge, convection microwave (i've never used the convection part), a toaster oven and a Hamilton Beach combination deep skillet, griddle. No stove, oven or dishwasher. And a husband who won't eat leftovers. I'll be operating mostly out of my dining room for prep, so won't have a lot of room. Any ideas on things to make?

Tomorrow we are having our kitchen demolished, in a remodeling project that will take 2 months. Here are the before shots -- Rachel will provide the ongoing narrative and we'll document its construction over the next few weeks. The Perlow Kitchen, prior to remodelling (click)