Saturday, July 13, 2013

The Updates - It's Been a While!

Well it turns out that the downstairs of our house turned into my mother's temporary living quarters for the beginning part of the year. So kitchen renovations came to a halt until she was able to secure her own place. Now that Mom has found her own apartment, the reno project needs to get back on track.

We had a talk with Owen the contractor and decided to make some changes to the design. He opened my eyes to see other design options that could help us in our budget.

I experimented with a few online room design programs, including Ikea's and Homestyler. But the one I liked the most is Floorplanner.com. Easiest to use and versatile.

This is how the floor layout of the kitchen is right now:




And this is what Cornerstone suggested:



(keep in mind, i didnt bother with top cupboards because im only concerned here about floor plan)

The biggest concern I originally had with the Cornerstone design is that the sink and stove would stay in their current location to save money from relocating the plumbing and electrical lines. But their current placement feels awkward. From the number of designs I have seen, it is most popular to have the sink situated in front of a window, not a wall. As well, having a stove in front of an open part of the wall means there is more odor the escapes the hood fan.

Owen suggested that we make a compromise: give up replacing the flooring. Flooring can be upgraded at anytime after the reno. But the decision to change the position of a sink and stove can only be made once and then you have to commit until the next huge renovation overhaul.

So it's decided, we will switch around the sink and the stove. This way, we aren't forced to deal with a passthrough (opening through the wall) and can rip the entire wall down instead! The sink will look out into the rec room, where there are two big windows at the far end. The stove will have a proper splash wall behind it without worry that some big oil spatter will stain a carpet on the other side.

Good idea Owen!

But wait... there's more changes! I will introduce them in a future post.

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