We removed and replaced all the windows....gutted the kitchen...

[Ken Fitzgerald]

and added an 8'x8' addition to the kitchen.

It started in April and we are now down to me doing the finishing carpentry. I bought the oak window trim, the oak baseboard and am milling the window jambs from 5/4 oak. I am staining and finishing all of it. Since I am using polyurethane as a finish, it's progressing slowly!

So we started with these 49 year old site built cabinets. They were worn out and needed replacing!

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[Ken Fitzgerald]

Then we arrived to this stage:

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You notice that the soffits have been removed to reclaim extra cabinet space.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

...and finally 2 weeks ago we arrived at this point:

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You have to experience it to believe that a little 8' by 8' addition could do as much as it did. My wife is in absolute love with it. It works as well as she planned it. We began moving back into it 2 weeks ago today. Thursday a week ago we had 2 couples over for dinner. My wife loves to cook and spent 2 days cooking for that dinner. This past Monday she had 10 of her female friends and former coworkers over for lunch. Again she cooked for 2 days preparing for it. Though it is a galley type kitchen it just works so much better than the tiny kitchen she had before. Notice the beautiful Brazilian sedna granite counter tops. All the lighting in the new kitchen is LED including under cabinet LED over all the counter tops except the island. The island has an enclosed bookcase at each end for her cookbooks. Most of the LED lighting is on dimmers. The custom cabinets are hickory with a special walnut stain. I am doing the trim carpentry using oak with the same stain provided by the cabinetmaker.

The wife is happy and that's important.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I am a firm believer in the old adage "Birds of a feather, flock together"! Our contractor is the same guy who built the empty shell for my shop years ago. He does quality work. The tie in of the floor height and ceiling height between the addition and the original building was flawless. The same held true about the exterior siding.

One evening my wife was talking with a friend who said she was sympathetic for my wife because when her friend had an addition added onto her kitchen she had to clean up every night after each subcontractor. My wife informed her that the contractor and every subcontractor cleaned up after themselves every day.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Whooa, buddy......that's great. Nicely done, Ken................

One thing - tell me about the fridge - looks interesting - mid-height drawer is fridge compartment? Lower drawer freezer? Brand/model?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Sweet!
W/any luck, I'll be putting up similar pictures in a couple weeks.
We're down to the kitchen and finishing the basement on the rental we bought back in April.

[Ole Anderson]

One thing - tell me about the fridge - looks interesting - mid-height drawer is fridge compartment? Lower drawer freezer? Brand/model?

Looks a lot like mine. We keep soft drinks and such in the middle drawer, bottom freezer drawer. Whirlpool W10422734A from HD in our case. My sister had a similar four door from Samsung.

Great job Ken. I don't imagine they install too many soffits in new construction. Mine were a pain to remove. Hickory is a great break from the more traditional hardwoods normally used in kitchens. You are going to love it. LED lights are the only way to go these days.

[Brian Elfert]

Pretty much every manufacturer of refrigerators has one or more models with a middle drawer now. I have a Whirlpool with the middle drawer and I like it. I only bought my refrigerator because it was cheap due to a major dent. I bought mine at a scratch and dent sale for $1000. Cheapest I have ever seen the same model on sale was $2000 and usually over $2500. If I had anyone else living with me I probably wouldn't have bought the fridge. I never have visitors so I don't care that the kitchen is not perfect.

Some of the middle drawers can be freezer or refrigerator, but mine is refrigerator only. I use the drawer 80% of the time. I don't go into the main fridge that often. If you or your kids drink a lot of pop/soda or other packaged drinks the drawer is great for that kind of stuff. It cuts down on letting the cold out of the main fridge.

[glenn bradley]

That came out beautiful Ken. What a blessing to have the looks and the additional room. Very, very nice.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Kent,

The refrigerator is a Samsung. We bought it just before last Thanksgiving. The middle drawer is a refrigerator drawer for drinks, cold cuts, etc. The lower drawer is freezer. Within the bottom freezer compartment is a 2nd drawer. My wife and I refer to it as the "hidden drawer" as we forget it's there and can't find it's contents though we know we put them there. LOL! We had 3 grandkids, and a DIL living with us temporarily last fall, 14 people coming for Thanksgiving dinner and our 23 year old Kenmore refrigerator gave up the ghost. While we have a smaller refrigerator primarily used for cold drinks in the utility room in the basement, it wouldn't begin to hold everything for a Thanksgiving dinner. Our local Sears appliance store was able to deliver this Samsung quicker than our local HD so we bought it through Sears.

[Bruce Page]

That looks great Ken. You are going to love the extra storage that you gained by ditching the soffits. I like the tile back splash, I wish we would've done that with our remodel. I have 3 & 1/2 boxes of tile waiting to be installed..

[Bruce Page]

Whooa, buddy......that's great. Nicely done, Ken................

One thing - tell me about the fridge - looks interesting - mid-height drawer is fridge compartment? Lower drawer freezer? Brand/model?
Our Kitchen Aid has the same layout. We call the center drawer the beer drawer.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Very nicely done Ken. The light color on the cabinets really brightens things up. The granite is absolutely spectacular.

[Kent A Bathurst]

We call the center drawer the beer drawer.

30 yr old dorm fridge in the shop is our beer fridge.

[julian abram]

Very nice addition and cabinetry. Granite is knock out spectacular. I love additions that do not look like additions, look original to the house. Only very good contractors can dig a new footing for an addition and end up with the floor, ceiling and roof all lining up with the original.

[Von Bickley]

Looks Great.....

When Mama is happy, everybody is happy.

[Dok Yager]

Nice work Ken! Man-o-Man do I remember that ordeal. We basically gutted our last house, kitchen ,family room, and entrance way. Love your choice of cabinets and the offsetting granite, looks Great! And Yes "Happy wife Happy life" ;).

[Glenn Clabo]

VERY nice Ken. Nice design. Kitchen remodels sure make life more fun...after they are done. The disruption is at times painful but worth it. Getting a contractor to do most of it makes it faster and less painful.

[Dennis Peacock]

What a difference..!!!!! Absolutely beautiful Ken..!!!
The only bad thing? You're giving the LOML ideas for her kitchen. ;) :D

[Mike Ontko]

When Mama is happy, everybody is happy.

That's absolutely correct--happy wife, happy life! :)

Nice matching on the cabinets and countertop.