The Kitchen Construction

The kitchen layout when we bought the house was just about functional but not very practical or in keeping with how we would want to use a kitchen. There was a long run of units on one side and a full bathroom on the other before the kitchen opened into a small dining area. The bathroom in the kitchen baffled me, especially as the only other bathroom in the house was an en-suite off the master and it definitely had to go. I would have loved to keep and sell on the cabinets since they were like something out of a time capsule but, with lockdown regulations, it wasn’t an option but I did keep the retro oven in hopes that someone else can use it.

In order to make the kitchen work, we removed the wall between the existing bathroom and dining area. This was a bigger job than we thought since it was a structural wall and we had to have a steel joist put in to support the ceiling. This wasn’t the cheapest option but it allowed us to open up the kitchen and make it a much more useable space and, considering how much time I spend in the kitchen, it was really important to get it right. We also took down the non-structural walls between the utility area and boiler room to get the space completely open before deciding on a design plan.

After getting the walls down, we had to take up the flooring. This is one of the hardest jobs I have ever done. There were a few layers of clip-in engineered wood that came up super easily but the bottom layer of linoleum must have been glued with the world’s strongest adhesive directly to the concrete. No amount of water, steam, heat, or YouTube hacks made the job any easier and we spent several days on our hands and knees scraping up the flooring. We did just about every job that didn’t require an actual professional and this was, by far, the worst one.

We reconfigured the former utility and boiler room area to create a more functional laundry/utility area, half bath, and boiler cupboard. The previous boiler was massive and could be run off both coal and oil so we gained a lot of space when it was replaced with a modern boiler cylinder. We replaced the existing door into the kitchen with a full-sized window and now use the previous door to the boiler room as the door to the laundry/utility room and replaced the window over the old sink with double doors that open onto the deck. There was a door there originally so it was easy enough to swap but was another job for builders.

After everything was taken out, it was time to rebuild. We plaster boarded/dry walled the whole room, including the ceiling, had the whole room plastered, the plumbing and electrics all had to be re-done, the room needed to be painted, and the floor had to be levelled so new flooring could to be put down. We did the boarding, floor levelling, and painting ourselves while juggling the project management of the whole house and making sure the kitchen was ready for install in July. It was tough going at times but the time we put in to getting the kitchen ready was worth it for the final product.

The kitchen construction was a real slog but doing the foundations correctly and carefully makes the final product so much better. We were lucky to not be living in the house so could have the kitchen empty for a bit which allowed us to play around with proportions and layouts before making final decisions. If you’re able to, I would highly recommend giving yourself at least few days with an empty room before firming up your decisions- sometimes our ideas for a room don’t match up with the reality of how it will be used. The construction phase started in April and we ordered the kitchen in early June. Because it was a handmade and hand-painted kitchen, the lead time was about 8 weeks and install started at the end of July. In my next post I’ll share how we picked our kitchen, the appliances, and the final product itself.

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The Kitchen Design