The Kitchen

[thistlebloom]

Some unpleasant jobs are a matter of necessity and on the job training, or seat of your pants survival. I'm happy that the worst of those can now be hired out.

 

[Smart Red]

Steve, around here the planning takes the most time. DH is great at planning. Many times the planning goes on for weeks and months, and, perhaps, years. It took nearly 40 years to get the plan for basement stairs to fruition.

Most of the work DH did for mom and dad was re-remodeling. His planning made the remodels far more workable then dad's start here and hopefully finish by the last wall.

I did get a taillight replaced this past summer (or such). In this case, Gypsy, with her tiny hands, and me, with the car's manual, managed to do the nearly impossible and change the light ourselves. Even more importantly, we managed to get everything back in place in the car afterward. That's one of those choices I was happy to have. I believe someone here (you, Steve?) mentioned the cost of having the repair shop install new lights and I was happy to have save myself most of the money. I did give Gypsy $20 for her 'hand'-y work.

 

[bobm]

There are different standards. I used to insist that a mop was generally inadequate for cleaning a floor. If we want to see what I mean, get down on your hands and knees and clean it, just one time. However, cleaning it one time (a fortnight ) wasn't up to DW's standards. I'm not gonna go in after her with my bucket and towel and she, thankfully, isn't setting a schedule for my household chores. So, she sweeps and mops and we both vacuum. And Hey! I cleaned the oven this morning !

Anyway, this comes close to the floor plan for our little house. No, I'm not about to move a Jetson pod into the house ... nor anything similar.
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I'm not quite sure how to explain how it is different but imagine that the kitchen was moved and replaces the 3rd bedroom. Most of the fixtures were moved to be against that outside wall.

It was similar to this plan years ago. The later change only makes remodeling now more difficult.

Everything could actually go out the back door the way this floor plan shows it. Even the interior walls could be taken out. Everything entirely new could come back in that backdoor.

I just bet that 80% of all remodels involve this area of a home. Further, I bet 99% of all remodeling costs are here, in these rooms. The planning that would make the job simpler would make it cheaper. I'd also wager, it would make it quicker and less disruptive. Unfortunately, someone moved the kitchen decades ago.

Steve

Steve , as a suggestion ... I would reconsider that linen closet in the master bedroom as it would more likely than not be an obstacle when you want to move in a king / queen bed and a/ or a dresser. Relocate it into the mud room? I would change the tub in the master bath to a walk in shower . Would be much easier to step in as one gets older. Then I would also move the window about 2 ft from the closet and swap it out for a sliding glass door as a much easier point of exit in case of fire or whatever else.