What would you do? House design dreams

[mccallister84]

We are gearing up to thinking about starting a kitchen renovation and have two potential plans:

Our house is a pretty standard late 1980s side hall colonial. You come in, stairs on our left, formal living room on right, dining room behind living room, kitchen/family room combo next to dining room. The hall leads to the kitchen and has a half bath.

We have two potential ideas:

1) knock down wall between kitchen and dining room and extend the kitchen down in to the old dining space. Move dining room to formal living room, eliminating it. This will allow us to have an island in the kitchen.

2) move double sliding glass door down one door - so basically shift it 4 feet to the left (the right side moves to where the left side is now and the left side ends up in a newly created hole). This gives us enough room for a peninsula in the kitchen.

What would you do? I would prefer the island to the peninsula, but am concerned about making the kitchen half the square footage of the downstairs. We rarely use the formal living room or formal dining room as it stands now so I don’t think we’d miss the extra room but would it be weird?

Don’t plan to move until the girls are at least in college so that gives us a good 10 years after the kitchen is done as long as we do it within the next two years.

[Cheerio]

Does option one mean the only eating area is at the island or would you have a table similar to an eat-in kitchen or breakfast nook? If there's no room for a table anywhere, I would go with option two.

[sunshineandpinot]

We did a big reno a few years ago. We added a huge, eat-at island and turned our formal dining into our only dining; we made it once space. No regrets; I have not once missed having my formal dining room. (I added a table that seats 4 but expands to seat 8 when needed)

[ssmjlm]

Do you have another hang out space/rec room?

I would 100% eliminate the formal living space if it's not needed.

[mccallister84]

To answer some questions:

75% of the basement is finished. Right now with the girls being young it is toy central but obviously that would evolve with age.

If we do plan 1 we would end up with “formal” dining room, large kitchen with island and family room on the first floor. There is space between where the kitchen and family room are. Right now there’s a table there. I am not sure what we would put in this space if we expanded the kitchen. I guess we could potentially keep the table here but that seems to be a bit of overkill.

[livinitup]

#1

Not weird

If you don’t have an office in the house, I’ve also see adding a space for a desk/table & chair to do any kind of work, use a laptop, etc.

[cville]

#1 x 10000

[mccallister84]

Sept 10, 2024 14:09:39 GMT -5 livinitup said:

#1

Not weird

If you don’t have an office in the house, I’ve also see adding a space for a desk/table & chair to do any kind of work, use a laptop, etc.

H currently uses the fourth bedroom as an office. It’s very small - like was fine for a nursery but I’m not sure you could even fit a twin in there. I did think about putting a desk in the space where we currently have the table if we go with option 1.

In typing this out, I definitely leaned more towards 1. I think that allows us to actually get the kitchen we want. I appreciate everyone thoughts! Keep them coming. I am sure there will be more of these posts as we actually commit to the protect.

[Susie]

With #1, you'll want to look into what walls are load bearing and how that may need to be handled.  We have friends that have been demo'ed since mid-summer en route to essentially your #1, and it's been one problem after another.  Demo revealed a bunch of plumbing that had to be re-routed, in addition to needing to bring in an engineer part way through for structural/support issues.  I'm sure the end result will be great, but it has been A Process and they are so, so over it.

Our last house was a side hall colonial and I always felt like the big "formal living room" was a huge waste of space.  We used it as an office, but it was really too big for that, and we didn't need 2 living/family rooms.  So I totally get the desire to rework the space as you suggested, I'd just do like triple checking on everything before committing.

[bex1973]

We did #2 when we renovated our kitchen and I loved the extra space and I was shocked how much of a difference it made.

[mccallister84]

Sept 10, 2024 14:41:15 GMT -5 Susie said:

With #1, you'll want to look into what walls are load bearing and how that may need to be handled.  We have friends that have been demo'ed since mid-summer en route to essentially your #1, and it's been one problem after another.  Demo revealed a bunch of plumbing that had to be re-routed, in addition to needing to bring in an engineer part way through for structural/support issues.  I'm sure the end result will be great, but it has been A Process and they are so, so over it.

Our last house was a side hall colonial and I always felt like the big "formal living room" was a huge waste of space.  We used it as an office, but it was really too big for that, and we didn't need 2 living/family rooms.  So I totally get the desire to rework the space as you suggested, I'd just do like triple checking on everything before committing.

Our old next door neighbors did #1 to an extent- they combined the rooms - but did not do it to our liking. I am not sure when they did it, but it was in the last five years of them owning the house and honestly if I have to guess based upon when they I recall them doing a lot of work I think they did it the year the moved out. So I’m assuming that at least knocking down the wall isn’t impossible.

We will definitely do our due diligence before committing to anything but I appreciate the heads up.

[shopgirl07]

Sept 10, 2024 14:17:39 GMT -5 cville said:

#1 x 10000

Yep

[lab7979]

I would do option 1. I've thought about doing the same thing in my home. I basically have the same layout. I was planning to do away with formal dining altogether because I only use it for Christmas. My plan was to keep the formal sitting room because I keep my piano in there. I wanted a larger kitchen with a bigger island. I planned to extend my kitchen into the dining room. I currently have a table between my kitchen and family room so moving the kitchen over a little bit would allow me to keep the table and maybe even getting a larger one.

[Roc A Bee]

I need pictures

[sdlaura]

Our living and dining rooms are open concept and then there is a wall between dining and kitchen. Some of our neighbors have knocked down that wall to have the first level totally open. Personally, I like the idea of open concept, but in practice (with kids) I’ve found that I really prefer having some separate spaces.

[circa1978]

I will never, ever knock down another wall. I'm sure people have easy peasy experiences with it but it has been a PITA both times we've done it.

[rubytue]

I’d prefer #1, but I question if I would actually do it. In the typical colonial, that is usually the wall carrying the main load for the upstairs. Load bearing will run perpendicular to joists, which is also typically parallel to the ridge line of the roof. It can be done, it’s very expensive.

ok, so the pictures posted below rule that this was based on an incorrect reading. 

[honeydew1894]

We have your same layout and did #1 last summer. We have 2 "living rooms," a peninsula for 4 stools, a large island for a buffet, and an eat in kitchen. We absolutely LOVE it.

[janegold]

I grew up in a neighborhood full of identical, similar homes. Most/many people ended up doing your option #1. That's what I would do.

[mccallister84]

We would be taking down the wall with the stove on it.

Roc A Bee

[Roc A Bee]

Yeah I would take that wall down.

[maudefindlay]

I don't think it would look weird at all to do #1. It'd make your house more functional for you for sure. I don't think the peninsula would add much benefit.

[jlt19]

Sept 10, 2024 14:32:55 GMT -5 mccallister84 said:

Sept 10, 2024 14:09:39 GMT -5 livinitup said:

#1

Not weird

If you don’t have an office in the house, I’ve also see adding a space for a desk/table & chair to do any kind of work, use a laptop, etc.

H currently uses the fourth bedroom as an office. It’s very small - like was fine for a nursery but I’m not sure you could even fit a twin in there. I did think about putting a desk in the space where we currently have the table if we go with option 1.

In typing this out, I definitely leaned more towards 1. I think that allows us to actually get the kitchen we want. I appreciate everyone thoughts! Keep them coming. I am sure there will be more of these posts as we actually commit to the protect.

Your house layout sounds similar to our old house. Our 4th bedroom was touching our primary bedroom. So we split it in half and turned half into my own closet, and the other a second floor laundry. This was actually not that expensive and much more loved than the kitchen remodel.

For the kitchen, we just eliminated the space we’d have out a kitchen table and built a long island that sat 8. Our OG laundry was in a hall between the kitchen/dining, so we turned that into a butlers pantry of sorts, and widened the kitchen into the bathroom as much as we could, but ended up keeping the separate dining and living rooms. I used the living room for my office and the dining room was basically wasted space.

Which is what then helped convince me to make us downsize and that was a HORRIBLE idea in many ways. So don’t do that 😉

[mrsukyankee]

We did it in our old house (#1) and it was the best thing ever. We never used the formal living room so having a bigger kitchen that we could eat in was so much better.

[tealblue]

For sure do option 1.

What’s in that closet next to the fridge? Is it just a pantry or does it have utilities (hot water/hvac in it)? I would take that down as well to open up the whole space.

[bittybomb]

We have a side hall colonial too, but ours was built in 1912, and might be larger than your typical side hall colonial so this advice may not apply.  We do have the same layout.  Our house also has an addition off the entire back, which houses our family room.

When we renovated, we went back and forth on an island.  The kitchen originally had a peninsula.  We entertain a lot, and people always seem to converge in the kitchen.  Friends had just done their kitchen, similarly sized, and placed a large island in the middle.  My husband and I both feel kind of squished now in their kitchen.  Last minute I decided to forego the island altogether and opt for a large table that could seat all 5 of us.  We went for a rectangle with seating for 6 with bench and four chairs.  We use one chair for our kitchen desk and have the table tucked in the corner with three chairs and bench.  I really enjoy during parties being able to slide the table all the way into the corner and having open space in our kitchen.  I put the food on the table and use the chairs around the living room and back family room.

But we use our living room and dining room a lot.  My husband's home office is in the corner of the family room so sort of by default the rest of us  hang and lounge in the living room.  We use the dining room regularly as a family of 5 for family game night, and we use it a ton when we have parties and eat there together for holidays. I wouldn't want to give up either space at all.

[brooke77]

I would do #1 for sure

[cville]

Seeing the pictures, I think a peninsula will feel cramped. And doesn't solve your stove in the corner problems.

Go big or go home. Knock down that wall.

[mccallister84]

Sept 11, 2024 10:20:41 GMT -5 cville said:

Seeing the pictures, I think a peninsula will feel cramped. And doesn't solve your stove in the corner problems.

Go big or go home. Knock down that wall.

Yea the peninsula 100% does not work without moving the door down which is also a big project.

[mccallister84]

Sept 11, 2024 8:51:39 GMT -5 tealblue said:

For sure do option 1.

What’s in that closet next to the fridge? Is it just a pantry or does it have utilities (hot water/hvac in it)? I would take that down as well to open up the whole space.

It’s a pantry. The plan would be to take the cabinets/fridge off that wall and yes to knock out the pantry so that wall would end up flush with the dining room wall next to it. That sounded really confusing when I typed it out but hopefully makes sense.