It Started With A Door
by Joy Brewer

reprinted from March/April 2002 Restoria

The energy forecast was dismal: rolling brown-outs in California, utility companies requesting rate hikes and telling consumers they were trying to ìhold the lineî with 50 percent increases. Thus began our adventure into remodeling the kitchen. It started with a door, a proper door that was insulated and prevented that precious, pricey heat from escaping. Installing that beautiful door in our congested and well-worn kitchen was like wearing new, shiny dress shoes with the tattered clothing one reserves for painting.

This was the point where inspiration and madness coalesce, and we were determined to make the kitchen deserving of its new door.

My husband, Mike, has the gift of envisioning in three dimensions (my mental pictures are invariably flat!). With lots of paper and even greater amounts of patience, Mike was able to draw a layout that finally made sense to me. One double and four standard doorways radiating from our small kitchen (9 x 13 feet) dwarfed it even more. By relocating one of the doorways, Mike created an additional 17 square feet of floor space. This increased our kitchenís total square footage by a whopping 14 percent.

In its former life, the kitchen offered only three feet of usable countertop. By rotating the stove 90 degrees, the countertop instantly doubled to six feet, with every inch of it accessible. To maximize floor space, we replaced the behemoth side-by-side fridge with its baby brother. Long, tedious talks were held about the cabinetryóreplace or restore? We settled on restoration with an additional run of overhead cabinets tying the range into its new location. One of the final major tasks was installing the ceramic tile floor. The subfloor was entombed under seven layers of linoleum (we saved samples to make a collage for hanging in the ìnewî kitchen). The last part of the job was at least as taxing as reconstruction: selecting wallpaper and new countertop. There were simply too many choices!

Weíd like to share with the members some of our hard-learned lessons:

Be flexible. Plans are best written on paper with pencil. As the project progressed, our old house threw some surprises our way that caused us to rework our original ideas.

Try new techniques. We wanted to install 5/8 inch half-round on the circular shelves. I bought a huge roasting pan, filled it with white vinegar and slow baked the half-rounds in this solution for eight hours.

It was partially successful, bending around two of the four shelves without breaking. This inspired Mike to think of a better approach (the vinegar odors still linger!), and he hit upon the idea of making multiple, vertical cuts partway through on the flat side of the molding. His method was 100 percent successful.

Inventory
1. Avoid buying supplies and appliances too early. They only appear to be compact in the store!

2. Verify the condition of the supplies immediately upon receipt. Three months into the project we discovered that all of the floor tiles in one case were broken. We then learned this particular tile was no longer available in the United States, although we could try to track it down in Italy where it was manufactured.

3. Needs change as the project moves forward (see number one). Purchase hardware and general purpose supplies in small quantities as needed. This saves money and cuts down on the amount of perpetually stored materials (anyone need some sheetrock joint tape?).

Experiment. Spend a few dollars on sample wallpapers. Tape them to the wall. Evaluate them over several days and then go ahead and buy your first choice, the one you knew youíd get, but are now sure youíll love. Ditto with paint. Itís better to purchase a pint of product then spend the next five or ten years ìenduringî your selection.

Keep the faith. Remember the mess truly is temporary and within the decade most of the dust and debris will finally be removed!

Be kind. A sense of humor and patience, both for yourself and your partner, make the job survivable.

That little dab of extra floor space and big dab of countertop have changed my attitude as a cook. I feel so much less frenzied and seem to have more time. I realize the latter is a constant, so Iíve concluded that my methods have changed. Iím able to have timesaving appliances handy, such as an electric can opener and food processor, and I spend less time cleaning during meal preparation than afterward. Oh, and that energy crisis? It seems to have been averted!