- Update the main components of the kitchen: cabinets, floor, counter tops. We had recently replaced the dishwasher and OTR microwave, so we only had to consider whether the range/oven and refrigerator needed to be replaced.
- Eliminate the bottleneck at the entrance/stairs to next level.
- Ease some of the tight spots - the corner near the oven/range (where you cannot open the drawer the full way unless you open the oven first), and the corner of the peninsula (very tight spot where I store all my baking pans and cookie sheets, etc.)
All and all, the three items above were my worst complaints about my kitchen. I sometimes got aggravated at the cabinet space (the two blind corners were the wasteland that most complain about). My "glass land" cabinet is a danger - with Corning Ware read to fall out and break at any second - but basically, the kitchen works for the most part.
My major challenge with achieving the 3 goals above was that the existing usable kitchen space was very small. On one wall, I had 8' available, on the other wall, just a little over 9'. The two walls were 10'6" apart. I had a doorway into the kitchen (from entry way), a large patio slider out to the deck, and a doorway into the dining room. The work triangle was 1x5x4' - very efficient, yet tight. If more than one person was in the work "square" (about 5x5'), we would end up doing the bump.
And so, the journey began to find just the right layout that would alleviate all our problems, maintain what we liked about the current kitchen, and achieve our ultimate goal.
