The Kitchen
We wanted a modern kitchen. Spacious, light, full of cabinet storage space and socially oriented countertops. We also wanted to eliminate the moldy original cabinetry, bring the ceiling to its original height and create an open kitchen without walls. John used to be a professional cook for years and was extremely helpful in designing the new layout. Our architect initially drew up a rough plan of what we wanted and we then used that to fine tune the design ourselves.
Ikea cabinets can be space-specific designed and it can be done on their online kitchen design program. The only problem is that it does not work on an Apple computer. John downloaded a virtual PC on to his desktop Mac computer and we were able to do it that way. It took a few months to figure out the exact layout and all the elements we wanted and then it took a while to place the order and about a week to have the items put on a truck and shipped to us from Seattle. At the time there was no Ikea store in Portland, which now, of course, there is one. Go figure. We could have had a much easier time with the whole thing, since we had to drive 3 hours each way for different cabinets and accessories. Our contractor, although nice in the beginning and much cheaper than anyone else we talked to decided he would not worry about materials and we were left to fend for ourselves whenever anything came up too short or too long.
old moldy cupboards
old kitchen appliances
doors and windows
tearing out cabinets
Space Place House 