allen levine
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- 12,369
- Location
- new york city burbs
Ill let all you rich guys see what its like to have a small home.
Im ok these days to move into bigger quarters, but I have no more energy to ever move again till my wife retires and then she can pick out any home she wants.
For now, I wanted to redo some of my small cape.
Just to give a brief idea of what a levitt cape is.
Its a galley kitchen. Original kitchens were only one wall, approx 10 feet long.
Most people added the other wall of cabinets.
My fridge is the original way it was set up, alot of people have done work and moved it to other places. The boiler was only accessable by moving the fridge foward, the boiler in back of it. God Bless Levitt, he used every inch.
All of my friends who own these tiny homes, rip out the other wall in back of the boiler, for easy access. We finally did it.
some people gamble and dig out the crawl space high enough to put boiler down there and add washer and dryer, dangerous, because if you go too deep here, you hit water. some have paid a steep price for that.
The problem was, my boiler was right there in back of the fridge, so we had to have all the piping and boiler moved to the other side. Now the fridge will be moved back 2 feet, and the wall into the main room will be reduced 18-24 inches to open up the space to walk into the kitchen, allowing us to have a much larger double pantry put in, without walking into it with the fridge being so far foward.(sucks when youre poor and could only afford this type of home, but those were the times when we bought this home, and Im not ashamed of it)
This is a melamine kitchen we had put in very inexpensive over 20 years, it was in style then.
We wanted to rip out the soffit, but the fresh air duct is there, and I didnt want to go through more expense to move it, and then the village has to get invovled since its required to have it, and when I sell, I dont want headaches.
Whatever, its staying, but its so 1980ish, so we decided to have false panels matching the doors to extend to the ceiling, with double crown moldings.
A bit much for this tiny kitchen, but this is what my wife wanted.
I did not pick out anything. this is her kitchen.
I made recommendations, suggestions.
some pics before we rip it out, just to show how small it really is.
Its all going, all except the woman standing in one picture, her, I have to keep, she supports me, and I need her health insurance, and eventually her pension to support us.
first 2 pics show each side of kitchen now, the third picture is the wall that is next to the fridge and is being reduced, and the last is the boiler area. In the back of that pic you can see the fridge, which will be slid backwards 18 or so inches.Just posting this thread as light reading if anyone wants to follow it as they install.
The last pic is the computer generated new look.
The computer cant generate the panels above the cabinets. The crown moldings will match all along the ceiling all around the room.The cabinet over the sink will be some kind of glass my wife picked out to break up the wood.
double trash can slide outs, dovetails, plywood cabs...the whole nine yards.
Solid cherry wood,(I wanted cherry, she picked out the stain color), gonna be brushed stainless handles/pulls
(on the left side of fridge, instead of a wall which is there now, they are installing wine rack shelving, not sure how its going to look, but my wife liked it, and can always fill it with cookbooks, etc.
one other point, the house electric panel is on the left side of the stove, above the counter. Now there is a long cabinet hiding it inside, but made the counter space under that useless.
Its an expense to move the panel, not to mention getting the village invovled, so a matching panelled door will cover it now, we just cant bring the cabinets all the way down on the left side of microwave, something we didnt want, but life isnt always what you want, compromises have to be made, or steep prices have to be paid. Im too cheap for that.
oh, those white cabinets did not have pulls or knobs on them. We put them on a few years ago because we got bored with the look of no pulls. didnt work, but got the knobs cheap enough so it didnt hurt.
and if anyone really looked at any of these pics, some appliances are white, some are stainless,.........my wife watches too much of that HGTV and she heard one of the designers say whenever you replace your old appliance, buy it new in the color you want till you eventually have all the same color again.
Im ok these days to move into bigger quarters, but I have no more energy to ever move again till my wife retires and then she can pick out any home she wants.
For now, I wanted to redo some of my small cape.
Just to give a brief idea of what a levitt cape is.
Its a galley kitchen. Original kitchens were only one wall, approx 10 feet long.
Most people added the other wall of cabinets.
My fridge is the original way it was set up, alot of people have done work and moved it to other places. The boiler was only accessable by moving the fridge foward, the boiler in back of it. God Bless Levitt, he used every inch.
All of my friends who own these tiny homes, rip out the other wall in back of the boiler, for easy access. We finally did it.
some people gamble and dig out the crawl space high enough to put boiler down there and add washer and dryer, dangerous, because if you go too deep here, you hit water. some have paid a steep price for that.
The problem was, my boiler was right there in back of the fridge, so we had to have all the piping and boiler moved to the other side. Now the fridge will be moved back 2 feet, and the wall into the main room will be reduced 18-24 inches to open up the space to walk into the kitchen, allowing us to have a much larger double pantry put in, without walking into it with the fridge being so far foward.(sucks when youre poor and could only afford this type of home, but those were the times when we bought this home, and Im not ashamed of it)
This is a melamine kitchen we had put in very inexpensive over 20 years, it was in style then.
We wanted to rip out the soffit, but the fresh air duct is there, and I didnt want to go through more expense to move it, and then the village has to get invovled since its required to have it, and when I sell, I dont want headaches.
Whatever, its staying, but its so 1980ish, so we decided to have false panels matching the doors to extend to the ceiling, with double crown moldings.
A bit much for this tiny kitchen, but this is what my wife wanted.
I did not pick out anything. this is her kitchen.
I made recommendations, suggestions.
some pics before we rip it out, just to show how small it really is.
Its all going, all except the woman standing in one picture, her, I have to keep, she supports me, and I need her health insurance, and eventually her pension to support us.
first 2 pics show each side of kitchen now, the third picture is the wall that is next to the fridge and is being reduced, and the last is the boiler area. In the back of that pic you can see the fridge, which will be slid backwards 18 or so inches.Just posting this thread as light reading if anyone wants to follow it as they install.
The last pic is the computer generated new look.
The computer cant generate the panels above the cabinets. The crown moldings will match all along the ceiling all around the room.The cabinet over the sink will be some kind of glass my wife picked out to break up the wood.
double trash can slide outs, dovetails, plywood cabs...the whole nine yards.
Solid cherry wood,(I wanted cherry, she picked out the stain color), gonna be brushed stainless handles/pulls
(on the left side of fridge, instead of a wall which is there now, they are installing wine rack shelving, not sure how its going to look, but my wife liked it, and can always fill it with cookbooks, etc.
one other point, the house electric panel is on the left side of the stove, above the counter. Now there is a long cabinet hiding it inside, but made the counter space under that useless.
Its an expense to move the panel, not to mention getting the village invovled, so a matching panelled door will cover it now, we just cant bring the cabinets all the way down on the left side of microwave, something we didnt want, but life isnt always what you want, compromises have to be made, or steep prices have to be paid. Im too cheap for that.
oh, those white cabinets did not have pulls or knobs on them. We put them on a few years ago because we got bored with the look of no pulls. didnt work, but got the knobs cheap enough so it didnt hurt.
and if anyone really looked at any of these pics, some appliances are white, some are stainless,.........my wife watches too much of that HGTV and she heard one of the designers say whenever you replace your old appliance, buy it new in the color you want till you eventually have all the same color again.
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