New Kitchens / Remodels

[Too Tall]

Amish and Mennonite cabinets. No clue where to start. Sooooo I'm guessing first I come up with the spec. than shop it around to these gents? I rather like the idea.

[BShow]

Amish and Mennonite cabinets. No clue where to start. Sooooo I'm guessing first I come up with the spec. than shop it around to these gents? I rather like the idea.

Yeah, me neither. I'll ask around and see if I can dig anything up. A few guys I ride with live out towards Amish country. These guys actively avoid new fangled tech such as the internet, so you probably wont find the good ones when you search google. My favorite bike shop is Mennonite owned and their only web presence is a very short feature by bicycling mag for which they interviewed a non-Mennonite employee.

[Too Tall]

All the NFS you need for life...I'll send you a couple bottles ;)

Yeah, me neither. I'll ask around and see if I can dig anything up. A few guys I ride with live out towards Amish country. These guys actively avoid new fangled tech such as the internet, so you probably wont find the good ones when you search google. My favorite bike shop is Mennonite owned and their only web presence is a very short feature by bicycling mag for which they interviewed a non-Mennonite employee.

[joosttx]

When we moved to California we bought a house with a kitchen that was remodeled in 1983. It was so bad that you could not put a pot on the stove because the top of it would hit the microwave above. Originally we were going to redo the entire thing but then decided not to. The cabinets and drawers were out dated but their guts were of high quality. So instead for replacing everything we decided to reface them. I highly recommend doing this if you like your layout it is soooo much cheaper.

The other thing we did was when we replaced the countertops was we used a company that lazer measured our countertops instead of removing the old ones and taking a template. What this meant was our countertops were they demo and the news ones were installed in a day opposed to demoing the countertops, taking a measurement and waiting 2-3weeks (having your kitchen out of commission) for them to install the new ones.

Finally, we bought kitchen aid applicances except for the frig. They are excellent especially the hood. Our contractor made it his standard hood to recommend after he saw how it performed. Since our kitchen is small we bought a 30inch Bosch built-in refrig. It was a lot money more than a standard refrig but it serves us very well and I am very pleased with it.

[UnfilteredDregs]

Another note on soapstone. You need to oil it frequently during the first year...like twice a week. It tapers across 2-3 years. I haven't oiled my countertops in at least a year and a half...

My kitchen is funny, the "Work Triangle," everyone talks about is 10' x 10'.

I live in NYC. My entire kitchen is 10' x 10'. It's extremely cozy...nevertheless I can seat 4, like a subway during rush hour, while two people can work. I have 54 sqft of countertop. Plenty of room for me & the Missus as well as our spoilt single-child progeny.

I hustle people into the living room when we have company:

[Matthew Strongin]

Another note on soapstone. You need to oil it frequently during the first year...like twice a week. It tapers across 2-3 years. I haven't oiled my countertops in at least a year and a half...

My kitchen is funny, the "Work Triangle," everyone talks about is 10' x 10'.

I live in NYC. My entire kitchen is 10' x 10'. It's extremely cozy...nevertheless I can seat 4, like a subway during rush hour, while two people can work. I have 54 sqft of countertop. Plenty of room for me & the Missus as well as our spoilt single-child progeny.

I hustle people into the living room when we have company:

Dude, you need one of those universal remotes. Other than that I have to say that's a pretty sweet setup.

[UnfilteredDregs]

Dude, you need one of those universal remotes. Other than that I have to say that's a pretty sweet setup.

(...I've been too lazy to program it... )

[ZenNMotion]

Two things that really work in our remodel-
Two sinks- one for dishes/washing, a second smaller one for food prep. If you do a lot of fresh vegetables there is something kind of gross where you're mixing food with dirty pots and dishes. We're not neat freaks and we cook messy, the second sink area stays clean- and the faucet can be pulled out as a hose (maybe not for households with young kids!) Even in our small kitchen, the second sink is important, and the second prep area also helps with the traffic flow, we can easily have two busy cooks in there at the same time when the sink area doesn't get crowded. So rather than one bigger sink, I'd vote for two smaller. ATMO.
Second, we LOVE our Blue Star gas stove. We can only fit a small 30" 4-burner in the space, but one of those burners is capable of 25,000 btu- basically the max allowable by fire code for residential kitchens. I do a lot of wok cooking and searing and a normal stove doesn't cut it if especially if you are cooking larger quantities for a few people. Tepid temps=shitty wok cooking. We picked up the stove from the distributor out near Silver Spring somewhere and they delivered it to NoVa, best kitchen decision we made (besides the second prep sink)

[Too Tall]

This is really helping me.

[rwsaunders]

Mrs. RW chimed in for a second...try to have your sink centered on a window if possible and exhaust your hood to the outside. We are lucky that we purchased a hood that still has replacement filters avaibale 16 years later. Stockpile a few filters for posterity.

[ZenNMotion]

Mrs. RW chimed in for a second...try to have your sink centered on a window if possible and exhaust your hood to the outside. We are lucky that we purchased a hood that still has replacement filters avaibale 16 years later. Stockpile a few filters for posterity.

Yes- definitely vent outside, and don't skimp on the vent power, weak hoods are for people who don't really cook. Some of the additional cost of more expensive hoods is to make them less noisy, so if you don't care much about the B52 motor over the stove you can save a bit of $- go for power and still effectively get the heat and smoke out of the kitchen- loud and smoky = good eating. That is, unless you boil or microwave all your food and are afraid of garlic and capsicum.

[UnfilteredDregs]

BIG HOOD. 1000+ CFM. There is no substitute. Don't mess around here. I'm currently going through pain with my Zephyr. I have a feeling the phase is reversed and the fans are revolving in the wrong direction.

[ZenNMotion]

BIG HOOD. 1000+ CFM. There is no substitute. Don't mess around here. I'm currently going through pain with my Zephyr. I have a feeling the phase is reversed and the fans are revolving in the wrong direction.

On our Zephyr, the fan on the right spins counter-clockwise (when looking up from below) the fan on the left spins clockwise. Ours is adequate- but just barely at 850cfm. I'd get a bigger one next time- although I took a chance and got it new with a couple of small dents on Ebay from contractor surplus for about 50 bucks.

[ericpmoss]

Whoa -- is that an AGA cooker? I've wondered about them for a while, but didn't know if they heat up the house more or less than anything else. Very cool in any case.

[nahtnoj]

Amish and Mennonite cabinets. No clue where to start. Sooooo I'm guessing first I come up with the spec. than shop it around to these gents? I rather like the idea.

I'll talk to my parents on Sunday, and snap some shots of their new kitchen. The guy who did theirs was fantastic. And yeah, like Bill said, dude doesn't have an Instagram account...

And some gratuitous shots of their barn. Guy who did that is Clarence Martin. Total badass.

[AJPM44]

Whoa -- is that an AGA cooker? I've wondered about them for a while, but didn't know if they heat up the house more or less than anything else. Very cool in any case.

It is an aga. We got the total control, which is electric so we can power it down. When it is fully on, it definitely throws off heat. But with the ability to turn it off, it is not much different than a regular oven.

[AJPM44]

And for quick searing, instead of a salamander, get a searzall. Searzall — Booker and Dax

[mnoble485]

Josh,

Being 6'5" tall I've often thought that higher than "normal" counter tops would be nice. Not sure how that would affect the Queen or resale.
Just a thought.

Mike

[dashDustin]

Two sinks- one for dishes/washing, a second smaller one for food prep.

So obvious, yet I never would have thought of that.

[BSUdude]

The cabinets and drawers were out dated but their guts were of high quality. So instead for replacing everything we decided to reface them. I highly recommend doing this if you like your layout it is soooo much cheaper.

Honestly this is great advice. The most important parts of casework are the front panels and the hardware (drawer slides/door hinges/pulls). After it's in 95% of people wouldn't know or care if the shelves and back panels are hardwood or faced MDF.