However, I'm gonna do it. I met with an architect last Friday, and gave her my rough wish list. She took a quick look at the house, gave me a rough estimate of what it would cost (to see if I was being realistic about this, I'm sure), and when I said that was about what I expected, looked relieved and went off to prepare a contract for the design work. She'll work with me on the design, draw the plans, then assist with evaluating bids from contractors. Several friends have told me all about designing their own kitchen layout, but this job involves structural work (at least, I hope it will). Besides, if I try to do it, I'll just procrastinate another 10 years. And the dishwasher is about to die...
Main things I want to accomplish, besides the expected replacement of appliances, cabinets, flooring, and countertops:
- Put in a door from the kitchen to the utility/laundry room, which is currently accessible only by going out into the garage and then into the utility room. This will have the added benefit of letting the cat litterbox move out of the kitchen and into the utility room. This door will have to go where the cooktop is now, so the entire working layout of the kitchen will change.
- Possibly eliminate the entrance hall from the garage door, and add the space to the kitchen. I'd want to re-build the coat closet somewhere if this happens.
- Put a 2-person breakfast bar under the small picture window in the kitchen.
- Adapt an idea from the Dilbert house cat room--a raised counter for the litter box, steps leading to it, storage for food and litter underneath. This might could be built by tearing out the 2 utility room closets, and replacing them with a cabinet/shelving combination.
I may play around with a floor-plan drawing program and do the current layout--I downloaded a demo that doesn't seem too hard to use. But then, the architect will hopefully get started soon, too.
