Opening up a Closed Kitchen

[Maritimer]

We've just bought a Stetson III model with a "Galley Kitchen". That label seems to be code for, "Food should just magically appear at the table and the person preparing it need not be part of any pre-meal conversations unless he or she is shouting".

Ok, that's a bit harsh, but I do the cooking!

We have seen the very similar Amarillo model and the open kitchen with an island is quite appealing. Has anyone done the Stetson (or other) kitchen reno where you take down the kitchen walls that adjoin the living and dining room areas? There are a couple of light switches that would need to be relocated and of course, there will be an impact on the flooring.

If you had a good (or perhaps more important) bad experience with the reno, please share :).

[vintageogauge]

Why didn't you just buy one with an open kitchen and save all the work?'

[kathyspear]

Why didn't you just buy one with an open kitchen and save all the work?'

Maybe they love the location. Maybe they love everything about the house other than the kitchen being closed off. Maybe they got a great deal on it. All sorts of reasons why they might buy a house that isn't 100% perfect. What house is?

I plan to do some remodeling to both my kitchen and my master bath at some point. Why didn't I buy a house that didn't need remodeling? Because this one had so many things going for it.

To OP: There could be structural issues. (ie The wall you want to remove could be load bearing.) If so, it could be very expensive to do what you want. But it might not be load bearing. Good luck. If you do take down walls please take before and after pics and share with us!

Good luck!

kathy

[Stu from NYC]

Why didn't you just buy one with an open kitchen and save all the work?'

No idea but that ship seems to have sailed.

[asianthree]

Why didn't you just buy one with an open kitchen and save all the work?'

OP stated just bought a Home, not politically correct to insult OP that he made a mistake in buying his home, that needs an upgrade.

OP yes in certain homes the wall can be removed, as long as not load bearing. Moving electrical isn’t a big deal for qualified contractors. Use search engine to get at least 3 estimates for good contractors others have been happy with

[villagetinker]

We've just bought a Stetson III model with a "Galley Kitchen". That label seems to be code for, "Food should just magically appear at the table and the person preparing it need not be part of any pre-meal conversations unless he or she is shouting".

Ok, that's a bit harsh, but I do the cooking!

We have seen the very similar Amarillo model and the open kitchen with an island is quite appealing. Has anyone done the Stetson (or other) kitchen reno where you take down the kitchen walls that adjoin the living and dining room areas? There are a couple of light switches that would need to be relocated and of course, there will be an impact on the flooring.

If you had a good (or perhaps more important) bad experience with the reno, please share :).

Call Sumter County Building department for a set of house plans, they should be able to email these to you. With these you can determine if any of the walls you want to remove are load bearing. Also these will give you good talking points for the several contractors you will be talking to. As you noted there will be floor concerns, IMHO I would check for matching tile NOW, or make alternative plans for the floor. I agree moving electrical should be easy. Take a look around to see if any water (or gas?) lines may be in the walls. If a sink is in the area, there may be a vent line in the wall, these may be difficult to eliminate, plumbing codes. If your ultimate rearrangement includes moving sink or other devices using water remember these water lines are in the foundation.
Good luck with your project.

[Donnie&Viv]

We have successfully opened up our lantana for the type of Kitchen concept you are asking about. Very happy with it. If you want to see before and after pictures please let me know.


Viv

[vintageogauge]

OP stated just bought a Home, not politically correct to insult OP that he made a mistake in buying his home, that needs an upgrade.

OP yes in certain homes the wall can be removed, as long as not load bearing. Moving electrical isn’t a big deal for qualified contractors. Use search engine to get at least 3 estimates for good contractors others have been happy with

Maybe the OP can answer the question that was not meant to be an insult but a simple question.

[Tmarkwald]

We have successfully opened up our lantana for the type of Kitchen concept you are asking about. Very happy with it. If you want to see before and after pictures please let me know.


Viv

I'd love to see the pics. Removing that wall would be awesome!

[Kerry Azz]

Maybe they love the location. Maybe they love everything about the house other than the kitchen being closed off. Maybe they got a great deal on it. All sorts of reasons why they might buy a house that isn't 100% perfect. What house is?

I plan to do some remodeling to both my kitchen and my master bath at some point. Why didn't I buy a house that didn't need remodeling? Because this one had so many things going for it.

To OP: There could be structural issues. (ie The wall you want to remove could be load bearing.) If so, it could be very expensive to do what you want. But it might not be load bearing. Good luck. If you do take down walls please take before and after pics and share with us!

Good luck!

kathy
I’ve started this remodel on my sisters manufactured home, it had dated round kitchen, the wall between the living room and kitchen that wasn’t needed was removed. I wanted to do an open LR-DR-Kitchen. The picture shows the kitchen and wall before demolition. It should be finished in 4-5 days. If your not sure hire a contractor before attempting anything like this.:MOJE_whot:

[Girlcopper]

OP stated just bought a Home, not politically correct to insult OP that he made a mistake in buying his home, that needs an upgrade.

OP yes in certain homes the wall can be removed, as long as not load bearing. Moving electrical isn’t a big deal for qualified contractors. Use search engine to get at least 3 estimates for good contractors others have been happy with
Are we actually that sensitive to be insulted because someone makes a suggestion.? No one said he made a “mistake”. I guess in todays society we have to pause, pick and choose our words and then be ready to apologize because someone might be offended?

[MandoMan]

Call Sumter County Building department for a set of house plans, they should be able to email these to you. With these you can determine if any of the walls you want to remove are load bearing. Also these will give you good talking points for the several contractors you will be talking to. As you noted there will be floor concerns, IMHO I would check for matching tile NOW, or make alternative plans for the floor. I agree moving electrical should be easy. Take a look around to see if any water (or gas?) lines may be in the walls. If a sink is in the area, there may be a vent line in the wall, these may be difficult to eliminate, plumbing codes. If your ultimate rearrangement includes moving sink or other devices using water remember these water lines are in the foundation.
Good luck with your project.

Load bearing walls can be replaced with a steel column or two and an i-beam or wooden beam, as specified by a structural engineer, but it isn’t cheap. Will you be removing cabinets? A lot of buyers would be unhappy about not having enough cabinets. If you do have to put in posts and a beam, it’s easy to attach cabinets to them, or even open-backed shelves, leaving an area two feet high and the width between the columns for conversation. It’s just harder to see people or watch television from the kitchen. While you are at it, have your contractor install and large but ultra quiet exhaust fan to the outside, whether through the side wall or the roof. My kitchen has a microwave oven above the stove, and while it has an “exhaust fan”, that just blows the air in the cook’s face. It doesn’t exhaust it outside at all. So the smell of cooking broccoli or asparagus is blown all over.

[cathiehines]

We used Demetri Remodeling for our reno. Extremely good and reasonable. At one time they advertised as the Amarillo King because they remodeled so many Amarillos. They always have an ad in the Daily Sun. They give free estimates.

[La lamy]

Sorry I don't have recommendations for you, but absolutely agree about venting the stove to the outside. Don't let them con you into a charcoal filter that won't really do the job of a real fan that vents outside.

[allsport]

It has always been a practice in TV that only outside walls are an issue, you can take down most inside walls.

[wesettles001]

Could you please email before and after pictures. I have a lantana also and was thinking of doing the same. Also would you recommend the company that did the work

Thanks
Wendy

[John_W]

I had a wall between the kitchen and dining room removed from my home in Maryland in 2008. The original kitchen was like a small horseshoe, and this 10' island is right where that wall use to be. The refrigerator and cabinets were on the right side of the kitchen. We didn't lose that much cabinet space because the bottom of the island is all new cabinets and the refrigerator we moved to the left side next to the sink.

We ran into problems that you won't face, with a two story home the A/C ducts, five of them, ran through that wall. Those ducts had be rerouted to the other side of the dining room. There was a basement, so the subfloor was removed in the dining room so the A/C mechanic could see where to tie in the new ducts to the trunk line. Also we installed recessed can lights in the kitchen and got rid of the old kitchen light.

Because of all that extra work with the A/C, the subfloor and the demo of the wall and new wood floor installed, it cost about $10,000 do what we wanted. The project was $21,000 total, but that included 1000sf of flooring (bamboo floors), install of flooring on the entire first floor, redoing the electrical, the A/C redo, install cabinets, granite countertops (Santa Cecilia), new appliances (Whirlpool), sink, faucet, backsplash. It did not include the cabinets and hand pulls. The cabinets were high grade self closing and were $6,600 and the handles were $300.

https://scontent-atl3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/95923589_1611428562355003_6544551125603844096_o.jp g?_nc_cat=110&ccb=3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=vaFYWY6s1nsAX93Nk6j&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-2.xx&oh=8823af0105113ec5fb49ce9a3692a78f&oe=605E7E16

https://scontent-atl3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/94323039_1600926710071855_3919001243481014272_o.jp g?_nc_cat=101&ccb=3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=-7OPvgTj6x4AX8xPFzl&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-2.xx&oh=db8aadd44c5d3e3d4adcb91c1161ab99&oe=6060B967

https://scontent-atl3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/67085464_1347005185464010_7525933732352491520_n.jp g?_nc_cat=105&ccb=3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=qImky8Id2vIAX_x7vTE&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-2.xx&oh=9576ac839a11785446b87b2ecbf81a65&oe=6060DD3E

https://scontent-atl3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/95127054_1611428755688317_1551615360120127488_o.jp g?_nc_cat=111&ccb=3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=fd3VI6GM0dAAX_dQMlT&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-2.xx&oh=47fdf2cb32555cb938e3efbfd149552b&oe=605FFE69

[Maritimer]

Thank you all for your great comments! We do love the house and its location. Also that it has a small but useful pool, which was not common with this model -- at least when we were "shopping". As a civil engineer by training, I'm aware of the load-bearing wall issue, but the fact that the model was originally offered with the open kitchen as an option suggests that they are not load-bearing. Great suggestion though, to check with the county.

[tvbound]

Maybe they love the location. Maybe they love everything about the house other than the kitchen being closed off. Maybe they got a great deal on it. All sorts of reasons why they might buy a house that isn't 100% perfect. What house is?

I plan to do some remodeling to both my kitchen and my master bath at some point. Why didn't I buy a house that didn't need remodeling? Because this one had so many things going for it.

To OP: There could be structural issues. (ie The wall you want to remove could be load bearing.) If so, it could be very expensive to do what you want. But it might not be load bearing. Good luck. If you do take down walls please take before and after pics and share with us!

Good luck!

kathy


"All sorts of reasons why they might buy a house that isn't 100% perfect. What house is?"

Well said. Being in the market for a used home, due to preferred locations, we have already accepted the idea that we won't get everything we want in our choice. Knowing that, with proper approval, we have the potential of changing some of those items we may not be in love with, is what makes potential tradeoffs more palatable.

[mulligan]

The real bummer is I really like that round kitchen.

[Maritimer]

Right - exhaust fans that don't vent to the exterior are just recirculation fans -- pretty much useless.

[Maritimer]

Thanks John -- right, items like the cupboard handles are often forgotten when estimating the reno. It's also amazing sometimes what is hidden in the walls. The drawings you really want to get before a reno are the "as-built" drawings. Very seldom actually produced (unless you pay the contractor to do them), what they show is what really happened during construction, despite what the designer/engineer planned. Sometimes you just cant run a pipe etc where the drawings indicate. So the as-built drawings are annotated versions of the plans (that are on file with the county) that show what reality dictated needed to happen. Fortunately we are not building a hospital here, its just a couple of walls! Your place looks wonderful. Mike

[Maritimer]

Right - exhaust fans that don't vent to the exterior are just recirculation fans -- pretty much useless.

[Carla B]

Not that you're far into the details of planning, but the photo of John W.'s kitchen cabinets with the bar pulls made me think of two sources we used in 2016 for the remodel of an old house near TV. We found two great sources: DoorCorner.com and OvisOnline.com for cabinet hardware. So much cheaper and more convenient than we could find locally.

[JoMar]

Could you please email before and after pictures. I have a lantana also and was thinking of doing the same. Also would you recommend the company that did the work

Thanks
Wendy

Also with a Lantana and also doing a major kitchen redo......wonder if we can get a group discount :)

[Gulfcoast]

In our old house we did something similar to what John W did in his former home. Our wall was not load bearing and it really opened the kitchen up and made it easy to talk, watch t.v., etc. while I cooked. Our kitchen was a square and it worked out better for our space to have the kitchen stools on the kitchen side of the breakfast bar. We had a license contractor do the work and the contractor was able to tell that the wall was not load bearing. It was definitely worth doing.

[Tmarkwald]

Also with a Lantana and also doing a major kitchen redo......wonder if we can get a group discount :)

me too HA HA

[JoelJohnson]

I removed our old kitchen in our 1989 manufactured home in 2014, in doing so I found most of the floor under the cabinets were rotted out. I replaced everything with 3/4 plywood. Last year I found weak spots in our bedroom and other parts of the house, found out that just about ALL the subfloors were, what I call cardboard, and had to be ripped up and replaced with 3/4 plywood. Those floors were outlawed in the '90s, but many home in the older section of the Villages still have them.

[Maritimer]

Love to see them please!

[Ben Franklin]

We have an open kitchen and wish we didn't. When watching the TV, if someone does something in the kitchen, then the TV needs to be turned up, so we can hear it.