Are you saying you want to put cabs blocking out of the window itself? Because if that's the case you could use a piece of drywall on the bottom 3" (having first removed the sill if it protrudes, and/or any molding) and bring it up to wherever you want - with just a 'press in fit' with 'mud' (plaster) to smooth edges - and then hang your cabinet (also having first removed any other side or top molding that would interfere). But are you sure the cabinet will entirely cover the whole thing? And how will you hang the cabinet - they usually require strong studs in back to drill into - there's a lot of weight involved. Or am I not understanding the whole thing? BTW, I would also press fit a slab of styrofoam into the frame, flush with walls on the side, rather than just leaving the glass alone behind there - it ever if breaks from outside, the foam will keep it from all collecting in a mess on the bottom (behind the new 'wall' piece). OR you maybe should just remove the whole window, and put in a whole new piece of drywall (gyprock) flush with the rest of the walls, and either put new siding or brick or whatever in from the outside to make the ex-window space disappear for good.

No, no, no.....I have led you wrong. I want to be able to use the window and put a lower cabinet underneath, preferably my farmhouse sink. However the window sill is three inches below countertop height.

My parents recently redid their kitchen. On their center island, they had a bakers area/maple chopping block set about 4 inches below the granite counter top to make working dough etc. easier for a shorter person. Perhaps you could design something similar in front of this window; maybe your sink instead of the cutting block. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll try to find a picture of this...I'll post if I can locate it. Hope this helps!

Thank you for the responses.....I have thought of a 'baking center' with a prep sink in this area. This may be what it will end up as.

We have the same problem in our kitchen! Right now we have a counter in front of the window that is 3" shorter than the adjoining counter top. The cabinets under the window are original (1920) so they were built to fit the space. I don't do much baking so I can't comment on how easy it is for that, but it works OK for just a regular counter.

We are actually going to redo things a bit and raise those cabinets to regular height to allow a dishwasher to go in. The dishwasher will take the place of our vegetable bins since those aren't very useful to us!

That means our cabinets will block the bottom 3" of the window. Most of the houses in our neighborhood have this issue and some people have solved it by replacing the window, leaving the cabinets lower, or doing what we will do, and block part of the window. If you make sure the back of the cabinets are finished nicely then it doesn't look odd from the outside.

Here is a link that might be useful: Here are some pics of our kitchen with the low counter.

A kitchen designer who I didn't go with had previously suggested making a small 'well' in the back of the counter by moving the cabinet forward about 6 inches or so, making a well by continuing the counter top down the back of the cabinet and then leveling out making the window sill with the counter top material. This would become a place to store herb pots. I guess not a bad idea in the end. Thanks for sharing your pictures....I like the look of the lower counter top. Nice to mash potatoes and stir batter on a lower top I think.

I have the same situation on one of the outside walls. My husband did the primary renovation on this house before I married him and he did block the bottom three inches of the window with part of a counter. I absolutely hated the situation. When we got new tilt-in windows, it was even more cumbersome.

We had to rip out our kitchen to replace the floor/floor joists and I decided that window would not be blocked again, I was tired fighting it. They custome made a lower counter directly under the window for a utility sink over which I placed the pitcher pump I installed. It's the perfect "farmhouse" sink where I do the more dirty chores, keeping my food sink sanitary. I call it the chicken sink.

I really like that, calliope. I wish we could do something similar, or something like a "well" like laynie mentioned, but our kitchen is just way too small. We're already stretching our brain to get a full-sized DW in there and the fridge is in the dining room!

I guess what I'm saying to laynie is that if your kitchen is big enough to get in everything you want, then a baking station or a chicken sink (I love that!) is a great solution. Otherwise there's not much else to do than get a new window or block the bottom.

You certainly do have to work with what you have as far as layouts when you are retrofitting modern life into ancient homes. I've had old Victorian homes with floor to ceiling cupboards and butler's pantries, and also same era farmhouses with no cabinets at all, save a corner cupboard and likely a freestanding cupboard. That's when I struck when the iron was hot. Ripping everything out to four walls and dirt beneath allowed me to totally re-arrange how he had the base cabinets, and allowed me to move my center island. If you have the floorspace, an island is an answer to a prayer as far as making a good traffic pattern. I was able to open up the ell shaped arrangement he had before and have access to the island from all sides. It sure cut down on walking all the way around my 8 foot island and it also allowed me to move the cooking unit and main sink to the island and free up the windows.

It took me a good month to figure out how to get my pitcher pump in there and especially where to put the wall cabinets. Form follows function for me because I absolutely need a good cooking area. I "put up" hundreds of jars of produce in summer and cook in a major way. I was even able to fit a little office into the kitchen inglenook after we remodeled. But, you know, BIG rooms don't always mean they are lain out efficiently. I worked around an eight foot wide hearth along one wall, two exterior doors, one interior and three windows. Argh!

Whatever you do, don't run the counter straight across and block the bottom few inches of the window. A previous owner did that in our last house and it was impossible to open the window. We moved out of the house before we fixed it but that was the one thing in the kitchen which absolutely drove me nuts.

If you have enough space, a lower section of countertop is great for rolling out dough and mixing up mashed potatoes, etc. and I would definitely go for it. I had a small table in my pre-remodel kitchen at a lower than counter height and I loved that. I would definitely not block the window with a counter. If you must, then the "well" for herb pots sounds like the best way to do it. Another option may be to move the window up. If you have at least 3 inches of wall above it, a contractor could move the window. Depending on how much work you are already contemplating, it is not that big of an additional job. Finally, depending on the wall space, windows can sometimes also be re-installed side-ways to open as a slider instead of vertically. You can re-work the trim so it matches the rest of the house and still have a window there, but not as tall. The window in our kitchen has always been there (at least 50 years) but it sure looks like they installed it side-ways to me. Just some options. Hope this is helpful. -Kim

We're still going with covering the bottom portion of the window. Can't make it work any other way, and I don't want to replace the original windows.

Here's an old Gardenweb thread about the same subject and house_vixen posted some pics of her window behind her sink where she did the same thing.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/oldhouse/msg0215581813319.html

It sounds like it's really a personal preference kind of thing.

I don't have a whole lot more to add from what has already been said other than maybe going with a freestanding piece in front of the window. My low window is 8" from a corner and I put a pie safe that's 12" deep on the adjacent wall and I'm going to put a pot rack above that. I'm sure if you post a sketch of your layout in the kitchen forum you'll get lots of good ideas to choose from.

calliope I LOVE your chicken sink and pitcher pump! Is the pump functional?

geokid, so you've made a decision on your layout? BTY, I hope I didn't come off TOO opinionated in your kitchen forum post, I'm trying to restore my 1885 farmhouse after a PO remodeled in the '80s and took out all the original woodwork on the first floor, just breaks my heart. So, please forgive my forwardness and good luck with your remodel.

You bet the pump is functional. I was in another thread on the trough in the cellar and was talking about it. We are on spring water, and being rural, the electric goes out more often than in town and sometimes for days. We have a shallow well pump running by electicity in the large reservoir gravity feeding from the springhead, but before we installed that large holding tank, there is the small cistern it goes to first. The pitcher pump feeds from that one, located just outside a kitchen window. It allows us to have water when we don't have power and there likely was a pitcher pump years ago in the kitchen, judging from the old metal pipes I see in the cistern. My aunties back in Missouri had a pump much like it in their kitchen, and they thought they were so fortunate to have "inside plumbing". LOL.

Each switch on the pump handle brings up a pint of water, so when I need a lot of water fast, I use it. The modern spigot on the food sink takes forever to pull up a pail of water.

Thanks so much for the responses from all of you....this is great. I have reworked the kitchen layout. On another wall I am giving up a bottom cab corner lazy susan and replacing it with a blind bottom cab. I am replacing the 36 inch cab for the main sink with a smaller sink in a 24 inch cab. Then this allows me the baking center in front of the lower window which will have a prep sink. I am excited for now to have(what I hope to be) a final design. I did not want to replace the window size....it would have involved a brick window sill and stucco walls....too much!

Calliope.....LOVE the pump....just awesome

mom2lilenj, yep we decided on the layout. I posted an update on my thread. And nope, you weren't too opinionated. In fact, we needed old house nuts like you to knock some sense into us!

Here is a picture I saw that might be helpful . . .

It is from Bucks Country Soapstone's website.

hth

I don't know if this is too late, but that's the way my existing kitchen counter/sink is, and I'm planning on keeping it that way.

Counter/sink are 6 inches up a functioning window. There's a short section of backsplash (currently laminate) that just sits there, and I stash the dish soap etc. in the well. I once asked my contractor if it was a problem and he said no.

I might build a little shelf atop the section of backsplash this time, and will probably use a "wall" mounted faucet (unless I'm advised not to in case the movement of the pipes would crack the backsplash material).

So it's not bad, it's just different.

Good luck!

I have a nice enamel top table in front of my window, it comes to just underneath the window and is about 6 inches lower than the counter top next to it. Looks great - its good for an old kitchen to have at least a couple of free standing pieces.