Can you keep the base in the cabinet below? Maybe he can put the phone jack on the inside of the cabinet for you, leave the base in there.

When we did our kitchen, we ripped out the phone jack completely, put cabinets and fridge in the old location. We have the base located on the desk in another room. I'm wondering if the future homeowners noticed that there is no phone jack in the kitchen.

Bee, if I put the base in the cabinet below, I wouldn't be able to see it. I prefer the base station to be visible, in a central location. I have two other jacks in the house (office and my bedroom), neither of which grab my attention very well. I suppose I could retrain myself. I actually don't mind a phone on the counter, it's the placement of the jack on the wall.

As for no jack in the kitchen, I think with the proliferation of multiple handset phones, you can always have a phone in the kitchen.

oh, I missed the message indicator was on there. Surely there must be an engineer in the family that can somehow disconnect that light and run it so it can be seen on the counter....this is how it is around here...too many engineers!

We won't even answer the home phone anymore around here. All friends and businesses call the cell phones. We only keep it for the alarm system. In fact, I eliminated the voice mail system all together. So freeing! Of course I don't have little kids in which case I would not have done that.

We've designed a cubby w/doors that retract in/out of cabinet. The phone and other daily message/mail center needs are stored there. The phone jack, chargers, electric outlet and lighting are all inside. With this design, doors are out of the way when they are open and when you need to just hide the mess for company, they are easily closed!
Not sure if this is an option for you! Good luck!

My GC still has some electrical work to finish up in this area. Is this something routine enough to ask him to do?

Yes, he should have no problem moving and mounting a phone jack.

What about electrical power for the base station? I wanted to keep a wall phone, so I bought a Leviton device that provide low-voltage DC power to the phone as well as signal to the phone. No more draping power cords!

This, of course, requires AC power to be brought to the box. (On a technical note, the phone line itself cannot go into the electrical junction box, but is snaked through the wall just beside it.)

Oh how cute! An antique land line device! ;)

My point is, it's obsolete technology. Are you sure you want to keep it at all? I've been all cell for over 10 years now, and 90% of everyone I know is also all cell. The only people I know who still have a land line are those who won't give up their DSL in favor of cable modems or cell modems.

It's not obsolete in many places, GreenDesigns. Where I live I have to get in the car and drive 6 miles to get reliable cell service, and cable phone is so full of interference it's unintelligible.

Also, when you live in a hurricane zone it's nice to have a phone that can work when there's no electricty (I keep an old-fashioned plug-in phone for those times.)

We took out the wall where our kitchen phone was located (one way to solve the "issue" LOL). We keep our cordless phone base unit (w/built-in digital answering machine) on the desk in the office. The base unit is connected to a phone jack plus, is plugged into an electrical outlet. We keep one of the handsets in the kitchen, on the "msg ctr". The charging base for the handset just plugs into an outlet, no phone jack required (though DH installed a 6 port frame from Lutron with different modules there as well; cable, data, and phone).

We have a few "old fashioned" corded phones in the house; one in the garage, one in the laundry room, and one in the bedroom, even though there is also a cordless handset in the bedroom. In the event of a power outage (and or an emergency), we want to have a working phone (besides our cell phones) near the bed. During an extended power outage two winters ago, we brought the corded phone into the kitchen to make/receive calls in order to conserve power on our cells. It was nice having the ability to do that (but so odd being "tethered" to the phone because it's no longer the norm for us).

Even in the cell phone era, I agree that it's a good idea to keep a plug-in phone around for emergencies.

Angie, I have power via the outlet to the right. Again, inelegant, but it works. If I sacrificed the jack, I could still use a handset there, just not the base station. Due to some new low-voltage wiring that I insisted be replaced with 120v (a card still in my hand), I'm reluctant to ask for anything more complicated than a slight relocation of the jack and replacing the wall phone plate.

Bee, I wish I had an army of engineers living with me! Life would be sweet. Even if I had nothing but a blinking light to signify MESSAGE!!! I would still have to take the second step to find the base station.

clarygrace, if I live long enough, the next kitchen I redo will have little places for all my ugly things. For now, stuff will sit on my counter. Eventually I stop seeing it.

GreenDesigns, I considered getting rid of my landline but will hang onto it, for now. I love my iPhone, but I hate talking on it unless I'm out of the house. I always tell people to try my landline first. I just don't like the form factor in my hand up by my ear. A lot of people I know are all cell. I won't give up my DSL in favor of a cable modem. With call-waiting and caller-ID, my landline costs me less than $40/mo. I only use it for local calls.

writersblock, after years of lousy cell service, it's finally good in my house. Even AT&T, which is a joke in other areas (SF, e.g.). I also have a cheapo plug-in phone in case of power outage, which only happens around here when someone drunk takes out a pole.

If they can relocate the jack under the counter overhang, that might be my best bet. If I opt out of using it, it's still not in my backsplash.

GreenDesigns--I understand your thoughts about the landline, but as I said above we keep ours solely for our alarm system. Not so much the burglar system, I mean come on--are the cows forming gangs here? But there is nothing like the feeling when I'm not home that if there is a fire the fire company comes automatically. (Even if I'm home,they come automatically, but that's another story)

When we reno'd we also had a phone jack issue, including we needed a new wall switch on the backside of that wall. Moving the phone jack from one side of a stud to the other was theoretically simple. In practice there are about 2 dozen little wires that needed to be unhooked on one side of the stud, passed through it, and reconnected on the other side. It was the reconnecting it part that was a doozie. We called in favors from those who, ahem, have experience, and it still was a major bonding party. We owe those people a dinner. If you pay the phone company to move from A to B, it probably takes 15 minutes.

This is what we did. Notice there is a phone jack and an outlet in there:

When we planned the shelf we were looking at our old phone, which I hated. The new base unit is a little wider front to back than we made the shelf. It's now in the bedroom, but I agree with you, I'd rather have it in the kitchen. Smart people wait until the new base unit is in hand. Regardless, we still need the jack there because that is where the DSL comes through. I like our little retro nook, and it gives me a place where I can find my keys.

OK. How 'bout relocating it over next to the electrical outlet so that the power & plug-in phone cord run next to each other rather than going in two directions? It will require some drywall patching, but then there's no wire over the edge, and only the one "break" in your backsplash (all in the same line, phone & power). All that's required for the phone is a single-gang mud-ring that can be nailed to the same (or adjacent) stud as the electrical box. There are nice flat phone jacks now that match your switchplates & since you no longer have a wall phone you don't need the washers either. HTH.

As long as they exist, I intend on keeping my land line.

When the power was out here for several days after the last tropical storm, neighbors came to my house to make calls. With only a cell - no electricity, no phone.

Especially with a child in the house, I consider it a safety issue.

Suzannesl, I love that niche and that is what I plan to do.

We just finished our remodel and had it removed completely. DH didn't like the placement. Easy enough to bring a cordless extension into the kitchen if we will be in there for a prolonged period.

suzannes1, love the niche. I'm thinking of all kinds of burnt offerings and stuff could go in there as well.

tomuch2chus, your solution is quite perfect. It's much better than over the edge. Whether I move the jack or get rid of it altogether, I still have a bit of drywall patching to do. :( Just had the ceiling and upper wall done. Hope there is some easy way to patch without calling in the heavy artillery. I don't know why it was overlooked earlier by everyone, including myself. They're going to finish up the electrical tomorrow. It's either gonna be easy or not ($$).

you could relocate it over by the switches/outlets or just have it dropped down to the counter edge and flipped to horizontal. let it flow right in w/the BS tiles. It wouldn't be that visible there either.

purplepansies and linelle - we had all sorts of fun with uses for that niche while it was in progress. A friend spent quite a bit of time thinking on it and proclaimed that we should dedicate it to St. Swithun. St. Swithun's claim to fame (d.862) was that he witnessed a malicious workman on a bridge tip over a woman's basket of eggs and break them. St. Swithun, bishop of Winchester, restored her eggs. My friend decided that was the perfect saint for a kitchen. Instead, we enshrined the phone there as we'd always intended.

If you actually do one of these, you might consider a simpler rectangle. That arch held up the finish for weeks while we worked it out.

susannesl, I love the story of St. Swithin. It should come as no surprise that Swithin was one of the two trusted counsellors of Egbert, King of the West Saxons.

The patch doesn't have to be "perfect", just level for your backsplash material, so the cost should be minimal. Hopefully, there's a service loop of wire behind that jack enough to reach the new location...but they can always splice if they have to. Best of luck to you!

(Former telephone "man")

I had my telephone man come and move ours to another location. The former location was above my new counter and I was not about to risk dropping the receiver on my soapstone. I too like to keep a landline for emergencies and power outages. We live out in the country. I like to have the phone visible to see the message machine too. So, we moved our phone to the porch where we enter into the house. We have other extensions about the house, but when we first enter we see this conveniently located phone w/answering machine. It did take some getting used to though.