Darling house, charming garden. I hope you keep the wood siding and original windows, and get rid of the fake shutters.

Ok, here's some photos of the kitchen area. The first photo shows the south side of the kitchen, the second photo is the east side looking toward the dining room. Third photo is the SW corner with the main entry door shown at the right edge of the photo. Last photo is NE corner of the space showing basement stairs and the hallway to nowhere between bathroom wall and basement stairs. Bathroom (not shown) is in the NW corner of the area, sized 6 1/2 feet by 7 feet. Total size is about 14 feet east to west and 21 feet north to south. The beam shown in the first two pictures is 6 feet from the south wall and that area has a sloping beadboard ceiling with the remainder of the space having a regular full height ceiling, I'll post a floor plan later when I get it finished.

The windows in the kitchen area just don't work and and could be kept, removed, or replaced with more suitable look and size. Also, the window from the dining room into the kitchen could be removed or resized. All the windows go below the level of the countertops and the cabinets are freestanding in front of them. Currently the fridge is placed beside the doorway to the dining room which visually cuts the space. One option I have considered is placing the fridge and some pantry space on the north side of the entry door. The hallway space could be captured for a walk in shower to go along with the current clawfoot tub or for a pantry or coat closet The double wide entry door is a bit of a waste of space, but that would be much more expensive to change out than doing the windows.

Unfortunately, the windows aren't original and the trim work isn't done right, either inside or out. The interior trim is all original, but now about an inch too short so I may have to remove the original square bullseye blocks and replace them with a plain rectangular block to avoid replacing the entire casing

If this were my house, I'd build the kitchen all along the wall with an island. Starting from the left, a small pantry and place fot broom and cleaning items, then the refrigerator, then some counter space, then the sink, more counter space, the stove, more counter space. If this can't all fit on one wall, I'd move the sink to the island.

I would get rid of the three windows (leaving just the fourth that look on the back yard) and have wall to wall cabinets with a microwave over the stove.

Is there a bedroom on the first floor? If not, I would only put a powder room downstairs. The more open floor space the better. Love the beam.

Here are some simple layouts: and

Cute house, lots of possibilities. Needs lots of paint.

Have you thought about moving the two side windows to over the sink, raised up and ganged together at the right height over the counters? They will look silly if they are partly obscured by the cabinetry, so if you are going to move them anyway, why not make a good big feature out of them?

Easier to give comments on floor plans if you post a sketch with measurements showing window and door locations, plumbing, and so forth.

Left-behind interior windows usually make a place look amateurishly remodelled. I'd take out the window and see if it is needed in the kitchen, should it match the existing windows there. If not, maybe add it to the garage. You may find window-swapping to be useful or you may need to just ditch the misfitting windows and replace with new. I don't know your budget: sometimes we can spend a lot more money than it is worth in labor costs of trying to make a silk purse out of sow's ear.

I like the shutters regardless of whether they are real wood or not. They give it character and provide an accent color. The front shrubs need to be pruned down about a foot below the windows.

I can suggest what to do with windows as we just did my daughter's tiny cottage and it made a tremendous difference. Remove all the kitchen windows and replace with transoms about eye level. (I think there should be enough of a header to do that). Now you have lots of wall to place your cabinets.

Both bedrooms are on the main floor. Layout is foyer, bedroom closet and both bedrooms on the north side, about 9 1/2 feet wide with 4 foot foyer, 9 x 9 bedroom, then 12 x 9 bedroom with closet extending out over basement stairs. South side is 12 x 13 living room with double front window then 12 x 12 dining room.

Upstairs is all attic space, accessible only from hatch in closet over basement stairs. Modern stair codes take up too much space so attic conversion just isn't in the budget. Big budget item is $4K, labor and material, on new roof for house and garage, followed by another thousand for changing out windows and siding for kitchen area.

We're aiming to get the house done on less than 15K, including new roof, new copper piping, updated electric, new paint top to bottom, inside and out, remodeled kitchen and bath. That number includes about 25 man days of skilled labor, but doesn't count labor of myself and my business partner.

The garage actually doesn't need much work, just new roof and new paint job. Come spring we'll take down the doors and take them apart, remake any parts we can't save, glue and epoxy them back together and then repaint. That's not expensive in terms of materials, but lots of labor.

Love to see your progress and impressed you can do all that for $15 K, even with your own labor.

I hope you can salvage the interior trim and the bullseyes--don't quite understand why you have to remove. Why do the doors have to go higher? Can't you get solid doors and reduce them instead, or just use the existing doors? That detail is the best part of the house. How about just adding a little filet of molding instead?--something that relates to the base trim,

Even if it is not original, at least it is properly sized (perhaps salvaged?) and relates to the casing width, and I like how they relate to the wainscotting, although it doesn't look right to not have casing all the way to the floor.

At least the sink and the light fixture are nice, and the appliances look decent. Cabinets are cheap looking, but with a bit of rearrangement and paint, might be OK. I would put the sink between the windows and build a rustic heavy duty base and low shelving under each window, perhaps with wicker or tin pull-out bins for linens and potatoes and onions and such. Could be a real focal point, although that would mean that the dishwasher wouldn't be adjacent. An unfitted look could really work in this space and play up its rustic charm. Perhaps the exising cabinet could work in the corner and along the wall left of the sink, perhaps even trimmed with feet and brackets and beadboard backs to make them look a bit more cottagey and litke hutches.

I think I would get rid of the window next to the stove, and maybe the one under the slanted ceiling. Bit hard to tell without a floorplan and measurements, but you need more wall space for the fridge and stove.

I posted a lot of old kitchen idea books here that might inspire you: (scroll down to the big block of pictures)

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/kitchen-design-issue-how-to-get-more-natural-light-and-whether-to-add-island-dsvw-vd~270683

Today's progress photos attached below. It is absolutely amazing how much different clean white trim and neutral walls are from bright colored walls and trim. The worst problem with the super bright colors is it takes lots of coats to cover completely. The white semigloss paint is final color but the light gray on the walls is first coat of primer but final wall color will be similar color to primer

OMG the person who owned that house before must have been color blind! The white and grey paint are lovely. What a difference! That inside window is odd. You should wall it up or make it a big opening that makes the window and doorway one large opening into the kitchen.

Jamie this post is 6 years old...