Kitchen Remodeling Considerations
Realtors will disagree amongst themselves as to how much a kitchen remodeling job will add to the resale value of a home. It comes down to so many factors in each individual sale that resale value is a terrible reason to do a complete kitchen makeover. How much you enjoy cooking, and how much your family enjoys your home are great reasons for a kitchen remodel, however.
This is not the place to argue over which is the most important room in the house, but most people will agree that the kitchen is a very important room. Even professional couples who rarely get the chance to eat at home, let alone cook for themselves, will splurge on a nice kitchen for the few occasions that they do get to prepare a meal for themselves or company.
The kitchen is primarily a work place. There is certainly nothing wrong with putting the time and money into creating the fanciest kitchen showplace that money can buy, but there is a point where spending extra money on the kitchen is simply showing off. Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with this approach, and your contractor will love you for it, but it helps if you are being honest with yourself.
Contrary to marketing mythology, a fancy kitchen will not turn a bad cook into a good cook. A truly gifted cook will be able to accomplish his magic with a sharp knife, a skillet, a sauce pan, and a hot plate. However, if a fancy kitchen is unable to turn a poor cook into a good cook, a well laid out and organized kitchen can turn a good cook into a great cook!
Kitchen Elements
The elements of a kitchen that bring out the best in a cook come down to two factors: organization or workability, and comfort. These elements will overlap in many circumstances. Lets begin by considering the parts of the kitchen work space. They are the sink, the cooktop/range, the refrigerator, dry storage, and countertop/workspace.
Arranging these elements in the most efficient and workable manner should be a goal of kitchen design. Current fashion dictates that the biggest kitchen possible is desirable. If it takes a long walk to take the vegetables from the refrigerator to the sink to wash them, and then you find that the pot you need is out of reach and you have to walk around an island to get the pot to the stove, efficiency and happiness will suffer.
Walk-in Pantry
The most popular upgrade for kitchens in new construction, as well as remodels where ever possible, is a walk-in pantry. The pantry’s primary function is storage of course, but this storage is special in that it is out of the way of the primary work area, in fact it frees up counter space.
Many cooks enjoy collecting labor saving gadgets. It may be impressive to walk into a kitchen whose counters are filled with slow-cookers, deep-fryers, ice-cream makers, coffee makers, espresso machines, food processors and blenders, but the question remains, where is there room to cook? A pantry that is large enough to hold all these appliances solves the problem.
A pantry also holds potential cost savings. If there is room to store extra dry items as they come on sale, then they are available to the cook when the need arises. A well stocked pantry is always the answer when the cook is wondering “What’s for dinner?”
Whether you are starting from scratch to create your dream kitchen, or simply making a few improvements to your existing work space, consider consulting with the kitchen remodeling experts at Corvus Construction.