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Client’s Issues & Goals:

• Maximize views to beautifully landscaped back and side yards
• Existing kitchen was dark
• Create a unique look to the new cabinetry
• Create open floor plan
• Kitchen was dysfunctional with a small, unfriendly, close-off bar area on the family room side
• Wanted larger area to entertain
• Desire to create a 2-cook kitchen
• Re-design the dining room stair railing & stairs to living room to coordinate with the changes in the kitchen

Client’s Objectives / Expectations Met & Surpassed:

• Expansive, 9’ wide, Marvin, wood kitchen windows were installed on the back & side of the house to enjoy the beautiful yard and bring in the much need natural light
• Unique, Red Birch, cabinets with wider than normal rails & stiles give the kitchen a unique look
• Walls between the kitchen & the family room, & the ½ bath were removed to allow for open floor plan
• Pantry & ½ bath relocated to existing entry closet areas
• Kitchen island designed with a radius, countertop overhang to allow for interaction with guests
• New design created large, functional kitchen for entertaining
• Dual kitchen sinks were incorporated into the design to allow for multiple cooks
• DR stair railings were re-designed with balusters & newel posts with straight lines - to mimic the straight lines of the kitchen cabinets.

Difficulty of Obstacles Overcome:

• Instead of simply butting the new kitchen granite splashes to the bottom of the new wood windows, a sandwiched-edge, granite, window stool was fabricated to match the granite edge detail on the countertops. The difficulty in doing this was that the length of run was long & the fabricated edge is prone to cracking.
• Blending the stain colors of the Red Birch cabinets, the Western Pine wood windows & exterior doors with Cherry wood casings, the Cherry wood stair railings, & the Red Oak hardwood floors

Innovative Use of Materials or Methods of Construction:

• Cabinet doors with wide rails & stiles using Red Birch.
• Built-out, base cabinet posts at the 2 kitchen sink areas serve to break up the long runs of cabinets along the 2 exterior walls of the kitchen. This feature was also added to the island to tie the areas together.