Before & After: Littleton Ranch Home Remodel

We recently wrapped up a remodel of a kitchen and living area in a beautiful ranch home near Old Town Littleton. The remodel was one of the smoothest I’ve been on EXCEPT for the lead time on the double ovens. Some appliance brands have lead times for over a year right now. As a word of warning, if your appliance company tells you 9 months, add a few months to your expectations. When you start your remodel, save the major appliances in your garage instead of donating – just in case you need them to get by for a while after the kitchen is “finished.” Donate (or sell) them once you know you have your new appliances.

This kitchen used to be penned in with walls even though it was open and visible to the front door. lt was too small to have an Island and it wasn’t comfortable for more than one cook. This is a young family who like to cook and hang out in the kitchen. They wanted it opened up to the family room, they asked for an island for them to sit at and more prep area.

The wall behind the stove houses a fireplace which is at the heart of the home. We added brick to all sides of the fireplace to get some texture in the home. We took out the wall to the family room and the half-height wall so that we could fit an island in for the family.

Here’s another view of the kitchen before the remodel. There was also a drywalled pantry that was not very functional for them as a family. We added pantry space in the form of multiple cabinets with roll-out shelves.

Out of view in the above photo are double ovens. The double ovens were delayed by about 6 months more than we were first told! The showroom loaned the clients a gold oven that got them through the holidays. The light fixtures were originally intended to be white and were packaged by the store in a box labeled white. When the client opened them to install – they were black. We decided to keep them! It’s a little untraditional with the blue island, but I think it looks a little less farmhouse-y with these.

Lessons learned on this remodel? Keep old appliances until you are positive the new appliances are in your possession. Open things you’ve ordered and check to make sure it’s what you bought – sometimes the labels on the boxes don’t match what’s inside. I’ll have more in 2 weeks on the mudroom/pantry cabinets we added in this home.

Here’s a quote I like from a book I just finished. It does not relate to this project – thought I should add that before quoting.

“This is the carpenter’s painful truth: nothing is true. 

…We think we live in boxes until we look closer and find we’re in fact living in irregular shapes, in big, misshapen accidents.” 
― Michael Christie, Greenwood