How hard is it to turn a door into a wall and match cabinetry?

[politicat]

We're looking for a house for my mom and I've found one that is almost perfect. It's block construction (which helps in Phoenix), a good size, had gorgeous cabinetry and great entertaining space, with a garage and lots of parking. (Also it's on an enormous, flood irrigation lot, so she has both trees and space for an eventual studio or guest house or RV parking for her friends.)

What it doesn't have is a dishwasher, which she wants/needs. (She is slightly disabled, having suffered severe nerve damage to one arm, so doing dishes means breakage.) however, there is a doorway next to the stove which is beside the sink, so my thought is to make the doorway a wall, move the stove over, run the electric for the dishwasher and replace the countertops. The doorway is unnecessary, since the kitchen has 2 other entries. It also has gorgeous custom cabs that we would have to match over the new stove placement.

Mom is in the trades, so our costs are basically materials and labor, and her materials cost will be low since she has lots of reuse options available. (She's got 45 linear feet of granite sitting in her warehouse that was pulled from a remodel; she can have it for $150.)

Is making the doorway into a wall difficult?

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Not very difficult. My house had 4 doors to the exterior made into 'walls' plus

a couple of windows became 'walls'. I converted 5 apartments back into a single family home.

[X_Digger]

2. Are the interior walls standard dimensional lumber, or block / adobe?

If they're standard dimensional lumber & drywall or plaster, it's a pretty straightforward task.

If it's adobe over block with lots of curves, matching the texture and color can be a bit of a pain.

[politicat]

5. They're not block or adobe, I think lumber.

I can tell they're interior walls, so probably plaster and lathe or drywall (the house was built in 1948 so it could be either) but not masonry.

Adobe, while desirable, is getting increasingly scarce.

Mom thinks it's a relatively straightforward job, so she's going to look at the house. The downside is actually that the lot is huge, so more yard maintenance. But she's within a decade of retirement, so may develop an interest in gardening eventually, and honestly, paying for lawn service is about the same as paying for an HOA in a condo or townhouse.

[X_Digger]

9. Looking at the pic in post #6, I agree- plaster or drywall.

And I agree with other posters- there's a ton you can do with those cabinets- they're a blank canvas.

[jeff47]

3. Making a door into a wall is easy.

You don't even have to have the wall be structural. The existing structure carries the load around the door, so filling in the opening is very easy.

As for cabinets, my suggestion is don't try to match them. While you can probably get very similar structured cabinets, matching the color can be very difficult unless the cabinets are new-ish. Even if you know the exact paint/stain that was used originally, the color of the old cabinets would have changed over the years.

My suggestion is to make the new cabinetry into an "accent" piece. Do a radically different color, possibly with a different style. Depending on the layout of the kitchen, it may make sense to replace a little of the existing cabinetry with the "accent" cabinets.

[NMDemDist2]

4. ^^^ this ^^^^^

[politicat]

6. That's a great idea.

The room is a great size (according to the pics) and it would make a fabulous U shaped kitchen, except for that door. If moving the 220 isn't too cost prohibitive, moving the stove to the left wall might also be an option, and featuring not-matching cabs on that side would be a good idea.

This is a realtor shot, so you can see why we don't want to undo those cabs.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=

But the counter space is terrible, so getting rid of the door and adding on the wall on the left (which is invisible in the pic) would help that a lot.

[NMDemDist2]

7. update the hardware and instead of cabinets

a nice hutch maybe even an ethnic one?




or a nice secretary would be nice too




lots of things would work

[politicat]

10. I would love that. Mom... Not so much.

We have... Surprisingly divergent tastes. (Despite 30+ years in the Valley, she's still not keyed to the local culture. Despite the fact that I'm genetically a Midwesterner and scrammed from Arpaio's fiefdom ASAP, I am a Norteño.) Being in the trades, she's heavily exposed to trends, but being in the trades, she's also very good at distinguishing "trend" from "fad". And she's great at building for permanence, so while a hutch/Hoosier cabinet/armoire would be good for her, she'll likely do any additions/alterations with eventual resale in mind. (Which is great -- when I have to dispose of it, it will be easier.)

Talking about it today, she was thinking open birch or maple shelving around the non-cabineted perimeter, stove and base cabs with drawers on the left wall. Then the matching is less of an issue -- the countertops and backsplash would tie it all together. It would also improve the working triangle, with perhaps a dry island in the center. We can't move water lines -- slab foundation with copper pipes. We know any match would be at best close and more likely a visual fail, but her company does exactly this sort of remodel.

But oh, yes, the hardware needs an update. And that's a minor cost. I gave her a budget plus an alterations budget, but the whole point of this house is to keep her secure for the rest of her life.

(This house-shopping is for my mother's retirement house, because the place she's in is at the next to be constructed stop on the east Valley light rail, which means I expect it to be demolished/redeveloped in the next couple years. Unfortunately, she won't see any of the profit, and likely won't be able to afford what the rehab will sprout, so she's getting a portion of her inheritance from my grandmother early in the form of a house. I'm the person who signs the checks, so she has to stay in budget, but I don't have to live in it, so it's her choices.)

(Hi, NMDD2!!! Long time, no see!)

[NMDemDist2]

12. hi back atcha!!!

i am a major lurker these days, still here but hardly ever post

as for the house, open shelving sounds good except the dust factor.

[politicat]

14. Dust = not my problem.

Yep with the lurking.

[Warpy]

8. Instead of worrying about matching custom cabinets,

something that is impossible even if you find the carpenter and he's not retired simply because of the way the finish has aged, why not put one of those ultra fancy range hoods over the stove? A hood with a high capacity for sucking out hot air would be an excellent addition in Phoenix.

[politicat]

11. Yes. That's definitely on the list.

Especially because her range has it's own level of fancy schmancy already going on.

Alas, it appears the carpenter is out of the biz -- if not gone entirely.

[Warpy]

13. Well, unless you want to strip and stain or paint all those cabinets

along with a new one, you're pretty much stuck with the huge hood instead of over the stove cabinets. I'd probably go with the hood, myself, exhausting the maximum amount of cooking heat is important out here in the desert, although the altitude keeps me cooler than Phoenix.

Also do make sure there's an unobstructed landing area on at least one side of the stove. That will make a huge difference in workability.

If you decide to go with the strip and stain or paint, the photo you've posted shows cabinets that would be easy to duplicate. What would be completely off would be the color.

[politicat]

15. Yup, yup. No stripping.

I mapped out what I think the dimensions are today (geometry is such a wonderful skill) and I think that kitchen has room to be a U. Now I just have to get Mom back to the valley, get her to go look at it, and figure out where the second bath is in that house... and if she likes it, make the offer.

Otherwise, off to the listings again. Gah.

Because... the fun of this is in the looking, not the buying.

[csziggy]

16. Closing off the door is easy - matching the cabinetry harder

Looking at the photo in #6 and reading the discussion, here are my thoughts.

You don't have to have a matching cabinet for the dishwasher. Building matching boxes for additional cabinets would not be that hard - matching the wood and finish to the old doors would be difficult. To add more upper cabinets, I would consider removing the doors to the cabinets over the sink, use those for uppers over the dishwasher or elsewhere, make the cabinets over the sink open shelves.

If you add a peninsula to make the kitchen a U - though I would probably just add an island - you could go with painted cabinets for that and mix up the doors. If you do add a peninsula coming out of where the pantry is (?), think of how you could re-use the doors elsewhere. That pantry is why I would just consider and island - and islands in contrasting cabinetry are popular.

[politicat]

17. Mom decided she didn't want to bring her work home.

She's a project manager, and chose not to have a home improvement gig going, too.

But the house seems to have sold, so good for the new owners.

[csziggy]

18. Can't blame her!

Have you found any other good prospects?

[politicat]

19. I think so.

She's got her eye on a couple. I expect to be making the offer by the end of the week.