Sustaining the Future: The Growth of Green Spotlight

Re-Creation: Kid-Friendly Home Becomes Kitchen-Centred

The Imriches' new kitchen has lots of natural light and allows June to cook, entertain and help the kids with homework. Photo: Karen Slivar

That's how it started for June and Brad Imrich. They live in a typical, older, two-storey cedar-sided home in the Upper Mission area of Kelowna, with their three boys, aged 8, 10 and 12.

To bring the outside of their home into the 21st century, the couple added trim boards around the windows and repainted their brown home a soft sage green colour. After the paintwork was done, things got serious.

Inside, paint didn't change the fact that their U-shaped kitchen was crammed into a 10 x 10 foot space with one small window over the sink. There was hardly any counter space to work on and there was only enough floor area for one cook.

"Working in the kitchen, I felt cut off from the rest of the house," says June.

The family spends most of their time in the large 12 x 18 foot eating area connected to the kitchen. The separate dining room adjacent to the living room was unused, but when the boys were small, it functioned as a playroom.

What June dreamed of was a kitchen with lots of natural light where she could cook, entertain guests and help the boys with homework. To get a bigger kitchen, she toyed with the idea of getting rid of their dining room.

She sat down with her hubby and worked out the details. It wasn't long before Brad was swinging a hammer on the weekends, moving walls and replacing the kitchen floor - and all the wall-to-wall carpet on their main floor - with pre-finished birch hardwood flooring.

The plan called for the elimination of the dining room. The kitchen gained an additional window, eight feet in width, a massive island, a gas range, a full-size fridge and freezer, a larger window over the sink area, a built-in bench, a pantry and a computer station. The living room gained a cozy built-in bench.

"I didn't want a fancy kitchen," says June. "I wanted something that was functional and cost effective."

Keeping changes simple was the key. "Like don't move plumbing if we don't have, too," she says. Hence the new floor plan had the sink, dishwasher and range in close to original location.

To save money, Brad did much of the work himself, including demolition, building walls, installation of the larger window, vented fan and lights, and hooking up plumbing. His dad helped him install the hardwood floor and build the benches; a friend helped with tiling.

What they needed expert help with was taping and mudding of drywall and running gas to the range. They contracted Kitchens By Westwood to build and install the kitchen cabinets.

Living in a home during a renovation is not for everyone. And doing it yourself often takes more time, but for June the one-year wait was well worth it.

"I spend 90 per cent of my day here. I do everything here: cook, plan my day, entertain and help the kids with homework," she says. This cook now has plenty of room to move around in and space for little helpers.

The kitchen has nifty storage units like a spice drawer and a deep drawer that can hold-upright large open bags of flour and sugar for baking. Family members no longer have to go downstairs and dig around the chest-freezer with a standup 18-cubic foot freezer right in the kitchen.

The new computer station takes up a little corner of the eating area. "I wanted the computer where I could watch the boys," says June. The whole family shares the computer.

June loves her new kitchen from the gas range to the tile back splash. "I really like cooking on gas," she says. With gas, it's instantaneous on/off and high/low for faster cooking.

They also replaced their recirculating kitchen fan with a stainless steel exhaust fan that vents outdoors. "Now it does something," says June.

She wanted easy maintenance and she got it with laminate countertops, composite sink and tiled mosaic glass back splash. The counters can be wiped clean and the deep bowl sinks come in handy for larger jobs.

"I love my tiles, not only are they easy to clean but they hide dirt," she says.

Now that the kitchen is done what's next? June says, after Brad finishes installing the hardwood on the stairs it's on to the basement, where plans are fermenting over two bedrooms for the boys and maybe a gas fireplace in the rec room.

Karen Slivar

Copyright © 2008 Wheat King Publishing and the authors. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied or reprinted without the written consent of the publisher. The opinions expressed in Okanagan Home are those of the writers and editors, and do not represent the official position of the Canadian Home Builders' Association, Central Okanagan, or of its members.