Like many homes built in the late 1980s, Keith and Dottie’s home in Yorktown featured a kitchen with upper cabinets above the peninsula. While this added storage and helped define the area, it closed the kitchen off from the adjacent dining area and den. The cabinets were dark, stained wood, with laminate countertops, and the flooring was a standard sheet vinyl. We were asked to update the kitchen and remove the upper cabinets to give the area a more open feel.
The clients wanted lighter colors throughout the new kitchen, so they started with custom cabinets painted in a creamy white. Because there is a functional cabinet door on the back of the peninsula, the entire back was finished to look like cabinet doors. This detail was also repeated on the end of the peninsula and on one upper cabinet end. Glass doors on two of the upper cabinets add interest to the wall above the stove, and LED strips add task lighting.
New granite countertops in White Savannah continued the lighter color scheme. New backsplash tile by Marazzi in “Urban District Downtown” extends from the bottom of the cabinets to the top of the granite surface.
New engineered hardwood floors by Impressions in “Terracotta” were installed in the kitchen, dining area, and foyer. In the back hallway, laundry room, and downstairs bath, we installed “Lucinda” Coretec stone flooring.
Finishing touches were new stainless-steel appliances, industrial-style pendant lights above the sink and peninsula, and a few well-placed can lights.
The end result is a new, lighter and brighter kitchen which will serve the homeowners for many years to come!
Mark Lownik grew up in the the Running Man Neighborhood of York County. After College, his career took him to Connecticut where he met Jennifer and they started a family. In 2015, with his parents desiring to downsize, Mark found himself contemplating moving his family from New England back to the very neighborhood and to the very home that he had grown up in. We were referred to them in a quite round about fashion by a friend of a former client that had since moved to Florida. The circuitous route by which they found us proved to be a perfect introduction to a great family who proved fun to work with when we helped to bring their vision of their new home to life!
Her Vision:
Mark & Jen Lownik had a unique opportunity to move back in to the house that Mark had grown up in but remodel it pursuant to a whole new vision. Jen envisioned removing a wall in between the kitchen and the den, remodeling the kitchen, installing new hardwood floors, removing and replacing the textured ceilings with smooth ceilings, re-designing the guest bathroom, laundry room and storage room and removing and replacing the stained trim in the house with new white trim.
Always Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing:
The key element to the entire project was the kitchen.
The existing kitchen with openings on the left and right that limited the amount of wall space that was available for cabinetry
The cased opening between the existing kitchen and the dining room was so close to the corner of the kitchen that it did not allow for enough cabinet space. The doorway to the laundry room at the right end of the cabinets also limited how much cabinetry could be on the adjacent wall.
The existing kitchen in the house had a wall that separated it from the den (click on thumbnails for full size) :
Wall between kitchen and den
View from the end of the wall separating the kitchen and the den
Small countertop at the end of the kitchen-den wall
The Plan:
Remove the wall to create an open floor plan, move both the opening to the dining room and the door to the new pantry area to maximize the amount of wall space that was available for cabinetry.
Where the wall had once existed, the view was now opened to the entire den:
Moving the openings allowed for much more base and wall cabinets:
(click on thumbnails for full size)
Rethinking the Garage Entry:
Another area that the Lownik’s wanted to reconfigure was the entry from the garage to the main house. The current entry was into the laundry room that also had a spare bathroom and a storage room off of it. (click on thumbnails for full size)
The washer and dryer will be relocated to provide space for the new pantry
To the left is the door to the garage. This entire area will be reconfigured
The existing floor layout looked like this:
The existing floor plan for the laundry room, bathroom storage area that connected the kitchen to the garage.
We redesigned it to look like this:
Here are some of the pictures from during construction of the new pantry cabinets looking into the new bathroom area (click on thumbnails for full size) :
New pantry cabinets on the right looking through to the new bathroom
The new pantry cabinets match the color and design of the new kitchen cabinets
The Vision Realized
The final result was nothing short of a stunning transformation resulting in a completely different house at the same address.
Contrary to what Thomas Wolfe once wrote, Mark & Jen proved that you could go home again.
This video is a slide show of the dramatic before and after pictures of a home that was ruined by the faulting electrical wiring of a hot tub on the deck. Our team put it back together better than it was before.
This is a kitchen we just finished in the Hidenwood neighborhood of Newport News, near Christopher Newport University and James River Country Club. We absolutely loved this project and our clients! If you’re interested in the complete list of everything we did on this project it is at the end of this article.
In the meantime you can watch the video slideshow or scroll down for the larger versions of some of the pictures so that you can really see the detail in each image!
Our Scope of Work for this Kitchen Remodel Project:
Demolition
Demolish remove and dispose of:
Cabinets
Existing kitchen cabinets
Kitchen island
Wet bar and wall cabinet
Existing sink and plumbing fixtures in both kitchen and wet bar
Existing countertops
Existing trim on paneled walls
Door casing
Window casing
Crown molding
Baseboard
Appliances
Double ovens
Existing cooktops and down drafts in both island and wetbar
HVAC
Move HVAC register under toe-kick in base cabinet near dishwasher
Run new gas line to new cooktop location
Plumbing
Adjust plumbing supply and drain lines as necessary for kitchen sink and hook up new sink drain, attach disposal, hook up faucet, and attach dish washer drain line
Furnish and install new customer selected kitchen sink and faucet
KITCHEN FAUCET – quoted from Ferguson $209.62
LF 1HDL PO KITC FCT ARST 1.5 GPM
Furnish and install new customer selected wet bar sink and faucet
BAR FAUCETS -quoted from Ferguson $311.50
LF ALLEGRO BAR FCT 1.5 GPM
Hook up dishwasher supply line
Re-route ice maker supply line to new refrigerator location and hook up.
Finished Picture of Custom Room Addition Jim Hicks Home Improvement Designed & Built in Chesapeake, Virginia
Our clients came to us with a dream for a sunroom addition where they could be comfortable and look out upon their gardens in which they enjoyed investing many hours and much care.
Custom Made Windows and PVC trim ensure the beautiful details of the room addition will not suffer rot or deterioration over the years to come.Interior finished pictures of the room addition. The large windows bring in the gardens to the home.The cased opening in the background was once a kitchen window. The brick is the original exterior wall of the home. The mini-split air conditioner over the cased opening heats and cools the entire room.The interior lighting is provided by sconces and ceiling fans with light kits.The floors are tileThe sizes, locations and numbers of the windows were very important to our clients. They wanted everything to have balance and symmetry.
But how did it all come together? How did our clients progresss from concept to finished product? When we first met our clients they had clipped pictures from different magazines for inspiration. Each picture had a detail or an element they wanted included in their project. The pictures were very helpful in understanding the vision our clients had.
These are pictures I took of the magazine clips.
The rear of the house when we first saw it looked like this:
We commissioned Dave Dispirito from Homesite, Inc. for the design. Dave did a fantastic job of putting to paper the images our clients had in their heads. After several revisions to get it just right, work began on the room addition. (If you liked this room addition, you might also like this one: Family Room in Seaford)
First the footers were dug and poured:
The block foundation in progressThe driveway became the staging area for all the materials that would be needed for the new room additionThe floor was framedThe walls were framed. The large openings are for the huge windows, that will bring the outside into the new room.House wrap is what keeps the water out of the house. No matter what kind of exterior cladding is used: siding, trim, or brick – it will all leak. House Wrap keeps the framing dry and the water outside.The foundation’s brick veneer, designed to match the house, is almost done!
Windows are in!Our clients wanted a flat roof detail but were concerned about it’s reliability. Thankfully, we have a strong background in roofing! We installed a tapered self adhered two ply modified system.All done! The trim details were custom designed by our Production Director and our Client and made on site from PVC. They will never rot or suffer insect damage.
The windows were custom made from Custom Vinyl Products with Low E/Argon energy efficient glass. The room was conditioned with a new mini-split air conditioner. The floor was tile. Interior lighting included sconces and ceiling fans with light kits.
We have a lot of fun on our Jim Hicks Home Improvement Facebook Page ! Our fans never hold back with their opinions on what they like, what they would do differently or which kitchen or bath they prefer. We love hearing about it!
This picture was the most popular we posted in the month of February.
After a fair amount of research, we believe it was done by Greenview Homes in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Can you guess why it was the favorite? We think it’s because of the amazing unique perspective it was shot at! It showcases this newly remodeled kitchen so well! You can clearly see the hardwood floors, the backsplash, the range and oven, the different colors of the base and wall cabinets (some with glass cabinet doors) as contrasted with the island, not to mention the different color granite countertops of the perimeter counters and the island.
Here’s another perspective of the same kitchen:
Many kitchens these days are installing skylights to bring natural light into the most popular room in the house, whereas this kitchen enjoys a skylight type tunnel extending down from a dormer window. To supplement the natural light provided by the dormer window, the glass patio door and the window over the sink, the kitchen also has can lighting and a centerpiece light fixture.
If you like pictures of kitchen and other great remodels, we’ve got more than you’ve ever seen on our Facebook page! You can visit by CLICKING HERE!
We have a lot of fun on our Jim Hicks Home Improvement Facebook Page and share a lot of pictures with our fans in Williamsburg, Newport News, Hampton Yorktown, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk and Virginia Beach.
Recently we were asked to post some of the most inspirational pictures we had seen. So, I compiled this gallery. It is assumed that all images are public domain; I make no claim to own any of them and will happily remove any that are proven to infringe copyright.
This was a picture that taken on the job a year ago. Today I checked in on our client to ensure she was still 100% satisfied. This is what she wrote me just now:
Jim,
Yes, I am loving my new bathroom. Thanks for checking on us.
We asked the question to our Fans: “One trend in kitchen islands is to have the look of furniture. Does this appeal to your sense of style and design?”
We have a lot of fun on our Jim Hicks Home Improvement Facebook Page and receive a lot of feedback on pictures of kitchen remodeling just like this one from homeowners from Williamsburg to Yorktown to Virginia Beach. You can read some of the comments we received on this picture below.
Mike O’Neal I agree with Jennifer. I would prefer a larger island, with seating on side opposite the sink!
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 30 at 8:49pm via mobile
Jennifer Prather I don’t mind the trend but this particular piece looks out of scale, too big. I bet I would be bumping into the corners that are sticking out from the taller island, particularly on the side by the sink.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 30 at 8:25pm
These are pictures I took of the magazine clips.
