On Jan 4, 10:22*pm, Chris Hill wrote:
On Mon, 4 Jan 2010 17:30:56 -0500, "Ed Pawlowski"
wrote:





Chris Hill wrote:

Depends on what the cabinet situation is like. *If it is short to
begin with, I'd keep the cabinet. *Also, think outside the box; could
the refrigerator be anywhere else in the house with a nice set of
cabinets where it is currently located?

You mean outside of the kitchen? *That would be nuts considering how many
trips we make to the fridge during a typical meal preparation and cleanup
with leftovers. *Most efficient layout is a triangle composed of the sink,
fridge, stove with some prep space next to each. *My cousin had a big
kitchen with the sink on one side and the stove and fridge on the opposite
wall, 16' away. *It was very tiring to prepare a meal. *The room also had
four doors. *To outside, to dining room, to basement, to pantry/laundry
room.

Depends on how close to the kitchen the refrigerator could be placed.
Sounds to me like we're dealing with a sub-optimal situation here to
begin with. *Last time I was in such I moved the refrigerator to the
dining room and put a portable dishwasher in its place. *The main
advantage was that you didn't have to roll the dishwasher over carpet
to get it into the dining room that way. * The second advantage is
that we could use the top for counter space, there was very little in
that kitchen. *If the house would have been mine, I'd have knocked the
wall out and made the dining room into an eat in kitchen.

---
A computer is] like an Old Testament god, with a lot of rules and no mercy. -- Joseph Campbell

You're right that it's suboptimal no matter how it's approached.
Here's the layout: Picture long, narrow kitchen with entry doors at
both ends. At one end is the entryway from the utility room (houses
furnace, water heater, washer, and dryer). On the left wall at that
end is the doorway to the dining room; on the right, the stove. Going
through the kitchen from that end, on the right is stove, drawer stack/
narrow upper cupboard, sink, upper/lower cupboard. On the left is
dining room doorway, refrigerator, upper/lower cupboard. At the end
is another upper/lower cupboard and the door to the pantry, walk-in
closet, and bathroom (picture a small landing with pantry on one side,
closet straight ahead, and bathroom to the right). The closet is
built from the space under the living room stairs and, if the house
had a basement, is where the basement stairs would be (house is on a
stone foundation over a deep dirt-floored crawl space that looks like
it was probably excavated as an after-thought when they installed
indoor plumbing).

Currently, I use a portable apartment size dishwasher that rolls into
the walk-in closet (barely passing through the narrow door; full size
portable would not be an option here). The dishwasher can't go into
the utility room because there are two stairs down from the kitchen to
the UR; it can't go into the dining room both for aesthetics and
because there is about a 1-inch drop between the old wood floor in the
dining room and the new tile floor in kitchen (yes, I know I can fix
the drop-off, it's on the list).

The refrigerator could conceivably go into the dining room, but it's
hard to imagine that a future owner would prefer another cupboard or a
good spot for a full-size portable dishwasher rather than a
refrigerator in the kitchen. Also, keeping in mind that this is a
very traditionally styled, Victorian house, there's not really a good
way to disguise a refrigerator in the dining room without its looking
ludicrous.

Knocking down the wall between the kitchen and dining room is
something I've thought about, as is expanding the kitchen out over
what is now the side porch -- thus my earlier reference to major
remodeling. Neither of those is an option at this point.

So, what it comes down to in my mind is either sacrificing a base
cupboard for a dishwasher or continuing to use an apartment-size
portable that's stored in the closet. Given the options, I'm not
terribly unhappy with the current arrangement, but when the dishwasher
stops working and being repairable (it's OLD), I wonder which would be
better in terms of resale: A built-in dishwasher or an extra base
cupboard.

Jo Ann