Kitchen Remodeling in Kirtland, Ohio

The two kinds of Kirtland kitchens

Kirtland is spread out. Lots are large and wooded, and most of the housing sits back off Chillicothe Road, Eagle Road, Sperry Road and the lanes running off Route 6. The stock runs from older ranches and split levels near the middle of the city to bigger custom builds closer to Chapin Forest and the Kirtland Hills line.

Those two groups have opposite kitchen problems. The ranches and splits tend to have a small kitchen closed off from the dining room, one bank of upper cabinets, and no pantry worth the name. The larger houses have the square footage, but the kitchen was often laid out around an island too small for the room, with cabinets that stop well short of the ceiling.

We work on both. The starting point does not change: measure the room, find out how the family actually uses it, then draw a layout that fits the house rather than a stock plan.

Storage, flow and the wall that usually comes out

The most common change in a Kirtland kitchen is opening the wall between the kitchen and the dining or family room. In a split level that wall is often carrying nothing, which makes it a clean change. In some of the older ranches it is carrying load, and that gets checked before anything is drawn.

Storage comes next. Deep drawers in place of low cabinets with doors, a real pantry cabinet, and uppers that run to the ceiling instead of stopping with a dust shelf on top. On a wooded lot people keep more on hand, and that pantry space gets used.

Island size is the third one. Plenty of Kirtland kitchens have the floor space for a full island with seating, and the island they have is too narrow to sit at and too small to work on. Getting that right changes the room more than any finish choice does.

Kirtland is a small market with steady demand behind the school district, so a kitchen that reads as planned rather than patched holds its value when the house eventually sells.

What to sort out before the work starts

Answer the permit question early. Kirtland runs its own building department, and layout changes, electrical work and plumbing moves normally need paperwork filed before anyone starts. Ask who is filing it and when.

If the house is on a well and septic, raise it at the design stage rather than after. Moving a sink or adding a second one changes what is practical, and it is much cheaper to know that on paper.

Then there is living through the work. Set up a temporary kitchen somewhere with a working outlet and a sink you can reach, because the main one will be out for a stretch. Families in the larger houses off Booth Road and Kirtland Chardon Road often move down to a lower level for the duration.

Last, bring measurements to the showroom, even rough ones on the back of an envelope. It is a drive in from Kirtland, and having numbers in hand means one visit can settle the layout, the door style and the countertop instead of three separate trips.