1958 Split-Level Kitchen, Taken Back to the Studs
A closed-off 11x13 kitchen opened into the dining room, rewired to code, and rebuilt with a vented range on the exterior wall.
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The original kitchen had one 15-amp circuit feeding the refrigerator, the counter outlets, and the ceiling light. The range sat on an interior wall with a recirculating hood that vented into the cabinet above it, which is to say it vented nowhere.
We opened the wall between the kitchen and dining room after confirming with the framing above that it was not carrying the second-floor load. The range moved to the exterior wall so the hood could duct straight out, and we ran four new home runs back to the panel: two 20-amp GFCI counter circuits, one for the dishwasher, one for the disposal.
Cabinets went in over a subfloor we had to level with about a quarter inch of self-leveler at the back corner, where the house had settled. Quartz was templated the day after the cabinets were set and landed twelve days later. The homeowners cooked on a hot plate in the dining room for four of the five weeks.
We were without a kitchen for five weeks, which is exactly what John told us at the start. He didn't say three and then make it five. The crew swept up every day and the plastic sheeting actually stayed up the whole time. What sold me was the cracked cast-iron drain they found behind the sink wall — they showed it to me, gave me a number before touching it, and it showed up on the invoice as its own line. Nothing was a surprise at the end.
Linda Caruso
Rock Hill
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