Kitchen and bathroom remodel advice

I just can't see where else to put the microwave.
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Our is to the left of the stove under the counter
 
A window seat will give me more storage. I need to talk to my contractor because the cabinet goy isn't doing that part.

And since I went the totally custom way for an item I had to have, my contractor found a carpenter to make my bathroom window storage bench...

I think it you move the microwave and get the hood, you'll probably want the double pantry cabinets...it might be worth seeing if you could get a custom single wooden bench seat on each side of the pantries and then a small table between them...almost like it becomes one whole unit of goodness that works really well for spacing...

That's me, if I had the kitchen, b/c I love window seating and storage:)...

PS - This may not work b/c of how much space is between those two pantries...or it may only work for one seat...but it's an idea I thought I'd throw out...
 
My thoughts...
Love your cabinet color!
I think the cabinets on either side of the window look balanced and okay.
Your bay window is crying out for a seat. Just sayin'. It might not be what you want, I get it, but it just seems like it at least needs a colorful cushion and a kitty sleeping in it.
We had a trash compactor in our old kitchen, and took it out. We have a big kitchen, so space wasn't an issue, but I didn't like it. Instead, we have a pull-out trash can on our island. Not only does the kitchen look neat, but our dog, Trouble, can't get into it.

As an aside, during various house-hunting trips, we've seen some incredibly bad kitchens. Not just "dated and need an overhaul" bad--really awful! Ones where you couldn't open drawers without hitting the fridge, ones that had clearly never, ever been cooked in, and one spectacularly bad one that had 2 peninsulas with insufficient room--the washer and dryer were in the kitchen, and you couldn't open the dryer all the way, due to the peninsulas. Interestingly, THAT house was a B&B. It also had a coal stove and a coal room, and I had a 2yo, so it was a no-go for several reasons. As was the house with the gully in the backyard. You know, our current, quirky-and-needs-more-updating current house is looking better and better!
 


Well designed corner cabinets don't suck. The fronts of of corner cabinets are angled just like the front of the stove here, but with lazy susans inside, they are the most amazing use of a corner I have ever seen. You can get a ton of stuff in there, and just spin the lazy susan to rotate the stuff in the back to the front. I do see a no no in this photo at least according to our designer. Putting the microwave over the stove. We have a drawer microwave to the left of our stove and it so nice that more than one person can be doing stuff in the kitchen that way. It so improved the flow in our kitchen

I had the lazy Susan option in my last kitchen remodel (Kraftmaid cabinets), and while it was far more efficient than a corner cabinet without one - I still didn’t find it that good. Things would fall off the side or it was heavy to spin, and I found the doors to be awkward (especially if they have the hinge).

I agree about the microwave over the stove - we would never do that and none of the designs we have gotten include that. It’s terrible impractical to have the microwave there!!

One of the microwave options we are looking at is the drawer option. Tell me more about this? Can you easily ‘see’ into the microwave to watch things cook?

I’m worried that 15 years from now I won’t be able to bend over enough to see inside or to clean it!!
Other options we are looking at include the wall oven / microwave combo...but we went to try out a few of these yesterday and my 10 year old cannot put anything in or out of them because she could not reach over the pull down door.
 
My kitchen is a galley with a seating area by a bay window. Here are the design renderings. I think the two tall pantry cabinets on both sides of the window will be claustrophobic.

I really just wanted to pile on and say that I think the pantry cabinets would be great!! If you are worried that they are too much - you might be able to reduce the depth a bit? Hard to tell if they were 8, 12, 18 inches? I think the storage would be very welcome!!

I also agree that the microwave should not be using your precious counter space - but I think that you may be able to find a place to put it as a built in not above the stove?

do you have a vented stove now? The morons that built this house / kitchen did not put in a vent and the microwave built in vent throws the air right back into the kitchen...and the stove IS on an exterior wall!!! Ugh! We will be putting in a proper vent this time around!!
 
I had the lazy Susan option in my last kitchen remodel (Kraftmaid cabinets), and while it was far more efficient than a corner cabinet without one - I still didn’t find it that good. Things would fall off the side or it was heavy to spin, and I found the doors to be awkward (especially if they have the hinge).

I agree about the microwave over the stove - we would never do that and none of the designs we have gotten include that. It’s terrible impractical to have the microwave there!!

One of the microwave options we are looking at is the drawer option. Tell me more about this? Can you easily ‘see’ into the microwave to watch things cook?

I’m worried that 15 years from now I won’t be able to bend over enough to see inside or to clean it!!
Other options we are looking at include the wall oven / microwave combo...but we went to try out a few of these yesterday and my 10 year old cannot put anything in or out of them because she could not reach over the pull down door.
There is no place for anything to fall off our lazy susan, it isn't round, it like octagon shaped so it fills the entire cabinet.
If you stand back you can see in the microwave, but most everything I cook in the microwave is in a container so you can't see it cook. The control panel is slanted up, but it certainly isn't line of sight like a microwave over the stove......but even with my 62 year old eyes it works.
 


I really just wanted to pile on and say that I think the pantry cabinets would be great!! If you are worried that they are too much - you might be able to reduce the depth a bit? Hard to tell if they were 8, 12, 18 inches? I think the storage would be very welcome!!

I also agree that the microwave should not be using your precious counter space - but I think that you may be able to find a place to put it as a built in not above the stove?

do you have a vented stove now? The morons that built this house / kitchen did not put in a vent and the microwave built in vent throws the air right back into the kitchen...and the stove IS on an exterior wall!!! Ugh! We will be putting in a proper vent this time around!!
I think the cabinets are actually 24 inches deep. Maybe I can reduce that. I do not have a vented stove now. The microwave vent just vents onto the ceiling. My contractor is planning to vent it yo the outside in the new kitchen.
 
I just can't see where else to put the microwave.

Ideally you can install a built in microwave. We have our microwave on a shelf that is built into our upper cabinets. Is it possible for you to do that, it looks like from your pic you have two open shelves next to that angled upper. Our shelf is similar looking to this 5592D3E8-97BF-4A3F-9FE8-9869AAB33D93.jpeg
 
I think the cabinets are actually 24 inches deep. Maybe I can reduce that. I do not have a vented stove now. The microwave vent just vents onto the ceiling. My contractor is planning to vent it yo the outside in the new kitchen.

Just like I had a bathroom without a fan that I fixed...you need an oven with a vent...even if it's in code without one, you just really need one...

But that's just me...
 
I think the cabinets are actually 24 inches deep. Maybe I can reduce that. I do not have a vented stove now. The microwave vent just vents onto the ceiling. My contractor is planning to vent it yo the outside in the new kitchen.

Just like I had a bathroom without a fan that I fixed...you need an oven with a vent...even if it's in code without one, you just really need one...

But that's just me...




Ideally you can install a built in microwave. We have our microwave on a shelf that is built into our upper cabinets. Is it possible for you to do that, it looks like from your pic you have two open shelves next to that angled upper. Our shelf is similar looking to this View attachment 498236

That's a pretty set up - gonna inspire my eventual kitchen remodel b/c I love that fridge/microwave set and could do that in my kitchen with my spacing...

PS - I also love the cabinet pulls - those are very close to my bathroom ones - they feel so good on the hands:)...
 
I like my microwave above the stove...I am odd man out. We do not do a lot of cooking and it vents to the kitchen. LOL. But it is 15 years old and looks brand new. I like the shelf idea. Funny, I had to have a slide in glass top stove because I can't stand reaching across the eyes to turn the knobs. So my stove knobs are up front and I really like that. It took DH a couple of years to notice the drawer under the stove...I asked him where he thought we kept the pots and pans. LOL

I also like my granite countertop because it is a thinner cut, not the real heavy bulky thickness...I guess that makes me weird. I would have doubled the size of my pantry cabinet looking back and have the round lazy susan in one corner...never thought about getting a squared one....hmmmm
 
I like my microwave above the stove...I am odd man out.

No worries, I'll be odd with you. Just finished installing new cabinets and had a guy out to install granite countertop last week. I kept the microwave over the stove. Been here 8 years so far and haven't had a problem with it. To each their own, it's great there are so many options out there!
 
if we were to redo our kitchen the one thing for sure i would look into is getting a pop up cabinet for my kitchen aide. the bulk of my appliances are kept in cabinets but that darn kitchen aide is so heavy to pull in and out so if i could get a pop up cabinet with a lift that brings it up to the height of the counter it would be great.

one other suggestion and for this i'll steal a photo from another post-



the second photo down has a similar set up as my kitchen-open concept, looking into another room with the sink at an angle with a long counter attached on one side. i've seen this design in lots of other homes but never with a little tweek the speck builder did to ours. you can see how there's the traditional cabinet doors below the sink to get to the pipes and such, well on mine if you went around the other side of the counter (where the bar stool sit) and glanced down you would see a single cabinet door (identical to all the others in my kitchen). the reason the door is there is to have behind the sink access so that if a plumbing issue comes up it can be much easier than crawling to reach the back of the sink. we can also easily access the piping that attaches to the dishwasher (in the event it leaks or gets clogged) and the 2 outlets (dishwasher/garbage disposal). makes repairs much easier and also is a great place to store extra rolls of paper towels and other cleaning products. no one ever notices it unless it's pointed out.
 
No worries, I'll be odd with you. Just finished installing new cabinets and had a guy out to install granite countertop last week. I kept the microwave over the stove. Been here 8 years so far and haven't had a problem with it. To each their own, it's great there are so many options out there!

I will be odd with the two of you. In our first house, we had the microwave on a shelf, next to the stove. Next house, over the stove. Next house, on the counter. In our current house, we chose to put the microwave back over the stove when we remodeled (it was on the counter before that). Clearly, we'd lived with various options, and that's what worked for us.

I have a couple issues with the lower microwaves (mounted under the countertop). I feel like they would be tricky to see into and clean. I also didn't like the idea of a young child having access to a cooking device. OTOH, I could see it being handy if a person were in a wheelchair--much easier to reach for them. But, I'm sure they work fine for some people, and if you don't have young children in your kitchen, you don't have to worry about them microwaving playdough or that sort of thing.
 
There is no place for anything to fall off our lazy susan, it isn't round, it like octagon shaped so it fills the entire cabinet.
If you stand back you can see in the microwave, but most everything I cook in the microwave is in a container so you can't see it cook. The control panel is slanted up, but it certainly isn't line of sight like a microwave over the stove......but even with my 62 year old eyes it works.
Why do you need to see anything cook in the microwave? We moved our microwave over the stove when we remodeled 7 or 8 years ago and we love it. It's off the counter and looks great. It functions well in how we use our kitchen and the microwave. Our micro is only used for reheating and popcorn, not for cooking.
 
Why do you need to see anything cook in the microwave? We moved our microwave over the stove when we remodeled 7 or 8 years ago and we love it. It's off the counter and looks great. It functions well in how we use our kitchen and the microwave. Our micro is only used for reheating and popcorn, not for cooking.
As for seeing stuff cooking I was responding to cel_disney who asked about that.
My wife is a baker and our microwave is frequently used for prepping ingredients for that. So we had to find one with all the soften, melt, etc settings and all the sensors which was why our microwave was $700 instead of $59, although I see that microwave is $900 now
 
As for seeing stuff cooking I was responding to cel_disney who asked about that.
My wife is a baker and our microwave is frequently used for prepping ingredients for that. So we had to find one with all the soften, melt, etc settings and all the sensors which was why our microwave was $700 instead of $59, although I see that microwave is $900 now
You do realize counter top microwaves and over the stove microwaves are not interchangeable? LOL
 
You do realize counter top microwaves and over the stove microwaves are not interchangeable? LOL
Yes I do, LOL. But I think on sale we paid like $125 for our Kenmore microhood that we bought 2 years before our remodel. So I was surprised how expensive microwaves can get with features I never imagined existed. But yes, a $25 Goldstar microwave from Target would likely be more than enough for someone who only does popcorn, and reheating
 
Yes I do, LOL. But I think on sale we paid like $125 for our Kenmore microhood that we bought 2 years before our remodel. So I was surprised how expensive microwaves can get with features I never imagined existed. But yes, a $25 Goldstar microwave from Target would likely be more than enough for someone who only does popcorn, and reheating
:rotfl:Nice try on the insult. :thumbsup2 I wish our over the stove microwave only cost $25.
 

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