Before relocating from Virginia to Ohio, Pat and Tom Carney went through hundreds of photos of their new home. They were surprised to find that only two were taken of the kitchen. When the couple arrived in Grove City in 2005, they discovered the reason why.
“The kitchen was nice for the time, but it was just a little cramped,” says Tom. “There were some things about it that we didn’t like from the get-go.”
Problems galore
While the cramped kitchen might have been new when the Carney’s moved in, the passing of nearly 20 years made the space both small and outdated. Previously, the kitchen consisted of wood cabinets, granite countertops and an island with bar-height seating.
J.S. Brown
“We had this island that went up where you could put chairs against it,” says Pat. “We didn’t use the chairs and we just didn’t like that configuration.”
The old kitchen island offered the best of no worlds. It made important areas narrow and difficult to navigate while providing unnecessary amounts of space in areas that were hardly used.
“We could barely get through here with the fridge open,” she says. “The island before was so close to the fridge that the project manager at J.S. Brown came in and said, ‘Oh, that’s not good. That can’t be up to standard.’”
Major refresh
J.S. Brown
Making space for the refrigerator was the first order of business for the Carneys. To give themselves more room, they did away with the bar-height section of their island, trading it in for cabinet space underneath the island that would offer them more storage.
“I mean, look at what we have now. There was nothing underneath, and now we have all kinds of storage, so it’s much more functional,” says Pat.
In addition to the island remodel, the Carneys installed a new backsplash, cabinets, entryway headers and light fixtures. They even had one of the kitchen walls moved back a foot and a half.
“Because they had to move the wall back 18 inches, it made it a much bigger project than just putting in new cabinets and a new countertop,” says Tom. “It exposed the floor, so then we had to refinish all this hardwood floor because otherwise it wouldn’t have matched.”
Challenges and future projects
J.S. Brown
The project took four-and-a-half months and fortunately only presented one major challenge. During the attempt to move the wall back, Pat and Tom were shocked to discover that the wall in question was a structural wall and integral to the support of the house.
“They had to put this big steel I beam up above the ceiling,” says Tom. “This thing was about a thousand pounds or something and the guys brought it in through this window. They had like six guys hoisting this thing on their shoulders.”
Pat laughs at the memory of the beam’s installment process.
“It was quite a day,” she says.
Aside from their structural scare, the Carney’s renovation process went smoothly. The success of their kitchen remodel inspired them to pursue new projects, including their patio and master bathroom.
“We had such a good experience with J.S. Brown,” Tom says. “They were just really great to work with.”
Maggie Lardie is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
