The home I purchased in River Edge, NJ in 2014 was my first renovation project. It was built in 1848 and had been in the same family for the previous 50 + years. I knew it was going to be a project so I did the renovation in stages.
Stage 1: I painted the rooms that I knew would stay largely the same. In this case, the living room, dining room and entryway were the first to get attention. I also removed all the wallpaper from the kitchen and adjoining room which included wallpaper on the ceiling. I also removed an island/bar that dissected the kitchen and adjoining room. I was not clear what my final plan was going to be so I bought an Island from IKEA that I could move around and test different ideas.
I even tried to get on “America’s Most Desperate Kitchens” on HGTV.
I hosted brunches and dinner parties to see what the flow of guests would be and observe where they would naturally congregate. I also interviewed my brother’s friends who had raised children as I knew this would not be my permanent home and that I would likely sell it to a young couple with a child. They shared valuable information about being able to keep an eye on young children when doing chores and the fact that having a laundry room in the basement was very difficult with a toddler. All that ‘data’ helped me design the kitchen and ultimately convinced me to enclose the screened-in porch and make it another family room off the kitchen. The goal was to be able to cook, do laundry and watch a toddler all at the same time.
Stage 2: After a year of living in the house largely like the way I bought it, I gutted the kitchen and bathroom and moved the kitchen to what was the adjoining room. Installed the washer and dryer where the sink used to be and turned what was the former kitchen into a laundry room and pantry. This allowed the kitchen to be the center of daily life with plenty of overflow into the second family room that was the former porch. You can see the before and after photos below.
