The Heights Kitchen Remodel

The Project Story

The Challenge

Emily and her family loved their 1920s Heights bungalow but the kitchen had been clumsily remodeled in the 1980s, a closed-off galley with low ceilings, no natural light, and a load-bearing wall blocking it from the dining room. The original pier-and-beam foundation had also dropped about an inch toward the back of the house, leaving the existing cabinets visibly uneven.

The Approach

We started with a structural engineer's foundation evaluation and re-leveled the affected piers before any demo began. Removing the load-bearing wall required a flush LVL beam carried into existing posts on either side, hidden inside the new ceiling. We designed full-height inset cabinetry with custom brass hardware to match the bungalow's original character and integrated all the appliances behind cabinet panels.

The Outcome

Demo through final walkthrough took ten weeks. The new kitchen reads almost twice its actual footprint thanks to the open sightlines into the dining room, and the rebuilt foundation eliminated every cabinet shim. Emily told us at the walkthrough it was the only renovation she'd ever done that came in under the original quote, we caught a savings on the panel-ready refrigerator and credited it back.