Making the transition to freestanding kitchen cabinets

[D_W]

SIL did this in a house with PA dutch proportions (not many downstairs room, so kitchen is very large and has provisions to eat in and still have a lot of work room) - I didn't think she'd be pleased as the kitchen that she took out literally had about 30 base and wall units in it, but the result is only two pantry-like cabinets for tall storage and nothing else on the walls. It looks fantastic.

Size of the kitchen only mentioned because the cabinet count that was in before really was far greater than a normal homeowner would need, and just resulted in keeping all kinds of little used stuff in the cabinets.

 

[D_W]

I can't help but mention one other thing that seems common where I grew up along with the freestanding kitchen stuff...


The under-stairs bathroom. Said houses would not have had indoor plumbing, especially not all over the house, and the first toilets that went into the house went in by boxing in stairs and putting a door on the back of the box.

The toilet obviously goes toward the back, which leads to an interesting dilemma - you can stand and pee and lean back (the stairs are too low to stand straight up) or work on your stabilizing muscles and go knee-flexed or sit.

When I grew up, referring to someone who "sits while they pee" when talking about men was not a compliment (I recognize for older aged folks, this is an asset, though for a multitude of reasons).

I spent my entire youth at my grandparents house trying to find the most comfortable way of going to the bathroom without resorting to sitting. never conquered it.