LESLIE: Bill in Michigan is calling in with some kitchen guidance. What can we do for you?
BILL: Yes, I’m just getting ready to start a remodeling job and I was …
TOM: OK.
BILL: We’re looking at knocking out the existing wall in between the kitchen and the dining room, trying to make more room.
TOM: OK.
BILL: So is that something that we should do? And we’re looking at resale.
TOM: So you want to – you have two separate rooms now. You have a kitchen and dining room and you want to consider creating one room that basically encompasses both spaces.
BILL: Exactly. And both rooms are very small, so that’s the problem.
TOM: Yeah.
BILL: The dining room is almost too small. The kitchen is almost too small. Getting rid of that in-between wall and we’re hoping that’s going to make a more usable space.
LESLIE: Is there anything on that in-between wall that would then hinder your kitchen operation? By taking away that wall, are you losing valuable countertop space …
TOM: (overlapping voices) Cabinet space.
LESLIE: … cabinets, appliances?
BILL: No, it’s a blank wall as far away from the sink as possible. And then there’s a little, small doorway that goes into the dining room.
TOM: Right.
BILL: The dining room is kind of – I don’t know. I want to say it’s maybe 10×10; something like that.
LESLIE: OK. Now …
TOM: Well, could you take that wall and cut it down in half and …?
LESLIE: Yeah, make like a pass-through.
TOM: Right, and kind of have it look all wide and open but you still sort of retain that sort of official dining room space?
LESLIE: I feel like you’re going to be sad if you take that wall away and now you’re sitting down to a formal family dinner and you’re looking at the kitchen.
BILL: (chuckles) Well, (inaudible at 0:04:10.7).
TOM: Yeah, the other question that I would have too is it really depends – you’re really asking a house value question and, really, it’s going to depend as much on what else is available in the neighborhood. If you know any realtors, that might be a good question to ask them because they see a lot of houses. And I tend to think that a bigger, more functional kitchen is going to outweigh a dining room every day.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
BILL: Alright.
TOM: But if you don’t have a functional kitchen or a functional dining room, in this case, I think that I would probably just go for the kitchen.
BILL: OK. Yeah, the contractor has come and he sent us two different plans, with and without that wall, and we’ve got to make a hard decision here coming up; so I was hoping that you guys could give me some valuable insight and you have. So thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply