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I have read many versions of this conundrum while reading Brownstoner over the last couple of years. Here is my version. I would be grateful for insight from people who have done something similar as to whether or not this is an unworkable idea.
Basically the issue is this: We have a 16 ft wide 4 story brownstone which is currently configured as a triplex and a garden floor rental. The kitchens right now are one in the back room of the rental – about 16′ x 11′ with garden access, and one on at the back of the parlour floor for the main house.
The location of the parlour floor kitchen basically manages to take up the entire back of the house – the only really decent sized room that we have – while leaving it underutilized and without enough counter space. Originally we were going to move this kitchen to a better location/layout on the parlour floor and keep the rental as a rental. However, long story short the DOB has slapped a rider on all ‘significant work’ requiring us to replace our water main and probably sewer as part of the job, and we can’t afford to do this and do the renovation we had planned.
My current thinking is (since the rental won’t bring in much income in the neighbourhood we are in, and I am too tired to add being a landlord to my other obligations) to make the garden floor kitchen our main kitchen – replace fixtures and add more counter space but without moving any plumbing, and make the parlour floor a big living space where my 2 year old can run around. The bedrooms are on the top 2 floors of the house, so I was thinking of leaving a kitchenette in place on the parlour floor, hidden behind doors along with a wall of storage for all our other stuff, that could be used for snacks and breakfast, while the main meals could be prepared downstairs.
The pros are that we could have a much better kitchen, and potentially eat in the garden during the summer, we gain living space upstairs, and we would keep enough of the utilities in place that it could be converted back to a 2 family if need be. The cons are that the only dining space we would have would be in the kitchen itself, and I’m afraid that it might just be too far out of the way and we would end up snacking upstairs and never cooking downstairs.
Anyone done anything similar? Did it work, or did you find it annoying? BTW, I am not a ‘kitchen is the heart of the home and the place where everyone hangs out’ type of person – I actually would prefer to burn my fingers and swear somewhere more out of the way, but I’m afraid that getting people down there for mealtimes might be a challenge.
Anyway, aplogies for such a long post, and thanks for any advice anyone could give me!