We're renovating what may be a 'tiny house' since it's only 740 square feet. Although when it was built in the 1950's it was more or less regular sized for a two bedroom house.
This picture was from when the house was still for sale since the Realtor's paperwork is still on the counter. We got the little house after some squatters had been there. They hacked out walls trying to make the tiny house feel bigger, although they almost dropped the ceiling on themselves. They took all appliances as well as most of the light fixtures and interior doors when they left, but at least they left. We've been fixing and upping for most of the summer but we work slowly.
The edge of the doorway opening there on the left side of the picture is the end of the wall that you can't see in the picture - which is the wall on the other side of the kitchen. We want to leave that wall open without a counter or appliance so it can be a small dining area. That really limits the locations for the stove and refrigerator.
This is how it was with the initial layout. We got the counters from a yard sale so they're being reused instead of recycled or worse yet, dumped. The stove came from the dump and it cleaned up nicely. People throw away the strangest things. Not sure about a stove behind the door, though. Plus the stove blocks the counter. But a refrigerator there would block the counter more. We put in a bit of wall back between the kitchen and living room. Mostly so it could hold the ceiling up, but it was also something to put the refrigerator against.
There's the door knob barely in the left side of the picture and the wall between the kitchen and living room on the right side of the picture. We will be putting a big slab of silky oak there as an eating counter, it will be about six inches above the counter height to hide a bit of kitchen clutter from the living room side.
Oh, this house is in Hawaii and it's 'single wall construction'. The walls are all vertical 1" x 6" T & G boards since we don't need insulation around here. Probably it 'only' being a 1" thick wall is why the squatters thought they could hack out walls with impunity, but in single wall construction sometimes even the trim is structural. But, that's why the 'wall' in the picture is only 1" thick.
The stick in the window is because the sash cord broke and the sash weights had fallen off. BUT it's very fixable. That's the nice thing about old houses, most things can be rebuilt without much fuss. Repair and continue to use instead of replace or even recycle.
Another awkward layout picture. This one shows the door swinging inwards as well as now the refrigerator is in. It wasn't a big kitchen to begin with, adding in the appliances made it a lot smaller. The refrigerator really split the kitchen into two sides since it was impossible to see past it.
So, to tame the refrigerator, we cut a hole in the wall and built a refrigerator 'niche'.
That's the back door that opens into the kitchen. The yellow area is where we're gonna put the 'niche'. There had been a water heater in a small enclosure there but we can move that elsewhere. Probably over near the bathroom/laundry area.
The bit of cut out wall was useful to make a wall for the fridge niche. It already had the structural 'racing stripes' on it, too. Those bits of trim hold the vertical T & G boards together that make up the walls. We also reframed the doorway since it had been a squatter hack job and rehinged the door to swing outwards instead of inwards. We will probably build a screen door at some point that will swing inwards, but screen doors are usually kept shut so it shouldn't annoy the stove on the inside.
There's two vents in the floor so the niche will stay cool. Refrigerators don't make cold, they remove heat so it's always good for the heat to have a place to go. The fridge will run more efficiently if they have lots of ventilation.
This is pretty much the exterior of the finished niche. There's a vent up above to let the heat out. When the door is open, the door knob is past the end of the niche so it doesn't hit the niche.
Oh, those are three tab asphalt shingles being used for siding. The little house was in terrible shape and it would have been almost impossible to get it nice enough to look good painted. The shingles not only cover up changes in siding, but they don't need painting for decades and decades. Our current house has sixty plus year old shingles on the sides of it and they're still in great shape.
It was a lot of work to niche the refrigerator, but it sure made the whole rest of the kitchen feel huge.
Pretty much streamlined the food path, too. Take food from the fridge, put it on the counter, wash and prep it in the sink, then cook it on the stove. There will be an eating counter between the kitchen and living room on one side of the stove and the little eating area in the kitchen on the other side. Maybe we will move into this tiny house instead of renting it out, the kitchen will be lovely to cook in.
Not sure what we will do with the ceiling yet, that will be one of the next projects.
