This is your home. You and your spouse are a young couple with young children, and this is where the kids are going to grow up. You want to build a relationship with your contractor, with the understanding that you will want to add to this space over time as your family and lifestyle change. For now, your life at home centers on family togetherness, entertaining, and baking (yes baking). Your large Victorian offers ample space to work with, but it has some problems, especially in the kitchen. The kitchen is old and dark. The pine paneling may have a "woodsy" feel, but it doesn't match the rest of the house. There is a fireplace in the middle of the room, cozy at one time but hardly the paragon of efficiency now. Along the back of the house, the butler pantry between kitchen and living room creates a confining bottleneck to either space. What do you do?

Try this. Turn the butler's pantry into a rear entry with storage. Add to the functionality of its corridor by creating a breakfast dinette for five that fronts the backyard through a new array of picture windows. Replace old paneling and cabinetry with elegant custom cabinets painted white (and bright). Create a center island with a stainless sink and top (ideal for baking up a storm). Eliminate the fireplace, seal up and header below its old flue, and create a double entry that opens the kitchen up to the dining room.

Now your home has a welcoming core to grow around as years pass.

Project: Moyers
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