What we found under the old kitchen
The house came to us stripped to its old plank sheathing and rough framing. Once we lifted the floor, the crawlspace underneath needed digging out, and the joists needed new support. We built concrete-block piers in the crawlspace, ran new joists across them, and sheeted the whole floor in plywood.
The finished photos hide this stage. Cabinets and an island need a flat, stiff floor. If the floor dips, doors drift out of line and the gap under the toe kick grows uneven from one end of the run to the other.
Opening the wall with a steel beam
The plan called for one open room, which meant removing a bearing wall. We raised a steel I-beam into place on material lifts, then stood a steel post under it to carry the load down through the new floor structure. The lifts held the beam steady while we set and fastened it.
A steel beam carries a long span in a shallow depth. That kept the ceiling line clean across the kitchen instead of leaving a deep wood header hanging over the island.
Window, drywall and ceiling work
We pulled the old wood window and framed in a new triple casement window over the work zone. Then the room got new drywall, with pot-light cutouts laid out before the sheets went up. Ductwork runs along one side of the ceiling, so we boxed it into a dropped bulkhead that lines up with the cabinet wall.
Greige paint went on the walls, with white baseboards along the floor and a smart thermostat mounted where the homeowners will use it.
The finished kitchen
The cabinet wall runs floor to ceiling in sage-green flat-slab doors with long bar pulls. Two pantry towers frame the appliances: a stainless French-door fridge with a water dispenser, a slide-in range and an over-range microwave. Behind a pair of sage doors, a pantry closet holds white adjustable shelves.
The island stands apart in a deep teal high-gloss slab finish. Above it hangs a linear matte black pendant with about a dozen white globe shades, backed up by recessed pot lights across the ceiling. Wide planks of light natural oak run through the room and tie it to the rest of the main floor.
Planning a kitchen in an older Niagara Falls home
Many older houses in Niagara Falls sit on shallow crawlspaces with undersized or tired joists. You won't know what's down there until the old floor comes up, so keep room in your budget for structural work. It costs far less to fix a floor while the kitchen is empty than to fix it under new cabinets.
