Make the Most of Your Kitchen Redo: Room for Two Cooks

The new kitchen features a maple
island and flooring, and stainless
steel appliances.

Susanna and Helmut Epp's kitchen could have been the model that illustrated challenges with older houses.

Squeezed into the back of their 1910 Arts & Crafts home in Wilmette, Illinois, north of Chicago, the paltry space offered virtually no work zones, no storage, and no place even to relax with a cup of coffee, much less a meal.

A doorway separated the dishwasher from the sink, while across the room, a badly insulated stove cozied up to the fridge. To unload groceries, the Epps rested bags in the gap between the burners.

Double-hung windows with transoms
brighten the eating nook.

The kitchen felt boxed in, even though doors opened at every turn. One passage led to the basement; another revealed a back porch. A third concealed a pantry, the only spot for a microwave.

The room's sole window faced the driveway and a neighbor's house. As Susanna, a university math professor, says, "It just didn't work."