UP IN THE OLD LOFT

by Janet Crawshaw

Issue 27 (March-May 05)

[Copyright © 2005, The Valley Table]

When Karen and Joe Fitzgerald bought the c.1830, three-story bank building on the corner of Wall and John Streets in uptown Kingston, their plans were to convert the first floor, which included a beautiful steel vault, to retail space for Karen's home accessory shop, the Well-Seasoned Nest, and to renovate the second floor office spaces for rental. The top floor, they thought, would make an ideal loft living space. They had sold their home near Rifton and were ready to move in town.

With the help of local architect Scott Dutton and a year of re-routing plumbing, updating electric, removing layers of old flooring and tiles, stopping traffic to hoist support beams through third-story windows (not to mention the ever-escalating cost), the Fitzgeralds have a loft that expresses their style (she collects pottery and birdhouses that fill the rooms) and their love of cooking (she bakes; he's a professional chef).

"We had completely gutted about three-fourths of this space," Joe explains. "It happened to be used by the New York City Water Department for many years--they were here to supervise the purchase of the land tracts and areas around the reservoirs. They had two bathrooms here, but they never had hot water (which seems odd for a water company). We had to re-route the plumbing and bring a hot water heater up, then run hot water lines to the kitchen and to the existing bathroom and to the new bathroom."

Joe acknowledges that having more space doesn't make it easier to plan or divide. "We knew we wanted private areas for our bedroom and perhaps some office space for Karen and I--that defined the living areas," he says. The public area would include a kitchen, dining area and sitting area.

The couple had specific ideas for the kitchen. They agreed on the concept: open and loft-like. But they didn't always agree on the other things, like the overall size of the kitchen or the amount of storage they would need. They had mapped out an area for the kitchen that would be defined by an L-shaped island, separating the work area from dining and sitting areas. When they lucked upon a complete set of cabinetry with the natural cherry finish and simple detailing they were looking for, they expanded the footprint of the kitchen to accommodate the cabinets.

"We designed the kitchen differently than you would normally," Joe explains. "We took the pieces we had and then designed the kitchen, instead of designing the kitchen and then finding what would fit. Bill Shaefer [of Country Cupboards] was very creative with the design. We wanted to have an island and some sort of buffer to hide the work and the mess sometimes of the kitchen, to create a sort of barrier, so he took the wall cabinets and made them base cabinets. That's what gave us the perimeter of this whole island."

The wall cabinets are shallow and are accessible from the dining area, making them perfect for stowing dishes and glassware for tablesetting and service. Traditional base cabinets are used in the kitchen proper. Most are equipped with pull-out drawers, providing storage for larger pots and pans.

At one end of the island is a breakfast bar for two. "This is where we spend most of our time," Karen says. "We do the crossword puzzle here, eat. My cookbooks and magazines are always here."

The high counter hides the kitchen sink and work areas from view. (It also works as a buffet when entertaining.) Since there are no walls, the island is equipped with electric outlets.

The L-shape worked for designating prep, cooking, cleaning and storage areas. "You have to forget about the design of commercial kitchens because you have a different criteria. In a commercial kitchen you're dealing with two areas: perhaps a large prep area (out of the way) and then a smaller space to dish out a la carte from, which is usually on the same floor as the dining room. You want to minimize that area," Joe explains. "What we have here is a small triangle from the pantry to the refrigerator to the sink and then right to the oven. You always just try to think of a triangle."

In the corner is a large walk-in pantry, (It's the source of the couple's biggest tug of war in planning the kitchen). While Karen and the architect pushed for the largest pantry possible, Joe saw the footprint of the kitchen (and the cost) growing, and wanted to contain it. "This (pantry) is the foot print of the old bathroom. It was a little problematic because we were interrupting this whole area; we were doing something else with the plumbing. I was always told when you do a job, follow the plumbing."

If Karen won on designing the pantry, Joe clearly ruled on choosing the stove. "One of the things we were giving up with in-town living without a backyard or terrace was grilling. So we worked with getting a stove with a grill," Joe says. "This is a professional stove made for home (commercial stoves don't have the same insulation value as residential models; fire departments aren't happy with them)." That's where the DCS came in. "It has 18,000 BTUs of power; water comes to a boil real fast. We love the grill--we cook steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs. The oven is a dream to work with. It heats up very quickly--it's very well insulated," he adds.

Karen, too, got her own space (though she rarely has time to use it). Just outside the pantry, a counter provides a dedicated baking center, where her numerous mixing bowls are always ready. Hardwood and marble boards are stacked. The drawers in the cabinet below hold smaller baking utensils and equipment. when finished, the floor in front of the bake area will be tile. However, Karen notes, "The baking center puts my back to the room," and she finds she’s apt to move out to the main island to mix her dough.

For a loft with few walls and few closets, the Fitzgeralds have more storage than most. A wall of built-in shelves, moved from their former house, was installed in the hallway primarily to house Karen's extensive cookbook collection. "My cookbooks are my favorite; I could never do without them. I read my cookbooks--they're always here."

On a short wall next to the entertainment center, an armoire provides a place for small appliances. "We combined two houses of two people that love to cook and have a lot of stuff," Karen says. She affectionately refers to the armoire as "the kitchen garage."

The Fitzgeralds ultimately found themselves with a kitchen that is larger than they had originally planned--something most home planners can only wish for. "It did become a little bit bigger than we anticipated," Joe admits. "Looking at the plans, I was afraid the kitchen would extend too far into our dining area and people wouldn't have enough room to move around. And we didn't want the stove and those counters to stick out too much into the light line on the first window. In the end, it worked out much better than I thought--there's enough space for Karen and I to work independently, which is important, so we're not crossing each other. We'll probably add a floor-to-ceiling cabinet along the space in the corner. I thought about putting another layer of cabinets up on top of these, but . . ."

That's a big "but." After living a year under construction, Karen sighs, "We'd like to get the rest of the tiling done and just have everything complete."