About Olliestrolleydc

Kitchens in Houses That Were Built on Half Floors

Olliestrolleydc remodels kitchens in Bellevue, Washington. We take on all kinds of houses and condos, but the work we keep coming back to is the split-level and the split-entry home, the houses with a front door that opens onto a landing and a kitchen that sits a half flight up from the living room.

Those houses are everywhere in Lake Hills, Crossroads, Newport Hills and Eastgate, and their kitchens tend to share the same frustrations. They are narrow. They are closed off from the dining room by a wall that may or may not be holding something up. They were wired for a much simpler kitchen, and a range hood has nowhere obvious to vent when there is a bedroom overhead.

How We Work

We start by measuring the whole half floor, not only the kitchen, because the answer to a cramped kitchen is often ten feet away in the dining room or on the far side of the stair wall. We check the direction of the joists, what the walls carry, where the drain and vent run, and how much capacity is left in the electrical panel. Then we draw options, usually a version that keeps the walls where they are and a version that does not, with a price range for each.

When a wall is coming out, a structural engineer sizes the beam and the City of Bellevue reviews the plans before demolition. Inspections happen before walls are closed. We would rather spend a week on that than discover a problem once the cabinets are hung.

What You Can Expect From Us

• A written scope and price before work starts, and written change orders before anything extra is done.
• Plain advice about where not to spend, including refacing cabinets that are still sound and leaving a sink where its drain already is.
• Ducted ventilation planned early, because Bellevue kitchens spend long months with the windows shut.
• A work schedule that keeps the time without a kitchen as short as the job allows.

Get in Touch

Call (425) 700-8803 or write to us at 2261 Kamber Rd, Bellevue, WA 98008. Tell us roughly when the house was built and where the kitchen sits relative to the stairs, and we can have a useful conversation before we ever visit.