Sandy: It was a very tiny kitchen and it had three doors, not just doorways, but three doors. When a door swings into a room it takes up space and it blocks light.

Maryse: When we removed the doorframe from the kitchen to the hallway, the wall in the kitchen and the hallway were at two different planes. So one wall had to be re-drywalled to get it up to the same level.

Sandy: And the flooring was a bit of a challenge. The subfloor wasn’t exactly even. Underneath the cabinets by the sink it really took a steep uphill turn. It wasn’t something we could fill in and to re-level everything would have required a whole bunch of structural stuff.

Maryse: We didn’t really know what to do but, Mike the neighbour, who we got to know really well, is a contractor. He said to us, “Just treat it as if it was perfectly level and it’ll all work out.”

Sandy: Mike has the same model of home and he had redone his kitchen and run into the same problem. And he said, “Once you put the cabinets in, that’s where the problem is. It’s going to be under the cabinets. You’re going to build them up and you’re not going to see it and it’s not going to affect anything structurally.” So we took his advice.

Maryse: And he was right because where it isn’t level is under the cabinets. The actual floor area where you walk is level.

Sandy: We really expanded that kitchen in terms of its visual size and its function. I am absolutely incredibly proud of what we did in that kitchen!