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"   VIEW MORE PHOTOS&amp;amp;gt; The Ferros Lynbrook New York what they had A 1935 stucco ranch house purchased from its original owner. The tight, 135-square-foot kitchen featured crooked pine cabinets, midcentury appliances, dark brown linoleum flooring with mustard yellow inlays, and a butter-yellow tile countertop with black grout. All of this was set against a backdrop of peeling plaster and mashed moldings. What else did they have? A limited budget: about $15,000. Fortunately, Lenny Ferro, pictured above with his wife, Joyce, is a professional carpenter. what they wanted A kitchen that opened into the dining room to better accommodate small dinner parties, and counter seating where they could enjoy their everyday plate of pasta. Lenny and Joyce also longed for more countertop and storage space, and to update and rearrange the scattered sink, stove, and refrigerator into an efficient work triangle. They liked the look of their Mission-style dining room furniture, and hoped to echo its clean lines in the remodeled space. what they did  Broke up the project into two parts. The first was a quick fix executed shortly after they bought the place in 1991. They removed the walls between the kitchen and the breakfast nook, as well as the wall dividing the kitchen and formal dining room. Then they relocated the refrigerator and electric range for a more efficient layout, and updated critical surfaces, adding a preformed laminate countertop and no-wax vinyl floor tiles. They also swapped out the dim fluorescent ceiling fixture and its head-knocking stoplight pull for a more practical fan-light combo. The opened-up space gave them enough room\u2014perhaps too much room\u2014to think. &amp;quot;There was a lot of &amp;#039;should we, shouldn&amp;#039;t we, let&amp;#039;s do this, let&amp;#039;s not,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; says Lenny. By the time the couple was finished brainstorming, it was 2004. When they went to price new cabinets, they realized that this element alone would break the budget they&amp;#039;d set. So, for part two of the kitchen transformation, Lenny decided to tap into his 35 years of carpentry experience and build the units from scratch. The cabinet boxes and doors, including a range-hood surround and peninsula paneling, are made from maple, which Lenny originally planned to fashion in his workshop\u2014a.k.a his unheated one-car garage. But because of the space&amp;#039;s high moisture levels\u2014&amp;quot;big warpage factor,&amp;quot; says Lenny\u2014he wound up finishing them indoors. He coated the cabinets with an oil-based, red mahogany gel stain, topped with three coats of water-based polyurethane and two coats of oil-based poly; outfitted the upper cabinet doors with textured water glass; then\u2014to finish up\u2014installed halogen task lights and a flip-down TV-CD-DVD player-telephone beneath the wall cabinets. The storage units are hardly the kitchen&amp;#039;s only attraction. A maple appliance garage is parked atop a new gold-flecked Uba Tuba granite countertop, which houses an undermount D-shaped stainless steel sink with a single-lever gooseneck faucet and integrated soap dispenser. The floor is a &amp;quot;parquet&amp;quot; pattern of Lenny&amp;#039;s own design: 18-inch-square ceramic tiles set in a grid of oak, all laid over radiant heating. To top off the room, he added a recessed ceiling lined with shiny chrome panels that can be removed to access the electrical, HVAC, and central vacuum lines running above, and surrounded it with recessed halogen cans. A lighted Mission-style ceiling fan and matching mini-pendants over the peninsula complete the lighting scheme. Smaller quirks in the room include hidden pockets that conceal the inexpensive vinyl blinds above the new stove-flanking casement windows, blind twirlers made from maple dowels, and a pullout shelf in one of the base cabinets for the pooches&amp;#039; food and water bowls. &amp;quot;Otherwise they&amp;#039;ve got to spread their legs to get down to the dish,&amp;quot; says Lenny. what they didn&amp;#039;t do Run out of patience, either over the decade-plus it took to get started on the project, or the year it took to finish it\u2014despite the fact that Christmas 2004 was spent with plywood countertops. &amp;quot;This kitchen is like the cockpit of a plane,&amp;quot; says Lenny. &amp;quot;Everything&amp;#039;s right there within reach, and you really feel like you&amp;#039;re in control.&amp;quot; n budget breakdown appliances AUDIOVOX UNDERMOUNT TV $448 FRIGIDAIRE RANGE $1,000 GE WATER TREATMENT FILTRATION $118 MAYTAG REFRIGERATOR $816 VENT-A-HOOD EXHAUST FAN $397 WHIRLPOOL DISHWASHER $411 materials COUNTER STOOLS $80 CROSSVILLE BACKSPLASH FAUCET $474 ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES $250 FILTERED WATER FAUCET $76 FLOOR TILES $275 GRANITE COUNTERTOPS $3,330 HALOGEN RECESSED LIGHTS $344 HAMPTON BAY PENDANT LIGHTS $95 HUNTER CEILING FAN $162 IKEAN BAGVIT FAUCET $90 IKEA LANSA PULLS $111 INTERIOR CABINET HARDWARE $646 MAPLE CABINET WOOD $2,971 MISC. BUILDING MATERIALS $650 PELLA CASEMENT AND TRANSOM WINDOWS $816 RADIANT HEAT FLOOR MATERIALS $960 RED OAK STRIP FLOORING $140 STAINLESS STEEL UNDERMOUNT SINK $300 TEXTURED AND STAINED GLASS $150 UNDERCABINET LIGHTING $120  TOTAL $15,230 floor plans       VIEW MORE PHOTOS&amp;amp;gt; 1. The original kitchen plan had a scattered appliance configuration and limited counter space. The Ferros felt that the wall dividing the cooking area and adjacent formal dining room made both rooms feel cramped, and wasn&amp;#039;t conducive to casual socializing. 2. Eliminating the breakfast nook that had been shoehorned into the cooking area and removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room allowed the homeowners to create a more functional space that enables them to eat and entertain equally well. For additional information view December 2006 Resources "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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