Eating meals at a long countertop that faces a wall is not conducive to sparkling conversations or creating a close-knit family.
That's one reason Jenny and Trevor MacVicar decided to renovate the kitchen in their century-old home on Kingsway in the Crescentwood neighbourhood.
"When we bought the house in 2003, we were just beginning a family. We now have four kids aged 10, seven, three and nine months," said Jenny MacVicar, an accountant currently on maternity leave.
The couple's new kitchen has room for a table and six chairs, a space where the burgeoning family can face each other directly during meals and conduct group homework sessions.
"The school-aged kids were so enamoured of the family table that they decided to do their homework at it together. It became a family event, with the three-year-old adding some suggestions of his own," said MacVicar.
Another reason for the renovation was to update a kitchen that had changed very little since 1904, when Crescentwood was developed by real estate agent Charles H. Enderton.
The kitchen still had a door that opened onto a stairway once used by a butler when he was summoned by a buzzer to attend to the wishes of a family member on the second or third floor.
The stairway and a large steam radiator were removed during the renovation. This created extra space that was turned into a storage closet with double oak doors framed with traditional oak casing.
To further enlarge the area, load-bearing walls were knocked down and replaced with hidden beams, increasing access to the kitchen from the living room and making room for wall-to-ceiling cabinets and an L-shaped countertop.
The countertop is made of granite with an undermount sink and a backsplash of long, rectangular crema marble tiles. LED strip lighting is recessed under some of the cabinets.
Worn linoleum was stripped from the floor and replaced with heated tiles that are easy on the feet and compensate for the heat that was lost when the steam radiator was taken out.
The ceiling was lowered to add pot lights and replace old-fashioned knob and tube wiring with up-to-date cable and electrical boxes.
"About two-thirds of our house has been converted to modern wiring, and new cables are in position to be extended to the top storey when we decide to continue renovating," said MacVicar.
The couple has spent about $140,000 on the project, about 25 per cent more than originally budgeted, because they decided to add air-conditioning and other amenities in mid-renovation.
She said contractor Tony Teunis of All Canadian Renovations kept them apprised of how much they had spent at each stage of the reno and completed most of the work within his three-month time estimate.
"We chose Tony because we met him at a home exhibit in Winnipeg, and of the dozen or so contractors we interviewed, he was the most experienced and had a very reliable track record," said MacVicar, adding a family member had read a story about Teunis in the Winnipeg Free Press.
"He's a reassuring person to work with," she said. "Whenever I became anxious about something, he would reply, 'That's no problem. We'll take care of it.' "
MacVicar said Teunis's crew consisted of excellent craftsmen who were polite and never left a mess at the end of the day.
Like many people who have experienced a renovation, she suggested planning ahead for a place to stay for the duration of the work. In her case, the entire family lived on the third floor, which was already equipped with a two-burner hot plate, a microwave and a bar fridge.
"It was cosy and fun, kind of like an extra-long family camping trip," she said.
In the future, Jenny and Trevor plan to add a new entrance to their home, build an ensuite for the master bedroom and add insulation to exterior walls.
"It's a few years down the road, but Tony will be the man we contact when the time comes," she said.
Meanwhile, let it be noted the family that dines and studies together, stays together.
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