Transforming a Cramped 1980s Galley Kitchen into a Functional Open-Concept Space

we had people come out for quotes and it was just apparent from the beginning that Paul Paul was the only one that first of all said I don't think you need to build an extra mudroom space I think we have enough kind of like we could rework the space that you have and give you a great mudroom within this space so his kind of architectural creativity stood apart from all the others and then also just his organization and detail level of detail it was very clear with Paul, we were gonna get a very detailed and thorough ⁓ project manager. My name is Matt Minick and we used McManus for, I say a kitchen, but really it was a kitchen, living room, mud room, dining room, all together. Well, ⁓ my wife is what probably inspired us to think about remodeling our home. ⁓ We moved. You know, we bought the house in 2013 and I think from the beginning knew that it was a it was a house that we could afford as a starter home, but also was eventually going to have to have some some work. And as we as we grew together and grew in the home and figured out what we liked and didn't like, it became pretty apparent that at some point we really needed to address the kitchen and a few other things in order to open the space up and make it a little bit more user friendly and and also like host friendly. home was built in the early eighties. It was a galley kitchen. ⁓ was, there just wasn't a lot of space to really, if you had more than two people in the kitchen, you probably were feeling cramped and. In addition to that, then was this huge wall that kind of separated the living room and the kitchen. And it's already a small house, maybe only 1450 square feet. And so it really felt even smaller. And the other big frustration that we were upfront with Paul right away with is that our washer and dryer was outside in the garage. having that in the garage in North Florida summer is not ideal. it was a huge priority for us too, to kind of get rid of some of the wasted space and be a little more functional and bring that washer and dryer on the inside. The thing is, is whatever the problem was, I never had to put much mental bandwidth towards it. ⁓ Elliot, the project manager, he was the point of contact for a lot of the other subcontractors and a lot of the other ⁓ equipment providers. And he took the first call, the second call with it. He only brought things, you know, and he had already communicated with us, what would our wants and needs. And so he triaged a lot of that work before it even got to us. And so it felt like I really had an executive partner or assistant doing all the day-to-day work. And all I had to do was stay up in the upper level of making the decisions and paying the money. So the whole process really made it feel like it was... It was worth the value. We love it. ⁓ The island that got put in is the way it worked out with our space after the wall was knocked down. The island is a true full slab of quartz. And so I think it's kind of a showstopper when people come over and say, wow, this is, I've never seen an island this big before, you know, we have an eight month old now and you, can't imagine the number of things that are now, you're cooking different things at different times. People are coming over to see the baby. You got all this stuff going on and, and there's not that wall separate. the living room from the kitchen. So you can actually talk to each other and the baby can still see me when I go into the kitchen and I can still see ⁓ the baby. The mudroom has been phenomenal. ⁓ It started off as the dog's place where we wash the dog and then also all the laundry that did get brought inside. But now it's also where we wash the eight month old. ⁓ The tile is perfect. The light that it brings in from the window just really, really sets it off and ties it in with the rest of the space in the kitchen. we're actually getting ready to do our bathroom and we've chosen Paul again. So it's one of those things where, you you always hear like, well, would you use them again? We are using them again. It's been over a year, since we had the renovation. And occasionally, as with anything, when there's this much work you're doing, there might be a little corner on the molding or something that maybe needs a little Paul sends someone over the day of and addresses it with no fee, no questions asked, no cost. We literally had Elliot over to our house maybe two months ago just to take a look at something that really wasn't even that big of a deal. it was just, hey, if you ever have any needs, if there's ever anything that doesn't feel quite right, let us know. We want to stand by our work. And so it wasn't like he just said, okay, we're done and then like never heard from him again. So that's been really nice. I would recommend McManus Kitchen and Bath, one for the level of detail and just the organization that's gonna take place. if you have your own day job that you're doing 45, 50 hours a week, if you've got an eight month old kid, if you've got other things happening, It's just impossible to try to manage all that on your own and stay, you know, stay sane. So ⁓ the level of detail and the proactive communication and the thoughtfulness that Paul puts into the work, I think is just far and above anything we've experienced. You're all just talking to one in-house design team. And so that really makes it, ⁓ I think, easier for them to really get a sense of how can we personalize this to make it to where this is their space. in their home as opposed to you're talking to so many different people that it ends up feeling like it's just all slapped together, cut and paste and doesn't have any real semblance of a plan.