From Dated Galley to Open Island Kitchen: A Cary Remodel

## Before: a kitchen designed around a wall

The kitchen in this Cary colonial had not changed since the house was built in 1993. Twelve-foot galley with a load-bearing wall closing off the dining room, oak cabinets that had been painted twice and were showing both coats, laminate counters worn through at the sink, and a soffit running the length of the upper cabinets that cut ceiling height to seven feet. The homeowners cooked dinner back-to-back because two people could not stand side by side without bumping into each other. The kids did homework at the dining table and could not see into the kitchen. Their guests congregated in the dining room during parties because the kitchen had no room for anyone who was not actively cooking.

We walked the kitchen twice before quoting. The first walk was with the homeowners — talking through how they actually cook, where the traffic jams happen on a Tuesday night, how they wanted to feel in the space after the job was done. The second walk was alone, with a tape measure and a stud finder. That second walk is where the job got real: the wall between the kitchen and dining room was load-bearing, which meant it was not a demo job, it was a structural job. That distinction changes the permit, the timeline, and the cost.

## After: an open kitchen that works for a family

The finished kitchen runs the full width of the original galley plus six feet of the former dining-room wall. The load-bearing wall came out in week two after the structural engineer spec'd a doubled 2x10 LVL header carried on new posts inside the adjacent walls — hidden inside the drywall, invisible when the job was done. The opening is now nine feet wide, and the kitchen reads as one continuous room with the dining area.

The island is 36 by 84 inches, painted in a dark navy that anchors the space. It has four inches of overhang on the dining side for seating and a prep sink on the kitchen side — one sink at each end of the room, so two people can work at once without crossing paths. The perimeter cabinetry is shaker-style in an off-white, running to the ceiling with crown molding so there is no soffit to break up the sight lines. Quartz counters throughout, matte white subway tile backsplash, recessed LED cans on a dimmer replacing the old fluorescent tube over the sink.

The kids still do homework at the dining table. Now they can watch their parents cook. Guests pour into the kitchen during parties because there is an island to stand around.

## The decisions that got us there

The biggest call was how to handle the load-bearing wall. One option was a partial opening — take out four feet in the center and leave posts at each end. We pushed against it: a partial opening would have looked worse than the original wall once the cabinetry was in, because the posts would land in the middle of the cabinet run on each side. A full opening with a hidden LVL cost about $2,800 more than a partial, and the structural engineer's fee was $400 on top of that. The homeowners approved it once they saw the layout sketch — the full opening was the only version where the island worked.

The soffit removal was the other call people avoid until they have been through a kitchen once. Soffits almost always hide a duct run or an electrical chase. This one hid both. We rerouted the duct to run inside the new ceiling height and dropped a junction box for the recessed cans. It added two days. It was still the right move — no soffit means a six-inch gain in visual ceiling height, and the kitchen photographs twice as large.

## Timeline and budget

Permit pulled week one. Demo — wall, soffit, old cabinets and counters — ran three days. Structural framing and drywall closed out week three. Cabinetry install ran weeks four and five. Countertop template and install landed week six. Backsplash, plumbing trim, and electrical finished week seven. Punch list and final inspection closed at week eight.

Total cost landed in the mid-range for a full kitchen remodel with a structural wall removal in Wake County — exact numbers depend on cabinet line, countertop material, and whether there is a duct reroute or not. We walk every kitchen for free before quoting.

If your kitchen looks anything like this one did — one cook at a time, closed off from the rest of the house, cabinets that have been painted more than once — the right next step is a fifteen-minute walk-through with Mike. He will open every cabinet, probe the soffit if there is one, and give you a real number with the structural call already factored in. See our full Cary kitchen remodeling service page for what we typically build, or request a free estimate online and Mike will call you within 24 hours.