A closed-in hillside kitchen opened to the view, rebuilt in walnut and quartz
- Project type
- Kitchen remodel, pantry absorbed, two baths
- Structure
- Bearing wall removed, engineered header, three new windows
- Finishes
- Walnut cabinetry, quartz waterfall island, refinished hardwood
- Permit
- City of Portland · stamped structural
- Schedule
- Mar – Sept 2023, house vacant
A newly purchased house with a kitchen that turned its back on the hillside.
The owner bought the house in the NW hills and came to us through his broker, with a designer and a set of kitchen plans already in hand. The existing kitchen was boxed in by a walk-in pantry and a single small window; the appliances were in the wrong places for the way he cooks.
The brief: take out the pantry walls, cut three new windows into the exterior wall, relocate every appliance, and rebuild the room in walnut. Then, once we were in, the scope grew to two bathrooms, whole-house interior paint, and refinished hardwood throughout.
Three windows, three storeys up the back of a hillside house.
The new windows go into the rear wall, which on this lot sits three floors above grade. That meant four days of scaffolding just to install them, and it meant we couldn't order the windows until demo confirmed where the posts inside the wall actually were. We opened the drywall, verified the framing against the designer's plans, drew the permit set in-house and had it stamped by a structural engineer: a new 6×10 header on built-up posts to carry the ten-foot opening, plus braced-wall calcs for the remodel.
Inside, removing the pantry's demising wall meant patching floor and ceiling and lacing new white oak into the old, then sanding and finishing the whole level so the seam disappeared. The range hood moved from downdraft to a wall hood; the fridge, ovens, cooktop and a second dishwasher all moved with new plumbing, gas and electrical to match.
Walnut on three walls. Quartz everywhere else.
Columbia Cabinet walnut, floor to ceiling, with the wall ovens and fridge built into a single run. A single quartz slab for counters, full-height backsplash and the island's waterfall ends. Three recessed cans over the new windows and a third pendant over the island. The butler's pantry next door got matching quartz so the two rooms read as one.
What it took to get there.
Plans, engineering & permits
Designer's plans developed to a permit set in-house; stamped structural calcs; building, electrical and mechanical permits with the City
Demolition & framing
Pantry walls and cabinets out; 6×10 header and new posts; three window openings cut and framed
Windows & exterior
Three 3'×5'6" casements, scaffolded install three storeys up, spray-foam seal, siding repair
Mechanical, electrical, plumbing
Downdraft capped and wall hood ducted; circuits for relocated appliances, three cans and a pendant; fridge line moved, second dishwasher, new sink
Cabinets & stone
Columbia Cabinet walnut; quartz counters, backsplash, waterfall island and butler's pantry top
Floors, drywall & paint
Hardwood patched, sanded and finished throughout; new oak in the living room; drywall repair; whole-house interior paint
Added mid-project
Upper and lower bathrooms (tile, vanities, glass); 75-gallon water heater; storm drain jetted and camera-inspected
Priced line by line before demo, then re-sequenced as the scope grew.
The first cost sheet carried 25 lines, each with a vendor, an estimate and a duration, including the ones that were still unknowns: scaffolding needed a bid, engineering was requested, the windows had a one-month lead time. Payment was tied to milestones (signing, cabinet draw, drywall, final) rather than dates.
When the owner added bathrooms and paint, each came in as its own written estimate, and the schedule was rebuilt around the long-lead items: cabinets delivered and installed, then counters templated three weeks before install, then backsplash templated off the finished counters. A loose-ends list at the end (two wrong upper cabinets, a scratched door, a missing compactor panel) was worked through item by item before final permits closed.