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"&amp;quot;The house is an Edwardian, not a Victorian,&amp;quot; Rob Cox insisted. &amp;quot;It was built in 1901.&amp;quot; What he and his wife, Suzanne Cutts, bought in 1997 was a three-story San Francisco residence near a neighborhood of other restored &amp;quot;painted ladies.&amp;quot;  According to Cutts, &amp;quot;There was still a lot of the original detail, all of which we&amp;#039;ve tried to retain.&amp;quot; Their biggest challenge was the kitchen, located on the second floor. It had been redone on the cheap in the late 1970s, and the space was not used well. Also, its white-painted cabinets were pressboard, and there was a brick chimney rising up from the furnace that took a whole corner out of the room.   When the couple concluded they could no longer function in that kitchen, they sought out Tim Wong, of Buttrick Wong Ar\u00ADchi\u00ADtects in Emeryville, California. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;d seen his firm&amp;#039;s work in a magazine,&amp;quot; Cutts recalled. &amp;quot;The story showed space being utilized in such a way that I knew these were the people who could help us. We wanted change but weren&amp;#039;t going to alter our kitchen&amp;#039;s footprint.&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;We could have,&amp;quot; Cox added, &amp;quot;except that there is a 100-year-old bougainvillea just outside the kitchen. It&amp;#039;s a tree, not a vine, and its canopy crowns our deck with fuchsia-colored flowers. Tim knew he&amp;#039;d be working within a very narrow, defined space.&amp;quot;  The five-month remodel began in earnest when the kitchen was gutted. &amp;quot;Everything was rearranged,&amp;quot; Wong recalled. &amp;quot;We ripped out two narrow walls that had been put up on either side of the old range, added an island that was nearly seven feet long and replaced the existing flush window with a bay window and window seat.&amp;quot; The slight protrusion of the window setup added only 18 inches of space but definitely made the room feel bigger.  In addition to the spatial shuffle, Wong replaced outmoded surfaces. Gone was the linoleum floor. In its place was new white-oak flooring stained to match oak floors in the rest of the house, all of which had been refinished. Banished, too, was the space-gobbling chimney. It became obsolete when a new furnace and water heater were installed. The new refrigerator is approximately where the old one stood, but removing the brick stack made it possible to build in that appliance, add storage cabinets above it, and put a pull-out, adjustable-shelf pantry beside it. (The new furnace is serviced by a narrow tubular chimney enclosed neatly within the wall.)  Finally, the kitchen was configured to flow more smoothly into the dining room by removing the old swinging door and widening the opening. It is now six feet across and includes a pair of wood-framed glass pocket doors that can be pulled shut when needed.  With the infrastructure taken care of, the architect turned to Cutts&amp;#039;s personal requests. &amp;quot;I told Tim I needed a lot of counter space,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;I wanted a place that would be really comfortable for people hanging out while I&amp;#039;m cooking. The best thing in the world for me is the bookcase Tim designed\u2014it&amp;#039;s notched into the island. Also, because it&amp;#039;s taller than the island, people can put their wine glasses or plates on it without getting in the way of my cooking.&amp;quot; On the work side of the island there&amp;#039;s a convection microwave plus storage drawers and a cabinet designed for trays and cookie sheets.  The result of all the work done is a space worth bragging about, whether the home is Edwardian or Victorian. &amp;quot;What we got was pretty much what we asked for,&amp;quot; Cutts concluded. &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s nothing I would change. I absolutely love this kitchen.&amp;quot; From Contemporary Kitchen Style by Mervyn Kaufman (2009, Filipacchi Publishing). For information on this and other home improvement books, go to HFMbooks.com  Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;Harnessing Height in the Kitchen.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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