My 134-Year-Old Home’s Strange Kitchen Layout Is Way More Modern Than I Ever Expected

When you’re in a hot market, there’s a give and take to finding (and affording) the perfect house. For me, the first “give” I gave up was choosing to buy a major fixer-upper, rather than a move-in ready home. But the second “give” was a little less expected — and had to do with the strange layout of the house.

You’ll often hear that you can find “deals” on houses that have quirks that might appeal to a specific buyer. The first house I unsuccessfully put an offer on years ago, for example, was a two-bedroom with a spiral staircase only. But the house I’m in now had an even more surprising quirk.

I walked into the open house and immediately noticed that, in my future home, there wasn’t a kitchen on the first floor. Living room? Check. Den/extra bedroom? Yup, that was there. But a kitchen? Nope. To get to the kitchen, we had to head upstairs.

The kitchen is on the second floor (third, if you count the garden-level English basement), and the popular refrain resounding through the hallways during the open house was, “Why?”

When the house was first built in the 1890s, the kitchen would likely have been in the basement, so when — or why — someone moved it to the second floor is a mystery we’ll probably never have the answer to.

But my husband and I saw it as an opportunity. A house in bad shape with a quirky, closed-off, strangely oriented kitchen? Hot market be darned, this was our ticket to get a house in exactly the micro-neighborhood we wanted to be in. 

And not only did we get the house, but we decided to not move the kitchen at all and kept it as it is. Though that was largely a financial decision, we’ve ended up loving our strange kitchen location.

When we bought our house, it was priced less than comps throughout the area — which was a major reason we put in an offer. The condition was a major part of that, but the odd kitchen layout certainly played a role.

That’s because the cost to move the kitchen back to the first floor would be substantial. We’d have to make sure plumbing and electric could be hooked up in the right places and the entire first floor would have to be reconfigured. While we did a full renovation of the kitchen, it saved us money to put it back in exactly the way it came out, just updated with new cabinetry, appliances, and countertops.

In a historic district, like the one I live in, the permitting process is intense and confusing. Getting a stop work order for missing one small nuance is standard. It happened to us the day after we moved in — an electric permit for a basic update didn’t have quite the right details, and work stopped for nearly five months. 

The idea of trying to navigate permits for moving a kitchen to a different floor seemed like asking for months and months of trouble. Focusing on a “rip and replace” renovation avoided those headaches.

I expected the kitchen to be a quirk that I would get used to, but I didn’t imagine how much I’d come to enjoy it. In a multilevel townhouse, you could be two floors removed from your kitchen if you have your bedroom on the top level and the kitchen in a traditional first floor location. 

By having the kitchen on the second floor, we’re just up the stairs from our morning coffee. I pop out of bed and I’m in the kitchen in seconds, yet there’s still the separation I wanted after years of living in single-level apartments.

Guests still come in and notice after a minute or two, “Wait, where’s the kitchen?” But I love that we have the kitchen and the dining room together on the second floor, creating a defined entertaining space. It feels like a special floor that’s entirely dedicated to cooking and spending time together, without the temptation of a TV in the next room (though there is a sofa in the dining room, which is essential for a good lie-down after a big meal). Lastly, this quirky layout creates a kitchen that can be easily closed off — and I’m a closed kitchen evangelist. (No open spaces here!)

And this layout isn’t without modern-day precedent. A friend pointed out to me early on that the kitchen on the second floor is actually a popular layout in more current townhouse communities. It’s a slightly different arrangement than we have, but I’ve discovered there’s a reason all those new-build residents are enjoying the second floor views from their kitchen.

This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy. See it there: My 134-Year-Old Home’s Strange Kitchen Layout Is Way More Modern Than I Ever Expected