is in tiny cubes because i like the hunks of cheese, but if you want to do it the traditional way, grate it. >> lots of flexibility. that's great. >> i have incorporated the cheese and now it's lumpy. my next step is going to, and i'll demonstrate it for you. >> so one of the things we can look at is how much counter space do you need to look? >> i need about 30 feet. >> she needs about 30 feet and she's got it here, which is nice. but i go to people's homes and i cook with them, there's never enough counter space. part of the problem is, it may be designing the counter space, but they put all their junk on it. we know, get the stuff off the counters and you really do need, this is a nice size work station right here. that's a single person's work station. but that's a minimum size single person's work station.

if you were actually designing a kitchen, tell us how much counter space you'd think you'd need? >> as much as you can get. there's such a broad range for kitching, -- kitchens, you want to be efficient. if you do an inventory of your appliances and pots so you have a home for them so they're not on the countertops, so now also things like microwaves were flinesd countertops, now they're built in. we have appliance garages, if you have a place for it, you can clear up the clutter. >> another way to do that, having more counterspace, use movable, portable, or island types of working surfaces. back to rachel. >> my ideal kitchen will have room for my giant cookbook collection, i have twobal 200 new and vintage cookbooks and a place for a computer because in spite of all the cookbooks, half the time i look up recipes

on the computer. >> we are in a technological transformation period of the history of human culture. we are just at the beginning of that, actually. this is sort of an interesting thing where we are doing things by hand. we are making gougere by hand, using maybe a recipe from a book that was printed, and there's all this technology transfer into the way the book was printed, it's -- we're sort of halfway modern technology and halfway -- >> and i forgot the book today so i pulled the recipe off the internet on my way here. >> so what will it be like in a hundred years? you'll type in, make gougere and open the oven and it will be there >> like the jettisons. >> that's right. -- the jetsons. >> that's right. >> we are making four half sheets of gougere. this is a common thing you can buy in bakeries in france, in

my experience. >> it's hard to find good ones, though. if you're looking for gougere, go to partine's. not necessarily all the way to france. >> how many of you actually like, enjoy cooking? is this a big thing for you guys? some of you cook for survival. we have some survival cookers. when you're talking clients, you're asking them about what their cooking and eating styles are. >> absolutely. people that are foodies that, you know, have special requirements and you know, sometimes we put, you know double stoves, double refrigerators, double dish washers, but there's also a bunch of new types of appliances, we install steamers a lot and -- >> i saw a deep fat frier out here that is incorporated, we'll see it when we take a walk.

is that cool? what is this? >> treshtime. -- fresh thyme. it says use fresh time or pepper, i'm going to -- fresh thyme or pepper, i'm going to do a batch with thyme. >> foodies always want professional-level appliances, that's a trend now. it's high b.t.u.'s, vikings, then high-powered hoods and things like that. the commercial look is very in right now. >> you say it's a look, i agree it's a look. but i'm a foodie and i'm a cook and i have in my house a stove that i bought and it -- it wasn't the look. it simply didn't put out enough b.t.u.'s to cook. it wasn't enough. there's more to it than looking professional. >> of course, of course. it acts it, as well. >> taking great umbrage. no, no. there's a real need. if we turn one of these burners

on here, see if we can turn something on. that's enough for cooking at home, for some people. that 15,000 b.t.u.'s. >> what do you have at your house? >> it's a little over 20,000 now about what it takes to do a little wok cooking. >> is that 20,000 b.t.u.'s or $20,000? >> both. so the people who eat for survival don't need 22,000 b.t.u. burners. they need a microwave. >> i have to say, my grandmother was the greatest cook in the world, she wrote a cookbook, taught cooking classes, she had the simplest little stove and kitchen in the sunset district, she taught me, to be a good cook, you need a good heart and a sharp knife. so you don't need b.t.u.'s in my opinion.

>> i'm going to add double oven. >> rachel added a double oven. to meet your kitchen remodel expectations, it is not necessary in all cases to completely redo your kitchen. i have seen many kitchens that have been successfully done by doing things like replacing the facings on the cabinets and repainting. and changing the countertops. and maybe changing out one appliance or more. it is not always necessary to go in and strip the thing down to the bare studs and start over again. and part of what a design professional can do is help you understand where you need to be on this continuum of sweeping the floor to replacing the whole building. in many, many cases, it is simple to do a tremendous appearance upgrade without tearing the whole thing apart. >> cosmetic redos can be very powerful and very affordable.

if you have a good kitchen layout, you can do minor a-- improvements and cosmetic improvements, absolutely. >> this is not an all or nothing thing at all. we are now going to take a stroll around, look at different kitchen layouts and why different people might want those lie leyouts and what their advantages are and what the differences might be in sort of expectations. i don't think we're going to look at low end vs. high end. there really aren't low end products here but you get the concept of what's easyier, simpler setup. rachel is going to keep cooking and when we come back, we'll seat them. we're in one of the little -- many little display kitchens here. this would have been an original window that someone has chosen to put a little greenhouse window in. s that building adecision that means that additional planning

review requirements and costs involved. this is a big thing when you go outside the envelope. typically when you do the inside of a kitchen, if you're not remove anything walls or changing the walls, you don't need to do a plan. you need a permit from the building department for the building and you need an electrical permit and plumbing permit but you do not need to bring in a set of plans. but if you're going to be taking out walls and structural or nonstructural walls, we need to see a set of plans of what's existing and what's proposed. and you prepare them, right? >> absolutely. you want to do the entire floor plan of your house, showing the adjacent rooms, you should do a site plan which would locate the house, where it is relative to the property lines. that's important. and what's above and what's below it, if you're in a

condominium, as well. >> and there's something else about what's above and below. if the residential building you are in buzz built after 1974, it is required to have sound separation between dwelling units, either above you or below you. and next to you. and so if you're redoing a question in one of these buildings built after 1974, it may have restrictions on what kind of flooring you can put down so the impact sound is not transmitted to the unit below, or vice versa, or the unit above if you're cutting holes to put recessed cans or something in, you might be penetrating some sound barriers. this is a big deesm there are so many little details, i wantry kacies of the code, -- -- intricacies of the code, so you need a plan. this is a pretty basic layout, right? >> sink, cooking equipment,

microwave, hood. >> i've never seen a kitchen without a refrigerator. >> in this particular case, the refrigerator would be in another room or the other side of the doorway. primarily what you're looking at is a traditional 30-inch range, very standard. has the controls on top. a microwave and ventilation. >> you can't put a hood above a range unless it is specifically listed by the manufacturer to allow it to be used over a range. residential ranges do not need to have hoods. there's no requirement in the code for that, though it sure is a good idea. the standard is 30 inches, 30 inches above the stove so to the any combustible material or as low as 24 inches above the stove if it's a listed appliance. >> there's a duct that would go up where does it go? right, left, or front? you have to know what direction the joists are, that will

impact it. sometimes you didn't go in between the joists, you have to go below and build a soffit. >> an enclosed area where a duct might run. >> and to me, the stove is always the star of the kitchen. that should be one of the first things you place. you want to think about how that looks when you enter the room. it's the first thing that has the great visual impact. >> one thing about the ventilation, many of these multiunit buildings in the city here have no way of ventilating outside. they have to have what is called a recirculating ventilation system. microhoods are generally convertible, this could be ducted outside or there's a vent up here that will blow it back into the kitchen. the primary reason off ventilation system is not to exhaust heat, it's to collect airborne oil. the oil that you're expelling off your range top, if it's not collected here, is going to

find its way somewhere in your kitchen, on your counters, floor, everywhere, or in your duct work. it has to be collected here first. that's what you have a ventilation system. >> what the mechanical code calls grease-laden vapors. it will stick on your dishwasher and -- wash it in you dish warner and it geddes rid of them. one big complaint is they make too much noise. you say, i don't want to turn the hood on, it's so noisy. it's a big issue for a lot of people. >> what wo do is we have the duct but we have the blower up at the roof, it sucks out the air but you don't have the noise. >> this is the -- >> this is your standard, woven stainless filter. and the air goes through it, the oil collects in it at certain points, whenever you want to, put it in your

dishwasher, clean it out. if you don't do this over time, it becomes virtually useless because the air no longer gets through the filter and everybody keeps turning it higher and higher, saying it's not doing anything for me, why should i use it? it's because you haven't cleaned it in 10 years. a lot of people, it's out of sight, out of mind, they never consider cleaning their filters. >> it's like sweeping the floor, you put it in there and clean it out. there's nothing like bringing the thing to the outside. that's the way to do it, if you can possibly put it to the outside. you had a question, sir? >> is there an option to install a gas range with, for example, 15-gallon propane tank such as you use for barbecues? >> i don't think there's any listed appliance like that designed for indoor use. it might be ok for camping or backyard but no, you can't do that indoors. >> let me qualify that. if you took this range into --

multiple rangesmark manufacturers, up to tahoe where there is no natural gas supply. you'll have liquid propane supply system, not normally a tank, usually the tank is inside and you're plumbing it in. i would not believe that by any code anyone would allow residents to bring containers of propane into a residence. >> there are traditionally some restrictions on electric ranges. efficiency dwelling units that is one room, used to, and the housing code still says, you cannot have gas appliances in efficiency dwelling units. that was at a time when you had standing pilot lights, where the pilot was on all the time. these days, there are no more standing pilot lights. the california code requires intermittent transmission. so the hazards no longer are

real and we're amending the code to say, you can put gas ranging in these smaller dwelling units. >> those are units where the bedroom is -- it's one room. so the bed is in the same room as the kitchen. >> there is one other thing. the electric industry has vastly improved their cooking equipment for electric cooktops. the newest and most modern one is magnetic. so it no longer produces heat on the unit itself, it produces heat in the pan that you're cooking in. it's all done magnetically. >> we've got one of them here. >> we've got a couple of those here. as of yet, they haven't incorporated into a full-sized range oven and cooktop, it's strictly a cooktop. very efficient product, very fast, very comparable to a gas as far as speed. it's really going to be the way of the future for electric cooking. >> also nothing will catch fire on that.

>> you can put your hand right on it, it won't be hot. you can put a pan on there and boil water. >> let's look at this kitchen. what do we have? traditional wood cabinets with doors, you can get these cabinets and doors in 10,000 shapes and sizes and varieties. either premaid or semicustom made so they're adepartmented to fit your space, or custom made. a lot of people say, i want to save money on my cabinets. that's what i hear all the time, i'm going down to a big box store and buy cabinets. >> if you'll look at the room, what you see mostly is the cabinets. that's the main visual, you know, that dominates it. i would be very mindful, to me they're very important and you want to do something that's going to be long lasting and to me it's probably the most important part of the kitchen. >> andre touched on something i have strong feelings about. i have strong feelings about everything. here you are spending $55,000

to do this renovation -- >> if you're lucky. >> if you're lucky. and the place you wealry -- really want the money to be best spent are the things that you can see. you don't want to take all that money and spend it in the plumbinging, the walls, the wires and then cheap it out at the end where you're running out of money and going to put up the cheapest cabinets you can find. that's exactly opposite. what you want to do is have the stuff you can see, that you have to live with every day, be the quality that you are looking for ultimately. and i see that where people say, i'll paint my house myself. i can save money thope paint. oh, my god, it looks terrible, they spent all many money on the remodel. another thing, little things like this beautiful little crown molding that goes around the cabinets, costs almost nothing compared with the cost of the whole job and makes all the appearance difference. the bottom line appearance is where -- and function of

course, but appearance, don't cheap out the appearance. what do you think about people trying to save money by doing it thems or doing some of it themselves? >> i think it's a disaster. and it's not that it takes brain surgery to do a kitchen, but they're complicated enough and there's a lot of things you need to know and coordinate and for the first time person, they don't know that. they don't think about how the ducts are going to go, the pipes are going to go, they think it's, you know, it's better to hire a licensed contractor to hire a professional to do the drawings, you save money in the long run even though there's markup but you get a better product. >> and they don't want you to help them because if you try to help them, it takes longer, it complicated their schedule, it will mean they'll have to be on the job longer. they want to finish it out successfully have you happy, and have everybody paid and leave and start the next job. if you say, i'll put down the

flooring, oh, my god, now we're a week behind schedule. there's a lot of coordination that's required. so the electrical has to be coordinated, with the drywall, the tiles, so it's coordination. you want to have a crew that works together. your design professional can recommend a contractor, that's a good way to get a qualified contractor to do it. i have a joke about working with contractors. a contractor told me this once. he said, i'll do your job for $10 an hour. foupt watch, i'm going to charge you $15 an hour. if you want to help, i'm going to charge you $20 an hour. >> don't try to do it. i'm looking at the cabinets, some have glass doors and sometimes you see glass shelves which are nice for glasses. some are solid doors. this is a very inexpensive change, to change your cabinets. >> it sparkles it up, adds volume to it.

it's a great thing to do. typically we would have lights, sometimes even lights in the cabinets. if you have the glass cabinets, you have to be mindful about where the shelves are. sometimes people put grid systems and they don't align with the shelves. think about how it's going to look. >> this is a typical problem this bottom corner. always a problem. here's how we solve this one. lazy susan down in the corner. all a problem down here. then of course all the stuff falls off into the back and you're down on your knees trying to get it. i haven't ever seen a real solution. >> it's a big advantage over a dead corner. >> oh, yeah, just a big empty corner there is impossible to get in there. anything else special we want to look at? >> this is one of our simpler kitchens. >> what is the countertop? >> granite. >> it's the real thing. real stone. >> you can tell, the difference between a real material and the

man-made material is that this little corner over here is different looking than this corner over here. if it's manmade, it's going to look identical because they pour it all at one time and it's all the same material. nature builds its own characteristics into the stone and that's where the beauty of natural stone comes from. >> one of the things i want to mention, the most difficult thing for people to do is to pick their cabinet hardware. isn't that true? should it be shiny? matte finish? so many options. >> we spend a lot of time picking appliances for a kitchen, where all the handles will match. just like your cabinetry. so you may not want to buy all from one manufacturer, but you want to have them all complement each other even though there could be multiple manufacturers in one kitchen.

>> i have a question for you, where do you put the trash in this kitchsnn where would you put the trash? and how do you handle recycling and composting? everybody wants a greenhouse, this is the place to start. >> most people would put it here under the sink but now there's a company, several companies, where you have a pullout cabinet with two bins, put it next to the sink. it would be like this -- >> there it is. >> terrific. >> so you would have your regular trash, plastic bags for the most part, and back here your recycling and composting we use a little green bin on top. any other ideas for composting >> no for cans, for everything. so we have four of them sometimes. one on either side, if you can afford to do it. >> san francisco has mixed recycling. cans and bottles and paper can all go in the same thing and

plastic junk, the trash, and then but but composting, you don't have that much volume. we haven't dealt with -- maybe a dutout. >> we have some back on the counter back where we were where there is a stainless counter -- or stainless cover you drill a hole through about that big, it has a bucket underneath. if you're in a prep area where you're doing a lot of preparation of greens, you just open it up, swipe it all in, and go right into the bucket. >> good. speaking of green homes, we're going to look at a couple more of these in a second. there are a number of green things you can and are required to do here. rure required to have special kinds of lighting in kitchens now. which at least half of the lighting in a kitchen has to be a very high efficacy lighting, very high watts, lumens per watts, at least half of it has to be that way. whether you want it or not

you've got to do it. state law. >> the layman term for high efficacy are fluorescent. >> they're developing other types. >> you have to count the lights and count the wattage and actually submit that sometimes with your permit. that's why undercabinet lights are good, you can put a lot of fluorescent lights there and meet that requirement. you can do also overcabinet lights and have ambient light as well. >> if you put a new window in, you have to meet energy standards for windows. what else can we do to make it a green kitchsnn >> you have to remember the lighting on the hood, many of these, like your hood sounds to be fairly large a lot of them are hall general lighting. you have to count the wattage in that hood along with all the rest of the lighting in your house. >> what else is green? we could use flooring materials. >> every option you can pick

something green. so bamboo cabinets are very popular. you can do, you know, the resingled glass countertops. you can do, there's a product called marmoleum, like linoleum floor, that's green material. mu yao pick energy star appliances. so every -- you pick energy star appliances. you also should recycle when you do construction. that's also considered, a lot of the land fill is construction waste. we recycle at home but not at construction sites. >> now it's required to do construction site recycling. let's walk around the corner and look at another one. here's a whole different kind of kitchen. much more modern appearing and feeling. what make this is different? what is it about it that makes it zphincht plush face cabinets. you could have taken your existing kitchen and changed the face of the cabinets and it

would look just like that, wouldn't it? you might have to change the countertop, put in -- what kind of counters are these? >> marble. >> you could put in marble countertop, quite expensive, but you could. and you might be able to cut it and move it and -- >> yeah, it's not in all cases but that's a good way, reface your cabinets and absolutely don't have to replace it. the carcasses can remain, the cabinet bodies. >> so in this vignette, we have a few other things. we have these beautiful, beautiful glassware cabinets with special glass. aren't they lovely? >> glass with reflective material around the frame. notice the back splash. glass tile. >> this is a very trendy kitchen. the glass tiles are very popular now. also the trend is to mix and match the cabinets a little

bit. here we have wood and here we have metal cabinets. very eye catching hood here. so very trendy kitchen. >> following it along, a sin that can is -- it's a porcelainized sink, where the traditional sink was cast iron, it had to be porcelainized to keep from rusting, but this is clay. >> every counter that's more than 12 inches wide has to have a plug. on a long counter like this, you can't be more than 24 inches from any point along the wall to the nearest plug. and all these plugs have to be ground fault circuit interrupt, gfci. and peninsulas, we don't have a peninsula, but they need to have plugs on them. and you need separate small appliance circuits, you have to

have two 20-amp circuits serving the kitchen and separate circuits for your dishwasher and garbage disposal. sometimes you can sthare a few. you have to have circuits for the microwave. if this is an electric deep flier, which i have never seen before, built in, this would have to have a dedicated circuit. you don't need to remember the details but you need to know that the electrical requirements for kitchens are very high, it's very expensive and often requires you to add a new subpanel or change out your electric panel. that all of a sudden rolls up the cost of the remodel. now you have to go down to your electrical panel and do an upgrade. >> you should have an electric plan. you want to locate on a drawing where each outlet is going to be. think about it for the code but also for practical purposes. think about where you want your appliances and what not. do a lighting plan. i actually -- for me, i even will locate this outlet

relative the tiles in the cabinet, so typically, i like to center it if i can, align it with the tile pattern. if you draw a picture of it, it's going to help you in the long-term. >> it's not something you want to leave to your contractor to design, saying, oh, let the contractor take care of this, it'll just happen and maybe it'll happen -- maybe it'll happen right and maybe not. >> if it's on a drawing, then it's in the contract, and then they're required to place it there. that's the obvious -- it's a good form of communication. >> tand the contractor wants that they want to know exactly what they're supposed to do. they don't want to have to figure it out. they just want tobuild it. >> a lot of people get overwhelmed with decision making and will defer some decisions, that's a mistake too. goodit