The galley kitchen, finally gone.

Mid-century builders in Wilton Manors put the kitchen in a corner and shut the door on it. Walk a ranch off NE 26th Street, or a block in Coral Estates, and you find the same plan repeated: a galley barely wide enough for two people, a pass-through to the dining room, and a Florida room next door doing very little. The kitchen remodeling projects we take on here almost always begin by removing that wall, then rebuilding the room around an island four people can sit at.

A kitchen at this level pulls building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical into one submittal, so it clears all four review stops at Wilton Manors Community Development Services and gets inspected at each rough-in. Two things surprise owners of 1950s slab houses. First, the electrical service: a panel sized for a 1958 range and a window unit will not carry induction, a double oven and a wine column. Second, what sits under the slab, because original cast iron has to be cut out, replaced and inspected before anyone pours back. Enlarge the window over the sink and High-Velocity Hurricane Zone product approvals join the set.

Cabinet shops do their sharpest work for builders who field-measure after framing and before ordering, and who template stone from the installed boxes rather than from a drawing. That is how we sequence a kitchen. Cabinetry and appliances with long lead times get ordered up front, so nobody is living around an open room while a truck crosses Georgia. Floors, doors and the route from the driveway get protected every morning, not once at the start. One fixed written scope, one supervisor, one company answering the phone from estimate through warranty.