Love this house but wondering how practical the kitchen will be

[newyorkparis]

We really love this house but when we visited I felt that the gap between the worktop and wall cupboards didn’t seem a lot. I appears that they have a small microwave in the gap in the utility room (I think it’s about 17cm high) which would be a pain as I always find compact microwaves too small. Also, where do you fit a kettle and toaster? There’s a small amount of worktop next to the sink without a wall cupboard but a microwave would be a nuisance there.
Ugh! We are downsizing so the kitchen isn’t too small overall, just the ridiculously small working gap between the cupboards and countertop.

Any thoughts before we have to relegate this one to the ‘only maybe’ pile. I love the house but keep finding these little things to be unsure about. It would annoy me to move in and find the worktops are pretty much unusable for appliances

Sorry, the microwave is about 26cm high

I would take off the wall units
and just store less stuff.
when we moved we kept 6 plates, 6 bowls, 6 mugs etc
Its been absolutely fine

Is there room above the wall cupboards to move them up?

Here are some further pics. I can see a kettle but would imagine a toaster could burn the underside the cupboards

Boiler tap eliminates the need for a kettle..

No, wall cupboards hit the ceiling in the kitchen

If you love the house and it’s only where to put your toaster that’s a dealbreaker then I fear you will never find a house!

The kitchen can be changed or adjusted quite easily to meet your needs

And I would put the toaster where the kettle is and just pull it out from under the cupboard when using it

Can you store the toaster in a pan drawer or cupboard and take it out when you need it? I only use mine in the morning and occasionally lunch, so it doesn’t sit out permanently!

Have the cupboards moved up.

Yes, just take out one of the sets of wall cupboards and replace with open shelving, at whatever height suits you.

Quooker tap and just pull the toaster out when you use it.

You will never find a house that is 100%
live with the kitchen for a few months then replace the wall cabinets with shorter ones. They are a fairly standard pattern, ask the vendors where they bought them

Just take out one wall unit?

This is a tiny issue and not even an issue tbh. That looks pretty standard to me and at least you can reach the cupboards.

Looks like there's a gap under the cupboards (door fronts lower than cupboard base) where the kettle is so that's where your toaster should go. We have 45cm from worktop to cupboard base which is apparently 'standard' and I've not burned the base of the cupboard with the toaster yet. I have the kettle where it can boil without sending steam up into the base of the cupboard as that's way more damaging to kitchen units than heat from the toaster....

The gap in the utility room looks smaller and I remove some or all of the overhead cupboards as I'd want the space for folding and stacking laundry etc.

It probably would. A friend of mine had her kitchen redone and there was a cupboard over the sink. I offered to help wash up but couldn’t see what I was doing. Such bad design. She had to get on a step to get food out of her microwave as well which made me flinch when I saw her doing it.

We've had this exact layout in a previous house. I didn't mind the microwave being in the utility, but the lack of a long run of work top was a complete pain. I wouldn't buy another house with that kitchen layout.

The other option might be to replace with smaller wall cupboards, either in a matching colour if you can find it, or a contrasting one if not? Or as suggested by others, I have open shelving in my kitchen and really like it.

I thought microwaves needed a gap all the way around? (Misses the point)

Wall units are available in various sizes. Mine are 900mm high which is the "up to the ceiling" height in a room with about 8ft ceilings.

I have a microwave in one wall unit, it is an extra-deep one suitable for hiding a wall mounted boiler, as wall units are mostly only about 300mm deep.

Bearing in mind that kitchen units are just made of four rectangles of laminated chipboard, you can make them any size you want, if you can get doors to fit.

I wonder if you have a feeling this house isn’t for you, so you’re focusing on something that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things?

I only have a microwave and kettle on the worktops. Toaster lives in the cupboard and is taken out when I need to use it.

That is lovely! You could always take a cabinet out?

I now house my toaster in a cupboard and only have a kettle and coffee machine out because I cannot bear cluttered sides.

Please excuse my very poor editing skills!

Its hard to tell, but could you install a shelf on the left and put the microwave on top, then have kettle and toaster sit underneath? Obviously moving the toaster slightly so its not under the shelf when cooking. Or, possibly the other way around with the microwave on the counter top with a shelf above.