A bright, crisp DIY kitchen

January 25, 2012 4:59 PM

Michelle Buccinna’s old kitchen had a lot of other problems: a beat-up floor, almost no counter space, a strange soffit that ran only half the length of the kitchen. The room had so little storage space that she had to store some kitchen supplies in the basement. She and her husband, Brian Buccinna, also 34, a social studies teacher in the Patchogue-Medford School District, turned to her father, Joe Buscemi, for help. Buscemi, 60, is the family go-to guy when it comes to home remodeling. “I joked with them that I practiced on everyone else’s” house, says Buscemi, who joined Brian for the DIY makeover of the kitchen in the Buccinnas' Medford home. Here’s how Brian, the family cook, and Michelle, the baker, created a new space that works for everyone. Total: About $31,500 — Sylvia E. King-Cohen