East Folsom’s 1990s–2000s master plan around the Empire Ranch golf course
Second Kitchens for Empire Ranch’s First-Generation Homes
Empire Ranch is the master-planned community on the east side of Folsom, laid out in the 1990s around its golf course and built out through the 2000s with production homes whose kitchens are now twenty to thirty years old. PineWood Cabinets designs, builds, and installs replacement cabinetry for those kitchens from its workshop in Rocklin.
- Crafting custom cabinetry since 2006
- Licensed California contractor · CSLB #1095293
- Based in Rocklin, CA
- Design, build & install under one roof
What an Empire Ranch Kitchen Started As
Empire Ranch is the master-planned community on the east side of Folsom, laid out in the 1990s around the Empire Ranch golf course and built out through the 2000s along East Natoma Street toward the El Dorado County line. It is production construction from several builders working village by village: mostly two-story homes with some single-levels, stucco walls under tile or composition roofs, Mediterranean and traditional elevations, on lots that run larger along the fairways and tighter on the interior streets. The community has aged well, with mature trees, parks, and a school inside it, and it remains one of the most settled neighborhoods in Folsom.
The kitchens are 1990s and 2000s production kitchens. Most open to a family room, with an island or peninsula, a corner or walk-in pantry, a desk nook that nobody uses as a desk, and uppers that stop below a soffit or carry a short crown. The cabinetry was chosen at the builder’s design center: oak or maple in honey and medium stains, raised-panel or cathedral doors, particleboard boxes, lazy susans in the corners, and a handful of shallow drawers. After twenty to thirty years the drawer glides are tired, the finish has yellowed where the sun reaches it, and the door style dates the room more than anything else in it. The bones, meanwhile, are often good: a generous footprint, ceiling height to work with, and a layout that already connects to how the house is used.
Those are the patterns. The houses vary by village and plan, and nothing is designed until the room has been measured.
Empire Ranch Associations, and the City of Folsom Permit
Empire Ranch homes are governed by homeowners associations organized by village, and which one covers your street depends on where you are in the community; the golf club is a separate operation from the associations. Their review concerns the exterior and the common areas: paint, roofing, fences, landscape, and anything visible from the street or the course. Interior cabinetry is normally the owner’s decision and does not go through review. Where a kitchen plan reaches the outside, typically by enlarging a window or widening the opening to the patio on the fairway side, confirm the current guidelines with your association before the drawings are final; we raise the question at the first visit so a submittal can run alongside the design rather than after it.
The permit is a city matter. Empire Ranch is inside the City of Folsom, which issues building permits within the city limits rather than Sacramento County. Replacing cabinetry in the same footprint with no plumbing, electrical, or structural change frequently needs no permit; moving a wall, relocating the sink, or adding circuits for new appliances does, and we identify which applies during design. Our Folsom page covers the rest of the city, the Sacramento service area hub shows the wider region, and our Sacramento permits guide explains the process.
Good Bones, New Cabinetry
An Empire Ranch kitchen is a strong candidate for a full cabinetry replacement inside a layout that mostly stays. We remove the soffit and run uppers to the ceiling, replace the island or peninsula with a single built piece with a finished back and seating planned for the household, turn the corner pantry into a wall of drawers and roll-outs, retire the desk nook in favor of a coffee station or an appliance garage with doors that close, and integrate panel-ready refrigeration and dishwashers into the run. Lower cabinets become drawers throughout, so the lazy susans and the kneeling go away. Where the family room shares the space, a media wall or a bar built to match finishes the two rooms as one.
Species and door style follow the architecture. The Mediterranean plans take stained white oak, alder, or walnut in a recessed or beaded-inset panel; the traditional plans suit painted maple in a Shaker or slim raised-panel door, frequently with a stained island. Folsom summers run well over 100°F and many Empire Ranch kitchens face south or west across the course or the yard, so we specify finishes with real UV resistance, build doors and panels to move within their frames, and use veneer-core plywood boxes with dovetailed hardwood drawers. Finishing is done in our Rocklin facility rather than on site. Our cabinet construction guide explains the joinery, box construction, and finish systems behind that.
Rocklin is a short drive up the Folsom Lake side of the corridor, so the detailing is checked against the house at every stage, which matters where a new run has to meet a 1990s arch, a tile backsplash that stays, or a ceiling that steps.
Typical Empire Ranch Program
- Soffit removed and uppers run to the ceiling
- Island or peninsula rebuilt as one piece with a finished back and seating
- Corner pantry converted to drawers and roll-outs
- Desk nook replaced with a coffee station or appliance garage
- Honey-oak raised panels updated to inset, Shaker, or recessed-panel doors
- UV-resistant finishes for south- and west-facing fairway lots
How an Empire Ranch Project Runs
It starts at the house. We measure the kitchen and the rooms the program will reach, look at how the space connects to the family room and the patio, and talk through how you cook and what has stopped working after twenty years. Design follows, with drawings and door and finish samples reviewed in the room until the plan is settled. The cabinetry is then built and finished in our Rocklin workshop and installed by our own crew, with adjustments handled promptly because the shop is a short drive away. We coordinate with your contractor when plumbing or electrical moves and with your association where exterior review applies.
Built-to-order cabinetry is a multi-month process from first measurement to installation, and the installation window is confirmed at quoting. Projects start at $25,000, which in an Empire Ranch kitchen generally covers a full replacement of the kitchen cabinetry; a program that continues into the family room, laundry, and baths sits above that, and we give a realistic range after the first visit. Our Sacramento County kitchen remodel cost guide explains what moves the number.
Empire Ranch Kitchen Questions
What Empire Ranch homeowners ask before a cabinetry project begins.
Is an Empire Ranch kitchen usually a remodel or a cabinetry replacement?
Most often a full cabinetry replacement inside a layout that largely stays. The 1990s and 2000s plans have generous footprints and a workable connection to the family room; what has aged is the honey-oak or maple cabinetry, the particleboard boxes, and the drawer glides. Removing the soffit, running uppers to the ceiling, rebuilding the island, and converting lowers to drawers changes the room without moving walls. Where the plan does call for relocating the sink or opening a wall, we coordinate that with your contractor.
Does the homeowners association review a kitchen remodel in Empire Ranch?
Normally not. Empire Ranch associations are organized by village and concern themselves with the exterior and common areas: paint, roofing, fences, landscape, and anything visible from the street or the course. Interior cabinetry is the owner’s decision. If the plan enlarges a window or widens the opening to the patio on the fairway side, confirm the current guidelines with your association and we will plan the submittal alongside the design.
Which office issues the permit, Folsom or Sacramento County?
The City of Folsom. Empire Ranch is inside the city limits, so building permits come from the city rather than Sacramento County. Replacing cabinetry in the same footprint with no plumbing, electrical, or structural change frequently needs no permit; moving a wall, relocating the sink, or adding circuits for new appliances does. We identify which applies during design.
Can the existing granite countertops stay?
Rarely. Slabs cut for modular boxes with filler strips almost never fit cabinetry built to the room, and lifting a 2000s granite top intact is unpredictable. We tell you early whether yours can be reused; most Empire Ranch projects pair new cabinetry with new tops so the island, the overhang, and the seating are planned together rather than around what is already there.
Where is your workshop, and where do projects start?
Our workshop is in Rocklin, a short drive up the Folsom Lake side of the corridor, and every cabinet is designed, built, and finished there before our own crew installs it. PineWood Cabinets is a licensed California contractor (CSLB #1095293) operating as a division of Voronenko & Ethen Associates, building custom cabinetry since 2006. Projects start at $25,000.
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Trusted resources: National Kitchen & Bath Association · Architectural Woodwork Institute · CA Contractors State License Board
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Planning a Kitchen in Empire Ranch?
Tell us about the house and what twenty years of use have taught you about the kitchen. We’ll measure, design cabinetry built to fit, and handle the build and installation from our workshop in Rocklin. Call +1-650-855-2231 or schedule a consultation.