Remodeling Our Kitchen
Late this summer Kyle and I started thinking about the possibility of remodeling our kitchen in 2010. It’s been on our list of “eventual to-dos” since we moved into our house about 6 years ago. That’s me to the left in 2004 when we were evaluating the house and figuring out if we wanted to buy it. Notice the skeptical look on my face regarding the kitchen…
We knew a kitchen remodel would be a fairly sizeable undertaking both budget and time-wise, so it’s taken us awhile to get there financially, mentally and emotionally. But we’ve realized that we aren’t going to be moving any time soon and that we might as well go ahead with the project so that we can actually benefit from it and enjoy it. We’ve been working with a contractor and designer during the last month and determined that the project will begin in January- after the holiday season and before we’re running at full steam with the crazy spring real estate market.
I know this is going to be a learning experience (it already has been, even at this early stage), so I figured that we would share our experiences as we go along. During the upcoming weeks I’ll be addressing these topics…
Budgeting for a remodel
Designing the layout- function, fit, and feasibility
What to do with your old kitchen stuff- reduce, reuse, recycle/donate
Doing a period appropriate remodel
Choosing appliances
Choosing finishes- countertop, knobs, lighting, cabinet color, wall color
Living through a remodel
If you see something obvious that I’ve left out or have other topics related to a remodel that you’d like addressed, just leave a comment here and I’ll try to cover it.
[...] We spent a lot of time in the kitchen preparing for various parties and family celebrations. It made me realize just how dysfunctional the current space is; the sink is in the wrong place, there is too much unusable countertop space, the stove doesn’t fit baking sheets in a portrait position. So, it gave us some more things to consider regarding the layout of our future remodeled kitchen. [...]
When we moved into our current house (in West Hartford), I knew the kitchen was ugly (80s-style cabinets) but I figured, once we’d unpacked and settled in, that I’d paint the cabinets and make it OK. “Just OK” but OK.
What I didn’t realize was that there weren’t enough of those ugly cabinets. Once I’d finally squished in the last pot, all proud of myself that everything fit, I turned around and saw the five moving boxes filled with pantry food. Ummmm. I had not placed a single non-perishable food product, and I was out of cabinets already! Not good.
So, we weren’t in the house but a few days when I realized that our first project was a new kitchen. And off we went looking at cabinets, floors, etc… and getting quotes.
I won’t go into the whole story, but Express Kitchen was my savior. They were the least expensive of all the options (Home Depot, Lowes, etc…) and I got the cherry cabinets and granite counters of my dreams… all for MUCH cheaper than the competition. And? The guys who did the demolition and installation were FABULOUS! And fast!
We got the tile flooring from Home Depot and one of the Express Kitchen installation guys “knew a guy” who would lay it for us. Another excellent experience.
It’s now more than two years later and I still, to this day, walk into my kitchen and say “Wow! I love my kitchen!” (And the fact that I didn’t have to sell my soul to pay for it.)
Yeah, there were a few days that I hated the noise of it (I work from home) and the inconvenience of not having a kitchen sink, but it was done so quickly, that I soon forgot about the short time of pain.
And there are few additional expenses that I thought would be “no biggie” (like drawer pulls) that ended up being more expensive than I thought (we went with high-end pulls and we have a TON of cabinets and drawers), but I wouldn’t trade my TWO floor to ceiling pantries and ALL THOSE CABINETS for anything!
Just a great experience all-round.
If you want any information, I’m happy to share. Just shoot me an email.
Dawn
Dawn- I’m glad to hear you had a good experience with your contractor and continue to enjoy your kitchen. We’ll be talking about selecting a contractor as one of our posts, so hopefully readers will find that useful.
[...] spring we’re embarking on a “fun” project, a kitchen remodel. As I mentioned last month, this is something we’ve been wanting to do for several years. Since it’s been on our [...]
[...] are the previous posts about our adventure: Remodeling Our Kitchen Budgeting for a Kitchen Remodel Designing a [...]
[...] are the previous posts about our adventure: Remodeling Our Kitchen Budgeting for a Kitchen Remodel Designing a Kitchen Our Before [...]
[...] are the previous posts about our adventure: Remodeling Our Kitchen Budgeting for a Kitchen Remodel Designing a Kitchen Our Before Kitchen Our Temporary [...]
[...] are the previous posts about our adventure: Remodeling Our Kitchen Budgeting for a Kitchen Remodel Designing a Kitchen Our Before Kitchen Our Temporary Kitchen A [...]
[...] are the previous posts about our adventure: Remodeling Our Kitchen Budgeting for a Kitchen Remodel Designing a Kitchen Our Before Kitchen Our Temporary Kitchen A [...]
[...] are the previous posts about our adventure: Remodeling Our Kitchen Budgeting for a Kitchen Remodel Designing a Kitchen Our Before Kitchen Our Temporary Kitchen A [...]
[...] are the previous posts about our adventure: Remodeling Our Kitchen Budgeting for a Kitchen Remodel Designing a Kitchen Our Before Kitchen Our Temporary Kitchen A [...]