Our Kitchen Remodel – A Progress Update

Our kitchen remodel has been underway for two weeks now. Well, really three if you count the week we spent dismantling our previous kitchen. We seem to be right on schedule, which is nice. The electrical and plumbing were laid out in their new locations and we passed our City permit inspections. Drywalling started shortly thereafter. That should be finished early this week. From there, we’ll paint the walls and ceilings. Sadly the hardwood floors

Recycling Building Materials

The first step of a renovation project is to get rid of all the junk that you don’t want anymore. Maybe it’s a bathroom vanity and toilet, or some windows and doors. For us it was cabinets, counters and appliances. Our old kitchen wasn’t actually junk, since it was in good condition, it just did not fit into our plans for the new space. Although some homeowners make the effort to sell their stuff via

The Home Depot Run

Every project that I do requires a Home Depot run. From people I talk with about their DIY efforts, it seems as though I am not the only one consistently caught without the right tool, or missing a piece for a project. I guess that’s why the pros are the pros, and I’m just me. Taking apart the cabinetry in our kitchen was pretty straightforward. There were lots of screws to take out in order

Designing a Kitchen

We thought that designing a new kitchen would be relatively straightforward. Really, how hard could it be? Pick a cabinet design, choose the appliances, then the finish details, and away we’d go. We already had a good idea of what we wanted in a kitchen, so we thought the design part would be easy. As it turned out, there were a number of challenges that we did not foresee. The shape of the room was

Remodeling Cost versus Value

The November 2009 issue of Remodeling Magazine included the 22nd edition of their annual report about the financial impact of various home improvement projects. They look at both midrange and upscale projects, and hit on all the major renovations, calculating the percentage of the cost that could be recovered in a sale. Data is broken down by region and even by major cities within a region. I was excited to discover that Hartford is one