Adventures in Home Improvement: Bigger Plans

In one of my earlier posts I stated that I cannot write blog posts while in the midst of doing actual renovation work myself. I reached that point in January of this year and have been busy ever since. But, let's go back.

As we were getting closer to finishing the master suite, we were heading into the Fall and that meant Winter was not far behind. So, with our kitchen ceiling completely gone to allow access for all the electrical and plumbing rerouting, we faced a choice. Either get going on the kitchen project, or wait until Spring. I've also mentioned before that patience is not my virtue. Plus, I didn't think I could stand looking at that open ceiling and working in the kitchen such that it was with only one single bulb for light.

We would have had to have lived with this from October to April if we didn't decide to move forward with the kitchen right away. I couldn't do it.

We jumped into the kitchen design process. When we designed our last kitchen, we had a small catalog of KraftMaid cabinet specs. That was really helpful. I had given it to a friend because at the time I had no idea I'd need it again. And, I didn't think it would be difficult to get another one. Well, I was wrong. Not only did I need it, but it would be impossible to get another one. Customers were simply not allowed to have that information anymore. You were supposed to work with a kitchen designer at a distributor and they would design your kitchen. I tried that before. It does not work. I'm a really good designer and I just can't stand trying work work through someone else. I guess I would have had to sign up as a distributor of KraftMaid to get access. I couldn't figure out how designers got access to this stuff and since I'm only designing for myself that might have been difficult also. But, my husband, Alan, came to my rescue. He arrived home one day with the complete dealer catalog. That store will never miss it.

Here is the first design we did. We refined it many times as we were creating this design and tried a number of placements for the refrigerator, but kept the range and sink in the same spot since we were not open to moving the window and there was only enough room for certain items to be in certain places once the sink was set under the window. The pantry cabinets filled an otherwise unused space and allowed us to get rid of the pantry closet that was in the middle of the kitchen. You can see that on the left side of the photo above.

We started the process of looking for a contractor at this point. We had been pleased with the work of the subs we had used thus far, but both the plumber and the carpenter were doing our projects on the side. And, business in their day jobs had really picked up. The kitchen was a big project and we didn't see how we were going to get the work done as a second or third priority. Our design required replacement of everything, so going down to the subfloor and studs, not only in the kitchen, but the back hall and laundry area as well because the floor continued through to those rooms. Kitchens take a long time anyway and we didn't want to be completely without one any longer than necessary. That turned out to be longer than we thought, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Being new to the area really made trying to find resources difficult. We looked at two turnkey contractors and one that did KraftMaid, but only could do the cabinets and countertops. We liked KraftMaid, and had used that brand in our old kitchen, but the fear of taking too long and trying to balance subs we did not know made us lean to the turnkey companies. We had worked with Lowe's before and did so on the master bath, but that was a small project in comparison and we did find it painfully slow in the design and ordering process. Remember, I did not have my catalog then, so I was stuck working with person at the store. Painful. One day I thought I was going to have to take some medication. I was ready to leap over the desk and start entering stuff on the computer myself.

We did what research we could on the selection of vendors we had gotten estimates from and ultimately went with a company that we learned had done a colleague's kitchen, and they were very pleased with how their kitchen turned out. This company also had a lower estimate, by a little bit (way under would have been a red flag) than the other turnkey company. They also seemed very optimistic about turning the project around quickly, our deadline was before Christmas because I did not want to be without a kitchen for two holidays, mostly because I figured we'd be responsible for getting ourselves a meal on those days given we would likely be home.

While we were getting these estimates, we rethought the design a couple of times. First, we determined that we did not need an office space in the kitchen since with the price of this renovation we were not going to be repurposing the office we already had right down the hall. At first we thought we might put a master suite downstairs. Not sure the market will ever support that level of investment, so our office was going to stay just as it was. I had seen a lot of banquettes in magazines and thought that would be a space saver and allow for seating in the kitchen. I decided that eat-in was a good feature and more valuable for resale than an office space.

Then, after we had selected the contractor, I had one other idea. If we were going through all this expense, I really hated the laundry area and this would be the only time I could make the necessary changes at the lowest possible cost. So, this lead to our final design. This gave us a real laundry room and I could get rid of that useless back door that I piled laundry up in front of. I also gave up on the banquette. Seems like I'd have to figure out how to build that myself, since none of the contractors had a clue. And, I decided a table against the wall would be more comfortable for four and would look very NY loft. Sometimes the easiest solution is the best.

Here are the final renderings we went with:

You'll note the bar that is in our original drawing is not here. Turned out the contractor didn't know how to do that and we ended up having to outsource that ourselves.

Perimeter cabinets would be midtone finished maple and island would be expresso finished cherry.

We really liked the farmhouse sink style and planned for this one to be copper.

This wall would be all expresso finished cherry.

Pantry cabinets would be midtone finished maple.

Laundry room required opening up into the adjoining room's closet and replacing the exterior door with a window.

We also had a folding table and small closet for vacuum, mop, and so forth.

We selected off-white inexpensive cabinets for the laundry since it was not a public room and we could save some money. Plus it would brighten up this small space.

And we were off and running on the new kitchen. One of my favorite pieces of office humor is the five stages of a project:

Enthusiasm
Disillusionment
Search for the Guilty
Punishment of the Innocent
Praise and Rewards for the Non-Participants

Little did I know at the time that while we had been relatively lucky in our work up to this point, the kitchen would be the project that followed the five stages very closely. Stay tuned!

But let's close on a positive note. While we were deeply embroiled in a difficult kitchen project, the finishing touches came together in the master bath.