Kitchen “Before” Northwest

Kitchen “After” Northwest

What I would do differently

Here is a summary of things that I would change:

• One mistake that I made was thinking I could find all of my basic items at Home Depot (et al).   I figured things like cabinets and tile would need ordering, but who thinks that a switch plate or a basic kitchen sink will be hard to find?  Even if you can pull it off at the last minute (which we did), the stress is brutal (“you mean if we can’t find a sink, we’ll need to delay the countertop install by 2 weeks?”).
• I would also have planned to eat out more near the end of the project.  If budget is an issue, I recommend saving money by cooking in the early weeks when your energy is high then eating out and calling in favors for dinners later.   Our best low cost discovery was splitting two foot long subs for a $12 dinner for four. 
• I would have borrowed (or set aside) the full contingency.  I planned a 20% contingency on paper, but only borrowed 10%.  Then when I needed the other 10%, it felt like we had gone over budget which was stressful.
• If you are general contracting the work yourselves, I recommend having one spouse manage the entire project.  I let my husband manage the electrical work and when it looked like it might come in late (it didn’t), I was upset with both the contractor and him. It is generally preferable if one of you can whine to the other for pure sympathy.  My husband and I have even wallpapered together, so I am serious about this.
• Finally I would have psyched up more for the stress.  I thought the project would be annoying and inconvenient but I HAD NO IDEA.

Now for the psychology…

Based on this experience I also have recommendations for surviving psychologically—which is a challenge during a project like this!  My thoughts:

• Indulge for breakfast.  Have artisan cheese.  Or Pop Tarts.  Or anything else that is easy and helps you start the day feeling good.
•  Get away for a couple of weekends.  It was a godsend for us to leave the chaos behind for a few days.  (Hurray, for middle school science camp in La Crosse!)
• If you are in a CSA be ready to freeze things for winter.  While kitchen remodeling is a project better done outside the CSA season, life doesn’t always work out that way.  Think about how much you’ll enjoy the food in the barren days of winter.
• Drink tomato juice and eat raw veggies with dip to try to maintain your 5-a-day.  Remodeling is stressful, and long, and it is not a good idea to shirk healthful practices.  Just find healthy food that doesn’t require a stove!
• Mooch dinners off of friends and family.  You (usually) get good food, delightful conversation and the opportunity to socialize with someone who doesn’t wear paint clothes at midnight.
• Breathe.  A few trying moments are inevitable.  Open some nice craft beer or a favorite bottle of wine.
• Remember childbirth and what you got out of that!

Final Words:  We are so happy to have finally done this project!  And to all of my friends, consider this an open invitation to dinner at our place if you do a kitchen remodeling yourself!

Kitchen “Before” Southwest

Kitchen “After” Southwest

Kitchen Before (East)

That could be in 2015.

Having spent many years (ok, decades) as an IT professional, I should have known better.  If you leave the documentation (or curtains) to the end, the work drags on like a northern winter.

But I was so anxious to call it done—and it was so close—that I couldn’t help myself.  Come to think of it that’s the same rationale we used on projects.

So, in the interest of continuity, I have decided to do a post now.  With the ceiling unpainted, a decorative alcove unfinished and the adjacent hallway untouched (hold it, that’s a different room, right?), we are happily—and much more attractively—functional!

Kitchen After (Old Shades–Sigh)

 Summary:

We decided in April to remodel our 1939 kitchen.  We used a designer from a local HOBO store for cabinetry design and spent about a month planning.  I would act as general contractor and use various professionals and an accomplished amateur (my husband) as subcontractors

Included in the remodel were new cabinets, granite countertops, a tile backsplash and a 3/4” oak floor.  We needed to remove soffits and take out a small dividing wall that we thought (insert evil laugh here) had nothing inside of it.  The sink and dishwasher stayed in the same spots, but the oven and refrigerator were relocated.

We hoped to do the project in six weeks from demolition to functionality.  In reality it took eight due to the following issues:

Delay 1:  Cabinets were ordered late because I gave them the wrong ceiling height which required design modifications.  The previous owners had told us the ceiling was 9 ft and it was really 8’ 6”.  Lesson:  Verify everything even if no one has 8’ 6” ceilings (the measurements I actually did were fine).

Delay 2:  We needed to remove a surprise asbestos covered heating duct and re-route the heat.  Who would have thought that the simple little dividing wall on the side of the old pantry would contain that?   Lesson:  Stuff happens; that’s what contingency planning is for.

All in all, I was happy with the timing.  We’ve had simpler, professionally run remodeling projects with worse delays (and poorer excuses).

What was done right

Here are some of the things we decided went well:

I planned a 20% contingency amount into the budget.  At one point I thought this was high.  Nuh-uh.  When the asbestos made its appearance, we were fine; ditto when I had to have the more expensive backsplash.

I used contractors we had worked with successfully in the past and asked around extensively where I needed new ones.  I queued up the contractors early and kept in touch regarding the schedule.

I made sure there were due dates in critical contracts and held our contractors accountable (nicely).  If you had a general contractor, they would be pushing the subs on the schedule and quality control.  If you are the general, this is your job.  And in the end, the bothersome issue nagging at you may be a simple fix for them.

We set up to “hunker down.”  Remodeling can be long and every convenience helps. Examples:

• We bought a nice outdoor grill complete with a side burner a couple years earlier in preparation for this project.
• John ran a water line up the cold air return in the living room to our refrigerator stored there.  Since there were a couple of days where we had no water at all on the first floor (even the bathroom), it was an amazing help.  We had handy drinking water and the ability to brew coffee without taking a flight of stairs.
• We maintained some indulgences—like a “coffee bar,” that we set up in the living room (right by the relocated fridge with water).

Next Post:  What I Would Do Differently…

New Tile Backsplash

Tile Backsplash (Again)

I forgot to knock on wood.

We got home from vacation last week Monday, opened the refrigerator door and the light went out.  I went downstairs, checked the circuit breaker and the switch had flipped.  I flipped it back and it switched off again.  It took both my daughter and me tugging to pull the refrigerator out (of course John had left for work) and I plugged it into a different outlet where it lit up and started humming away.  So I called the electrician. 

A few hours later the electrician showed up, checked out the circuit and said he couldn’t find any problems.  Then he leaned over to the refrigerator and said, “You know, the fan is on but the compressor isn’t running. ”  I had been wiping up water that I thought was coming from a leaky hose connection, but I opened the freezer to realize my ice was thawing rapidly.  We thanked the electrician, set the kids to moving the food to the downstairs fridge (since we’d been on vacation, it was fortunately empty), then set out shopping.

We selected our new refrigerator, getting a floor model based on a combination of price and availability, but the earliest they could deliver was Thursday.  So our old fridge sat in the middle of the floor (where we could catch any dripping on our new hardwood) and I went up and down the stairs again to make meals.  When the new refrigerator arrived Thursday  at 4 PM, I rejoiced. 

Unfortuantely, I didn’t knock wood again. 

The installers had told us that their energy efficiency caused new refrigerators to cool slowly but when ours was only down to room termperature by Friday morning, we were pretty sure something was wrong.  We were going to be out at State Fair the whole day, so we scheduled a return visit for Saturday morning. 

Saturday came but no installer and at 2:30 PM we canceled and went out.  We asked to be first on Sunday.  

Sunday AM came and at 10:00 I called.  They had the wrong name but would come back now that they knew who we were.  They came by Sunday afternoon, pulled off a back panel, reconnected something and it started to purr.  Hurray!

You’d think I’d know enough to knock wood by now.  On Monday morning there was a puddle in front of the refrigerator. 

We pulled it out and found that this time the hose really was leaking.  The fridge is again sitting in the center of the kitchen with an ice cream pail under the leak.  This one at least John should be able to handle.

*     *     *

On Monday night I opened the mail and found a notice from another appliance store. 

Our dishwasher has been recalled.

We thought we’d be “more in” over the weekend, but hit a couple of electrical issues.  First the garbage disposal circuit didn’t work.  We got around this by plugging it in to the dishwasher outlet whenever we needed to turn it on.  It was definitely worth the effort to have a working sink!  Then the stove outlet turned out to be the wrong style and our stove wouldn’t push in against the wall.  It still worked, but blocked the cabinet that was designated for pots and pans.  So these sat in boxes in the dining room.  The electrician came in on Tuesday to remedy everything so that is done.

John is working on the drywall this weekend and the tiler is confirmed for Wednesday, so we are keeping the pace.  I have scheduled lunch with some friends in August so the pressure is on.

We spent the bulk of last weekend moving things back into the kitchen.  We also changed the refrigerator gasket—we had noticed it was actually shredded in places during our first round of moves (the doors need to come off to get it in and out of the kitchen).  Perhaps our electric bills will go down??

I have decided that with more cabinets I want to get everything stored somewhere in the kitchen—no more cookie tins in the basement.  This means that I have been looking for new owners for some of my lesser used items.  I am dumping a few things that I have never ever used and I few things I no longer use.  Hopefully they find a home where they are valued.  If this keeps some new items from being produced, that will be an unintended “green” benefit of the remodeling.

Here is what it looks like today:

Kitchen View 1

Kitchen View 2

Still Working…