didionville

steven and i needed to remodel our kitchen for several reason, the first thirty of which revolved around the kid and the continuous exponential growth of his space needs. we also needed to remodel the kitchen because the state it was in was going to make it nearly impossible to sell this house for a decent price and in a relatively timely manner (should the need to sell arise). houses in this area sell slowly. this was true even during the bubble. with the bubble burst, we saw the writing on the wall: kitchens make or break sales, and we were in trouble. period.

so armed with hours of diy-show viewing (including the entire holmes on homes series, thrice!), i set out as the general contractor on our remodel. because i am at home with the bambino, i have the time to research vendors, products, procedures … and let me just say this: YOU CANNOT RESEARCH TOO MUCH! in fact, if you don’t research before you start buying or doing, you might as well take down your pants and bend over, because there are plenty of sales people and contractors who are ready and willing to stick it to you.

we relied heavily on consumer reports for appliance, sink, and counter top information. at a cost of $5.95 per month, you can have access to all of their ratings, etc. it is totally worth it in our estimation.

when researching the correct ways to do this or that, we thought back to mike holmes’ myriad lessons, and we also checked out hammerzone. this guy is awesome; he has diy-ed just about everything. he’s a great resource, even if we didn’t diy most of the project. we also used this old standby.

originally, we thought our only option was to go to lowes (better aesthetics than home depot, in my opinion) and have them do all of the cosmetic work and provide all of the accouterments, including plumbing fixtures and appliances, but as i looked around, i realized we could use local businesses that were often more affordable and that definitely supplied more personal service. in the end, we purchased only the paint and the light fixture above the kitchen table from lowes.

of course, budget is a critical consideration that never for one nanosecond wasn’t banging itself against the inside of my skull. we knew we needed to tackle some big infrastructure issues before we spent money on nice cabinets, etc. we needed to insulate the outer walls, level the floor of the “addition” by the back door, and add electrical outlets. we had to take the kitchen down to the studs.

with an initial budget in mind, we priced the necessities of this job, including the infrastructure work, and basically ended up sh*tting ourselves. after regrouping and arming ourselves with another (larger) budget figure, we reworked our estimates and got to work. (happily, i can attest that sarah palin couldn’t remodel half of her mayoral office in wasilla for what we spent on our ENTIRE kitchen. we were total mavericks when it came to wheeling and dealing.)

but staying on budget meant that we needed to do the demolition work ourselves to both save $2,000 (!!!) and to truly understand the structure of the kitchen and what we actually needed to do in terms of repair and improvement.

PART I
*** demolition ***

there aren’t many good picture of the kitchen in its “before” state. pink-hued saltillo tile was everywhere: 12″x12″ tile on the floor, 4″x4″ tile providing the (uneven, rough, and impossible-to-thoroughly-clean) counter top. the floor was unlevel where the original kitchen area met with an addition that had been put up god-knows-when, and of course, the tile was cracked along that border, just like the perforated line of a magazine-subscription card.

we had only two drawers in the entire kitchen. mind you, there were four fake drawers, like the kind you find on sink cabinets: the drawer face without the drawer. we had TWO sink cabinets: one under the sink and one opposite, under counter space. why, you ask, would someone put two sink cabinets in a kitchen when there is only one sink? i have plenty of answers, but they all utilize copious expletives.

our fridge was a wedding gift from my parents, and badly needed since the fridge that was here leaked. the stove pilot lights regularly went out. we had very little cabinet space (hence the open shelves everywhere), and everything was some shade of pink. (the walls had been painted, but the essence of pink was still there.)

i couldn’t wait to begin tearing that room apart. one afternoon, d-man and i headed over to davies hardware where i purchased two pry bars, a large rubber mallet, a small sledgehammer, and (of course) safety glasses. in the course of three hours — including diaper changes, a feeding, and a crying fit from d-man over napping — i had taken out the entire tile floor.

this was at the end of june. for most of july, we functioned in a kitchen without a floor, which wasn’t a big deal. it was a little dusty, but we didn’t care.

though, we knew it wasn’t long before we needed to take down the cabinets and the drywall.

the dining room became a sort of mash unit … of the kitchen variety.

PART II
*** renovation begins ***

we spent july interviewing vendors and contractors and scheduling the aforementioned infrastructure work. once we had the electrician selected, we made a final decision regarding insulation. we knew we wanted to use spray-foam insulation, and we happily learned that a local company utilized soy-based spray-foam insulation. hudson valley green insulation is an awesome group of guys selling a terrific product. the electrician came in early august to complete the rough-in work on the new outlets, and the insulation was in only a few days later. we went from this …

to this …

this insulation made such a dramatic, immediate difference in the room. the room no longer carried the heat and humidity of summer. instead, it stayed comfortable even with outside temperatures in the upper 90s. absolutely amazing. we have high hopes for winter: no more 30-degree mornings in the kitchen.

we were very pleased with our experience so far, but we still had a long way to go. there were many more weeks ahead of eating take out and washing dishes in the bathtub.

drywalling, for instance, takes a long time — if it is done right. it took a day to hang the drywall, but it took three or four (???) days to finish the taping and plastering, largely because we were doing this in the summer, and humidity is not kind to anything that needs to dry. by the time the drywalling was complete, we were off to minnesota to celebrate my grandma’s 90th b-day. we wouldn’t be able to address the floor until after labor day.

PART III
*** the floor ***

the prospect of leveling the floor scared steven and me. granted, we didn’t need to touch structure. all of the joists were in terrific shape. in fact, the slope of the addition was such that we think it was actually a back porch at one time, the slope allowing for drain off. unfortunately, when the porch was enclosed and made a functioning part of the kitchen, no one thought to effectively compensate for the sloping floor, which S-L-O-P-E-D. we, though, wanted a level floor, but this task was well beyond our skill. luckily, we found terrific people both to construct a level subfloor and to install the most gorgeous hardwood floor. northern dutchess hardwoods is an awesome shop and affordable. there, we discovered tigerwood, and lordy, is it beautiful. (and it is grown in a sustainable forest. that was a major concern of mine.)

by mid-september, the kitchen looked like this …

you can thank steven for the color. it is called “celery”. we wanted something greenish, but light and fresh. also, there are tones of green in the granite we had selected, and the color of the walls plays off them quite well. (we purchased our granite from eurostyle, a locally owned shop. they fabricate on site, so their cost is much lower than other places, and their selection and service are terrific.)

all that was left was the finishing stuff: cabinets, appliances, fixtures … let the real headache begin …

PART IV
*** cabinets ***

without doubt, cabinetry has to be the scammiest part of kitchen remodeling. actually ALL of the finishing stuff is scammy. the manufacturers of sinks and faucets and … yes, cabinets know they have any and all kitchen remodelers over barrels of desperation and deer-in-the-headlights overload.

there are 6,000 cabinet manufacturers, about 300 cabinet grades, and approximately 17,000 cabinet styles from which to choose. no lie. (the only thing more ridiculous than the cabinet cabal is the hardware conspiracy. i mean, really! $11 or more for one knob?! no way, jose. we paid $2.75 each for our knobs and drawer pulls.)

i priced cabinets at lowes (when we first began investigating a remodel) and two local businesses. at each, we were looking at the medium-priced line, sorta like the honda of cabinets, and at each, we were looking at over $8,000 for maple cabinets (more, of course, for cherry). at page lumber (another kick-ass local hardware store, like davies), their “home design concepts” department staffs some really cool people. specifically, crystal helped us navigate the labyrinth of cabinet selection AND to find a line of cabinetry in the $6,000 range! that’s a savings of $2,000!!! when we investigated the construction specs, we couldn’t find any difference between the mid-range cabinet and the more economical line. it was ridiculous! ALSO (!!!) the more affordable line had a 10-day turnaround; the more expensive cabinets, three weeks!

with the savings, we were able to upgrade many of our cabinets with pull outs and dividers and other bells and whistles. check out our pots and pans …

and this mega-awesome storage area in front of the sink cabinet!!!

we also got a lazy susan!!!

when it comes to sinks and faucets … shop around online! believe it or not, we bought our sink and faucet online. we got the sink from sinks usa. the shipping was free; the price was unbelievably low; the quality is good; and the service was great. i admit i was a little uneasy buying a sink, sight unseen, but shopping around and seeing the outrageous prices for comparable sinks, i decided to give it a shot. i am glad i did. we are very happy.

our faucet is from delta. the msrp was almost $500. we found it on amazon for about $300, and since it shipped from amazon, shipping was free. we really lucked out on these purchases. of course, it took a looooong time, researching and doing price comparisons, but it was worth it.

we got our main kitchen light and our pendant light over the sink from restoration hardware. we are happy with their lighting. we got our bathroom light from them, too. of course, we REFUSE to pay their outrageously high full prices. we only buy their fixtures that are on sale, and the savings are significant.

ultimately, we made out quite well on fixtures. appliances were a breeze, too. through steven’s employment, we receive a 20% discount on ge appliances. it’s a great deal, and ge appliances are well rated by consumer reports. interestingly, consumer reports found that the high-ticket appliances (like bosch or thermador) were the ones that had the most frequent maintenance problems and repairs. who knew!

PART V
*** miscellany ***

going to the building department to get a building permit can seem like a scary venture, but it was actually quite educational and enjoyable. the woman who regularly helped me was terrific, and everyone i spoke with on the telephone was super nice. it was kinda cool, too, to know that i applied for and got a building permit!!! i felt like such a stud!

GET A PERMIT FOR BIG STUFF YOU DO AROUND YOUR HOUSE!

if you are planning to redo your kitchen, make sure to budget for take out dining. we did not, and while we stayed very close to on-budget will all things related to the kitchen itself, we blew it on feeding ourselves. of course, we spent two months without kitchen. we had the fridge in the dining room and the grill outside, but by the time we had moved all of the demo materials out onto the deck, we could no longer REACH the grill. take out killed our budget, and it never, ever occurred to us to reserve funds for restaurants. oops.

we had a really good experience overall. we had mega-awesome people working with us on this project. it took a long time and was an exhausting, spirit-draining process, but it was totally worth it, and steven and i weren’t tempted to kill each other even once!