Picking a contractor and a picture as requested

I had to take a couple of deep breaths before beginning this post. First I'll say that on the surface my kitchen looks great (and it's a drastic improvement from what it was... not that that was much of a feat). But I needed to take deep breaths because the process of getting it from

that

to this

was a frustrating challenge. 

Picking a contractor - It's best to go with recommendations from others. I had a couple of recommended contractors come to my place to see the kitchen, to get basic cost estimates, and to get a feeling about them. The first thing I learned is that contractors are unlikely to give cost estimates on an initial visit... and for good reason. They don't yet know the homeowners and their tastes. There are some people who have extremely expensive tastes so an estimate for them is very different than for a thrifty person. Soon I'll be doing a post on "planning for a remodel" that will contain a list of things to price out, but when you meet with a contractor, I recommend at least getting an estimate on the labor costs. More on that in a later post.

Even though they were recommended, some of the contractors just rubbed me the wrong way. There was something that set off an internal alarm that screamed "No. Don't hire them." Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with the contractors I ended up hiring. When I first met them, I had a pretty good feeling about them. They had been recommended to me by a friend whose friend had their kitchen redone. The friend of a friend was pleased with their work. Maybe the contractors did a better job on that kitchen, but it's also possible that their standard for "acceptable" is different than mine. So my second recommendation is get a recommendation from someone you know whose kitchen you can physically go into and look around to ensure quality work was done. It might not ensure quality work on your kitchen, but it's a start. (I'm not going to get into the young, single female discrimination possibility in these posts; even though it hovers in my mind, I have no proof).

Working with contractor

Quality is very important, but another problem with my contractors is that I didn't feel like they listened to me much of the time. It's really hard to gauge what a working relationship will be like with a specific contractor until you actually get started on the project. I suggest you take at least one of my two recommendations about working with contractors:

1. If you start to have issues with them later in the process... drop them! The scenario: I told the contractors about my design preferences so they could start working with the cabinet guy to design my kitchen. They came back to me with 3 designs later and they were not what I was looking for. I sat down with them again to go over ideas and the next set of designs were also missing key components. RED FLAG. They hadn't listened to me. (Which proved to be a continual problem in the process. Later, I even tried to compensate for their lack of listening by repeating myself multiple times AND putting it in writing... It didn't help.) The end of this scenario is that I went to the cabinet guy and did the design work with him myself. And unfortunately, I ignored the red flag; I felt bad since they had put in time starting the design process (albeit, unsuccessfully due to their lack of listening... I shouldn't have felt bad a/b not having them do the work) and I didn't want to delay the time-line and would have only had a couple of weeks to find a good, new contractor (I know now that it would have been better to forget the time-line and find someone who will listen to you). I hadn't signed a contract at that point so I had no obligation to them. Also, make sure the contract you sign is specific (i.e. costs per task) and that there is some way for you to get out of it prior to the end of completion if you are not satisfied with their work (i.e. some sort of prorate by task payment and reevaluation).
2. Micromanage. When there are warning signs that they are not listening to you or doing quality work, start to micromanage. Give them lists of what you want done and make it clear they will have to redo it if it doesn't suit you. Inspect every step of everything they do. Be a hard-ass and be specific. I didn't do this for 3 reasons: I hadn't planned enough (Plugging my future post again b/c planning is really important), I trusted the contractors to know better than me (however, "knowing" isn't the same as "caring") and assumed the final product would have all things fixed that I thought were wrong along the way, and I was on vacation for part of the remodel. I don't regret taking vacation when the remodel was going on because there can be a decent amount of dust and if I'm going to eat out all of the time, I would prefer to do it away... I mainly regret not getting competent contractors. 

This post has the potential of getting entirely too long, but now you see why I said I'm doing a series of posts about the kitchen remodel process.

Let's revisit the old kitchen...

Here's what I saw when I first looked at the house:

Here's the state of the kitchen I lived with for a year and a half... after the cabinets fell off the wall.

Here's when I put a large hole in the wall - pre-demolition demolition

Check your furnace

Working with contractors has proved to be difficult as my following posts will explain. My house is not their living space, so they only care about it so much (if they were ranked on a "caring likert scale" I'd have them hovering between "not at all" to "little"). Well, early on in the demolition phase of my kitchen the electrician did some of his tinkering. He most likely had to shut off the breaker box to cut all of the power. I'm 100% in favor of taking safety precautions. The last thing anyone wants is a toasted electrician in their house.

My caution to homeowners is: When having any sort of electrical work done, be sure to check your furnace daily. I woke up in the middle of the night extremely cold (I'm lucky construction started in March and not December or January), but I heard my furnace running. I forced myself to face the freezing air to figure out the problem. The thermostat on the main floor was set at its normal temperature. I ventured to the even colder basement to check out the furnace itself. Turns out that at some point that day, the pilot light was extinguished. Even though the furnace was running, it wasn't heating the house.

It's a simple fix, but not something I would recommend having to do in the middle of a cold night. I've added the fix below in case someone would like to know how to light a pilot light.



How To Light a Furnace Pilot Light

The pilot light on a gas furnace can go out because of drafts. To relight the pilot, follow the manufacturer's instructions exactly; they are usually fastened to the furnace. If instructions for relighting the pilot are not provided, follow this general procedure:

Step 1: Find pilot light assembly. It typically has a gas valve with on, off, and pilot settings.
Step 2: Turn valve to off and wait three minutes.

I recommend using one of these

Step 3: Switch valve to pilot setting. Hold lighted match  or lighter to pilot opening while you push reset button on pilot control panel. Keep this button depressed until pilot flame burns brightly, then set valve to on position.
Step 4: If pilot flame won't stay lit, opening may be clogged. Turn gas valve off, and clean opening with piece of fine wire. If it won't stay lit after several attempts, you may have faulty thermocouple. If pilot flame still won't stay lit, call professional service person.

Some furnaces have an electrical system to ignite the gas; in these systems there is no pilot light. Instead, an electric element heats up and ignites the burners. If this electric ignition system malfunctions, call a professional service person.

(source: http://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-repair-gas-furnaces2.htm)

Toasting the new kitchen

Cheers!

The kitchen is done! I'm not even sure where to begin in the process of setting it up, but it felt appropriate to toast it with some Shocktop the night the contractors cleared out their stuff marking it complete. My friend Allison came over to see the transformation and was willing to cheers! She also played a game with me to try to help me with organizing the kitchen. I'll call it "natural inclination." Here's how it's played:

1. Preferably played in an unstocked kitchen.
2. Visitor walks from dining room into kitchen (or whatever the adjoining room to the kitchen is).
3. As visitor crosses into the kitchen, the homeowner tells the visitor, "you are looking for ____." The blank represents something common you would find in a kitchen (i.e. a cup for water, a colander, spices).
4. The visitor uses his/her natural inclination to find said item and in turn helps the homeowner begin the organization process.

I probably should have put "game" in quotes b/c there's no prize/winner/points, but in my defense for the lack of reward... it was her idea and I gave her a beer so no criticism. :) Seriously, though... props to Allison for the idea.

This is just the glimpse of the new kitchen, but I need to organize the kitchen and then will continue the kitchen remodel blog post series.

New Vanity!

The slow bathroom remodel continues. As I said in a previous post I'm keeping the black and white tiles in my bathroom. I've been working on the walls, but I knew that if I got a vanity that would force me to do some more painting.
Here's what I wanted in a new vanity:

• Storage space
• Black counter with white sink (matchy match the floor)
• 8 inch spread faucet for easy cleaning (chrome to match the shower rod)
• Open bottom shelf so it won't block the vent
• Sliding doors
• Adjustable feet b/c I suspected the floor would not be even (Boy was I right?!)

That vanity doesn't exist as a stock item, so I laid down some cash to buy a nice granite countertop and to pay someone to build a sink cabinet to fit. A friend helped me out to get the granite and recommended a carpenter. He did a great job! He built it just to my specifications, delivered it, and even came back later to help me hook up the plumbing after I painted the walls and the cabinet.

Lessons learned:

1. Prep the area so that the vanity is flush with the wall or the sidesplash and backsplash may not fit (I'll have to do some readjusting before I secure those in place)
2. I read that 36 inch height vanities are becoming more and more common because people are getting taller. It may just take some getting used to, but 36 feels awfully tall at first. 34 or 35 height may have been better for my small space.
3. Speaking of small space - if you have a tiny bathroom, go with a shallower counter space and smaller sink. If I were to do it again, I would have done 20 inch depth instead of 24; 15 inch width sink instead of 17.

On the bright side - I have a decent amount of storage space in the bathroom now, even after getting rid of the medicine cabinet.

New Vanity

Kitchen completion excitement!

As I posted before, I hired contractors to remodel my kitchen and plan to do a blog series on the process. It's nearing completion! I've snapped some pictures to show to my mom and a few friends.

In response to the new kitchen pictures, one friend commented: "remember when you bought a quasi-hovel, and now increased your home value by a crap-ton?" 

That makes me happy. Yay progress!