Wine Glass Holders (i.e. more cabinet space)

There was a lot of open space between my breakfast bar and the cabinet, so I decided to play up the "bar" part of "breakfast bar." It is the perfect amount of space for hanging wine glasses and still not block the view for face-to-face conversation with someone at the sink, which is very important... trust me. I found these racks at Lowes for about $3 each. For less than $20 I now have space for up to 18 wine glasses. Not that I have 18 wine glasses, but that's not the point.

It frees up space for me to store things in the cabinet that they are hanging from. If I get a chance/have inspriation, I can get more organizers to allow me to show off some of the nicer dishware that I have through the glass.

SLIDESHOW - Kitchen Remodel Process

Remodel of the Kitchen
My initial demo Interior wall demo No wall or ceiling More demolition Widened doorway Looking into dining room Firewall between Duplex units Some drywall is up Still drywalling Breakfast bar shaping up Cabinets in place New Pantry Breakfast bar with counter Final Result from back door Final Result Fridge-side Final Result from dining room Final Result breakfast bar

List of items to pick for kitchen remodel

About halfway through the kitchen remodel process I realized that there were still a lot more things and details I needed to select. Below is a list of the obvious and the not so obvious selectable kitchen items/details. I have included some of the options (my choices are italicized) and comments in parenthesis.

1. Cabinets
1. Finish (stained, stained and glazed, painted)
2. Style
3. Features - (i.e pull-out shelving, trash can cabinet, soft-close cabinets/drawers)
4. Dimensions (I hope you have measuring tape) and locations
2. Cabinet handles (pulls or knobs or both?! color/finish)
3. Cabinet handle placement
4. Flooring type (tile, wood, laminate, vinyl)
5. Flooring layout
6. Grout color
7. Back splash (which includes layout and grout color if you use tile for your back splash. By the way... there are a lot of creative back splash ideas out there, so don't feel as if you should limit yourself to tile.)
8. Appliances - in addition to location, brand, and color there are options for each type
1. Refrigerator (side-by-side, bottom freezer, ice maker, water dispenser)
2. Oven (convection, storage/warming/baking drawer, gas or electric, 4 or 5 burners)
3. Dishwasher (hidden buttons, adjustable racks, smart dispense detergent - yes that exists)
4. Microwave (on counter/above stove/in cabinet, if one of the latter two then how vented)
9. Paint Color(s)
10. Counter top (Granite, Quartz, Wood)
11. Edging for the counter top (half bull-nose, bull-nose, flat, beveled)
12. Sink (double, D-shape, square - depends on the size of cabinet you can fit)
13. Faucet (there are a ridiculous number of faucet styles that vary on the number of holes they use, the finish, the height)
14. Disposal
15. Disposal on/off (switch or button)
16. Light switch and outlet colors (yes, these come in different colors)
17. Light switch and outlet cover colors, size, and style
18. Under-cabinet lights (how many, if any, and which cabinets)
19. Overhead lights (recessed, fixtures, fan)
20. Floor transitions into other rooms (type of wood or metal)

 I hope that knowing these details will help you with future decisions and budgeting. All of these choices have a cost associated with them, so it would be good for you to research these things and prioritize so you know where to invest your money. For instance, I heard the recommendation that the things you interact with the most, like the faucet, would be where you should invest your money.

Bluetape punch list

Earlier in the week that my contractors actually finished my kitchen, they informed me that they would be done with my kitchen on that Thursday. On Wednesday I made my final punch list for them to make sure that everything got done. The punch list wasn't a list on paper though. I wrote directly on blue painters tape and put it exactly at the area they needed to fix. [Note - this tip is only useful if you do not have walls and cabinets painted blue tape blue. And to follow that, another tip... don't paint your walls and cabinets blue tape blue :) hehe, just kidding. If you do, use tan masking tape.]

I have posted some pictures of my "on tape punch list." All of  my items got done, so I'd claim it to be a successful tactic.

"needs grout"

"make flush" (the fridge was not in the right place)

no explanation needed... just an arrow to show the crappy job

"caulk"

Great luck getting appliances (eventually)!

Picking appliances was THE HARDEST thing I had to do when I was picking things for my kitchen. There are so many types! There are so many brands! They're expensive!

I browsed the web, checked consumer reports, and went to stores trying to figure out what appliances I wanted to buy. I wanted to get all of the same brand because then all of the handles would match. It seemed like the best options for all black appliances would be to get the GE profile series. My contractors were able to get a pretty good discount through one of the vendors they know, so I just needed to decide which ones to buy (i.e. 5 burner stove vs 4?). I swung by a Bray and Scarff store because I was told they carried the brand. They had some of the products in stock, but it was still really difficult to decide.

Well, I ended up getting REALLY lucky. I was given tickets to a home and garden show, so one of my friends and I went. There ended up being a Bray and Scarff booth there and I noticed they had displayed a GE profile dishwasher, so I wanted to show her the handles so that I could show her my ideas for cabinet pulls later. The manager of one of the stores, being the sales person that he is, asked me if I could use some help and I mentioned I was interested in the GE profile appliances. He proceeded to tell me about the deal that they were running (yeah, yeah... I know that sounds like a "sale line" but this post proves that it is worth hearing them out). I already knew that GE was having a $500 rebate on 4 GE profile appliances - and I needed (1) oven, (2) fridge, (3) dishwasher, (4) microwave - so that didn't impress me much. Then he told me that Bray and Scarff was doing their own $500 rebate... he got my attention. $1,000 rebate sounds good... but would it just end up being a wash with the prices that I already had been quoted? I kept listening... "AND if you make put down a deposit today you'll get the deal that we're offering until 6pm tonight of 20% off." (I know what you're thinking... "sales people, they always have a 'limited time only' deal to force you to make a decision." Keep reading). He continued with "the deposit is 100% refundable." No catches?! Wow! He also told me that most of the delivery costs would be refunded through a rebate. Seriously. It gets better though... We started to pick out the potential appliances I would like and he gave me price quotes right there on the spot... and he took off even more than the 20%!!!

Being the cautious person I am, I was racking my brain for a reason not to put a deposit down that day. The only thing I was concerned about at that point was that I wasn't quite sure what dishwasher and oven I wanted. The manager continued to assuage by fears and said that I didn't have to make the decision that day. He just needed the 10% deposit (that was entirely refundable if for some reason I didn't want an awesome deal) and that I could tell him my final decisions when he ordered them.

Ok the post is getting pretty long, but here are the bullet points of the rest of the reasons this manager at Bray and Scarff is amazing:

1. He called me to let me know about the upgraded oven that I could get for the same price as a different one he had quoted me. I got a convection oven! Fancy!
2. When I didn't get my receipts in the mail in enough time to do the rebates before I left for vacation he did them for me. Let me say that again, he filled out my rebate forms for me! I mean, THAT is customer service. It was probably a mistake on their part that the receipts hadn't been sent earlier, but he made up for it 150%. And I have already gotten all of my rebate money.
3. The handle of the oven has a slight defect and they're ordering a new one for me and will set up a time for it to be replaced when it gets in.

It's refreshing to work with someone who goes out of their way to help. Readers in the DC metro area, contact me for information about this Bray and Scarff store\sales person.

Be the obnoxious homeowner

As my contractors were doing the kitchen there were things that I wondered about, but just assumed would be fixed by the end. For instance, when I first saw the floor tiling job, I thought that the tiles seemed a little uneven. At that moment I should have pointed it out and said, "I hope you plan to make those flush." Well, I didn't and they didn't. Many people probably wouldn't notice or care, but as a person who doesn't like to wear shoes, I can feel the unevenness of my kitchen tiles when I walk across them.

Tips: Pay attention to the details, ask questions, insist that everything is done just as you want.

Want to remodel? plan plan plan!

It's no surprise that remodeling a kitchen is a huge undertaking, even if you are not doing the work yourself. And it's all the more important if you are not doing the work yourself to plan plan plan.

Beginning was easy for me... I had a general vision of what I wanted, but a lot of it was hypothetical. I knew I wanted to partially open up the wall between the dining room and the kitchen if I could - (see there's a hypothetical). I also knew I wanted the kitchen to still look traditional to match the house, which was built in the 50s. I also knew I liked the look of raised panels as opposed to flat cabinets. I also like glazed cabinets, which tend to cost more, but I like that it gives them more depth.
It seems like I already had a lot planned, but those are only a few of the details you need to figure out for kitchen planning.


I received solicited and unsolicited advice about what what I should do with the kitchen. I liked listening to people's ideas. I'm the type of person who will listen to a lot of options and quickly weigh pros and cons in order to make my decision. I also know when I've made my final decision and am very careful to be clear about when I'm still in the "decision making process" and when I've made my final decision. Word of advice - If you don't want unsolicited advice, just politely let your friends know that it's something you would like to do yourself. However, I encourage you to use your resources... I asked certain people pointed questions (i.e. about brands of appliances that they have) and that's extremely useful to limit choices. But remember, the final decision is yours.

Anyway, I had the "privilege" of my kitchen already being partially demolished, so it was more simple to uncover obstacles. For instance, since I didn't have any cabinets it was fairly simple to use my crowbar, hammer, and studfinder with electricity alert (safety first) to find out what was behind the kitchen wall. Low and behold, the exact spot that I would like to open up the wall had duct work and plumbing. There were 33 inches of space near the exterior wall and about 24 inches near the doorway that didn't have ducts or plumbing. Tricky.

I used that information to go to Home Depot to come up with a kitchen design that would maximize storage space, but allow for natural light to come in from the dining room. Here are what my plans became (note - they're slightly different than the final product b/c I figured out an option that would be cheaper and would create more space)

These are only a couple of the views of the Home Depot design. I recommend doing this part of the process with Home Depot, Lowes, or some cabinet-maker either with your contractor or even before finding a contractor... just don't leave it up to your contractor to do alone. This way you can pick the cabinets you like and start to match appliances, tile, counter tops, paint, etc. 

So do a lot of measurements  and plan (1) design, (2) color scheme, and (3) appliances - type and size.

If you are unsure about plumbing, electrical, or gas be sure to discuss with a contractor before buying any items.

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

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.

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!

Upcoming blog series: Kitchen Renovation!

I've been slammed the past few months preparing for kitchen renovation. Demolition starts today!
I plan to do a series of blog posts devoted to the whole kitchen reno process including finding contractors, designing, picking materials, etc. Hopefully my experience will help yours go more smoothly. I probably won't post anything until mid to late April when the whole process is complete, but I wanted to update my readers that there is progress on the homefront even though I haven't been blogging.

To get an idea of what I've been doing... I did a little demo myself in late January so that I could find out what was in the wall in order to finish design. Here's my handiwork:

Why I have no kitchen cabinets

I have yet to tell the story about my kitchen cabinets. The short of it is... they fell on my head. The full story goes like this:

Those kitchen cabinets didn't seem so bad from the outside. I knew they'd need a good cleaning before I put dishes in them so one of the first things I did after I moved in was to remove the shelves and get rid of the coat of grease that had accumulated inside the cabinets. It took a lot of clorox and scrubbing to get them clean so I was relieved when i had finished. A day or two after I cleaned them one of my friends came over for dinner and to check out my new place so I had her help me to put contact paper on the newly cleaned shelves. Once we had finished covering one, I climbed up on the step ladder to put the shelf back in place. When I maneuvered the shelf into place the 10 screws that held the cabinet into place (not in the studs of the wall, mind you) decided they'd had enough and let gravity pull that cabinet right on my head. It sounds drastic, but really it only fell a foot or two. The TRUE drastic part was that the dead bug infestation had reached the top of the cabinet - the part that I was unable to clean b/c it was only an inch from the ceiling - and it was GROSS. My friend helped me take the cabinet outside and remove the other two because I wasn't about to put dishes in them and I wanted the bug grossness out of my house anyway. All my hard work cleaning the shelves was for naught. I ended up buying some temporary cabinets for storage, but they live in my dining room. My kitchen is pretty laughable, but it's a huge project so I am waiting to redo it until I figure out how I should remodel it... or until I can get HGTV to help me :-P

*no cabinets*