To Do

Construction is slated to begin next Monday on our kitchen and bathroom - only 6 days! It feels very surreal, and we couldn't be happier. Between now and then we have a few things to do to get ourselves ready.

- Empty out kitchen cabinets, getting rid of stuff we don't use.
- Set up a makeshift kitchen in the guest room - toaster, crock pot, microwave, paper plates . . .
- Clear everything out of upstairs bathroom.
- Clean gross basement bathroom, and make it as usable as possible (I got this out of the way last week)
- Caulk leaks in downstairs shower. (I think this is a honey-do)
- Get rid of unneeded furniture and appliances on Craigslist - old kitchen island, hutch, wardrobe, range, dishwasher
- Finish purchasing items from our extras list (this is the fun one, so I saved it for last!)

I think that's the bulk of it, and really it's great that we can do so little and be ready for such big stuff to begin. We can't wait to see the walls come down!

Zero!

 
After 27 months, dozens of chain links, more floorplans and time surfing google images than I care to imagine, 8 contractor interviews, 4 bids and just generally lots of anxious, impatient waiting, we're there!

We have selected our contractor, are finalizing details for a contract and are mere weeks away from tearing up our kitchen and bathroom! Or rather, coming home from work to find our kitchen and bathroom torn up - this is what contractors are for, after all!

We're thrilled to be about to get this huge project underway, and are thankful for all the sweet friends and family who have listened to us obsess and complain while we waited the past two years. And we're also thankful for all the times they will (hopefully) have us over to dinner over the next two months. *hint*

We'll have lots of updates throughout the project, and look forward to finally having a housewarming party once it's all said and done.

Cabinets!

Chris and I and our likely contractor are working through our final estimate, and it's pretty exciting! On Monday we met with a local custom cabinet shop, and we just got our drawings back from the cabinetmaker last night. It's so exciting to begin to see our plans take shape.

Here's the kitchen plan from above:

Isn't it beautiful? I just keep looking at all the little boxes and smiling. Feel free to do the same. When you're finished I'll explain what you're seeing!

Cabinet #8, in the bottom right corner, is our pantry - a 42" wide, floor to ceiling cabinet with roll-out trays. It's one of my favorite little boxes in the picture. Moving down the line, #7 is a set of drawers between the pantry and the dishwasher, and #11 is a wide upper cabinet above both. #6 is our sink base, and next to it is a pull-out trash drawer. Above that, #10 is another upper cabinet. In the corner, #5 is a lazy susan and #9 is an upper corner cabinet. #2, #3 and #4 frame in the microwave, and #1 is a pull-out spice rack next to the range. #12, hanging out all by himself in the corner, will be above the refrigerator.

Here's the window wall from the front (the window is between #10 and #11). The picture doesn't show it, but there will be a shelf over the window with little built-in wine cubbies to connect the two lines of cabinets.

The pantry cabinet, the cabinet above the fridge and all the lower cabinets will all have dark, shaker style doors, like this:

All the upper cabinets will be painted white with glass in the doors. We debated between going fancy with seeded glass, but in the end like the clean look of just plain old panes.

All the door and drawer fronts will be inset, rather than overlay, which means that the fronts fit into the frame when they're closed, rather than sitting on it. This is a bit of an upgrade, but gives it a very classic, traditional look. And as you know we're suckers for that!

And don't forget the bathroom! The picture below is our upstairs bathroom vanity, which will fit the space so exactly it will look completely built in. It's a pretty simple design - two sinks on the sides with a set of drawers in between. The doors and and drawers will be white shaker - in a style that goes along with everything going into the kitchen.

So, we're moving right along and loving it. Tomorrow will be another big day - I'm off work and have an other very exciting remodel-related appointment. You'll have to wait to read about it, but here's a hint.

Almost There!

It's hard to believe we're already a week into August - hopefully in about a month our project will be well underway! We've been trucking through the contractor selection process (which has been much more challenging than I thought it would be) and we feel like we're nearing the end, so here's an update.

Remember the contractors we interviewed in July? We had good interviews with contractors 1, 3 and 4 so we've been working through the estimate process with them to make our final decision.

Contractor 1 got us a bid just 2-3 days after our initial meeting. It was within our range (albeit at the high end), but included refinishing hardwoods throughout our entire first floor. We've been wanting to do this anyway, and the result will be completely seamless flooring into the kitchen. This was a huge plus.

After getting this estimate in, CJ and I obsessively regularly checked our email inboxes, work fax machines, mailbox, phones, and any other forms of communication we could think of for the other two. And to be honest, we got very discouraged as the second week passed and we still hadn't received any follow-up from number 3 or number 4. We chatted with an interior decorator friend who said this is pretty common and told us not to get discouraged. He said that contractors are frequently slow to get quotes because, basically, quotes are not fun to do. So, we followed his advice and made a follow-up call to each guy. About two weeks after that (so a month after the initial meetings) we had quotes.

Contractor 4 emailed his quote, and CJ and I both simultaneously fell out of our chairs, as it was approximately 1.5 times the price of contractor 1's quote. Yikes! That took care of him.

And then there were two. We met with Contractor 3 to get his quote, and he was just a hot mess. Even though we'd been discussing our project with him for an entire year, and he'd had a month since our meeting with him (during which we went through EVERY detail of the project), the estimate was full of mistakes, missing entire parts of the projected we'd discussed and (to add insult to injury) full of typos and errors. Long story short, it did not instill confidence that he would have the attention to detail we expect on such a large project.

During that entire time of chasing down contractors 3 and 4 to get estimates, contractor 1 had made several follow-up contacts, given us a revised estimate based on our feedback to his original one, sent references and photos from other projects he'd done - basically he'd been a saint.

Soooooooooo . .  . . . . . . we're in final negotiation steps with our new buddy, contractor 1. He's coming out again this week to finalize revisions to his estimate, and our hope is that we can have him locked down for our project very soon.

This whole bid process has been tough at times, but I'm amazed at how it has worked to show the strengths of one professional against the weaknesses of the others, and has made it abundantly clear who is and is not the right fit for our project. We've valued this process, and will particularly value it when it's all said and done. We're close though, and feel like so long as things continue moving along smoothly we should be able to begin the project on schedule!