Kitchen Remodel

Shoot - getting a damn contractor to even show up is most of the battle. The rest of it is getting a contractor willing to take the job! We're just starting on a small addition to enlarge our MBR and add a walk in closet. Its October, and I've been working on this since April!

Shop around? BWAHAHAHAHAHA! After talking to about 6 or 7 contractors, I was lucky to find one that was willing to do the work! They *do* have a good rep, although I think I'm probably getting ripped off. If they end up doing a good job, I won't care...

Nice kitchen BTW. Not what we'd want by any means, but its yours not ours! You'll enjoy it for sure!

Mike_H said:

I mentioned that some Hutchinson beadlocks would "fix" that problem... At 450+ a wheel. She only said, "what, are we joining the wheel of the month club now?".

I think that's tacit agreement, right?

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You just tell her "I thought you said we're joining the one-wheel-a-month club" and five months later you've got a set!

Good thread -kitchens are a big part of my work/ these are site built.

Good job, like what you have going on.

Good for you. That’s a quick turn around. I’m in the middle of a kitchen remodel as well. Based on what she’s spending, I getting a buggy and keeping my Duramax

Mike_H said:

Ugh.... My house is a MESS! Thankfully, they finished drywall repairs today. Electricians have been working too, and they have our new fixtures installed, so it's not raining cellulose insulation from the ceiling every time we shut the front door.

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The carpenters will be back next week to finish up the stairway changes. Then paint the week after.

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You are in good shape and it’s easy to see the job is being logically executed- The first thing I notice is everything that needs to be complete is - You don’t have cabinets sitting there with half of the wall still bare studs, wires where they shouldn’t be and nonsense like that- The contractor is following the critical path and from what you described the overall turnaround time is well above average.

Mike_H said:

Not much notable, picture worthy progress on the kitchen project. Electricians came by and put in a whole bunch more lights.

Since most of our switches and electrical for this floor were on walls that were removed, we've had to be a bit creative on how to control the circuits. Lots of remote, wireless Pico switches. Our banister posts will have most of them relocated there, but they need masters, so we're putting extra switches around the perimeter of the kitchen. Passed electrical inspection and drywall is starting to be replaced. Should finish that Monday and Tuesday the finishers will be in.

The nice thing about a kitchen remodel is the old cabinets are available. My shop got a bit of an upgrade too!

This is "before" I bought some old junk from a second hand store and painted them. they are barely hanging together. I actually had to rebuild one of the base cabinets with some scrap OSB just to make it functional.

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And after. These cabinets have drawers instead of giant caverns that hold junk forever....never to be seen again. It looks like I have so much more room, but the countertop is the exact same. I did add a couple more pegboard pieces. The uppers are taller than what came out...but I actually have less linear footage of cabinet space. The orange keyhole is the 220V outlet for my table saw and welder. I painted it orange so I know not to place any pegs there.

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Sweet!

Mike_H said:

I should clarify. I am happy with the progress. I do feel like they are making good time. I just didn't anticipate so much of the house behind affected by this job. I knew it was going to be messy, but with a kitchen... The stuff has to go somewhere. Unless we move out, we still need access to at least some of it. So... It stored in the living room, and bed rooms, and any other extra space we have. It's not a huge house...1800 sq feet, and being constrained to basically our bedroom for three months is taking it's toll.

Tough to relax when you come home from work and walk into a renovation...

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It is worse than moving.

Contractors need to remember that they get to go home at the end of the day- The customer is having to live in it.

Also the perception of time is different for the customer than it is for the contractor for that very same reason-

AndyG said:

Contractors need to remember that they get to go home at the end of the day- The customer is having to live in it.

Also the perception of time is different for the customer than it is for the contractor for that very same reason-

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Most, at least that I've dealt with, don't think like this. I wish they did!

Irun said:

Most, at least that I've dealt with, don't think like this. I wish they did!

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When I first got around the construction business I could not believe what I was seeing-

The reason I finally decided to open my own business was because I knew what I was going to compete against- People not showing up, Sloppiness, Lack of professionalism, Lack of technical knowledge, No concept of current trends, Poor work habits- I found out pretty quick I had a lot to learn but overall it has been like shooting fish in a barrel.

Honestly it is not an easy profession - the failure rate is second only to restaurants- The endless variation is the biggest challenge because that creates inefficiency and coupled with the fact that you’re doing remote manufacturing Is part of the reason why America has the highest failure rate of contractors in the world.

Mike_H said:

Our carpenters are VERY neat and tidy. They vacuum at the end of the day, they are friendly and we talk with them. The Subs...they vary. They've all been friendly...Neat and Tidy? not so much. The drywall guys were the worst, so far. They put plastic up, but didn't clean the sanding dust up at the end of the day. So...the plastic doesn't really help much. And I get it...Drywall sanding is a dusty business...but at least make an effort.

But...silver linings and all that. My walls are closed back up. That is a good thing!

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That is a pretty good description of the typical scenario- The subcontractors do not grasp the culture of cleanliness and habits of the core contractor-

On the drywall and on dust in general I tell everybody around me that we are not going to be guilty of not trying.

We buy very thin plywood that is targeted for the mobile home industry and we use that to protect Floors and then when it gets in rough condition we will use it outside for masons and tile saws- Once I had a worker walking through a house and he dropped something in damaged a wood floor that could not be matched- And the homeowner was a building inspector for the city of Huntsville. I was like “man that is like backing into a cop car. “ But since that happened we turned it into a positive and started using the thin plywood for impact protection and that is something we are known for.

The mess of a construction job can really get out of hand really quick.

AndyG said:

When I first got around the construction business I could not believe what I was seeing-

The reason I finally decided to open my own business was because I knew what I was going to compete against- People not showing up, Sloppiness, Lack of professionalism, Lack of technical knowledge, No concept of current trends, Poor work habits- I found out pretty quick I had a lot to learn but overall it has been like shooting fish in a barrel.

Honestly it is not an easy profession - the failure rate is second only to restaurants- The endless variation is the biggest challenge because that creates inefficiency and coupled with the fact that you’re doing remote manufacturing Is part of the reason why America has the highest failure rate of contractors in the world.

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Remolding is truly a business that requires outstanding business acumen. Although I'm not in construction, I deal with people on a daily basis who don't understand my area of expertise. I've always told everyone that works with or for me to do the following two simple things:

- Be self aware
- Practice empathy

If you do those two things, life, for everyone, will be better!

Irun said:

Remolding is truly a business that requires outstanding business acumen. Although I'm not in construction, I deal with people on a daily basis who don't understand my area of expertise. I've always told everyone that works with or for me to do the following two simple things:

- Be self aware
- Practice empathy

If you do those two things, life, for everyone, will be better!

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You know that is really, really good- That kind of thinking will both prevent and solve a lot of problems.

Looking great - I love the redesign; it takes nice components from contemporary and classic designs that compliment each other well. The finished product should be something that makes everyone happy for a long time and have good functionality in day to day use.

Maybe it's just me, but anything remodeled in the 90's is just awful (I'm currently working on "de-90'ing" my 1960 built, but 1994 remodeled ranch now!). It seems that if you were designing things in the 90's, you were required to take at least two major design elements from at least three previous periods and styles, replace at least one of those elements with the most modern, but cheapest equivalent (e.g. Formica!), top it all off with 3 fistfulls of cocaine, and then finally shit out something with peach paint.

pc1p said:

Looking great - I love the redesign; it takes nice components from contemporary and classic designs that compliment each other well. The finished product should be something that makes everyone happy for a long time and have good functionality in day to day use.

Maybe it's just me, but anything remodeled in the 90's is just awful (I'm currently working on "de-90'ing" my 1960 built, but 1994 remodeled ranch now!). It seems that if you were designing things in the 90's, you were required to take at least two major design elements from at least three previous periods and styles, replace at least one of those elements with the most modern, but cheapest equivalent (e.g. Formica!), top it all off with 3 fistfulls of cocaine, and then finally shit out something with peach paint.

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Its "just you". We still miss the house we remodeled in 1998, beautiful cherrywood cabinets with tile countertops. Subsequent owner removed the cabinets over the counter - thus removing valuable storage space - all in the name of the oh-so-sacred HGTV "Open Concept" bullshit (Read: "Barn Floorplan"), never mind the horrid stainless st... - uh, I mean STAINLESS STEEL APPLIANCES!

The amount of 21st century horridness we had to remove from our current home was both shocking and sad. The 1963 built house had had its breakfast bar cabinetry removed, decreasing needed storage space, increasing noise, and making the front room look like a barn. I don't want to live in one big room for a large variety of reasons - yet HGTV keeps pusing the idea, despite evidence that its run its course. So we had to have a cabinet custom made to replace it - and matching the existing cabinet doors turned out to be a real problem. Then we had to convert or exchange the fugly stainless appliances, do away with the stupid and space wasting stand alone range hood, and last - but certainly not least - had to do some repainting. The hall made me think I was onboard the U.S.S. Merritt Island - got rid of the battleship grey paint and painted it - wait for it - a peachy kind of color!

At least the kitchen cabinets - although not as nice as the afore mentioned cherrywood ones we had in a previous home - were nice enough. We'd never had granite countertops before, but overall we ended up liking them. But we did add one 90s design element to the kitchen - 1890s that is - a tin ceiling!

OTOH, somebody had recently remodeled the master bathroom - and did a fantastic job of it, so we don't have to do anything with it. The front bath is 1963 original - and we're gonna keep it that way.

As for Formica - my wife has gotten to the point of where she'd rather have that than either tile or Corian. She got tired of cleaning grout all the time, and Corian scratches too easily, might as well have Formica and save the money. Wife didn't like the (stainless) french door fridge either - that went in favor of a black side by side. I could take or leave the french door idea - it didn't bother me either way - but after a year of living with it, my wife still didn't like it and the stainless DEFINITELY had to go. Daughter needed a new fridge in the worst way, so it was win-win. Re-skinned the stainless dishwasher, still have the stove to do but as its only partially stainless, it isn't quite as hideous as it would be otherwise.

Grey paint is just depressing, and is even worse than the "one red wall" trend a few years back.