It's all in the planning

Even though the studs are still bare, the sub-floor isn't down yet and the electrical is only roughed in, I think it's safe to say that we are on the home stretch. I also think it's okay to start a list of things we've learned along the way.

1- Be careful with your time and dollar estimates. Our mistake was that we sat down with our contractor and penciled in rough cost estimates ("Let's see... sheetrock should be about $700, flooring and subfloor should be about $1,500, electrical will be like $1,500..." etc.). Based on that number, Haley and I started the kitchen remodel with a finite pile of money and a Thanksgiving deadline in our heads. The actual bids & estimates have ALL come in at close to double our original not-so-educated-guesses. (Sheetrock estimate: $1,500 VCT Flooring/subfloor estimate: $7,000!!! Electric estimate: $2,400)
Lesson learned- Even when you are in the initial planning phase, don't base the cost of your design on "educated guesses." Put your plan down on paper and get real bids from sub-contractors, or be prepared to roll up your sleeves and do some work yourself.
How we adjusted- We had to take on a few more projects ourselves (all demolition, subfloor, ...). The money we save there is used to cover the higher than expected estimates. (NOTE: I'm not saying that those bids were too high, but they are significantly higher than we expected them to be.)
Trade off- Time and sore muscles. I don't have a month of spare vacation time at my work, so I have to handle these jobs in the evenings and on the weekends. I'll get things done, and they'll be done right, it just takes me longer than the pros.

2- Stick to your guns. If someone tells you what you're asking for is going to be "hard" or says "I don't know how you would do that," push them once with a possible solution and show them pictures. If that doesn't do the trick, find someone else. Example: Our cabinet design isn't based on typical/conventional configurations. We want "odd" things like a metal trim piece along the bottom, all base cabinets raised 8" off the floor on metal legs, sliding masonite (or pegboard) doors on a spice cabinet near the cooktops, vintage Thermador appliances installed, etc.. A normal cabinet guy will balk at nearly everything. An experienced cabinet guy will say things like "Neat idea," and "Here's a way those sliders will work better." Go with the experienced guy.
Lesson learned- Don't be afraid to say things like "But that's not how we want it," and "Can you try it again, maybe more like this?" No matter how nice and polite you try to be, you'll still likely frustrate the contractor and the subs, but in the end you'll get what you want and they will have learned something new.
How we adjusted- We had to be creative in our presentation and be willing to delay.
Trade off- Time... and dealing with a frustrated contractor and subs.

3- Your gut instinct is probably correct. You can tell if someone "gets it" or doesn't. If your gut is telling you that he doesn't, be prepared to engage in some heavy "art direction" every step of the way, or keep looking.

Remember: You will be living with your kitchen (or bathroom or whatever) for a looong time. To them, it's just another job and unfortunately they will probably be more concerned with "what's the easiest/fastest way I can get this done" as opposed to "how can I make the design of the guy who's paying me a reality."

The Family Room (pt 1)

Much like how we were sort of compelled to re-do the laundry room at the same time as the small bathroom (click here to read up on that saga), the family room is attached to the kitchen, therefore it's gotta be spruced up at the same time.

Luckily, it's a simple, no-nonsense room and our plans are to merely re-do the floor in VCT to match/compliment the kitchen & office (right now it's carpet), add corresponding window trim & baseboards, paint the beams Oxford Brown and call it done. Simple, right? Yeah... that's what I thought.

Since we made the opening from the family room to the dining room wider, we had to replace the beam over that opening, which meant we had to expose the studs. So the sheetrock on that wall had to go.
("the toe-bone's connected to the foot-bone...")
Since the sheetrock’s gone and that’s the wall we’re going to hang a flat screen TV on, wouldn’t it be smart to fix up the connections so we won’t have a bunch of wires hanging down from the TV?
(“the foot-bone’s connected to the ankle-bone…”)
And while I’m not a movie freak or audiophile, it would be kinda cool to have speakers up in the corners and maybe on the back wall for surround sound.
(“the ankle-bone’s connected to the shin-bone…)
But the back wall still has sheetrock on it… should I fish wires up from the crawlspace through the wall, or just pull that sheetrock off so it’ll match the kitchen?
(“the shin-bone’s connected to the knee-bone…)

So now I have some questions:
How much $$ will that add to our new sheetrock bill?
Shouldn’t be TOO much, the remaining sheetrock is on walls that are mostly glass. Materials: not so much. Labor: probably most of the cost.

How do I wire this stuff?
Hmmm, we had a guy from The Geek Squad (Best Buy) come take a look and he said it was a really really simple job.
- Run some speaker wire where we want the speakers (left, center & right front; left & right rear, and subwoofer)
- Put in a “clock electrical outlet” up where the TV will be (didn’t see one of those at Lowe’s)
- Put up a “full-motion” TV mount
- Position the cable, electrical & phone outlets about 2 feet off the floor so they’ll be out of sight inside the as-yet-to-be-selected media cabinet
- Position the "to speakers" and “to TV” inlets next to the outlets
- Make accommodations for RCA plugs from the Wii and HDTV PS3 system and extras for like a video camera or an iPod/computer connection

Hmmm, doesn’t sound so simple to me, so I’ll be drawing up a “media wiring” diagram and maybe it’ll seem more doable.

Tile is gone. Concrete board is on it's way out!

We spent the weekend removing all the tile from the kitchen and office nook. It was really quite the job, and learning from our past experience with the loggia floor we rented an electric chisel. Steve got to work on it and he made it look so easy. So I thought I'd give it a try... NOPE! That thing had to weigh about 40 pounds and I was only good for about 3 tiles before my girlie arms gave out. So I turned it back over to Steve and he made quick work. I demoted myself to debris hauler... carrying bucket after bucket of broken tile to the dumpster. (Sadly, I was still sore from that little job.) Steve's hands were thrashed after wielding the power chisel all day, and then he had to hurry off to play 3 sets at Portland's Scream at the Beach. I don't know how he does it all!


Our contractor let us borrow her large crowbar thingy. It worked great for prying up the concrete board and removing the nails. We still have about 1/2 the concrete board left to tear up, but it should go pretty quickly. The boards in the office nook were screwed in so that may prove to be interesting.


The floor guy is coming in tomorrow to measure and order the VCT tile. We are using the same tiles that we put in the loggia. It will really simplify and clean up the look from room to room.

Hmmmm

QUESTION: Why is my side of the bathroom now the kitchen?

I'm just sayin'.
-Steve

Walls Out. Beams In.

The wall between the dining room and kitchen is gone! (Thanks Steve.) The tiny wall between the family room and dining room (the one with all the tricky wiring in it) is gone, too. A new beam now spans the opening from the dining room to the family room.

The pantry is totally gone (yikes) and the whole space now feels huge and very open. I know that it will close up a bit as we put the drywall up and cabinets in, but it seriously looks like a new house. Here are a few pics to show the progress.

The pantry is really gone:

View from the dining room:

View from the family room:

View from the loggia:

New beam with all the wiring hidden inside:

Replacing the beam by the eliminated pantry proved to be a little challenging. With the new beam secure, our beam guy took out the old shorter beam. That shorter beam was the main support for a few of the tongue and groove pieces. But that's not a big concern because tongue and groove lends stability... except for the section where the short beam was hiding 3 boards butting up against each other. Ugh! We ended up installing a metal support strap to hold those boards together. Now, we need to re-skin this small section of the ceiling. Since it's sandwiched between the beams, it shouldn't be too challenging to blend it with the rest of the ceiling. We haven't been able to locate 1/2" x 6" tongue and groove, but Steve has some creative ideas for this project. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does.

The new beam now lines up with the beam in the dining room:

Ceiling boards where old beam was:

Metal strap screwed in place to stabilize the 3 boards in question:
The beams are in and secure. Next project... the floor!

We've found a cabinet guy!

Yep! It's true. Met with Norm Dickinson yesterday to go over the cabinet design. He stayed for 2 hours discussing all the details, finishes, and options. He was very reassuring. He believes this job to be fairly easy and has no doubts that he can translate our vision into a real kitchen. Since he is the one actually making the cabinets, I am very relieved and have no anxiety. (That's a good sign.)

Bonus Points: he fell in love with our 11" x 17" color print out of the kitchen from Case Study House #22. He asked if he could take it and put it up on his shop wall. YES!

Also, Steve completely removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room last night. It is so open now. Beam guy should be here soon to finish up the beams and ensure the posts and tongue and groove ceiling are structurally sound before we proceed.

Color Renderings of the Kitchen Design

I seriously don't have the time to be playing around in Photoshop, but I can't help obsessing over the kitchen design. A new cabinet guy is coming out today to take measurements and we are very excited that he understands the style we are wanting. I created these renderings from Steve's design to ensure that everyone is on the same page with the design concepts. We'll see how the meeting goes today. (Fingers crossed.)


Here are a couple of back splash ideas... We are at a complete loss as to what to put there. All white seems too "white", but we do not want it to be busy. We've had fantastic luck with the Hakatai mosaic tiles on our bathroom and pool projects, but I'm not sure it's right for this space. Please let me know if you have any brilliant ideas!