Who else has gone past the one year mark, and not done yet?

12 years ago

I won't go all the way back to the first kitchen plan (that was 2008-2009) as that one never attained liftoff.

But the clock on this kitchen started last April when we purchased the first lumber for the cabinets. Actually, we had been planning and doing drawings for months before that.

We ordered the sink and faucet May 4th 2010. Tomorrow I am expecting delivery of the third and I hope final Shaw's sink.

We demo'ed in June, and have been cooking in the basement since then.

We are done except for the sink, the island (needs to be built), the backsplash, the hood duct/motor installation and some trim work and painting. May-be end of June, with a little luck.

I'm almost at the point where I can say "It was worth it."

Who else is in the over-a-year club?

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Comments (52)

palimpsest
12 years ago
Over 4 years without a kitchen at all. Over two with nothing but a dorm sized fridge. Even the old microwave died.
formerlyflorantha
12 years ago
I suppose our most serious planning began 2 years ago in May and we broke ground in Oct. 09. We're not done yet but the new spaces are functional and in use. We're really burned out and we've slowed down. (Today DH has gone looking for morels--is he too early? He doesn't care. He's away from the project for a couple days and he and the dog can just go hiking.)

But cement man and landscaper come in two weeks to finish a gray border edging the driveway and to deal with the hummocks and runoff drainage, so I have to finish my thinking about front yard. My job. Get going, Florantha. I sketched out ideas last night with the inevitable glass of wine. Wadaya think of this plan to complement a maroon-red house? pink peonies + pink climbing roses + screaming green hostas + my old paid-for green hydrangea bushes (and maybe splurge on a few of the pricey new pinkish hydrangeas that are hardy in the north) + white Siberian iris + maroon daylilies and white daylilies? Oh, and a new red maple because our green ashes are doomed by the beetle plague.

Hope to get all this bought and planted by early June. Yeah, right. Then I can go back to finishing the kitchen trim. By next year at this time, things _should_ be done.
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blfenton
12 years ago
We moved out last March, back in Mid-September after a whole house reno and are still waiting for the deficiency list to be finished which has been going on since September, I have faith that it will get done but whatever.
morgne
12 years ago
Uh, I'm going to wait to post until I cross the five year mark in about ... uh, 4 months.

Then I'll chime in.
sochi
12 years ago
Demo was November 1st 2009. We moved back in around April 1st 2010, the kitchen was 90% done. I think I needed a break from decision-making - we haven't done anything over the past year. Still need a backsplash and an island. Probably get that done sometime in 2011.
kitchenkrazed09
12 years ago
Sign me up. Just passed a year without a kitchen sink.
bostonpam
12 years ago
OK - we're lucky because our house had 2 kitchens and we didn't decommission the 1st one until the new one was in. We started using the new one April 2010. I still have to paint part of the backsplash (after DH repairs it); DH has to build a banquette; DH has to build the pantry and a built in for a small area; gotta decide on what to do for a kitchen table. Since we've been using our kitchen we've painted the TV room, sitting room, hallway, DD, DS and our bedrooms, installed 3 closet systems, oversea a pool, fence, retaining wall and 2 patio installations, reconfigure Ikea cabinets for mudroom,... We also had major water damage and had to gut our old kitchen and go thru everything that was stored there, and had a toilet on the 3rd floor flood down to the 1st floor. We repaired and painted a hallway ceiling one week before that catastrophe. For mother's day I asked to have the music room finished. DH and I will paint tonight and Sat - all the trim, 2 6over 6 windows, 5 doorways and 3 closets. I thought everything was going to be done last Thanksgiving. This year I'm hoping for THIS Thanksgiving.
sayde
Original Author
12 years ago
Oh wow, no problem finding members for this club!

You know the old saying "We read to know we're not alone."? Well, ditto for Garden Web. It is nice to know there are others in the same soup.
francoise47
12 years ago
We made our first call to our architect almost exactly a year ago this week. We expected that we would be 100% done within a year, with most of the work taking place in early winter 2011.

We are removing a back servants staircase, gutting our kitchen, and transforming one giant bathroom upstairs into two. I think of it as a medium-size job that should take about 12 weeks once the crew gets to work.

In fact, we haven't broken ground yet. We did just find out today that our permits are ready to pick up at the town hall. And our GC hinted that he would be ready to start in the next two weeks. Let's just say that everything has taken 3x longer than planned, even though we have done everything possible to speed things along on our end.
missmuffet
12 years ago
I'm in the club too. Wish I could say I had graduated by now, but apparently I've been held back. Getting closer though - I promise to have pictures someday!!!!
macybaby
12 years ago
I"m in the club - sort of. I've never gone completely without a kitchen, but it's been "in process" since 2004. Mine is a whole house DIY project, and we started with the kitchen and we are ending with the kitchen.

In late 2004 we started by gutting the dining room(new kitchen) and by spring 2005 had the walls and ceiling done and moved the old cabs and appliances into that room as a temporary and we lived with that while we did the rooms around it.

Between then and 2008, we re-arranged the cabinets several times as we found we didn't like the layout we had. Summer of 2009 we decided to move a wall and a few doors (in a room that had already be re-done) and by fall 2009 we decided to replace floor and removed the patio door that had been installed at the start of the project.

Winter 2009-2010 we put in the floor and started building cabinets. DH works seasonal, so each winter season we'd work hard, and then he'd be gone for the warmer months and I'd do what I could on my own. During 2010 we got most of the cabinet boxes done and installed, and this winter we finished the cabinet boxes, installed the new sink, counter tops and doors.

Now it's almost done - still have two trash pullouts to install and lots of touch up painting on the crown trim.

But just to make sure we never actually get done, DH has decided it's OK for me to make changes to the ceiling, so I'll be scraping, moving one overhead light and painting this summer.

Once I get the crowns painted, I'll post "almost done" pictures - just not sure when that will be as it's spring and the garden needs to be planted now.
mtnrdredux_gw
12 years ago
We closed Dec 09. Started demo of parts of the house Jan 10. Moved to area rental in Aug 2010. Moved in to mostly complete house in April. Cabinet glass goes in kitchen today, after that just need to hang pendant and throw up some trim in bfast rm. So, kitchen is almost done, house is not.

Call it 18 months. But to be fair, we gutted the kitchen, 3 full baths and one powder room, and the living room. We added two more full baths, two bedrooms, an entrance hall, mud room, craft room and greenhouse. I used to see hgtv shows with projects like that and think it was ridiculous. We've now become ridiculous ourselves. If you listen to too many gc and design people, you will never stop. And the landscape designer wants to move the driveway now ....
beekeeperswife
12 years ago
Me!

It's a DIY thing. Once that kitchen "looked" good and was functional, my GC (aka, my dh) moved on to other projects. But now that there are whispers of relocation, I'm all too happy to point out all the tiny details that need to be completed. (Filling the cracked baseboard and repainting, caulking with brown caulk in some spots where the cork meets an edge.) Once again, it looks like we might be fixing things for someone else...I hate that. But if I keep pushing and then we don't proceed with the possible relocation, I will finally be able to declare my kitchen done!

And we also had the little setback with the ceiling on the Family Room side of the room--right after those professional photos were taken of the back splash last year, the upstairs shower sprung a leak--so we needed to cut a hole in the ceiling. It's patched, not painted, and now? Another leak from the same bathroom, different spot, another hole in the family room ceiling. Oh man, what kind of pipes did these Amish guys use when they built this house? I mean it is so Foreclosure Chic. Maybe we do need to relocate, and soon. ;-)
mtnrdredux_gw
12 years ago
Bee? Relocate ? And leave the kitchen that started the arabesque trend?
kitchenkrazed09
12 years ago
I love the term Foreclosure Chic. I wish my house looked that good right now.
beekeeperswife
12 years ago
mtnrdredux...

:(
tomuch2chus
12 years ago
Oh misery does love company! My lurking began in March, 2010. Demo'd last April, & got a huge case of "while we're at it"-itis. New kitchen, family room, & bath were re-occupied in November. New cork floor replaced in January (bad installation). Covered patio and outdoor kitchen functional as of last week. Still some light fixtures to hang, figure out where the furniture will go, & put the back yard back together in time for my family reunion in June. Thanks GW! I am NOT alone...
mtnrdredux_gw
12 years ago
tomuch2chus - we are putting cork (square tiles) in our craft room, over electric radiant heat. It was supposed to be over thinset, but the tile installer saw it and said it needed to go over concrete. Can I ask what your experience was?
sandn
12 years ago
We can't even point to an official start date. We've been in the house for just over a decade and everything has been leading towards the kitchen renovation, but the entire layout of the house got changed (restored to former glory with edits) en route. I think the real kitchen renovation began in late 2008, but most of what people would really recognize as a kitchen renovation has happened within the past year. So yes, we're over, possibly way over, depending on when we really started and that's debatable. Renovation has become a lifestyle, and one we're tiring of, but can't escape.
tomuch2chus
12 years ago
Sure! (Just a brief hijack!) I initially ordered the glue-down squares because of supposedly easy replacement in case of damage. Ours is a raised 3/4" plywood floor that the installers spread a thinset-like material over. (More of a watered-down thinset). The glue-down tiles telegraphed every imperfection in the subfloor & looked horrible. They tried to change out the most obvious, but every "fix" just made it worse. (So I'd question that easy replacement theory).
In the end, the installer was professional enough to admit it was a disaster & replaced the tile with the cork-covered planks (floating) that install like laminate. It's beautiful, but it was costly (for him!) & time-consuming (for us!).
warmfridge
12 years ago
I moved into this house exactly 4 years ago this weekend. For 37 of the last 48 months, something somewhere has been ripped apart, and I've been living with dropcloths, dust, no water, water where it's not supposed to be, frozen pipes, sweaty carpenters, contractor's bills, unreliable suppliers, dishonest subs, blah, blah, blah. I've had to move out twice. But I think I'm finally done, except cleaning up the last mess, and some landscaping work.

I can't imagine going through all this and then realizing it's time to relocate. Just shoot me.
mtnrdredux_gw
12 years ago
thanks, tomuch

maybe that was why my installer didnt want to use thinset ... we will see ... concrete is drying now ....
asheavenue
12 years ago
I demoed (razed) the old kitchen and boarded up the side of the house where it had been 3 years ago. I was on tour for about a year, and began construction on the new kitchen in April 2009. I cooked my first egg two nights ago, but still need an island, table, backsplash, paint and trim. The last 6 months I have had no kitchen at all, as I gutted the room the temporary kitchen was in. It's been a pretty extreme DIY experience. I'm glad I only have to do it once.
AilsaM
12 years ago
I am SO glad I ran across this thread. My DH and I have been demo-ing different parts of our house since we married 1.5 yrs ago. He had been working on the house for the previous 6 yrs. I had just finished a 5 year demo and remodel of a house I lived in by myself. So between us its been about 13 years of constant renovation. I had been living in my completed house for about a year before we met. I thought to myself "if I marry this guy I will be in house renovation nightmare all over again." What did I do?-married him! I guess we are all glutens for punshment. We probably have 2-3 more years of work to do until I can proclaim success. Thanks GW for all the inspiration.
shelayne
12 years ago
Oh. You mean a kitchen doesn't take over three years to finish?

*goes to beat husband with a shovel*
breezygirl
12 years ago
This is a club for which I really wish I could be ineligible for membership :(. We started with the architect-type pro 18 months ago. I started drawing my own kitchen plans 17 months ago when I found GW. Since we are renoing most of the house, we moved out 6 months ago. We're still with walls to the studs, no subfloor, and no working plumbing.

I hesitate to think how many more months this will all take to finish. I gave up trying to have a completion date in mind long ago. I hate running into people I see only occasionally because they're going to ask The Question. You know.....so how's the house coming?
sayde
Original Author
12 years ago
Oh Breezy, I know exactly what you mean. Can not tell how many times people have said "How's the kitchen? What, not done yet?" Unless you've been there you just don't get it.
cindyinct
12 years ago
To missmuffet:

I'd love to see some of your "in progress" photos. I had to put off ordering my Starmark cabinets, but will be ordering soon. One of my choices was the same style/color/glaze as you ordered.

Cindy
missmuffet
12 years ago
sorry for the hijack

Hi Cindy -
I posted a couple of pictures to the thread titled "Omega vs Starmark" that should be able to give you a brief idea how the cabinets are coming along. If the KD you are working with is good, then you should be fine. If you question how they will support you, I would hesitate on the glaze. We had to return some of the doors due to odd clumping. The KD worked it out for us, and we are very happy now. The style is very pretty, the cabinets are solid and everything came as ordered. Good Luck.
billy_g
12 years ago
We hired the architect well over 2 years ago and signed the construction contract 11-1/2 months ago. Well... we're on our second contractor now and today we received a bankruptcy notice from the first contractor.

The good news is the second contractor GREAT and we'll finish in July or August. They sprayed foam insulation in the walls this week, and next week the drywallers come.

Billy
kellied
12 years ago
Guess I don't have it so bad after all! The kitchen cabinets have been occupying the tiny LR for a year and we haven't started teardown yet.

Just think how much bigger the LR is going to feel!
laranbrian
12 years ago
We've been out of our home over 18 mo now. The big delay was the 1st GC we had was a total dud. He rarely had subs on the job and finally essentially abandoned the job, at which point he presented us with another big whopping bill. We took him to arbitration to settle and recieved (in theory, anyway)a settlement in our favor. He did not pay and subsequently had his license revoked.

The second GC is also perpetually predisposed with other projects and has been dragging a little.

In retrospect, I should have NEVER gotten a GC involved. Dealing directly with subs is faster and cheaper.

Live 'n learn!
cindyinct
12 years ago
Thanks missmuffet for the pictures. It looks like you got the upgraded drawer style with the Accord door, which I'm leaning towards as well (the standard drawer is flat). Weren't you putting in a wood floor? From your pictures, it looks like you decided on tile.
missmuffet
12 years ago
Cindy - you are right, I did get the upgraded drawer style (and love it). My great room has existing dark wood floors, but the attached kitchen section is new tile . . .
formerlyflorantha
12 years ago
Woohoo! The concrete man, again full of surprises, showed up and finished the driveway and sidewalk today. Landscaping up next!
aliris19
12 years ago
No offense, but I cannot begin to tell you how much I do not want to read this thread.

It is too depressing for me even to train binoculars on. I guess there isn't enough distance yet from the pain. Gosh this hurts!!!!!

---way, way, way over a year.
dmwbcc
12 years ago
We are at about 11 months now and have a goal of getting it done within another 3-4 months. You all have made me feel (semi) normal. Thank you.
kathec
12 years ago
Ooooh, me, me, me!! (picture me jumping in the crowd like Donkey from Shrek). We, ok, I actually started buying "stuff" for the kitchen and sketching ideas way back in spring 2009. At that point, we'd been in the house a year. I thought it was just going to be an "update" until we could afford to do a full remodel. In Feb 2010, I got a craigslist deal on an entire former display kitchen, cabs and granite. I'm not sure if that's the official "start" or not or if you consider the day we started our first demo, May 2010. It's DIY, so like a lot of projects around here, we got to tearing up, but the putting back together has taken SOOOOO much longer. It's been about 25% done since last fall.

This spring we got an infusion of money, so DH decided to hire out most of the rest of the work, electrical, drywall, flooring, etc. I got in touch with a trusted contractor, and it took about 2 months to finally get work going.

At that point I was ready for a kitchen break. I've been obsessed. Books, magazines, websites, I was immersed in everything KITCHEN. The project has been drawn out so long that I had put off so much of my life and stopped doing things I love. So, I've spent the last 2 months catching up on books that are not kitchen related, watching DVD's and basically getting a life. I realize that not everyone is like me, I tend to throw myself into stuff and let everything else fall by the wayside. The "get a life" comment is totally for me, so no one take offense. I just have a hard time balancing everything.

So, I'm very thrilled to say that as of today I have flesh and blood men in my kitchen running electrical and doing something. I could almost cry, hopefully when they're done, it will be happy tears.

Kathe
kellykath
11 years ago
Me too - 18 years after purchasing our home to remodel, I personally pulled the permts in 2007 and wound up filing for several extensions due to the economy. We were actually grandfathered in with the ability to build a "wood" burning fireplace. The big ball got rolling in 2009. Although we are pretty much done with our "build," I realize I spend entirely too much time making interior design decisions. It appears mandatory that I suffer thru sleepless nights prior to making a "commitment". Misery loves company I guess. I too have let things consume my time where I have stopped doing many of the things I love to do. Our yard looked like a giant cat box for at least 5 months after the main construction fence was removed - we finally finished the landscaping a few months ago!
misplacedtxgal
11 years ago
Everything but the hardware and I STILL cannot decide! Does that mean I'm in the club????
ttla
11 years ago
I have created a human being faster than it has taken us to redo the kitchen. (okay, we're doing the whole house. But, still!)
sayde
Original Author
11 years ago
ttla, I had the same thought -- my husband's son and wife got pregnant last June about the time we were doing our demo. Baby was born in March and we're still saying "may-be next month . . ."

But I looked at some of the photos I took last July of the gutted room and it felt really, really good to see them and see the state of the kitchen now. "Been down so long it looks like up to me", as they say.
momtofour
11 years ago
Planning and stage 1 began December of 1989 when we moved into the house with 6 (yes, 6) 40-50 year old cabinets, a torn linoleum floor, 3 windows, 4 doors, a chimney, a 4-ft radiator, 1950's stove and a broken 1950's refrigerator. Did I mention the room is only 10 x 13?? Along the way we built 3 more cabinets, put in some utility shelves, moved some windows, removed a door and had two huge (2' x 5') sections of plaster fall down on our heads.

We added 8 feet on in 2006 and in January 2009 we gutted the whole thing. Finally. We still have the cabinet trim, backsplash and undercabinet lighting left to do. I don't care. I have so much more storage space and cleanliness than I did for all those years that I'm thrilled!!
doggonegardener
11 years ago
Me, me. I took the sawsall to my old kitchen last June. We have just hit the one year mark. We are close but things are currently at a standstill. We are operating from the viewpoint that summer is for working outside and winter foe inside. I'm ok with that. My kitchen is totally functional. Winter will come soon enough to Wyoming.
mary52zn8tx
11 years ago
Started an "update" in 2007. Changed out some cabinets and bought new doors and pulls. We added an Advantium oven, and changed out a light fixture. Then we needed a new roof, windows and exterior doors. All that interrupted progress. Stalled waiting on money and decisions for counters, back splash and a new sink. We finally settled on mesquite counters. The counters will be finished in another week or so. The new super single Blanco sink will be here Monday. I'm still mulling the back splash, but have the choices narrowed down. I'm so excited to be back on track!
kateskouros
11 years ago
well, we're building a house, not just a kitchen but i am not proud to be a member of this club. things have gotten so bad between the builder and i that i can't stand to even LOOK at him. in a nutshell, the guy has been paid a little as we went along but it would take FOREVER for materials to show up. we waited for months for the electrician to show up to finish everything. he finally gets here wednesday and returns thursday. today, friday, nothing. also waiting on the plumber and the mason.

so we are: THIRTY THREE agonizing months and counting.
the builder has nothing. he is in bankruptcy and his house is in foreclosure. my husband is an attorney so if had anything it would belong to me. i'm so sick i can't even cry.
aokat15
11 years ago
This post is making me feel so much better as well as I've been sick to my stomach lately feeling like the punch list of items still to be done is never-ending and is getting done at a snail's pace. We bought our house late Feb 2010 - had been talking to an architect before we bought. We moved into a rental and demo started in March. We did a whole house renovation and addition. We were supposed to be done October 1st - then November - then New Year's... finally moved in in early February a week before I gave birth to my son. There was a huge push to get the house liveable before we moved in and before I had the baby but since then it's been so slow that I want to cry. Thanks so much for all the sharing - it's nice to know we're not alone and that the "how's the house coming" question is driving everyone else nutty too!
greenhousems
11 years ago
almost 2 years. taking a break for the summer. I'm focusing on the garden.
davidro1
11 years ago
my progress has become a series of imperceptibly small improvements.

e.g i've built in mirrors in various hard to describe kinds of places. A concrete pillar has a mirror on one face.

I demand a lot of my future faucet choices.
I'm being "demanding".
I've almost gotten to the "10000-Hour Rule" (M Gladwell theory).

and, i've planted trees and gone traveling, so I'm not always there.
but i think about it.
dianalo
11 years ago
We re about to hit the 7 month mark of no stove, with another 2 months until permits get approved for propane. Demo was in Nov, our punch list is long, our stove is in but not hooked up, our venthood does not work, parts of the counter have been missing for months and I need to paint so much it is overwhelming. I have painted approx half of what needs doing (the entire interior, minus our sons' room needs doing, including painting stained moldings and window trim and new primed window trim and moldings). Then, I get to finish a small section of exterior and paint the garage door. Once the interior is painted, and money allows, we need to rip up the dr and new den floor and put down new wood floors. We need to rip up our new kitchen floor for another one to be determined. Then, the backyard that got chewed up by machines will need fixing and we need a new fence (old ugly one had to get half torn down in the process). I expect to get the interior done in approx 4 months and the rest by Spring. We'll be right around the 1 year mark, if we are lucky!
(I am not even thinking of how long until the bs....)

Who else has gone past the one year mark, and not done yet?

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