How long did your kitchen remodeling take?
6 years ago
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- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
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How long did your build take or is projected to take?
Comments (30)Questioning the 20 months won't seem as appropriate once you start building :) There are soooooooo many variables, the county, inspectors, timing (lining up the crews), shipping, screw-ups, weather, materials, personalities, site (level, sloped, soggy, etc...), things you weren't expecting and decide you don't like, things you hadn't thought about and you want, labor, transportation (I'm very rural and don't know how many times I heard "they're having some trouble with they're truck/s), deliveries, you can probably think of a dozen more things that may or may not go as planned. Unless you have a contract that SPECIFICALLY states a completion date (not, it will take 6 months) there's nothing that says they have to have it done when they 'think' it'll be done. Only way to hold them accountable is to put some delinquency clause in the contract that states if they go beyond a specified date there will be a X% per week penalty (or whatever). I doubt you could get a builder to sign something like that w/out a LOT of padding....See MoreHow long did it take for your GC to price your job?
Comments (9)We interviewed 5 GCs. First was sort of interested, but our job on an older home was different from the usual work he did building new and/or remodeling newer homes, and it didn't "feel" like a good fit, so we didn't pursue it, even though he seemed like a decent guy and his portfolio of work looked like quality. Second came to look, but when he saw significant structural work he wasn't interested - he was more a cabinet installer/internal design kind of GC than somebody to handle this project. Next one came HIGHLY recommended from a friend who had just done some similar work a few months prior. He came round and gave us some quite attractive rough figures compared to the previous and we wanted some time to think about his suggestions; called him a couple of weeks later to come back, we talked further and asked him for a written bid. Never heard back from him, although we continued to call him to try and get a formal bid. #4 was referred to us via a very bizarre chain of events: even though we got the feeling the project was stalled since we couldn't find a builder, we decided to close on the equity loan anyway since it was all ready to go. At the closing, the title agent started chatting to us, noted that we lived in the same neighbourhood as her family including her brother who oh-by-the-way was a contractor and did we have one yet? I took the number partly to be polite and partly because he was (literally) around the corner, but didn't hold out much hope. In the meantime, I already had an appointment scheduled with a fairly glossy design-build firm so I kept it - they said that we would need at a MINIMUM double our budget, so that was a short meeting! So... feeling somewhat trepidatious I called the guy around the corner that had been recc'd at the bank. He was out of town but we scheduled a meeting for a few days later. He spent 2 hrs at the house, and drove me to see some work he was doing on another property (beautiful work - sealed the deal from my point of view). He came back a few days later with his associate to have another look to see how they could manage the structural stuff, and emailed me a basic proposal a few days after that. We hashed out the remaining details by email and he started 3 weeks later. He CLEARLY wanted the job - he was interested in the house, he (as I later learned) was fascinated by the books on our shelves many of which reflected his own interests and he definitely wanted the gig and he just liked us as much as we did him - it was clearly a "good fit". I had seen his work, his licence and checked his insurance was ok (they all were, of course!), but other than the title agent had no personal references. The day we started work I was PANIC STRICKEN with "what if's?" - I was letting a perfect stranger cut my house in half, I had no human references and aaaaaakkkkkkkk... what was I doing! A neighbour reassured me that she'd seen his work in the neighbourhood and, that in fact, he'd turned DOWN a job she'd asked him to do, but even so - I didn't necessarily do this "by the book"! As those who have been following my renovation know, this guy has been AMAZING, transforming our ideas into reality at a more than fair price (in fact, I truly believe he undercharged us somewhat given the numbers I see other people throwing around for their work). And he, his wife and kids have become friends in the course of it all, so it has truly been "win win" even if we DIDN'T find him via a "conventional" route. Anyway, long answer. I guess the short version is if they follow through, they want the job... !...See MoreHow long did it take to clean out your kitchen?
Comments (9)All clear! Wow that was a lot of work. 6 weeks ago we decided to fix up our mudroom/laundry room for mostly aesthetic reasons since you have to walk through it to get to soon to be brand new kitchen. We've wanted a counter and sink in there so this was a great time to do it so we could have a really nice temporary kitchen area. I busted my butt til 2am last night to get that room ready to receive our temp kitchen items. PHEW! DH cleaned out the current kitchen yesterday. It's truly amazing how many things we have that have not been used in 15+ years. We'll purge while moving back in. My strategy is to put in place what I know we use regularly and leave the rest packed. Next summer, we'll have a garage sale with whatever is left in boxes. If we haven't sought out an item in a year, we certainly don't need it. I still can't get over how much useless stuff we were storing. We hooked our fridge up in the mudroom, but now I really want to tackle cleaning that out too. IÂm sure itÂs the same deal with an extensive pickle and jelly collection that just needs to end up in our compost pile....See MoreHow long did it take you to move back in to your kitchen?
Comments (10)When I did the kitchen in my previous home, I purged (I mean PURGED) before packing it up. Once the new kitchen was up and running, I had nothing in the kitchen that was not used. Now that we've moved and are doing another kitchen, the only difference is that some of what was previously in the kitchen will be in a hallway pantry this time (small apartment kitchen vs. house). Also, when I planned the new kitchen, every drawer and cabinet was specifically designed for something, so I know exactly where everything will go. I hope it won't take more than one or two days to unpack....See More- 6 years ago
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