10 Tests for You And Your Contractor’s First Meeting
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teresale2013
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Gearing up for major reno on Kitchen, Mudroom & Pantry
Comments (22)Thank you all for your comments and advice, it is very much appreciated. I met with a design person from a local cabinet company on Saturday and he sent me some preliminary concepts. @Bob W - Thank you, it was my husband's vest that he wore all the time and I don't have the heart to remove it as he always hung it on the chair when he took it off. @live_wire_oak - thank you for your input. I work for attorneys so I am going to have them review the contract prior to signing. I meet with the contractor next week. @Patricia Colwell - Thank you. I am going to get rid of the oversized pub table as well as the small bench sitting under the mirror. I plan on putting a much smaller standard height square table and/or rectangle to sit maybe 3/4 people. I am a cooker so I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. As far as storage, I have more than enough as it is just me. I do have a dining room (below) off of the kitchen, which after the kitchen is complete, I may or may not put a small dining room table in there. It is empty right now. I have had it both ways over the years (i.e. dining table and I also had it as just another sitting room). It never really got used as a dining room. My budget is around $50,000.00 so I would like to stay around that. Considering the house was built in the 30's. I have been getting bids for the job for over a year now and have had contractors bids from $45,000.00 to $75,000.00 but that also included the back porch and bathroom. The bathroom has already been completed. The contractor that I am going with (I have not signed the contract - meeting next week) has bid the job at around $45,000.00 including materials. We are supposed to go over specifications when we meet. I have a detailed list of my specifications which need to be included with the contract. @Design Girl I'm not going to change the layout, other than I am going to extend the cabinets over a little i.e. on the other side of the stove and also extending over to the doorway to the back porch door. I have also asked him to send me an image with white cabinets as well. As far as the LVP flooring, I have it just about in my entire house. Unfortunately when I started renovating back in 2017, the only wood flooring in the house was a mess and could not be salvaged when I tore out carpeting, so I opted for the vinyl plank flooring because it was within my budget. Would love wood flooring but I just can't afford it. The wood floors were a mess and I also had a large iron metal return vent where you see the plywood square. I wish I could have salvaged the wood floors but they were so damaged with nail holes, digs, cracks etc. This is my current vinyl plank flooring: I have to say that I do love my vinyl plank flooring. I also put vinyl plank type tile in my bathroom and even my best friend who likes the finer things in life, thought that the bathroom tile was marble. She had to take her shoe off to feel the floor LOL. As far as tile, I had ceramic tile flooring in my bathroom prior to remodeling and I ended up with 3 cracked tiles from dropping stuff (I am clumsy), so that is why I opted for the LVF. The cabinet company sent me some computer images of what it would look like in grey. I do not like the countertop. Also, I want the cabinets to go to the ceiling with crown at the top. My ceiling are an off size. Right now they are 8'9". I want the ceilings tore out so that I can have recessed lighting installed so the top will changing depending on how far down they come with the ceiling after tear out. Thank you all very much, any suggestions and/or comments are appreciated as I am all over the place right now....See MoreSmall master remodeling cost
Comments (29)As far as materials go, you might be surprised what Home Depot sells. I'm not talking about what is immediately available in the stores, although I have used the Daltile subway tile before and it worked out great. They sell a huge number of tiles and other things online that they don't carry in-store. They buy from manufacturers such as Emser and Daltile and it's exactly the same tile as if you go to ProSource or to the manufacture directly. For 3 upstairs bathroom remodels, we ordered all of the tile and most of the rest of the materials off of HD online, to be delivered to the store for pick up, including the toilets, lights, shower tile, floor tile, etc. I had to immediately return some of the tiles, right there at the pick up desk, because it's sometimes hard to see exactly what something looks like online, but only a couple times. My tile pro approved all the choices and if he didn't I returned it. I bought my tubs and chrome Delta fixtures from Fergusons because their prices were almost exactly the same as HD and I like their customer service. One of the reasons we decided to do this is that our Amex points no longer work on the airline that is hubbed in our city, so the points were just sitting there unused. We bought a bunch of HD gift cards to buy almost all of the materials to ease the cash-flow situation. So, if you have Amex points, that might be a nice use for them. About the skills of the tile professional: IMO the tile pro is the most important person on the worksite. You've got to have an experienced, skilled pro for a tiled shower who will build it and waterproof it properly. That skill costs money. If your GC, or the person in the bathroom showroom you talked to, hires a cheap hack to do the tile work, you can't even be assured of proper waterproofing. Ask them to explain to you what methods and materials they use for building and waterproofing the shower. They should be able to explain it to you clearly (and it should be detailed in the contract). If you're unsure of what they tell you (and the language in the contract), you can post on here to ask the pros is it s correct. A skilled tile pro can make low and mid-priced materials look like a million bucks just as a hack can ruin your expensive materials....See Morekitchen contractor selection
Comments (11)Well I can offer a few things that I wish I had known and done before my recent remodel disaster (some pictures are in my Ideabook). First off, do not trust anything verbal. Do not allow yourself to be swayed by charisma or promises. Do not rely on membership or sponsorship in local groups as some type of authentication. Do your homework - check out their online references - are they claiming to be in business for many years yet only have one or two reviews? Are their pages shut down where no reviews can be left? Check out your county public records - are they being sued? If they're being sued for not paying their bills, can you trust that your payments will actually go to your job and not be redirected? If something goes wrong, and you needed to take legal action, a contractor already deep in financial difficulty isn't going to pay on a judgment you might gain any more than the other unpaid bills. Check your state's website. Are they licensed? Don't allow the contractor to dictate the payment terms. Make sure that work is done and that you have release of liens in hand from both them and all sub contractors before each draw is issued. In my case, midway thru the job, the contractor refused to honor the terms of the contract and left us high and dry to procure our own countertops AFTER they'd been templated, and the payment made, meaning that I was liable for a mechanics lien for countertops that had not been installed, and for which we had no contract setting price, performance, etc. We had to go through the process of legal notification of paying a sub, and allowing time to cure the breach, meanwhile without a working kitchen for 7 weeks, and totally at the mercy of the subcontractor as far as price and workmanship, while our Cambria countertops were left outside in the sun for almost a month, which has resulted in one countertop being a different color than the others. And that's just one issue with this remodel....See MoreBadly needed kitchen remodel -- HELP!!
Comments (12)I agree, the layout is far from ideal. The frig is in an awkward spot right now, and you want to move it where the stove is and put the stove over there. Thats a terrible spot for a stove, right up against the wall. No room to move around well, and could even be a fire hazzard near the wall. Stove isnt in a great location right now, because, someone could come through that doorway and bump something that is cooking. If its at all possible, get the sink under that window, and move your stove and frig over to that other wall, where there is room, to actually use them safely. I would rather see a microwave on the counter somewhere, than see it above the stove. A nice hood vent would look much nicer. Your dog is gorgeous. :-))...See MoreLove stone homes
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