The night before kitchen Reno begins

5 years ago

Anyone else sitting here thinking they must be crazy to start a kitchen Reno. 4 weeks before Christmas????

We’v e been in this house since October 12 and have the Sunroom conversion to a 4 season room well underway. Here’s the kitchen pre- Reno, the only thing I’ll miss is the incredibly powerful old stove and double oven!

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Sharon Perkins
Original Author

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

I can't believe where we were with this just one year ago. In case anyone is interested in a followup, the Coretec floor is holding up just fine. I have a large and rambunctious dog who often slides all the way across the floor and I don't see any scratches. The cabinets are Sophie's old favorite(ha ha ha) Fabuwood. They have been absolutely great. They're deep, the crown molding looks great, nothing binds or sticks and the finish is very washable.

So there you have it. Yes, you can have an entire kitchen, including taking down a wall and a peninsula, moving a door and a refrigerator, done for $20,000. In a week! Is it a Houzz worthy $100,00 kitchen? No. That would be ridiculous in my modest over 55 neighborhood. But if you have a modest budget, don't be discouraged into believing you can't remodel your kitchen for less than $50,000. You can. Here's the proof.

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Comments (50)

Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
Here’s the sunroom pre and post Reno. Curtains weren’t up yet and floor still needs to be done. Paint color is BM Smoke. I tried two other colors first but they were too blue. This is absolutely perfect. Floor will be Mannington AudUSA Max Dockside Seashell. Hoping it’s the right mixture of gray and tan.
mainenell
5 years ago
Yes, I think you are crazy. Have your cabinets arrived and been inspected yet? (Demo should not begin until then.) The best timeline, with no hiccups, is probably about 3 weeks.
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Thanks for all the nice comments, everyone. It's nice to get confirmation that we're not crazy! Flowerlady and Shades of Idaho, don't feel too badly about that thing on the patio. I bought it as an unfinished, unassembled furniture thing at Menards about 10 years ago for about $100. I was in a huge hurry to assemble it so I just slapped it together, not realizing that things like drawers are supposed to be checked for square. Then I proceeded to finish it after seeing Martha Stewart do it. I didn't realize I could pick whatever color I wanted so I literally did it exactly like Martha, same colors and everything! Then I waxed it. Ugh, it was ugly. Anyway, the drawers never worked properly because they weren't square. It was irritating. Three people from Freecycle were no-shows (I'm done with Freecycle ... it's too infuriating), so it went off to Goodwill. Maybe someone can redo the drawers to make them work, but I feel for them dealing with that wax. @ Krycek, those little gable doppelgangers (I love that term for them ... wish I had thought of it!) were the bane of our existence. They caused these miserable flat spots in the roof where snow and ice would collect. My husband had to go on the roof every time it snowed or else we'd have major leaking. No roofer or insulation person could overcome the issue. It wasn't a huge problem until we moved in because the house was mostly used as a summer residence until we came along so there wasn't such a temperature difference inside in winter because they had the heat on a minimum setting. For everyone who mentioned that horrific finish. It's all over the house with the exception of the kitchen. We thought we had plaster walls, but it turns out it was plaster applied over drywall. I can tell the room they started in because the swoops are super close together. They did it AROUND all the light fixtures, making them very difficult to change out. We painted the guest bedroom first and in a 10x10 room went through two gallons of paint! It wasn't primed (or painted for that matter) and it just sucked up the paint. And every one of the tops of those swoops had to be done with a brush because even the thickest roller wouldn't cover there. I'll so happy to be rid of it although we'll still have it in the back room, downstairs bathroom and hallway. @ Traceee- We've actually lived in this house for eight years. We always knew that we hoped to stay in the house forever if possible, but at some point we'd need a second bathroom. We thought we'd address that in the future, but having to deal with the leaky roof situation advanced the plan a bit. We're not living in the house right now, although we were planning to. We moved our bedroom downstairs (to what was the master when we moved in, but we preferred to have our bedroom upstairs and additional living space downstairs) and were going to stay there for all other than the one or two weeks when a portion of the roof was missing. But again I was apparently being optimistic, and completely underestimated the disruption to the rest of the house. They had to rip out the back of the pantry to get the abandoned chimney out and now they are going to run all the electrical, HVAC, etc. through there, so the kitchen is a mess. You can't get to the basement from anywhere but outside so you spend a lot of time going in an out of different doors. We are fortunate to have a family cottage nearby that we can stay at so we figured we'd just get out. There is limited heat at the cottage though, so hopefully we won't be out here much past mid-October. Estimated completion date is the first week of November, but one of the last things that is being done is the deck, and certainly we can be in the house while that is being constructed. I think some of our neighbors are surprised that we aren't adding more. In addition to the fact that we are hampered by shoreline and floodplain zoning issues (and therefore it would have been very difficult to add-on out), not to mention budget, we really love our small (1,700 sq. ft. if you include the finished part of the basement) house. We will still have the smallest house in the neighborhood, but I think as far as value goes, we'll be a little more competitive now. The sagging floor thing was not a complete surprise as our contractor sort of suspected it. The fact that there were no headers over the downstairs windows WAS a surprise. I don't think adjusting for that has affected the budget ... just temporarily slowed them down. The scary part comes this week when they try to tie in the new roof to the old roof and we try to correct the sagging roof over the living room. I'll breathe a sigh of relief if we can get through that part without any expensive surprises. With these old houses (built in 1938), you just don't know what you're going to find.
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LOL mtnfever! On the right is actually a piece of framing that had to come down from elsewhere, placed here on my dining room floor for the time being. Behind it is the stack of sheet rock hopefully being installed as we speak. Together it looks a bit like a stage in the middle of my dining room, now that I see it with fresh eyes. I see how it could be confusing! The photo is taken from my entrance, there are two stairs to get up to the main floor. To the left is the stairs and landing that head up to the second floor. The dining room is immediately to the right/front and the kitchen is WAAAYYYY in the back behind the big beam/bulkhead. Hope that perspective helps a bit! Thanks to all for appreciating my late night ode. Breezy, nice to see you have internet again, I know your kitchen is fabulous so seeing your "before" helps me have hope that this process may end one day in a functional and pretty kitchen! CEFreeman I hope you'll get your finished space sooner than later! You clearly have much more patience and tolerance than me.
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K Laurence
5 years ago
Yes.
stillpitpat
5 years ago
I've read this ^^ a few times, and I am curious about that. In my case, cabinets were not even really started until they measured after demo. Both companies had the plan, of course, and probably made some sort of preparation, but the final order did not officially go in until they could do precise measurements after demo. That was explained to me matter-of-factly, but I gather that is not necessarily the norm.
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
Cabinets are sitting in my garage. GC said two weeks. It’s not a big kitchen and he isn’t putting in the new floors. Two wall changes, making a full wall a half wall and moving the fridge to make it easier to run the water line. Need to move the door to the side porch slightly to have room for the fridge. Removing the peninsula altogether. Last kitchen 16 years ago, took 3 weeks but had more substantial wall changes.
daisychain Zn3b
5 years ago
OMG! We had the same range with over the top 2nd oven. We loved it. One time we were sitting enjoying our dinner at the table right next to the stove when there was a huge bang. We looked over and the glass in the top oven door had exploded. No idea why.

Good luck with the reno. It will be worth it - hopefully.
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
That stove has been the one bright spot in the kitchen since we moved in. It’s honestly pristine and it cooks everything fast— and well! Coil electricstoves cook so much better than the glass tops. Too bad I hate the look..
Virginia Vidoni
5 years ago
I just showed this to my husband! This is my mom's old stove! It lasted for years and years and was sold with the house when my parents moved to a senior living center! I always questioned whether I remembered the top oven correctly!! Thank you for that pictures!
kazmom
5 years ago
“Have your cabinets arrived and been inspected yet? (Demo should not begin until then.)“

I find this interesting. While I totally understand the thought process behind it, I wonder how feasible it really is for most people. I honestly can’t remember if our cabinets had arrived prior to our remodel starting, but even if they did they certainly weren’t inspected. There was no realistic way to inspect them. We had no place big enough to store cabinets unpackaged for weeks until they were installed. They would have had to be unboxed, checked and reboxed. I can’t imagine how long that would take or the potential for damage as they are being handled even more being reboxed. I think it really comes down to your GC or KD knowing the cabinet brand and the quality and how hard (or easy) it will be to get fixes if needed.
kimberlyshiff
5 years ago
I am in Week 2 of my kitchen reno. I totally agree about my 35 year old wall oven. That thing was a champ!

And, no, I don’t think you’re crazy!
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
Kazmom, I agree. We checked two of the cabinets but taking them all out was not possible. I think it does come down to knowing how easy they are to replace if there’s a problem. We’re using what Sophie so elegantly calls “cheepchinesecrapola” so there’s nothing custom in the cabinets

We’ve already had our first delay, the demo guy is sick. My family has had this horrible bug that’s going around and I hope that’s not what he has, because it lasts a week. Thank you, Kimberlyshiff for not thinking I’m crazy! I’m having a houseful of guests for Christmas and know I’m taking a risk. If it turns out badly we’ll have a good story to talk about in the years ahead.

We’ve held big family gatherings in chaos before.

My parents completely renovated an old house some 30 years ago and it took several years. Pictures from those years are some of our favorites.
cat_ky
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
LOL, its probably crazy, but, its something that would most likely happen at my house, and we all live through it. Sorry your demo guy is sick. There is a bug going on around here too, and it lasts at least a week, and more for some people. Good Luck and post some pictures as your room changes. Oh and for stove tops, I agree coil tops are the best. After trying other type stove tops, and not liking them at all, I finally went and bought a stove top with coil burners 2 yrs ago. It works great.
townlakecakes
5 years ago
Step one of our reno was building a shed in the backyard to hold all our kitchen stuff. Cabinets went in there, but we did all the demo and rebuilding ourselves so we knew we had plenty of time. If we had hired a contractor, I would have wanted the cabinets delivered and inspected prior to starting to keep down time to a minimum. As it was, we were 7 months between demo and installing cabinets.

And funny about that double oven. My sister just bought a house with that same one. She hates how ugly it is but it’s so useful she’s even putting off anything cosmetic to the last.
townlakecakes
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Oh...and yes...crazy. We waited until after Christmas to start. Foundation late in January then kicked off demo right before Valentine’s Day. We pushed hard to get the kitchen usable again by thanksgiving. (Full diy, 3 load bearing walls, moving and enlarging windows, running new pex water lines, new waste line, new electric and insulation, leveling floor...the works) We lived with concrete floors in the living room the whole time because I couldn’t stand the thought of putting the nasty carpet back after the foundation repair. We were watching the macys parade and laying floor on thanksgiving morning.
kazmom
5 years ago
”If we had hired a contractor, I would have wanted the cabinets delivered and inspected prior to starting to keep down time to a minimum.” - If we had somewhere to leave them unpacked that would be a great idea, but we needed them packed to stack the boxes. I think we would have had an increased chance of damage to the cabinets unpacking and repacking them. When they were unpacked everything was perfect, so it worked out for us. The GC did say if there were any issues the cabinet company (Bertch) would expedite replacements (I understand not all cabinet companies do this from what I read on here), but we had no issues.
Roberta Adams
5 years ago
Our cabinets arrived so bashed up and crushed that we did not have to open the boxes to see there was a problem. We paid $1,000 for shipping and they arrived in a heap. They were shipped through UPS freight and here we are, 5 months later, still trying to get paid for damages they caused. UPS has simply chosen to ignore us. Good luck with your cabinets and can’t wait to see the finished kitchen. Also I love the flooring you have chosen for your sunroom.
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
Demo went really well today. Old cabinets are out and no major surprises found in the soffits. Started to modify one wall. They seem pretty confident that this will all be done ne t week. That would be wonderful.
alanalinette
5 years ago
I’ll see your crazy kitchen reno before Christmas and I’ll raise you: we’re starting our own kitchen renovation in a week (maybe two) AND our third baby is due second week in January. And my husband is recovering from shoulder surgery 10 days ago so he basically only has one arm.
Virginia Vidoni
5 years ago
Oh my gosh, as someone so smartly said to me once, "Is that wise?" And I said, "No, but we are doing it anyway!" You sure have guts and fortitude and tons of resilience!!
Home4Here
5 years ago
Just finished our kitchen reno - a few grey hairs later, I'm here to wish you all the best!
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
Alanalinette, you are much braver than I am lol. Are you doing a full reno?
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
Cabinets all opened and looking great!
stillpitpat
5 years ago
alanalinette, we began a two-week gut rehab of our main bathroom the day after our youngest was born. I will never forget being in the hospital room when the contractor called my husband about starting demo, and my husband telling him we just had a baby. We didn't plan it that way, but he was premature, so we just threw up our hands. And it ended up working out fine. He was in NICU during the construction, and the house was all settled by the time he came home. Win win! I wish you luck in your reno. Get it done and enjoy that baby!
alanalinette
5 years ago
Sharon, yep we’re doing a full kitchen reno. But we’ve hired out the work and the overall footprint is staying the same. Of course, I’m still expecting delays and set backs but hoping we won’t be months (and months) without a working kitchen. Our timeline should be close to 4 weeks since most materials are onsite this week or next. Fingers crossed!

Stilpat - I’m just focusing on the lovely finished product that will help make life easier for a young family of (soon to be!) five. I’m dreaming of functional work space, drawer storage, an induction cooktop and LIGHT in my normally dark kitchen. Will hopefully make the interim weeks more bearable. And if not, the bad will make for funny stories later.
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
My pre Christmas Reno is going great! Granite is going in today. Most of the cabinets are also in. Granite is Marine Blue, also seems to be called Van Gogh or Starry Night. It is beautiful!
Anne Duke
5 years ago
No time like the present. BTW it’s looking great.
townlakecakes
5 years ago
Wow, Sharon. That’s fast!! And looking good. Beautiful Van Gogh!
cat_ky
5 years ago
Looking very good so far. You just might finish it all before Christmas. :-)
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
Yup, going to make it by Christmas lol. Kitchen will be done by Wednesday. Floor will go in after December 10th (backordered, of course).
traci_from_seattle
5 years ago
Very nice! I love your countertop!
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
I moved into this house in October. Most of my kids haven't seen it yet, and they're all coming for Christmas, so I'm very happy that it will be done. As if a house is ever done, lol.
Janet
5 years ago
That’s a pretty impressive timeline you’ve pinned down! My kitchen was gutted on October 1st. I’m looking at a “completion” date of Dec. 19. With luck. Congratulations!
salonva
5 years ago
awesome countertops!

I am not sure if I understood are you are changing the floor in the kitchen as well? Because it looks nice already and harmonious with your new selections.
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
Yes, we're changing the floor. We removed a peninsula and shortened a wall, so there's no tile under those areas. The old floor would actually work quite well otherwise. We're putting the same LVP, Norwegian Maple by Coretec, in the hallway, dining room and kitchen. The color is actually quite similar!
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
Janet, are you doing the work yourselves? If we were doing the work I'm sure it would take until next Christmas!
jjaazzy
5 years ago
Love the wild granite.
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
Done! One week, as promised. Except forthe floor, which I really regret ordering from another place. And best of all, I love it!
townlakecakes
5 years ago
Woohoo! Time to bake now!
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
And clean all the dust off everything lol. These guys were great about cleaning up, but fine dust still gets everywhere!
cat_ky
5 years ago
It looks great, congratulaions. As to the fine dust, well, you may find some of that still roaming around a couple of years from now. I am not sure where it hides, but, every now and then I see a bit of it on my dark color dining room table. I am sure it blows from somewhere, when the heating and AC come on, but, I know it isnt coming from the vents, because they were covered and sealed. LOL
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
5 years ago
And the floor is down! Still needs trim but Going in tomorrow. This is Coret

ec Plus Norwegian Maple and it’s exactly what I wanted. Not rustic.For anyone considering a “wilder” stone pattern, you can see that once its horizontal, it is not at all overwhelming. If you like something a little more interesting, go for it! I’m very happy with everything in this kitchen. And another thing I wouldn’t hesitate to use is a cast iron sink, this is Kohler biscuit.. I had my last one 16 years and it looked great. I’m also a fan of drop in, never could warm up to undercounts. Heck, I’m happy with the whole thing! Buying a house that needed work rather than buying someone else’s remodel was definitely the way to go for me.
traci_from_seattle
5 years ago
Nice job! It looks really great and just in time for Christmas. I like how you used the countertop material on the window sill. It’s too pretty not to use everywhere you can!
cat_ky
4 years ago
Your floor looks great. I am glad you are enjoying your new kitchen. Its nice to read a post where everything has gone so well, and the owner is happy. There are so many, that everything that can go wrong has. Congratulations.
Marybee
4 years ago
It looks great. Thanks for following up - so few people do and I’m left hanging...
AC LB
4 years ago
Gorgeous!! What a transformation. Enjoy your space!
HU-180224990
3 years ago
Thanks for all the posts! Do you have any more pics of your Coretec kitchen floor? I am debating this color and have a sample but wonder how it looks with the repeats. Are you happy with how it is holding up?
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
3 years ago
Yes, absolutely!
Sharon Perkins
Original Author
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
I like it so much I had the living room done a few months ago. I originally thought I would keep the carpet. Yes, I should have gotten a bigger rug, but I love this one! The flowered rug is the hearth rug, not sure how it showed up in this picture lol
HU-180224990
3 years ago
Thanks so much for the update and photos, Sharon! Great to hear how a product is holding up.