You might need an architect and a kitchen designer and a designer. You’ll definitely need a GC. Anf you’ll need to revise your start date to 2023. All of the good GC’s are booked until then.

What kind of setback regulations, environmental impact regulations, and view preservation regulations are you dealing with in planning an addition? Have you done any of the studies?

Post your layout, and your changes, and your budget and location. We can tell you what kind of help you need.

I am building a whole house without a hired/paid designer. An architect drew the plans and I have done all the design work and selection of materials. I have the time and I like my choices! I also spent the last 10 years remodeling a house and my parents have always been involved in the design of their projects, so I grew up with that experience.

A kitchen designer, at the very least, can help you end up with a working kitchen, whether it's suggesting options you don't know about, or making sure you don't overlook spacers that allow drawers to open in corners without hitting each other. Unless you've done a project this size before, I think you'll be glad of some professional guidance.

Your question asks about an interior designer. An interior designer helps you with the overall style and aesthetic look (form rather than function). Since you are talking about renderings and 3D images, I suspect in reality you are talking about a different type of professional. I think you will need to have some architectural drawing to submit for permitting purposes. These aren't horribly expensive.

I know so many people here to say hire, hire, hire. I guess my main concern would be if it is a good overall layout, and that is where I might want someone else's advice. Think about how much you know and how you pay attention to functional details, layouts, clearances etc. It sounds as though style-wise you already have a pretty good idea of what your eventual goal is.

Over the years we have done several fairly significant remodels without hiring the whole slew of people.

Decades ago we added on to our kitchen, changed the basement stairway and the outside entryway, and added a powder room. We designed the project ourselves and with one exception (the outside door we chose) have been pleased with it. People still complement us on our kitchen. The draftsman who drew up our plan gave us one good suggestion about a cabinet placement that we would have never thought of on our own. Other than that it was our plan. I am the one who made the trips down to the city permitting office to meet with their employees and get approvals. Then, we had a contractor build the exterior shell for us. After that, we acted as GC, did a lot of DIY, and workers for the interior portions of the project.

We designed the entire remodel ourselves when we gutted our 1000 sq, ft. basement. Frankly, we found that we could do a better design job than some of the locally well-known, design/build firms we contacted. We did the drawings on some very low cost software we bought. We first contracted with an egress window company to install those, and we hired a drain tile company to install drain tiling. It wasn't hard to arrange, and we saved money having that work done first without GC profit tied on to those structural portions of the project. Then, for the rest, we hired a GC to do the actual remodeling work. Being available and on hand to catch things and answer questions is key to this working out.

Now we're in the process of a major remodel in a second home we recently bought. We have done all the design work, but I have asked TONS of questions here about the kitchen. We have a GC, and he arranged for an architect firm to produce the measurements and drawings that we had to submit to the county for permitting.

I have always enjoyed the idea of remodeling and architectural design, and my husband knows a lot about mechanicals and handyman issues. I've always paid attention to and visited the various remodeling showcases locally. So, for us it has worked out. I guess you need to think about your background and knowledge before you tackle this.

I am a huge fan of the architect Sarah Susanka and highly recommend her book Not So Big Remodeling. Buy it today.

Okay first I would need to see the plans and if you have an actual architect they usually have designers on staff. You can get some good free info here if you post to scale plans showing all measurements , windows doorways and where those doorways lead . Right now we have no info so not much help coming from here and honestly your description of the kitchen needs is pretty vague so IMO yes you need at least a KD not a cabinet salesperson and IMO there is no such thing as semi custom

The commenter above is referring to an interior decorator, not an interior designer. An interior designer will provide 3d renderings, elevations, and floor plans. Since this is your forever home, I would invest in a good interior designer with an emphasis on kitchen design (they are out there). Personally, I would want some help coordinating the different contractors/subcontractors needed to get the job done. Plus, designers generally already have a trusted team they work with which ultimately can save a ton of time and money.

Wow, some great comments. I am attaching the design in this note. I want to work with local designers but I may not be able to wait that long and feel i could probably work fine with a local home supply for cabinet design and get my own appliances (although I'm planning on reusing most of the existing, well working ones). Has anyone had success working with any of the home supply stores that also do cabinets? I will continue to see if I can get a kitchen/bath designer on board.

So this is the story - I have a small house, built in 1947. It's in an area where all the original homes were small, beach cottages and the lots are generally less than 3000sf. The most accessible property to expand the house is to move the southern part of the house to eat up where a very long driveway is. I hope that makes sense.

I know passing through the kitchen to get to the dining room is less than ideal, but it is cost prohibitive to swap the positions of the existing kitchen and the new dining room. My priorities are (in order) kitchen, dining room, bathroom, the rest, so getting the kitchen right is most important to me.

Thanks for all your encouragement,

cara

The kitchen layout is not great. Any chance the dining nook can be where the sink is, and the whole kitchen can be from the pantry to the slider with island in front of it?

not really. that would require moving all the plumbing and existing kitchen. it would be just too expensive. Thanks.

Ok, in that case, maybe change the island to a peninsula on the stove side. Then you’d have a clear path from fridge to sink. But also make sure the table you want will fit in the dining room. It looks tight.