I'd ask neighbors or other contractors you know in the trades. Even your realtor if you bought recently?

Thank you all!

So, how does one proceed if you moved to a area and don't know anyone? We moved to Florida from NY. Knew lots of people in NY. We don't know anyone here.

I want the kitchen done. Its complicated because it involves moving walls.

I have no idea who to call or where to begin.

Would really appreciate any advice how to begin.

Thank you,

Jane

I actually did get an architect rec from someone who was on the kitchen forums and happened to be in the same part of the world. Worked out fine...certainly better than the one my neighbor recommended who drew my house wrong. :/

We moved to Florida and added a really nice carport. DH found our contractor on Instagram. For window coverings, I asked our agent. Using the landscape maintenance company we saw across the street for several months. Asked a neighbor for dentist recommendations. NextDoor can be a good source too. Pay attention to HVAC, plumbing ett repair trucks you see in your area, then research onlne.

Not sure about your area, but ours is booming. We wanted to add a spa/hot tub to our pool but wait was 6 months and the price of a small pool, so we added an above the ground that blends with the house. For remodeling such as yours, be prepared to wait awhile on contractor availabity.

i certainly can understand hestation. There is one decorater, Beth H who seems helpful and nice. I think he won a Houzz award. There is another helpful person but I can’t recall her name.

I have quite a few customers from Houzz who reached out to me not only locally but nationwide and every design process involves using online design sessions via GoToMeeting software, etc. Locally usually design-build or just the design if they have their own contractor who can also be present during online sessions.

We go the Home Builders Association home shows in our area. You can google houses for the last year and view the staging and layout of the homes. If you like one... the write up gives credit, lists names. That would be how I would proceed. ♥

Ugh, I'm just at such a loss. I don't know how to begin. I need an architect to draw out a blueprint of what walls can be moved. Once I know that, I can start to look for a kitchen designer.

I actually looked on Houzz search for an architect and got a phone call from a nice women from Houzz, who said she could send someone. I agreed and a nice young man showed up. I was expecting he would go up in the attic and tell me what walls were supports and the walls which could be moved.

Nope. He chatted, looked around and said he would get back to me. I asked him, aren't you going to measure the space and look up in the attic? He said, 'Oh, no, I'm not an architect, once we finalize what you want I'll have my man come to measure and will draw up blueprints.'

The next day, I get an email from Houzz with a contract for me to sign. The contract was for everything, total kitchen remodel. Architects, contractors, designers, etc.

I'm not doing that, I have no idea what this company is or anything about them. This post will probably get pulled as I'm complaining about Houzz.

So, I'm still sitting here with this horrid kitchen.

Jane

Ug. That stinks. Do you have a local Nextdoor or other neighborhood forum? Ask your neighbors if there's one. (It's a good way to meet 'em if you haven't.)

Maybe reach out to Joseph Corlett, LLC. He is a contractor who gives pretty solid advice here on Houzz. He is in Florida, maybe he could point you in the right direction. Also @cpartist lives in Florida, Sarasota, I believe. She may have good advice/recs. She designed and built an incredible Arts and Crafts style house.

Don't know your area, but in our Florida County, we did not have an architect for our carport since our framers did a CAD based on two photos I gave them and our current house style. We are one block from the beach, so the County did require us to hire an engineer and he made CAD plans to submit. Our framers recommended our engineer. We've been required to work with engineers on past projects also in another state, even whe we were working with architects. So technically, you could probably skip the architect.

You could start a new thread in Kitchen (or edit this one), tagging Decorating and Building a Home asking for Florida Kitchen Designer Recommendations and add/zero in on location. But I still think NextDoor is a good place to start, then research.

Do you have access to see the direction of the ceiling joists in the area you are wanting to remodel? If so, you ought to be able to tell which walls are most likely load bearing. As a rule, they are the walls that run perpendicular to the ceiling joists. Generally, walls that run parallel to the ceiling joists are not load bearing. (Notice the number of weasel words in those sentences?!?!)

When I re-did the kitchen in my old house, I tried to hire a kitchen designer. It was a total bust! The one I hired could not keep appointments, even the ones she had set. The next one was so half-hearted in the interview that I didn’t hire her. I may have interviewed a third one. Can’t remember. I got much better advice by posting on the Kitchen Forum here. One thing I had was a to-scale line drawing of the kitchen area. That helped immensely.

Like a bunch of others on this forum, we are also in SW Florida. Here's how i find people:

- Ask neighbors. Even if you don't know them. Everyone is renovating right now - drop a note in the mailbox of your neighbors where there's work going on and ask them to text you if they wouldn't mind sharing their experiences on contractors.

- Ask your realtor. This is a no-brainer.

- Do some research on kitchen cabinet brands you like, by researching on this forum and the cabinet suppliers in your town. Go to the cabinet store fronts to see the cabinets in person, and when you find a couple stores/cabinets you get a good vibe from, ask them next steps. They almost always want you to have a contractor lined up before coming to them - so ask them for three names for contractors they like working with.

- Drive around a few neighborhoods and look for GC and architect signs. Look for projects of similar size/neighborhoods/style of house to yours, and keep note of the names you see. Google them. Look at their portfolios.

- Go on a neighborhood listserv. Even if you aren't currently a member, join something like Nextdoor. It's filled with boomers sharing this kind of info.

- Ask literally anyone you know in the new town. The yoga teacher. Your hair stylist. Your kids' friends parents at the busstop.

BUt you have to do some limited work yourself, by googling the recommendations you get, checking their reviews, filtering out those that don't look like a good fit, etc.

Go to NARI.org (National Association of the Remodeling Industry). Look for your local chapters and then browse the past Coty winners in your category (design/build, contractors, kitchen designers).

Second, go to their websites and look at their gallery of past work, portfolios etc… Also, look at their instagram accounts where they often tag their trade partners.

Third, read their reviews (be mindful that some may not be authentic - sometimes you have to dig into the reviewer).

There is alot of leg work involved in the process.

Good luck!

Thank you, everyone.

I really do not know my neighbors except my immediate nextdoor neighbor who lives alone and his house is a nightmare but we like him very much.

Covid has hampered getting to know people. Our area has an HOA which has meetings every few months but due to Covid they haven't had them and just do it online.

I think the idea of calling our Realtor might be an idea I hadn't considered.

Thanks again,

Jane

Did you ask the hoa? our hoa has a list of all different trades that people have used/recommended. also look on the township website

Also in SW FL. We found our builder through our Realtor and he has done many projects in our neighborhood and everyone loves him. We also interviewed another builder recommended by a member on Houzz. That builder was good too.

If you narrow down your area of FL, I am sure people reading will send you some recommendations. Make sure you have Messages turned on in your profile.