Bam! This summer we remodeled our kitchen. Here’s a little flashback of what we bought with the house in 2012:
And what we updated it to over the years to 2021:
AND Ta-Da! Post Remodel: (Slideshow at end)
Doing a full remodel has been on the project list since we bought the house in 2012. The plan was to do it this year because Andrew would be starting Kindergarten full time and the boys could all eat breakfast and lunch at school. What we did not originally plan on was a global pandemic. I mean, who’d have thought?
All things considered, our project went really really smoothly and was about 6 or 7 weeks start to finish. Our contractor wanted it done in a month, but in talking to friends I was going to be pretty impressed with anything under 8 weeks, and honestly planned for 3 months. We started interviewing contractors in March with a target start date of Mid-August. We chose our contractor (On the Level) by the beginning of June. By mid-July I had a garage full of appliances and fixtures, flooring ordered, the new window ordered and tile picked out. With supply chain issues running rampant I was pretty sure if this project were to be held up, it wouldn’t be waiting on anything I had control over.
As luck would have it my parents came to visit at the end of July and we found out (based on the cabinet maker’s schedule) our project would be starting 2 weeks early. It was a blessing in disguise as my dad offered to help salvage some of the old kitchen cabinets and move them to the basement, while my mom helped pack and move things downstairs in order for demo to start. We had about 3 days of notice and we made the most of it! I underestimated how much stuff was in my kitchen and mudroom, so the extra hands were really really appreciated!
Tear out went great and things moved along really well. It was fun to see the project move forward each day. Then our first minor setback occurred. Unfortunately our cabinet shop’s main compressor went out. When I say “went out” I literally mean went out, as the pressure relief failed and blew a hole in their roof. He told me there was a part they never actually found. This set us back a few days to a week on cabinets. Just the sort of stuff that happens during the course of a project. Our window was also delayed, which was a blessing in disguise as when our cabinets came, it allowed them to lift the corner lazy susan cabinet in through the rough window open instead of dismantling it to get it through a door. Not all delays are a bad thing.
Everything again rolled along smoothly until we got to the countertops. We ordered plenty early, but the first piece of quartz arrived damaged. We changed our plan slightly to continue without a 4 week wait for another slab stuck on a container ship (yay pandemic!) but then the 2nd piece was broken during fabrication. Finally the 3rd piece fabricated without issue and was installed. Do you know how important sinks are in a kitchen? Because countertops meant we could have a sink and man that’s what we were really missing.
From there it was sinks and backsplash tile. We had one custom light switch cover that came in a week or so later and just like that it was done. 6-7 weeks despite the pandemic delays. Our contractor was awesome and really moved things along. We didn’t spend much downtime waiting on anything that was within our control, which was one of my goals from the start. Here is a nice little summary slideshow for everyone to enjoy!
(Hover mouse to pause)
