More like: Realistic Expectations

If you’re about to embark on a remodeling project in the home you’re living in, knowing realistically how the process is most likely to go will:

• minimize (if not entirely eliminate)  ulcers, headaches, and meltdowns
• help sustain your sense of humor
• enter the family history log as an adventure rather than a catastrophe
• enable you to continue to enjoy alcohol as a recreational beverage, as opposed to an addiction
• prompt greater appreciation for home as your private sanctum

Bumps & warts

We do our best to reduce the number of potential surprises before the first deconstruction hammer hits the site.  That being said, no designer can foresee all possible conditions of a space that may affect the speed or sequence of a project’s execution.

Here are a few things we have encountered on every installation we have done to date:

• Floors that are not level – doesn’t matter how old or new the existing structure is. Unless we’re working in an R&D lab where gravity & stability are extremely important, no floor is 100% level. Ever.
• Walls that are not fully square or plumb – same as above
• Departure from cabinet size and/or placement mid-installation is expensive and will delay and frustrate all fronts of an installation – pushing it around on paper is MUCH cheaper and easier than in 3D

And here are some things we have only encountered once or twice on an installation:

• Unnecessary damage to our cabinet installation by other trades – once, a ceiling contractor walked on all of our cabinet bases that had no countertops yet.  His body weight compromised the non structural components on 4 cabinets, which we had to reinforce to restore their integrity. Translation: $$$
• Water damage.  We pulled some old base cabinets out for a remodel, which revealed floor rot from an old leak.  It was about a 3′ by1′ stretch of subfloor & sill plate we had to refurbish prior to the new cabinet installation.
• Incomplete trade prep work.  We arrived for a new cabinet installation one morning to find that the plumbing supply & waste lines were not shortened & capped.  The valves & p-trap were still happily poking out of the wall, instead of straight, capped lines which we neatly feed through holes we drill in the backs of new sink cabinets.  In this case, there was no time to get a plumber out to properly cap the stubs, so we ended up installing the sink base cabinet with no back.  Not a big deal since it had cabinets on either side of it stabilizing it, but when they open the cabinet they get to see the ugly wall under the sink.

The Ordinary Process

There’s a great post today over at Daily5Remodel about the normal conditions under which a remodeling process happens most often.  It has a nice pre-construction letter by Meadowview Construction in Georgetown Mass. that really prepares the homeowner’s expectations in line with a garden variety remodel experience.

Preparation & realistic expectation are key to flexibility when things do get a little sideways (and they always do, it’s just a matter of the degree of sideways-ness.)

Did you remodel your own kitchen?

If so, we want to hear about it. Good, bad & ugly.  Some of the most difficult things to convey about kitchen remodeling are

• how much work it is to coordinate multiple trades, repeatedly
• how dusty & dirty it is
• the inconvenience of kitchenless living

So spill it.

Was it easy as pie?  Did you get a divorce because of it? Was it worth the effort & time? Did you save a significant amount of money? Most of all, would you do it again?

Or would you rather gouge your eyes out with a rusty spoon before you do another kitchen remodel yourself?

Home Builders Association of Wake County: 2010 Remodelers Home Tour

That’s right, ladies & gents, this weekend you can tour up to 13 remodeled homes in Raleigh. We had some contributions to one of the featured houses, be sure to check it out:

“Anderson Retreat” 2721 Anderson Drive

This unassuming little house underwent a major transformation & now has space galore, including a great lower floor rec zone for the younger dwellers.  EcoModernism was happy to help design & install a small kitchenette area complete with microwave & recycling collection. After all, a rec zone needs amenities, too, yes?

We also installed a modern, narrow profile vanity & sink in the half bath on that same floor. We used IKEA cabinets & accessories for both the kitchenette and the vanity.

Happy touring!

Deets: There is a one time $5 fee payable at any of the locations listed at the bottom of the main tour info webpage.Tour dates & times are below:

Saturday April 24 10:00am – 5:00pm

Sunday, April 25 1:00pm – 5:00pm

Remodeling!

Sarah Susanka’s new book, Not So Big Remodeling is now available in hardcopy & getting good reviews. The message? Improve the space you have. And a great endorsement of IKEA for kitchens in USA Today:

“You can save thousands of dollars” by using simple materials in a well-designed space, says Susanka

[Photo credits: Randy O'Rourke, Sarah Susanka]

Grassroots Modern is running an Affordable Modern Kitchen Contest. Not surprisingly, many of the entries feature IKEA® cabinets. Yay for IKEA®! Things we also dig in the entries:

• horizontal wall cabinets
• aluminum framed glass wall cabinet doors
• aluminum color toe kicks
• under cabinet and interior cabinet lighting

Over the past 4 or so months, I’ve noticed a trend to delay kitchen renovations. Some of the reasons for that include:

• the economy: it’s tight, unpredictable, and folks want to be safe.
• the election: related to the economy, direction of government is no longer as much in question.
• the holiday season: it’s here, no doubt.
• indecision: uncertainty about design, budget, duration of the project

Actually, the only one of those things we can’t do anything about is the economy. The election’s a done deal. As for the budget and design conundrum, it may be worth a closer look. And maybe the holiday season is not the hurdle it appears to be. (Unless you have to spend it with your in-laws, with whom you share no common political ground. In that case, we really can’t help you.)

Budgeting for a remodel: look again

There is also an increasing trend to be more creative within kitchen design budgets. Two of my most recent clients opted to go with IKEA® cabinets in their remodel projects. The savings on the cabinets gave them more to play with for their countertops and appliances. One even decided to upgrade her master bathroom cabinets as well!

For $4,100, we were able to get 14 IKEA® cabinets for the kitchen and bath I designed, including:

• hardware and inserts,
• sinks,
• a dishwasher and
• over-the-range microwave
• assorted fixtures and fittings

She still has to get countertops and some other finishes like flooring, but what a fantastic price on the bulk of her remodeling components! Additionally, she was able to take advantage of a special 15% off sale, so timing was also an advantage. She opted to do most of the assembly herself, and is hiring out for the cabinet installation, plumbing and electrical, carpentry for wall adjustments. Not bad.

Bottom line: it’s entirely possible to significantly optimize costs within the design budget.

Still debating?

Check out our IKEA® Pros and Cons info in our post here. There we cover info about all IKEA® products, not just kitchen cabinets. Like everything else, IKEA® may not be for everyone. However, we seem to be finding no shortage of people who do love it.

Proudly Enabling the IKEA® Habit

That’s our new tagline! Countless people have written in, ecstatic that they can continue to get their IKEA® “fixes” in the Raleigh area, even without a store closer than a 4 hour drive away. So we thought the adjustment in the tagline was fitting.

[diagram images courtesy of jessica hagy and indexed]

Aside from alcohol and meditation, this portable induction hotplate from Avanti goes on the sanity saver list when the kitchen’s in the discombobulated stage between old and new.