Anatomy of a Kitchen Remodel

Remodeling, no matter how much you plan, never goes exactly the way you expect it to. My "Anatomy of a Kitchen Remodel...A Photographic Documentary" is a step-by-step documentation of my latest project.

The homeowner selected a modular cabinet line and wanted a custom finish of high-gloss black lacquer. No problem. The only glitch was that the cabinets would take eight weeks from order date to delivery. We didn't want to demo the kitchen and make the homeowner live in a mess unnecessarily for eight weeks until the cabinets came, so we had to measure, design and order the new cabinets with the old cabinets still in place.

This doesn't seem like much of an issue, except that no wall is ever square in a home. Not even a new home. And the main plumbing lines were hidden in a "blind corner" of the cabinets, meaning we couldn't access, measure or see where exactly the plumbing lines were or how far off the wall they came. So the cabinets had to be ordered based on what could be seen and measured, then hope and pray for the best. This is not the ideal way to order custom cabinets that take eight weeks to produce. If I were to miscalculate my estimated measurements, it could mean wasted money for the cost of unused cabinets and ordering new cabinets, and wasted time waiting another six weeks for the new cabinets to arrive, thus putting the entire project behind schedule before we had ever really begun.

As much as I would like to tell you that everything went perfectly, it didn't. Remodeling is far from an exact science. But I can tell you that the problems we encountered were minor and, with a little creative thinking, were fairly easily resolved. The trick was to plan for the worst-case scenario and be ready for anything!

As it turned out, our plumbing was not exactly where we had hoped it would be. We had to move half of the kitchen cabinets down the wall by 6" and order a matching filler to replace the gap we now had. Luckily, very luckily, we had about 10" of wall until we met with a doorway. So even with a 6" shift, we still cleared four inches to the door frame. Again, I had considered this possibility before ordering the cabinets and knew that the plumbing would be less than 12" either way from where it attached to the sink. I had even ordered an additional 3" and 6" filler with the original order to cover my bases.

With that problem being resolved, we encountered another problem. We were short one piece of crown molding. Crown comes in 8' lengths and we were about 2' short. I usually order one extra piece of crown, but for some reason we were still short. The kitchen is all but finished, but the crown takes six weeks to produce in the custom high-gloss black lacquer finish, so we are waiting.

My "Kitchen Anatomy" is my way of helping to educate homeowners about all the minute details that inevitably pop up during a residential building or remodeling project. So keep your cool, hire a knowledgeable pre-construction consultant, and know that most hurdles you encounter can be resolved with a deep breath, some creative thinking, and patience! To see "An Anatomy of A Kitchen Remodel...A Photographic Documentation" visit www.facebook.com/renovatekate and don't forget to become a fan while you're there!

Until next time,

RenovateKate

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