It’s been a minute since my last post. Quite a lot has happened this past year, so model building got back burnered. Back in April, the plan to remodel our kitchen got green lit, so I started with building it around a new cook top. Go big or go home, so I went with a 48″ Wolf gas cooktop with a griddle option, model SRT466; and of course, I also need the proper ventilation system to go along with this cooktop so I went with a wall mount vent: PW482418. Additionally, I went and picked out a new sink, a copper sink from Home Depot because I get a 10% military discount there. These were purchased back in April, and while the copper sink was shipped to my house, the Wolf products were just put on hold until I actually have a kitchen. Now to design the kitchen around these two things. The double oven is only a few years old as one of the first things we did to the kitchen when we moved in; and our dishwasher is less than a year old. So those two things will be recycled. Also planned for recycle was the faucet as it still worked beautifully and our garbage disposal and fridge which are also fairly new.
The design:
I picked up some home design CAD software and started playing around with basic ideas and drew out what I wanted with input from the wife. She would have had everything white, the tile, the countertops, the cabinets. So a little convincing and having to draw these things out so she can better visualize helped win her over; albeit still very skeptical. In November, we’ll hit our 9 year mark of living at this place; so we’ve waited a fair amount of time before kicking the piggy bank(inheritance funds) in the teeth and just doing it. So in April, I had this rough idea that’s been swimming around in my head for YEARS, finally drawn and we have a visual. The parents were getting into town about that time, and so we wouldn’t be able to break ground until they went back to HK at the end of June. So plenty of time to refine the design and shop for contractors. Also plenty of time to warm the parents up to the idea of completely gutting and destroying their beloved kitchen. It wasn’t too hard to convince them, especially with visuals in hand.
We went through a few unlicensed GCs (one that’s done work on a few houses in my neighborhood) and a few licensed GCs and after a few weeks of meetings and quotes; we settled on The Cabinet Pros as I got the best warm and fuzzies from them vs all the others. They were definitely not the cheapest, as several of the other contractors quoted less – but experience has taught me that you get what you pay for. They seemed fairly serious and very on time when doing meetings. So the decision was finalized early June and a 20K deposit was donated to the cause.
Week -2
Parents fly back to HK, we contact contractor and start scheduling the start date for the week after the 4th of July weekend. It gave us time to do one last BBQ with friends and get the kitchen emptied and everything into temp storage. The adjacent living room becomes storage and everything is plastic wrapped.
Week -1
Time to say good by to this 1988 kitchen with slight appliance upgrades and resurface cabinet doors – something the wife and I did the first Christmas week we spent at the house.
Week 0
We finalize the plans with the contractor and it’s pretty damn close to what I want. So the wife and I are happy. There are a few unknowns, such as the need for a support beam and the what if of stuff hiding under the kitchen soffit.
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