settie

Hey all,
So, after years of saving up, and planning, and persuading, I got my mom to hire an incredible contractor to gut out our main floor: ceiling, walls, floor, everything, and renovate the kitchen, bathroom, main entrance, and dining room.
I forgot to take pictures before the kitchen got gutted, but I'll find some old ones of the kitchen, to give you an idea what it was like, and starting tomorrow, will take pictures of the progress of the renovations.
We expect it to be done sometime in January. Its a big project. And we haven't even finished planning out everything, accessories, paint, things like that.
I'm very excited to be renovating our house after over 25 years of living there. There haven't been any renovations to the house since it was designed, so this reno is much needed.
Ready? Set? Go!

dlish

wow settie..big move! congrats!

get ready for a stressful time though.....and bathroom reno's NEVER finish ontime..

not trying to scare you, but just a word of warning....make sure you have a watertight contract..they'll always hit you up for variation costs, so be careful.

PM me if you need help, i deal with this on a daily basis!

oh..and good luck! hope it goes well!

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Leto

dittow on what dlish said. They will find "problems" and will make all kinds of suggestions to add cost. Some of them will be necessary, some will be tempting but only nice to have.

I did pretty well the same renovation last Jan - March on my 90 year old house, so I can offer some support as well if you need.

Good luck, and congrats!

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settie

I appreciate the offers, guys, I'm sure I'll have questions as the reno progresses.

There are so many things we're uncertain about, mainly all focusing on the appearance of the kitchen, which is the focal point of the main floor for sure. Still picking out paint, cabinet handles, lighting, curtains, gotta find appliances too. The appliances thing seemed simple at first, but my cousin owns and manages a major appliance store, and told us recently that brands really don't make the product, essentially, they're all made the same way when they're around the same price, and that its only the extended warranty, and the features of the warranty that matter. We were looking at Bosch appliances, which as you may know, are very expensive, but now, we're uncertain. I'm unsure if I should try to look online, do some appliance research, or get some opinions on the forum about their appliances.

Dlish- I already feel the stress, that started long ago, when we were first developing the new layout. :P But I rationalize, while it'll be tough to not have a main floor for awhile, our house is quite accommodating: we have two kitchens, 4 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, one living room, one den, and a fully furnished basement. We'll be fine, I think. lol. What's stressing me out most is the utter amount of crap we have! My family are pack rats, I'm anti-pack rat. Just seeing all those boxes of old crap stresses me out.

As for the contract, I think we're good. See, it took around two months to assess the house, determine what could be done with what the structure supplied, determined the age of items, and what needed replacing, such as upgrading the insulation, talking with an engineer to see what walls could be knocked out, and how, what needed to be restructured, and meeting after meeting as to how much every piece would cost. It wasn't until all of that was complete, and a total created, that my mom signed the contract. These guys are good, expensive, but worth every penny. The workers are efficient, always on time, polite, and always watch for safety, keep the place as clean as possible.

When the house was built, a lot of things were done wrong, we knew it, since my parents watched everything get butchered. Now that we have the chance to fix the wrong, we're all set! For example, we have several bay windows in the house, and the one by the kitchen was kind of built as a floating floor, meaning, if you look at the bay window outside, it projects out of the house's structure. So, the floor isn't insulated, and REALLY cold once the temp drops below 15 celsius. We're getting that fixed.

I'll take pictures when I get home.

Daniel_

I loved having our kitchen done - it was the last bit of the house that wasn't "mine" (former owners had done some evil to the place).

Good luck.

__________________

╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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settie

It took me awhile to resize all of these, but here's the first look of the main floor, there were so many pictures I made an album on photobucket here

Daniel_

Like the plans. Having seating by the food prep is nice, very communal.

__________________

╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝

settie

Yes, we absolutely wanted a breakfast-like side of the island, with some stools. Being Italian/European, my family always gathers in the kitchen when they visit. So to have that bit of space will really help, and keep everyone together in the same area. We had a breakfast table before, and it was in such an awkward and cold spot of the house, we considered removing it completely in the reno. But, our plans worked out in such a way, that it made sense to keep it.

Update: today the electrician came in, and moved around a lot of cable to get our lighting arranged. I'm glad I mentioned getting a surge protector for the circuit breaker box, though they sound to be very expensive. It is worth getting though, as power surges and power failures are common in our old neighbourhood, and have fried MANY electrical items in the past. *sigh* Also, the new plywood was put on top of the old, and was nailed in very nicely... that floor won't be moving any time soon, haha. My mom and I finally managed to pick out the cupboard hardware, I think it'll look really nice. But we're having problems with finding the right granite. Local suppliers only have pinks, greys, whites, blacks, and yellows, nothing that'll work for us. So, seems like we'll be taking a trip to the states for granite. So many other things to do too: new toilet, all new lights, decide on the tiles, find a perfect backsplash, paint colour, window coverings, stools, table, reupholster old teak chairs, new kitchen table chairs, pick out appliances, and possibly new bathroom sink set. Oh, and sell/donate all old material. Phew!

dlish

maybe try a re-constituted stone for your benchtops? it may well work out cheaper, and comes in pretty much every colour you can think of.

there's a myriad of different brand names out there, but its basically different types of marble and other natural stones that have been crushed and reconstituted with an epoxy type glue and re-poured...it maybe an idea....unless you wanted to use the benchtop as an excuse for a short break :P

as for salvaging old stuff, dont give them away for free. there's always a market for people looking for bargains like this you could use that money to subsidize the 'extras' that yyou want but dont need.

p.s. make sure you check that your contract says that the salvaged material is yours. some contracts stipulate that material becomes the demolishers or builders when you hand over.

__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy