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yankinmanc
Happy Days!
Member since 8/05 18208 total posts
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New Kitchen Question
I am thinking about having a new kitchen and have seen one I love so I have some questions for those who have had new kitchens installed recently.
1. How much will this fluck up my life? I have a six month old baby you know (please see parenting thread) He can live in a box, but only for short periods of time. Six month old boy
2. How long (on average) will this take...we need the whole shebang, new floors, backsplash, painting, lights maybe...
3. Tell me that I should do this while I am home on maternity leave rather than waiting until I got back to work.
4. How will I eat? I have no family close by and my friend who lives nearby is a 40 year old single man with 3 cats. He is lovely, but I wouldn't drink from a mug at his house, let alone eat. Can you say Gray Gardens...
5. Will my husband and I fight like maniacs during this transitional period??? Will the relationship sustain work on the house?
So if you can answer any of these questions, please do so in essay form.
Thanks!
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Posted 7/10/06 12:52 PM  |
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Teri
my girls!
Member since 2/06 1491 total posts
Name:
Teri
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Re: New Kitchen Question
I won't lie - it is a total PITA - it is not easy living without a kitchen and all of the mess of construction, but it IS well worth it in the end.
The kitchen is maybe the worst room in the house to remodel because you're in it so often throughout the day! It's disruptive to say the least.
We just had ours redone and I'm a SAHM with a toddler - that was fun What made our situation more complicated was that my daughter has severe food allergies so I bake/cook her most meals - so I had to plan ahead and freeze a lot, and then take food out for each day.
If you go with a kitchen design studio or business, they will work quickly for you - we were only without a kitchen for 3 wks - not bad at all by other stories I've heard. but that does not include the backsplash, spackle, etc. But those things are less of a PITA to work around and deal with.
Since I am a SAHM, I found it harder to be out of the house for that long - what I'd do is just pack up the baby at 7 AM and leave for the entire day - I went to my mom's luckily and stayed there, and came back around 8 PM just to put Emily down to sleep. That was hard but we had to be out of the house so that she didn't breathe the construction air and dust, listen to the loud banging, etc.
ETA - It may be easier for you to deal with this while you're working, so that you can be out of the house. These guys had my cell # and knew how to reach me with a question or issue.
Oh and DH and I did not fight as much as I thought - again, since we hired a company to do EVERYTHING for us, it was really as painless as possible. Every bump in the road, we called them to fix it!!!
Good luck with your decision!
Message edited 7/10/2006 1:04:53 PM.
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| Posted 7/10/06 1:03 PM |
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Tah-wee-ZAH
Kisses
Member since 5/05 15952 total posts
Name:
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Re: New Kitchen Question
Posted by racheeeee
I am thinking about having a new kitchen and have seen one I love so I have some questions for those who have had new kitchens installed recently.
1. How much will this fluck up my life? I have a six month old baby you know (please see parenting thread) He can live in a box, but only for short periods of time. Six month old boy
2. How long (on average) will this take...we need the whole shebang, new floors, backsplash, painting, lights maybe...
3. Tell me that I should do this while I am home on maternity leave rather than waiting until I got back to work.
4. How will I eat? I have no family close by and my friend who lives nearby is a 40 year old single man with 3 cats. He is lovely, but I wouldn't drink from a mug at his house, let alone eat. Can you say Gray Gardens...
5. Will my husband and I fight like maniacs during this transitional period??? Will the relationship sustain work on the house?
So if you can answer any of these questions, please do so in essay form.
Thanks!
I recently had mine redone and well, don't hate me... no please put the brick down I had the best situation possible... my FIL is a designer and we didn't live in the house as we were doing an entire gutting of kitchen and all baths... it wasn't livable. That being said here's my advice that I learned from my FIL...
Oh, and I know you are in England (I was there for HM last July... yes during the bombing ) otherwise I'd give you his name and number.
1. If you are in a flat, this will be more difficult due to the amount of room you have. We take our kitchens for granted. Do you have an area of the house where you can set up a mock kitchen? Plug your fridge into the wall, set up a hot plate/toaster/micro? Yes, you will have to wash dishes in the bathroom. Oh, and I'm assuming your washer/dryer is in your kitchen as well... hmm... don't think you can do anything about that except the laundromat.
2. As far as length of time I can only speak about American contractors but I have a feeling that many of them are the same all over the world these days A kitchen should not take months unless one is super expanding their house, vaulting ceilings, completely changing the floor plan, rearranging plumbing. The reason why my FIL came out of retirement is because people love the way he does kitchens and his phone kept ringing off the hook just by word of mouth. This is what he does...
a. makes all plans, orders and measures everything, speaks to all sub-contractors. All plans are made and finalized.
b. Cabinets, appliances, tile etc. are ordered. If the home owner has the room and appliances are available before cabinets by a week or two, and they usually are as all of the cabinets he sells are made for each particular job and take about 12 weeks, they are stored in a garage. In my case, mine were stored in the dining room and cabinets in the living room but then again we weren't living there.
c. If it's a simple rip out (with no reconfiguring, expansion etc) then the kitchen is not ripped out until the cabinets are on their way to NY on the truck!! Most contractors will rip out your kitchen BEFORE they even order the cabinets because they want/and need the 1/3 deposit to buy materials for the current job they are working on and this is why it takes a lot of people months before their kitchen is done. By and large, they are not business people and they use your money to finance another's job and when they get to you, they get to you. My FIL does not start a rip out until ALL materials are on site.
I can't answer the questions about doing this on your maternity leave or not or with a baby as we don't have any yet.
I'm not going to sugar coat the rest...
Yes, things will be tense at times. It is easier to do during the summer months because many people will bbq as much as possible but it's more difficult to get a contractor around that time. Yes, your house will be in a complete disarray. You will hate the fact that strangers are in your house every day and most contractors leave a big old mess every day that you will have to clean up for fear of you DS getting into BUT... you will have a beautiful new kitchen, you will get so much joy out of it and you will have added valiue to your home.
Throughout the whole process just remember there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And try to use lots of paper plates.
And pick a contractor based on personal recommendation and check several references. As to see pictures of their work and speak to the kitchens' owners.
If you have any other questions feel free to FM me.
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| Posted 7/10/06 1:55 PM |
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yankinmanc
Happy Days!
Member since 8/05 18208 total posts
Name:
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Re: New Kitchen Question
Thanks for that! I am going to see the kitchen people in a week or so. Its going to be the same layout, so it might not be that bad!
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| Posted 7/10/06 5:47 PM |
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