After the kitchen redo, the outside of my house was looking sad. After Miguel’s paint job,  It looks Happy!

Almost finished Kitchen.

For the last several years, I’ve dreamed of remodeling my kitchen. I like to cook but especially love to bake. This summer, 2018, I started seriously planning.

The kitchen configuration wasn’t “work friendly”. There was a partial wall divider, that caused your cooking space to be very tiny.

I started working with Lowe’s and Ikea. Wanted to work as the general contractor, arranging for all the jobs. We build a custom house in 1985, I didn’t like working through a middle man. I like to deal with the workers directly.

My sister in law, Beth, flew down from Oklahoma to help me with selections. She has really good taste. Her house is darling. She’s so sweet and has helped me before. I can make a decision, and even quickly…then I have self-doubt. We met with a planner and made selections at Lowe’s.  The next day we drove to Ikea in Austin. It poured rain and the traffic was horrible. We made selections at both places so we could get a quote.

Next in planning, finding the workers is a hard job. I tried to find personalized recommendations for workers to do each job. If not, I used “Home Advisor”. It’s suggested that you get at least 3 bids. On expensive jobs or I wasn’t sure, I got sometimes 5 bids.  Each time I learned more. Talking to the prospective workers was like doing job interviews, not my favorite from my past life in nursing management and business. At night I’d read up online, and try to make the right decision.

I did have a little secret weapon. My brother, Keith, owns a glass company in Oklahoma. He’s flipped houses before doing most of the work by himself. he started doing home improvements as a child with a little tool kit. My dad made my brothers do all the house and car repairs…while he supervised. Wish I had learned all that practical stuff. While my brothers and dad were fixing things. I had to help my stepmother in the kitchen, not cooking, which I liked. I was the dishwasher…before the days of mechanical dishwashers.

Additionally, my best friend, Denise….her husband Mike, a construction lawyer and who worked in construction years before going to law school.  He gave me a guide of approx how much each job should cost. It was a very valuable guideline and helped me so much.

This was my kitchen before.

Son cook at holiday

Before

Kitchen divided by this wall

The first job was demo the whole kitchen by Miguel Romero. He was suggested by my friend Donnie Meals, a recording studio owner. Miguel did some work on his studio and highly recommended him.

Miguel works with his wife, Claudia. She coordinates the jobs. Once she and their 2 teenage boys came to help out. Having boys myself, I knew they’d rather be playing video games, but came to help their papa. I appreciated it.

The demo was hard, so much heavy tile. We hoped to save the subfloors but there were so many layers of various wood, tile, and unknown materials. Miguel had to cut out the subfloors, between the joists, piece by piece. It was really hard work. But all the while Miguel had a great enthusiastic attitude and whistled while he worked.

It really impressed me. There have been times when you hire workers and they start complaining if things get a little difficult.

Plus I found out that Miguel does all the parts of construction!

I knew going in that my pier and beam foundation needed lifting. My budget was about 7-8K. I got about 6 bids because they were all over the place. The lowest was $3,000+, I surmised that they just wanted to get under the house and start….then the real price would come.

The next bid was $6500. It was from a small company. The next was $8,000. they didn’t take that much time estimating. The next was $10,000, that company, Rock Solid, soent time explaining and showing me what needed to be done. The Next Bid was $13,000. He was very knowledgable, spent a long time educating me. I was impressed, but he couldn’t even start until January, it was now Oct… and I had no kitchen.

I went with Rock Solid. They started one day….then the rains came. I thought work would stop buy they soldiered on. Each morning crawling into mud holes. I felt bad for them. I made them coffee in the morning and bought their lunch.

I learned how expensive “digging” in the dirt cost. I spend thousands of $$, just for digging. My friend told me to go to the bus station and pick up 5 guys and pay them $50.00 a day to dig. I replied…yeah? Me being a single woman living alone….I’m not picking up unknown guys and bringing them to my house…maybe if I was a big stong man?

For the kitchen, plumbing is so important. My budget was $2,000. The plumber recommended by the foundation company owner, the bid to replumb the kitchen was $1,950. Great. However, after removing the subfloors, found we had the original iron pipes. It would be $6,000. more. Ugh! I called and brother, Keith, that owns a glass company and Mike, a construction lawyer. My brother said I should replace the iron pipes and it was a good long term investment, especially with the floors open and things easy to get to.

I’m glad that I agreed. Found that my sewer pipes were full of tree roots. They had to did and take it back to the “MAIN” city sewer….that happened to be under my driveway. Again it rained for days….the plumber had to crawl into muddy holes each morning. The plumber was a little grouchy…don’t blame him a bit!

This all can be a hard time for the pets.

Of all the parts, I was most concerned about the electrical. During demo, we found a fuse box in the kitchen. Ugh! Yep, I needed a new sub electrical panel. Some electricians are squeamish about fuse boxes. I was getting electrical bids while the walls and floors were open…don’t want to hide anything. One electrician looked at my kitchen and went “Nah” and left. You feel such rejection!…Maybe I’m not up to this task?

My budget was $2,000. I got 5 bids..the cheapest was $2,300 and the most expensive was $3,600.  I went with Alex the lowest bid and a personal recommendation. It was the right choice. They were great. Alex had working for him, his grandson and nephew. Really nice young guys. I passed them a little cash, with permission from the boss, each time they came.

When they had to come back to install the light fixtures. They were very responsive and came right out each time.

First the insulation. Thought I’d use the foam insulation but it was 3X the price. Miguel installed the pink insulation.

ON the drywall, I used the green moisture resistant sheetrock. It cost a little more but only a couple of dollars more per sheet.

I thought I’d do the kitchen painting myself. Miguel quoted $400. I knew what color I wanted…the color of the Caribbean Sea…the most beautiful place in the world. I looked at paint stores, Pinterest, got color samples and tried them on the kitchen

wall.

Decided to have a professional paint job. Miguel suggested that I use a “Satin finish for the kitchen walls. He knew his painting..it came out wonderful. He suggested that I use “Monterey” texture finish…I just knew orange peel.

The result is fabulous! You can tell a difference in a professional paint job!

In the planning phase, I started with Lowe’s and Ikea for cabinets and appliances. I selected Ikea due to cost, function, and the look.

I knew I wanted something waterproof, low maintenance. I planned a high-grade sheet vinyl. My sister in law put it in her bathroom, it looks like wood. I ordered samples, got everyone’s input, agonized over it ( not really).

Miguel looked at it and said “can’t”. There would be too many cuts because the island was bolted to the floor.

Back to samples and agonizing…. it’s so difficult to make a selection of a whole floor, looking at a 4″X4″ sample. Choose the top of the line “luxury vinyl plank”, got many samples. Narrowed it to 2. Showed them to Miguel. He said this one….was one of the 2 that I liked.

After the installation…I wasn’t sure? Maybe too busy, did it flow into the other room’s wood floors. That night I woke up, walked into the kitchen. It looked beautiful! The floors went perfectly with the cabinets. The verdict is in….I love it.

Guess what I’ve had in the past has influenced my decisions. I was tired of tile. My previous house and this one has an overabundance of tile. I want minimal tile.

Planned to just a white 12″ long subway tile going along the counter. I found a glass tile that looks like the ocean. Used it as a medallion over the cooktop. Luckily Miguel does tile. He made my vision come true with a few little adjustments. Couldn’t use the 12″ because the windows were too low, too much cutting. We used a 6″ white subway tile bordered by white glass pencil tiles.