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.