We are at the tail end of wrapping up our kitchen renovation, which has been going on since the beginning of the summer (and the planning started last Spring!). I shared my first post on the Kitchen Remodel with the Before Photos and Getting Started HERE. In this post, I’m sharing how we selected our contractor and the stages of the remodel on our kitchen. This fall, I am planning on doing a few kitchen reveal posts and I CAN’T wait to get started. I plan to share our new serving area decorated (with the help of my sponsor Amara), a kitchen tablescape (with the help of sponsors I met with at Haven – Dremel and HomeRight) and then an overall fall kitchen reveal. The fall is my favorite season to decorate for and I can’t wait to decorate this new space in my home and share it with all of you.
Once we had selected everything from the kitchen store, we needed to find a contractor. This took us 3-4 weeks, because I had to research several contractors, call them and make appointments for them to come out to look at the house. I waited to get their bids and then made a final decision. We landed up selecting 2 contractors to come out to the house (even though I heard back from 4). One was a contractor that the kitchen store knew and had worked with and the other one was someone that a lady from our church referred to us. I really liked one contractor better and surprisingly, the contractor we liked the best gave us a quote for $4,000 less! That is A LOT of money. The contractor we went with was the one that the kitchen store referred to us, so we also knew that he had worked with the store before.
Once we selected our contractor, we met with the kitchen store and put a down payment on our kitchen cabinets, the Cambria quartz countertops and the backsplash tile. Then, they ordered our countertops and we waited 3 weeks for them to come in. Once they were in, the contractor tore out our old cabinets (and small side wall that we wanted removed). The removal of the old kitchen and the side wall took one day. We were officially without a functioning kitchen!
There was several phases during the kitchen renovation and we’d come home to a different looking kitchen each time. First, the contractor put in all of the upper cabinets.
Then he put in all of the lower cabinets. Unfortunately, this is where we hit a HUGE snag that put us behind for WEEKS. On the other side of the fridge, one of the lower cabinets was 3″ too long. The guy at the store had accidentally measured to the wall that is on the right side of the fridge. This made the cabinet 3″ too long and they had to put a rush order in for a new lower cabinet for the correct size, which would take 3 more weeks! Then, when this lower cabinet should have came in, somehow there was a shipping miscommunication. The store said they never received the lower cabinet and the shipping company said they delivered it. Yes, this seriously happened! How do they lose a lower cabinet in this time and day? I don’t know, but they did. It took another 2 weeks to get the lower cabinet in.
The contractor put in the crown molding and mounted the stainless steel farmhouse style sink. Then, we had the countertop people out to make a template for the countertops. It took them a week before they called us back to let us know our countertops were ready.
We spent about 5-6 weeks without a functioning kitchen, but our contractor told us that we should try and see if the countertop company would install our countertops on just the one side of the kitchen where all of the important items are, such as the dishwasher, sink and stove. We could ask them and see if they would install the other countertop piece after the lower cabinet came in and was installed. Luckily, they agreed and we weren’t charged any extra! We then had a functioning kitchen with countertops, but the other side of the kitchen by the fridge was still missing the base cabinet. In the photo above they are installing the countertops on the one side of the kitchen.
Here is a photo with our new oven installed, we went with a double oven.
Brian picked out this oven and I just LOVE it. It has 4 cooking areas and 1 warming area. The two front burners have two different burn sizes, so you can pick the one based on the size of your pan.
Our new faucet is Moen and I love it. It has a sensor on it, so you can wave your hand above or below it and it’ll turn on or off!
Here is the space where the base cabinet was missing. The countertop is just ‘laying’ on top and isn’t adhered yet. We put a cut down 2×4 under it on the one side to support it.
And, YAY. Here is the lower base cabinet installed! FINALLY. Plus, the white kick boards were added below the lower cabinets.
This corner of the kitchen has some fun base cabinets. The cabinet in the corner is a 2 deck lazy susan! I need to look on Pinterest for some ideas on how to store items in this easily. Then, the base cabinet that we waited on forever has pull out drawers, which will be so much easier for pots and pans.
We also had a serving area built in our kitchen. I used to have a buffet rack in this area.
For the serving area, we had lights put in inside the upper cabinets and below. The upper cabinets have glass doors and glass shelves.
Here is the serving area with the countertop. I can’t WAIT to decorate this space!
This is a close up of our Cambria quartz countertops. So pretty!
This is the new kitchen table and chairs we bought for our kitchen. It has a leaf in it that you can take out and we’ll put the leaf in it for holidays or when we have friends over.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post about how we found a contractor and the overall process with the kitchen renovation. I’m hoping to share a couple of kitchen decor posts in September and then a big fall reveal post in early October! In the meantime, I’ll be busy decorating! We still need the tiler to come out to install the backsplash tile. We have a cabinet that will sit on top of the countertop (sort of a bread box) that the contractor needs to come install after the backsplash tile is added. We are SO close. I am really hoping it is DONE in the next 2 weeks. Fingers crossed! 🙂
