The Five Myths of Kitchen Renovations

View The Kitchen Checklist

Make a Game Plan
Home improvement experts can't emphasize enough the importance of planning and organization before tackling a renovation project. To help you refine your ideas, make two lists: Must-Have Necessities and Nice-to-Have Wishes. When you have to make budget choices and other decisions, your lists will give you a benchmark from which to proceed.. The actual layout and design of your kitchen should suit your personal needs and tastes. Not every home is exactly like another and your particular environment should reflect your own personal style with emphasis on ease of use, ease of cleaning and traffic flow through the work space. This is where a designer can be most valuable. As mentioned before you can expect to pay 5% to 10% of your total budget for design services but it's money well spent.

At PLUMBING MART, design fees are included in our One Stop renovation service eliminating spending extra money and allowing you to get better value for you dollar. However, design services by themselves are also available for a nominal fee.

Use a Divided Notebook
It will be a single place where you can:

• store all the paperwork you will accumulate
• record contact information for products and suppliers
• gather notes about other sources you want to track down
• keep a diary of your progress

Designate a "Remodeling Stuff" Area
Assign one location for items related to your remodeling project - it could be the trunk of your car, a briefcase, or a large tote bag. The items stored there might include:

• a measuring tape
• a note pad (or this checklist) for jotting down preferences, measurements, product information and the like
• samples of materials, such as tiles and wallpaper books
• an instant camera to record something you like the moment you come across it (those ones with the sticky film are great as you can paste the shots directly in your book!)

Some Things To Consider
The kitchen is one of the largest renovation projects you can imagine. The impact of such a project on your lifestyle can be tremendous. However, the rewards for a well thought out kitchen can be immeasurable. Such an undertaking requires planning, forethought and the understanding and participation from all those in the household. You need to consider things like temporary storage of all those items that normally reside in your kitchen. Dishes, appliances, cleaning supplies, dry goods, food and perishables; Everything must be removed and stored elsewhere during the project. And what about cooking and cleaning dishes?

At PLUMBING MART our years of experience and concern for making the process less of an impact on our customers has developed strategies to accommodate these difficulties. Wherever possible a temporary cooking area is set up in an adjoining room complete with working refrigerator and stove. In most cases a temporary sink is left in place when possible. These are some of the value added items not found with other contractors.

The sample checklist (see link above) may become your best friend during your remodeling project. Use one like it to keep yourself organized by noting product choices, design preferences, contact names and numbers, and other important bits of information that may tend to get lost in the dust. Or use the items listed as sections for your project notebook.

If you are interested in having us help you through the kitchen Renovation process just fill out our Renovation Project Estimate Request Form