Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Survive A Kitchen Remodel

15 tips on surviving a kitchen renovation

A kitchen remodel can be one of the most rewarding home improvement projects and also the most frustrating to endure.

Tearing out the heart of your home requires a plan for how to survive the weeks to months of construction ahead.

If your project is a basic tear out, plan on four to six weeks without much access to the kitchen, but if you're doing a significant renovation, expect at least three months of disorder.

Beyond the decision-making and budget-making are things many people don't prepare for: The overwhelming number of decisions required and eventual decision fatigue, hitting the wall on prepackaged or carryout meals and the emotional upheaval that comes with having the central part of your home upended for weeks.

You need a plan of how you will deal with the life details as well as choosing countertops, paint, cabinets, flooring, tile and so forth.

Here are best tips on how to survive.

1. Set up a separate, temporary kitchen.

If at all possible, move your current refrigerator to another room in the house, where you can still access it. Otherwise, get a small college fridge to keep the essentials. A spare microwave is also a critical appliance.

Be creative with small plug-in appliances such as a coffee maker or an electric skillet, which can be used to make anything from pancakes to Hamburger Helper on it, said Kim Feld, a kitchen designer with National Kitchen & Bath.

Consider getting a two-burner hot plate.

If most of your trash and recycling was collected in the kitchen, move temporary garbage cans to a place you can tolerate them. And be prepared to take out the trash more frequently.

2. Find a place in your home to eat.

Consider the family room, where you can set up the fridge and microwave.

3. Realize you'll have to wash dishes in the bathroom.

Try to keep a sink hooked up on your main level during construction.

4. Add the cost of eating out into the renovation budget.

Figure out how much your family typically spends on a meal eaten outside the house. Multiply this by the number of meals in a day and weeks the project may last. It's best to have a rotation in mind of reliable carryout and prepackaged microwavable meals.

5. Prepare for noise and dust.

"It is messy. It is disruptive, and it can get expensive. There is no way around that," Feld said.

Jon Kay, a manager at Signature Kitchen & Bath, said to expect day-to-day interruption. "Plan on there being a mess every day."

6. Consider your pets.

If you can ask a friend to take them, or have them kenneled, that might be best. If not, give them extra attention, as the off-limits room and noise will disturb them, too.

7. Get a sketch or design plans beforehand.

"Think about how the kitchen is going to work from a function level," Kathy Israel, owner of Accents on Cabinets, said. Also, think about where all your current kitchen items and appliances will fit into the new kitchen.

It's best to include a professional in this sketching stage so they can let you know potential pitfalls.

8. Also consider hiring a designer.

Designers can be hired by the hour to help guide choices. This can save money and regret down the line.

9. Hire a general contractor carefully.

A good relationship with the general contractor is crucial, Mike Beck at Beck/Allen Cabinetry, said.

This will be the point person you are spending the most time with, so find out about how often he plans to communicate with you. Will he text or email photos if you are out of town? How quickly will he return phone calls? The worst kitchen nightmares are those that involve a contractor who disappears or won't return calls.

In remodeling, there are probably 50 things that can go wrong, and if you have a good contractor, you may only know about two or three of them.

10. Be prepared for days when you don't see any progress.

Every decision in a construction project involves a timeline. So, there will be days of waiting — waiting for the countertops to be measured or waiting for the backsplash to arrive.

11. Order as much as possible before the job starts.

Don't start a project until all the decisions are finalized. As projects wear on, people tend to be stressed and don't have time to pick out details such as hardware quickly, which can slow down the entire project.

12. Expect some delays and cost overruns.

When you get the estimates, it's wise to add 20 percent to that number and ask yourself if you could still live with that number. If you don't have that cushion, think twice about proceeding.

13. Don't sweat the small stuff.

"Trust the people you've hired," said Jenny Rausch, president of Karr Bick Kitchen & Bath. Ask their opinions. Don't second-guess yourself. Don't agonize over the smallest details like hardware and countertop edges.

Keep a sense of perspective. Homeowners can get hyperfocused and paralyzed by decisions on the smallest details. Can you really remember what the hardware and edges in your friends' kitchens look like?

14. Get out of the house altogether.

If you can afford it, renting a short-term, furnished space is ideal.

15. Keep a sense of humor.

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Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Bath Renovation Tips

In typical homes, bathrooms don't take up a lot of floor space, but they're often the most expensive to remodel.

By Mike McClintock, Special to Tribune Newspapers

Bathrooms are not much over 10 percent of the floor space in typical homes. But per square foot, they're often the most expensive due to all the plumbing, fixtures and finishes like tile instead of drywall. That goes for remodeling, too, where estimates for updates cause sticker shock.

Bigger footprint
There are two ways to get one: build an addition, or steal space from an adjoining room. With minimal framing, trade an adjacent walk-in closet for a sauna or whirlpool tub. Reframe a long clothes closet, and double sinks can recess into the area freeing up bathroom floor space. Partial reframing can make a big change, but save time and money by leaving most of the room intact.
Adding space from scratch, though, amounts to a small slice of the full home-building process from excavating to roofing. You need plans, permits, concrete, framing, the works. The investment can pay off handsomely if the old-fashioned, one-person space becomes a modern master bath with walking-around room. Gutting also allows major improvements like radiant floor heating, and vent systems that deal with moisture automatically. But it's not worth the disruptive and expensive project to gain only a few feet.

The exception is a bump-out. Floor framing is strengthened by doubling joists or changing 16- to 12-inch centers, or both, and extended to cantilever beyond the foundation, say, by the depth of a sink counter. This increases floor space without changing the foundation footprint. But the front and both sides of a bump out become exterior walls — not the best place for plumbing. Consider upgrading the protection against frozen pipes by using 2-by-6 wall framing with room for more insulation, and adding insulating foam board under siding as well.

Modern mechanicals
Remember that moving fixtures means moving plumbing. Water lines are not a big problem, specially with a flexible PEX system that requires no fittings to turn corners. Drains and their vents need more effort, like opening up the floor. Among other glitches, drain lines for older toilets flushed with more water and could carry away waste at a modest slope. Replace one with a code-mandated low-volume unit, and it may not clear waste without multiple flushes, defeating the water-saving purpose unless you re-plumb the drain with a greater slope. Low volume sounds very green — until you have to use twice as much water to make it work.

Existing ductwork for heating and cooling can usually handle a small increase in square footage like claiming a closet from the next room. If HVAC estimates show the capacity a bit shy of the new space, consider an electric heater. It might be a toe space unit under a vanity, or built into an overhead fan, enough to bridge the gap.

A contractor may also be able to steal some supply from another room with a diverter — an in-duct baffle that directs more air to the larger bath space. But when the remodel is more than a bump-out — half again as large or more — the original supply will have to be upgraded.

In a bath built mid-1990s or so, an electrician may have to pull new lines and upgrade circuits to handle more lights, more outlets, a more powerful vent fan, assuming your existing service panel has the capacity. If not, it can be several thousand more to upgrade the panel. Even on a small redo, an electrician will need to meet code with GFCIs (ground fault circuit interrupters), a quick-tripping type of outlet. In some areas, inspectors also want the protection of AFCIs (arc fault circuit interrupters.)