Kitchen remodel ends in grand way
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BY PATTY BEUTLER/Lincoln Journal Star
Birdies in the nest. That’s how I inaugurated my new kitchen.
A humble beginning to a grand finale.
The two grandsons from Santa Fe, ages 7 and 10, snarfed down the fried eggs nestled in cutout circles of bread, oblivious to the drama leading up to the modest dinner.
They didn’t know that the right gas range had been delivered only hours earlier after a major appliance mixup. Nor did they see me searching the cupboards to find where I’d stashed the frying pan, or catch me rinsing the plates to remove the hint of plaster dust. Advice: Don’t reload cupboards after a kitchen remodel UNTIL you have running water.
Fifty-three days after I evacuated my kitchen — and dining room and living room — I’m back in business. It wasn’t easy, as anyone who has been displaced by home construction knows, and my exile was shorter than most.
Do I have any regrets? Only one: That I didn’t do this years ago.
And there’s one serious outcome that makes me glad that I didn’t wait any longer. The free furnace inspections that Biggerstaff Plumbing and HVAC threw in yielded a surprise: a cracked heat exchange in the secondary furnace that was leaking carbon monoxide into the backroom addition.
No time to think. Just a big sigh of relief that someone could be at the house first thing in the morning with a replacement.
It may take me the rest of my life to pay for it, but that’s something to be grateful for when I consider the alternative.
Looking back, here’s how I see the whole process:
The pressure to finish on time was on from the start. With four children plus spouses and five grandkids arriving early for Christmas, we had no wiggle room.
Remodeling so close to the holidays may be crazy, but since few others are so disposed, the competition for workers’ time was less intense. Everyone kept their commitments. No horror stories of folks not showing up for days on end, no wires left dangling or pipes partially installed.
Credit goes to Bohaty Electric, Dworak Plumbing, Wayne Krepps Drywall, Lance Darrough Painting and Justin Birkett of Wood Trends Inc. for their problem-solving, persistence and quality work. They often were there when I left for the office, and many kept at it long after I returned.
When I see all the intricacies of meshing the electrical with the plumbing with the heat and duct work with the drywall and cabinet installation and finally with the painter and the floor finishers, it’s a daunting task that I’m glad I didn’t tackle on my own.
But even before we get to general contracting, someone has to have a concept. For that I credit Deb Arends of Arends Interiors, with help from her assistant, Michaela.
Arends breezed into my outdated, flowered kitchen and knew exactly where the walls should come down, the bathroom should go up, the eating peninsula should appear. The fridge on this side, the stove over there, the sink doesn’t move, she proclaimed. She saw it all in her mind’s eye while I had trouble imagining it even when the plans made it onto paper.
Admittedly, I never paid attention to the size and style of my kitchen cabinets, shelves or drawers or where my electrical outlets stood; I just lived with what I had but had no idea how to start from scratch.
Instead, I relied on the expertise of others. Megan Dreyer of CS Kitchen & Bath Studio and Arends put their heads together and planned the arrangement. I asked for a vertical cabinet for cookie sheets and got it. I even got undercabinet lighting.
How it all fits together is magic given the blank slate we started with.
I did better with cabinet selection. The idea of using two different styles and colors had aesthetic appeal and the final look would be far from a cookie-cutter kitchen.
The granite we ordered from Midwest Tile & Granite first caught my eye in a kitchen display at a big-box store. Even after surveying hundreds of slabs at the granite yard, I didn’t second-guess my initial reaction. Laminate would have been less expensive, but it was hard to retreat.
From there, I relied on Arends’ suggestions, making a selection from several different tiles she presented for the backsplash. She proposed interspersing vertical stacks of hammered glass tile behind the stove to cast the eye to the cabinets above. Mike Lamond did the tedious tile cutting and placing of the squares that line up with the precision of the Cornhusker marching band.
Arends’ vision spread to the other rooms with a new color scheme for the walls. She also convinced me to trash the wall-to-wall carpet to reclaim a beautiful oak floor beneath.
Even before we selected paint, I fell for an antique Persian rug that the Fiber Detail guys from Istanbul had during a closeout sale in their makeshift Near South shop. Happily, it ties everything together.
The sleek kitchen sink faucet and the toilet with the soft-landing lid, all from Briggs plumbing supplier, give style and utility to the new space. And the bathroom vanity with the seamless seaglass green basin adds a touch of elegance. Most appreciated: The pocket door for privacy, something the old bathroom lacked.
Credit for carrying out the concept to completion goes to remodeling contractor Brook Cutshall, who orchestrated the comings and goings. He kept me apprised of progress by written notes on a clipboard. I’d scribble my concerns in the morning, and I’d find his responses in the evening. He was always just a phone call away, and we talked often — a key ingredient for a successful remodel.
Cutshall went above and beyond. He moved the remaining furnishings out of rooms for the floor refinishing and, unprompted, moved them back in afterward in a new arrangement that remains today.
Did I mention that he cleared away all the project debris and rearranged my garage so that I could house the car more easily?
Those are all the good things. But the remodel was not without its frustrations.
I wish I had known the plaster dust would migrate to the basement, where racks of out-of-season clothing and everything else stored below now wear a fine layer of white. They should have been covered with old sheets before construction began. And I would have pulled up the aluminum miniblinds to minimize the dust there; I’ve invested hours in cleaning them, and I’m about halfway through.
The biggest frustration: A white range mistakenly was ordered instead of a black one. The only way I could assure getting the proper range delivered and installed before Christmas was to buy another one. It was a hassle that the Sears appliance manager finally worked out, but not before I ranted and worried and made the second purchase. I’ve got some follow-up work to do to make sure I pay for only one as promised.
And waiting two weeks after refinishing the floors to replace all the throw rugs wasn’t easy, especially with the cold weather. We restored the rugs on Christmas Eve, but the virgin floors have yet to bear a shoe.
The joy has been in watching each of the children and grandchildren relish the new space even though it means foraging for a cereal bowl. Nothing is yet in a familiar place.
Many kitchen items are still on hold in the basement, and missing are just-ordered bar stools to make the peninsula functional.
But each newcomer makes the same discovery: The warmest place for toes is the heat vent on the kitchen side of the peninsula, so no one minds standing.
Reach Patty Beutler at 473-7307 or pbeutler@journalstar.com.
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-Emma, age 9 "
I trust you have a dishwasher now...:))
quite an accomplishment to get it all done on time and looking super "