Cornwall Kitchen Bathroom Flooring Interiors and Garden. Miller Countrywide Home Guide

Location isn’t everything.Our 1965 built detached home in a good location with excellent views had the lot. But the house also had that other estate agent buzz word: potential.We replaced the roof, upgraded the windows and did minor bathroom remodeling. The kitchen, though,was too scary. We pored over design magazines and brochures, but they always made our £4,500 budget seem inadequate. In our 10-ft. by 10-ft. kitchen, stock countertops sat on cheap cabinets. We lacked a dishwasher, microwave and adequate wiring to install them. (Our temporary solution, a portable dishwasher with microwave on top, tripped the breakers.) We also had only 3 lin.ft. of counter space and one storage drawer. To save money, we acted as our own general contractors, a strategy that carries risks and can frustrate professionals who have to work with inexperienced management. It took some study, clear communication and careful organization; but this job came in on budget and on time (photo above).

Hire good people and communicate
clearly with them. Paying fair wages to good tradespeople and communicating clearly with them makes all the difference. Starting with the cabinets, we got several layouts and estimates from recommended contractors. One of them, Mark Priester of Priester’s Cabinets, deserves much of the credit for our success. First, he solved the counter-space and dishwasher problems. He suggested putting the stove with microwave/hood above it against the blank wall where the portable dishwasher had been and a built-in dishwasher where the stove had been. This arrangement gave 2 ft. more counter space. We needed an electrician to run new wiring and a plumber to bring water to the dishwasher, and we got written estimates from contractors who had done good work for us in the past. We cleaned up between stages and did some touch-up painting after the cabinets were installed. But mostly, we saved the pros many hours of legwork by shopping for laminate, tile, paint, light fixtures, hardware, taps and appliances. Initial estimates for cabinetry, plumbing and electrical work came in around $£2,500, leaving $2,000 for appliances and everything else. The middle-of-the-line dishwasher, stove, microwave and refrigerator ate up most of that, but left a few pounds to upgrade the cabinets.

(Attractive, efficient kitchens don’t need to break the budget. Without enlarging the kitchen, the owners now have better cabinets and counters, and more work space, shelving and drawers. Tight planning
limited kitchen downtime to just 72
hours. Photo taken at A on floor plan.)

Schedule the work carefully. Thanks to careful planning and good subs, we were without a kitchen for only 72 hours. When we hired the crew, we made sure that we fully understood the scope of each trade’s involvement, the sequence of tasks and the length of time each step would take. When the guys gave us the estimates, they explained what needed to be done before they could do their work. By making sure that we understood how they wanted things sequenced, we could be certain that everything was ready when each of them arrived. When Mark took measurements, he indicated on the wall the location of the new outlets and appliances so that the electrical rough-in could be done before tearout of the old kitchen began. With that done, we had the old appliances hauled out on a set day, and the job went like clockwork, with no wasted time—ours or theirs. Mark hauled off the old cabinets on day one, disconnecting the cast-iron sink and leaving it for the plumber to reinstall. On day two, he installed the new cabinets, and the appliances arrived. On day three, the plumber installed the dishwasher and reconnected the sink; another installer hooked up the new microwave/hood and oven/range. We now had a working kitchen. Undercabinet lighting fixtures, materials for a tile backsplash and miscellaneous cleanup expenses exhausted the budget. A friend who is a tile installer had offered to install the backsplash as a return favor. We turned him loose and then bought him a gift certificate to a nice restaurant, bringing the final bill to £4,700.