Haines Contracting Inc.Remodeling Blog

This month we are featured in "House & Home Magazine" for our kitchen remodeling project we won a Meritorious Award for in the Bucks mont NARI Contractor of the Year Award competition. Click on the below photo to be taken to a pdf file of the article.

If you'd like to see more of this kitchen renovation, check out this web page featuring the kitchen remodel.http://www.hainescontracting.com/remodeling-showcase/-award-winning-kitchen-addition/award-winning-kitchens/  What do you think? What would you change in your kitchen to make it more functional for you?

    My customer came to us looking to remodel their existing dark & dingy kitchen into a charming working country kitchen to fit into their historic  home dating  back to 1790.  They both enjoyed to cook and work from their garden with their home grown vegetables and produce. They wanted   to make the kitchen flow & be aesthetically matching with the traditional elements in the rest of the home & keep things "green". The things they didn't like about their existing kitchen was:

• It was the coldest room in the house
• The traffic didn't flow well with the zig zag traffic flow through the doorways
• the windows were small & the room lacked sufficient natural light
• the refrigerator was in another room , so the ergonomics of a large working triangle was poor
• there was poor prepping area for cooking and work space
• the sinks were small and didn't give much room for washing their vegetables & produce off
• soffits closed in the upper room space making it feel smaller than it is
• There was no gas available to cook properly
• The electric room lighting was inadequate

   A decision was made  to go with a custom kitchen cabinet company from their home country of England because of some unique cabinets  they offered  and the cabinets were constructed with quarter sawn english oak, which matched their antique furniture in their home. They had  worked  with the kitchen designer for 2 years in getting all the details just right.  The cabinets were all custom made in England and were shipped over to  the US in a container.  There was a 3 month lead time from final measurements through construction. The project needed to be started  before  the cabinets were ordered in case any framing needed to be altered. Once the framing was complete the dimensions were finalized & the cabinets were ordered. 

    To solve the customers desires:

• A existing corner bathroom in the kitchen would be removed to free up more cabinet space.
• The rooms wall coverings would be gutted to reveal whats behind them. It turned out there wasn't any insulation in the walls and they were made up of 1x3 furring lath & crooked 2x3's. The existing walls were stone and masonry and they were not insulated, nor where they square & plumb. To give us enough space to insulate & get all the walls square & true, the walls were reframed with 2x4's. A soy based urethane foam was sprayed in place to insulate the walls & ceiling and radiant heat was added beneath a new tile floor which complemented their existing flagstone floors.
• The existing windows were enlarged to let in more natural light. Energy efficient traditional double hung wood windows were used with a true divided insulated glass option. The interior trim was matched to rest of the house & along with traditional colonial williamsburg paint colors.
• A new doorway was opened up to make a straight passage through the room, the original door was was reused.
• A Large fireclay kitchen sink was chosen to allow ample room for washing of the garden vegetables & produce.
• New wood wainscotings was added to the interior gable walls & matched in a light colored colonial williamsburg yellow making the room come alive with brightness.
• Energy efficient appliance were used and the old ones were "recycled" through donating to Habitat For Humanity Recycle Store
• The new cable lighting was unique to the room with little flying bee lights added to accent the tastes for their hobby of raising bees and harvesting their honey.
• A custom made table was locally made & matched to a late 18th century design featuring a butcher block top , which added more prep area for larger meals.
• A cozy corner nook was created for siting in the natural light to eat, read a book, or work on the P.C.

(Click on the photo below to see slide show of the award winning kitchen renovation)

      You've been thinking about it for a while now & you're ready to move ahead with your kitchen remodel. Do you want it to be an Award Winning Kitchen by putting the best of everything in it including Wolfe commercial Appliances, Custom Kitchen Cabinets, granite counter tops and ceramic tile floors or a more conservative approach using standard appliances, semi custom stock kitchen cabinets, laminate counter tops, and sheet good flooring.

       There can be quite a difference in cost between the variables. On the low end $20-30,000 up to $150,000. Starting out with a reasonable budget first, then designing your kitchen to fit that budget is the best approach. Your first consideration should be, do I have enough space to fit everything I would like. If not, a larger kitchen renovation may be in store by adding a kitchen addition, which may give you the larger breakfast area and kitchen island or peninsula you've been wanting. This could cost anywhere from $150-200,000 for both the kitchen remodeling and addition.

 Most people have a hard time envisioning how something is going to look finished and they can't get the sense of the space from a 2-d floor plan. By working with a contractor who has the ability to do 3d CAD drawings & renderings alot of the problems can be seen and worked out in a 3d view. If the 3d model doesn't work, it won't work in your kitchen either. This part can be time consuming for the contractor, so don't expect it to be a free service. Expect to pay anywhere from $300 for a simple layout up to over $4000.00 if an addition will be included. But it's money well spent. It's easier to change on paper than tear things apart once it's built and most cabinets can't be returned either if something doesn't fit, not to mention the delay it causes to your kitchen remodel.

      It's best to do some homework up front thinking about what you want, take magazine photos and gather ideas and look at some appliance,sink,counter top, & flooring choices.  Then decide what kind of contractor you want to have involved in your life for the next 3 months or so. That's about what it will take from planning and costing out the kitchen remodeling through ordering the cabinets and waiting 2-12 weeks depending on how custom they are and then having them installed. Then right when you think you'll be done, you have to wait another 2 weeks after the templating and fabrication before your solid surface counter tops can be installed. You will be dealing with your contractor everyday during the installation and construction. So if you don't like him in the beginning, you probably really won't like him at the end. Cost shouldn't be your main factor, there's much more the job than that. 

         Get referrals from your contractor and ask to check out some of his work. See what kinds of award winning kitchens they may have completed. Make sure he is a licensed contractor with the proper liability and property insurance. Make sure they are a member of NARI (National Association of the Remodeling Industry) and make sure you like dealing with them.

         Once you have your contractor it's time to measure things up and start some plans. 3d plans are most helpful. Work through the different cabinets available for the various spaces. You may want a revolving lazy susan cabinet in a corner instead of a hard to access blind corner cabinet and so on. Each manufacturer varies in some of the more custom cabinet types. A good designer will show you the different options available to you. Then when all the decisions are made get it all on the plans and/or in the contract which should spell out the payment schedule and time line of the kitchen remodeling project.

        According to the annual "Cost Vs. Value Report", published by Remodeling Magazine, a kitchen remodel project should bring you back 60-70% return on your investment spent when you sell your home. It is the most expensive room in your home.

        Give us a call @ 215-348-9953 when you are ready to remodel to see if we can be your contractor of choice.