I haven’t posted much about the interior of the house. It’s an older home (in perspective) built in the 80s and it’s very solid. Home inspections by an inspector that Bridge has worked with for years didn’t find much that needed correcting. However… It’s dated and needs a refresh. The previous owner had some interesting choices, particularly with texture. Some rooms are better than others, The guest bathroom has so much thick texture I can hear Italian music playing on a Tuscan field everytime I go in there. I expect olive trees to sprout from the floor.
By far the least functional room was the kitchen and it required a serious overhaul. While everything else just got some paint to refresh things, the kitchen got the lions share of attention.
We lived with the knotty pine cabinets, small tile countertops, and low cabinets with soffits for about a month. We went the route of ordering our cabinets and hardware via Home Depot. The process started out ok, but we had a few problems along the way – primarily with communication. Bridge had a plan and a vision and we did our best to express that vision to the kitchen designers who did an ok job interpreting. One of the biggest challenges was using the available space.
We didn’t have a ton of renovation budget so couldn’t blow out walls. There was very little counter space so we decided to reclaim some by getting rid of the double ovens and keeping the refrigerator where it is. That required a smaller refrigerator and we compensated by buying one-half of a professional side-by-side fridge freezer combo. No freezer in the kitchen, its relocated to the garage. This works out for the most part if you don’t mind the extra walk.
The other issue was the good-old 80’s soffits. I have no idea what they were thinking, but these things are terrible. You loose cabinet space and the cabinets were in so low they counters were dark and forget about putting a coffee maker or toaster under them. We ripped out the soffit’s and did our best to match that lovely texture (It turned out ok in the end).
Delays occurred and it was some time before we had a working kitchen. We did the demo ourselves as well as the rough in work. We used a contractor suggested by Home Depot for the install and the rest was all us. We started in July and just finished up two weeks ago. Partly due to how busy we were and partly on the part of Home Depot/Contractor. If you go this route – either plan on micromanaging everything or build in extra time. Doing dishes in the bathtub for a month is not particularly fun. I did, however, get a Traeger midway in the project so got really good at smoke cooking!
In the end, I think we did a good job. We still have a little finish work to do and next year we need to refinish the hardwood.