Remodeling your kitchen can be nerve racking. Knowing what to expect can help allay your fears and make you better prepared for what’s to come.

Here’s what to expect when remodeling:

• Inconvenience. Prepare for inconvenience.  A remodeling project can turn your home and – on some days – your life upside down.  A kitchen remodel will, of course, affect meal planning.  But a little ingenuity and some culinary shortcuts can lessen the impact.  Set up a temporary cooking quarters by moving the refrigerator, toaster oven, and microwave to another room.  Arrange a dishwashing station in your laundry room.  If the weather is warm, fire up the grill and dine alfresco. By preparing for this ahead of time, you will save yourself a lot of frustration.
• Dust. When remodeling a kitchen, it usually needs to be gutted. This involves taking out old cabinets, countertops, and appliances. As you would imagine this can get pretty messy.  Even with elaborate ZipWalls, a fine layer of dust can gather in parts of your home far from construction. The dust is inevitable but there are some things you can do to minimize it. Make sure that you cover all of your heavy furniture (the stuff that can’t be moved into another room) with plastic. Turn off central air or heat when workers are sanding and stock up on extra filters so that you can change them often. Also, make sure you vacuum around the opening to the construction zone often. This will help control the amount of dust you track through the house.
• Noise. It will be incessant. From screeching saws, to sanders and nail guns, you won’t be able to find much peace. Don’t count on working from home unless your home office is far away from the construction zone and napping is probably out.  Just remember the noise is temporary and soon you will have a beautiful new kitchen to show for it.
• Decisions. Where should that outlet be? Where do you want the cabinet hardware mounted? Brushed nickel or satin nickel hardware? Count on hundreds of questions that you’ll need to answer as your project proceeds. Just know that your selection of a contractor is the first of many you will make and possibly the most important.
• The Unexpected. The one thing you can expect during a renovation is the unexpected. Be sure to leave room in your budget and time frame for the unexpected to happen from the start. By doing so, unexpected problems won’t be such a shock. Expect upcharges, and build them into your budget. Some change orders will be beyond your or your builder’s control (surprises discovered during demolition such as bad wiring, bad plumbing or asbestos, permitting requirements imposed by your municipality), and others you will initiate as new ideas come forth or you change your mind. (You will change your mind, most certainly more than once.)
• Delays. Unforseen delays can occur that are outside of the contractor’s control. Back orders, weather delays, faulty existing construction. Maintain a sense of humor, remember it’s best to laugh rather than upset yourself about things that are beyond your control.

Just know that the process is not forever, and the changes you must undergo are sacrifices for a better home, great return on investment, and a better place to cook and entertain. Be patient. The contractors are not trying to make your life miserable. They are there to make it better.

At Classic Cabinets & Design our highly skilled design consultants will work with you every step of the way to help you stay on budget while creating the kitchen you’ve always dreamed of.

To learn more about our process or to get started on your remodel project, click here:  https://classiccabinetsdesign.com/process