Year of Remodel: 2016

Designed: Wayne Foley, Foley Construction

Construction: Foley Construction

Length of Project: 32 days

The owners purchased this production home about two years before they were referred to us by one of our previous clients. While the original kitchen was perfectly “nice,” the existing maple front cabinets and Corian countertops gave it a rather dated look. The clients felt the kitchen didn’t meet their current lifestyle needs, so they wanted us to give it an update that remained true to the home’s character.

Pre-construction: The original kitchen

Our kitchen designer came up with a plan that resulted in not only a more beautiful and functional kitchen, but one that was better suited to the homeowners’ lifestyle. Because this was a relatively small job, one of our main challenges was to get the homeowners to choose all the materials and have them delivered to the site before beginning demo or installation work. In our experience, jobs that should take weeks to complete can often turn into months-long projects due to change orders and homeowner indecision. For these smaller jobs, we believe it’s best to have everything selected upfront.

The clients chose their new appliances and countertops and orders were placed for all the other necessary construction materials. Granite slabs were chosen from in-stock material and were tagged and held at the supplier’s showroom. New cabinets, which took about five weeks to arrive, were stored in the client’s garage. The appliances were delivered in about three weeks and were kept at the wholesaler’s warehouse until we were ready to install them.

The kitchen remodel construction process.

Demo and reframing work, including capping off electrical, plumbing and gas lines, took about two days to complete. Once framed, our mechanical, electrical and plumbing crews stepped in. The kitchen’s new layout included changing the location of the appliances, so they had to re-run the necessary lines. After that, it only took about three days to complete the re-installation and finishing of the drywall.

There weren’t a large number of cabinets to install, but there were complexities to the kitchen design. It took about nine working days to complete the installation of the cabinets, with multiple trips out to the site to complete the work between job phases. Once the new cabinets were in, we created the countertop templates.

During the design phase, the homeowners decided to have us refinish all of the first floor hardwood, which we did after the cabinets were in. We then painted the kitchen, installed the countertops and put in a few new electrical fixtures. Due to the staining and polyurethane fumes, the homeowners chose to leave the house with their two-year old son while the floors were being refinished.

The newly remodeled kitchen.

With a focus on smart functionality and timeless design, the new kitchen provided the homeowners with an improved layout that suited their lifestyle “to a T.” The homeowners report they love their new kitchen, and we’re happy and proud to say that since the work was completed earlier this year, they have referred several new clients to us.

Special Challenges: We felt it was important to get the work completed in as compressed a time period as possible. With the exception of when the floors were being refinished, the young family lived in the house the entire time the work was being done. Without a functioning kitchen, they gamely adapted by living off of a microwave and toaster oven they set up in the basement wet bar.