Lessons from our Remodel

It has been a long process with our house remodel.  We stared with the windows and then did the kitchen.  The kitchen still isn’t done but it is getting close.  It hasn’t been the easiest of processes, and Mike and I frequently doubted the wisdom of our decision to do it in the first place.  But, we think the new kitchen looks pretty good.

Lessons we learned (or frustrations we had and should expect the next time):

– Read the contract and make sure there is a timetable included in it–Don’t be nice about this.  It’s important!

– It takes a lot longer than it should, and contractors do not work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week on your project.

– Put everything in writing, including cabinet choices, cabinet extras, etc.  Remember our contractor bought the wrong cabinet design and omitted several of the extras we wanted.

– If you push them, they will work harder on you project, but you might be buying yourselves some mistakes due to their rush. We were OK with that this time because we needed them to just get out!

– But, allowing a contractor to do something later because you want them out of your house now will lead to more frustration when you have to repeatedly nag them to return to get it done.

– Pay for the higher end contractor.  Our master bath remodel went much more smoothly than the guest bathroom remodel or the kitchen.