Amy’s Kitchen Remodeling Diary

July 18
Walk through the house with our architect, Dan. He suggests we move the basement stairs from alongside the kitchen to under the stairway that goes to the second level. That will allow us to push the kitchen all the way to the north wall, picking up at least 40 square feet of kitchen space. I love him already!

September 5
Dan sends us his first set of drawings. He really captures the cottage/Craftsman style I want. Plans include a new dining room. Very cool. But can we afford this?

October 23
Can’t afford it. Time to start prioritizing. Forget the new dining room.

November 12
What a team. Husband Dave and I meet with Dan and the builder, Paul, and together we figure out how to make better use of our living and dining room space, saving the expense of a major addition. Giving up a new dining room isn’t so bad when we’re improving the old one and gaining a dream kitchen.

Thanksgiving
Dinner requires a trip to the basement to get the roasting pan and stacking dirty dishes 6 feet high on our crowded countertops. I’m ready to take the sledgehammer to this kitchen myself.

January
Dan’s revised plans look great. I love the little round window in the mudroom. I start looking at appliances. My girlfriends tell me I have to get two ovens—a pair is wonderful for holiday dinners.

February 3
Paul gives us a revised estimate and figures out how we can do this on our budget of $150,000. What a hero. Now we have to lock in our loan while interest rates are low. Work will start this spring.

February 5
Ask Janice, a kitchen designer and friend, to take on our project. She’ll focus on kitchen organization and cabinet configurations. (Too much math for me.) What a relief. Now I can fuss over colors and styles.