It's a SINK!

The kitchen plan is almost done! The latest addition to the kitchen plan is changing the kitchen table from plan 3 out for a little breakfast nook (see below). The cabinet will be placed on the floor as a bench that is wide enough to be a one-seater, so the idea is to have a small table in front of it. The idea came from yet another visit to Ikea on Saturday.

The excitement for today is that I just bought a pedestal sink! Good ol' Craig's List came to the rescue for yet another cost savings measure. It's slightly used, but for the price of $50 it's worth it! It's got a large bowl and nice, simple stand, which is exactly what I was looking for. The only things remaining to purchase for the bathroom for installation is a mirror and light fixture. The cabinet(s) can come at our leisure since they don't need to be installed.

Tomorrow, Mr. GC (general contractor) is meeting with the structural engineer to review the removal of the wall between the kitchen and laundry area. His plan is promised to be ready next Monday.

This Thursday is the signing of escrow papers and next Tuesday is close of escrow! So I have one short week to prepare all parts of the permit for submission for approval to the city of Sunnyvale's building department on Wednesday the 28th. As soon as the permits are in hand, we can begin work!

It's Starting To Come Together!

This weekend was busy! Yesterday I visited a few showrooms to see what prices we're looking at for granite and tile. I found a mega bargain: 2 steel gray granite slabs for $300 each! They're trying to get rid of them and so offered me an amazing deal. That comes out to $6.31/SF as opposed to the others they have which are mostly over $20/SF! Yeah, I'm definitely calling to reserve those tomorrow morning. This is what it looks like:

Today I met with contractor choice #1. We were at the house looking over my plans, the configuration of the rooms and reviewed estimated costs and schedules for over 3 hours! It was great!! He's a perfect fit.

Next on the list is to call the city planning department to ask about permits - how long they take for my scope of work, what format they need to be in, and how long any mods will take later. Apparently, the city of Sunnyvale is more lenient with home owner designers submitting plans, so I'm going to spruce up my drawings (see the last blog post) with dimensions, outlet locations, material types, etc. and get the permit myself.

My newly employed PM (he's a Project Manager for now, until he passes his general contractor's exam) will bring in an electrician, plumber and structural engineer to get their cost estimates for the work. My hope is by this time next week there will be a firm schedule and budget in plan.

Two good news items came of today's meeting: one, PM said he can do the work in 3 weeks! That's for both the kitchen and bathroom and AFTER all permits have been approved; two, the current owners will be out of the house on Feb. 1st! This gives us 5 extra days to work in the house before move-in day -- this is very good news!

Every time I go to the house I get some more clarity on what I want to do with it. The #1 concern of the moment is how much of the wall can be taken out. I'm determined to take at least the larger part down just so the space will seem more open.

#2 question is where to put the washer and dryer. Right now the plan is to move them in to what is currently the coat closet (see the open space in the far corner of this view). The problem is that they will stick out from the closet a couple of inches, so the doors can't stay. This doesn't concern me too much, especially since different ones will probably replace those later.



The closet that is currently the pantry will stay and turn in to a coat closet, leaving a 3.5' wide space to either be filled with more cabinets and counters...or could be a space for my kitchen table. It juts out a bit in to the room, but it just might work.

You might notice that the fridge has moved to the opposite wall from the previous plan. I think this will open up the window wall some more and balance out the pantry cabinet and/or partial wall if it has to stay.

Selecting A Contractor

So we are now at a fork in the road. Which contractor to pick?

Being new to this remodeling thing, I desperately want someone who I can trust, since I don't know what I'm doing.

So far there are two candidates for a general contractor: the guy who did the house inspection and my realtor's husband. Choice #1 is to go with my realtor's husband. He builds custom homes, has a good eye for details and probably has a vested interest in keeping his wife's repeat client happy. Plus this would be his only job, which would make schedule go faster, presumably.

In preparation for discussion the plans with these two guys, I doodled out a couple of sketches to add to the Ikea models. I also had the grand idea of how to fit in my kitchen table in to this configuration for a little breakfast nook.

Here's the view of the expanded kitchen looking toward the back door and stairs to the basement:

This layout isn't taking any actual room measurements in to consideration, so I don't know if it will work. But my idea is to move the fridge to the wall on the left, which would free up a little wall area in which to scoot in the kitchen table. There isn't enough room to fit both the kitchen table and island in the middle of the room, so this is a good alternative. It would take out some of the planned cabinet space along the wall on the left, but with the island I don't think counter space or storage will be an issue.

Here's the same layout viewed from the back door looking toward the living/dining room wall:

The kitchen table would jut out in to the lower left corner of the sketch had I put it in. I got a little excited about the whole drawing part of it and forgot the main purpose of adding the table!

I've scheduled to meet with contractor pick #2 on Friday to review the plans, after which he will prepare a cost and schedule proposal. Then on Sunday I will meet with contractor pick #1 (agent's hub) to go through the same exercise.


On interesting thing I learned yesterday is that it's highly likely that the kitchen floor has original Douglas Fir hardwood floors buried underneath (what I hope is no more than) a couple layers of lenolium. Very cool! Of course with this revelation also comes another glitch: the original hardwood would end where the original exterior of the wall stood, which is the wall of the kitchen that I want to knock down, ie. that darn load bearing wall. So, I now have to consider the transition of flooring from original hardwood to...something else without making it look too broken up or awkward.

Oh the decisions!!

Those Darn Load-Bearing Walls

The good news is that the wall between the kitchen and laundry area can be torn down. That's not actually news.

The real news, which is not so good, is that it is indeed a load bearing wall and to take the whole wall out would require adding a header, two support posts on either side, get an extra permit (which can take around 4 weeks) and the consultation and approval of a structural engineer. This, I am told, will cost about an extra $15k. Yikes!

Too bad I can't just have one of the trusty Loral structural engineers to do this and pay him with a 6-pack of beers! Maybe if we make it look like a satellite...hmmm....

Still, I think it's worth it. Not only for the resale value, but for my own use. It's a perfectly good space that would open up the otherwise boxy floor plan.

Next on the list is to pick a general contractor. I interviewed one this morning (the guy who did the home inspection, actually) and he sounds good. He's been doing kitchen and bathroom remodeling for 30 years and has a regular set of subcontractors (electrician, plumber, carpenter, tiler) who he works with, so it's a better bet that they will be motivated to continue to do a good job.

Whoever we go with, we'll have to meet with him at the house to review the plans, after which the cost and schedule will be proposed. I'm prepared for the inevitable large figure and long schedule that is sure to come, given my optimism and inexperience with this whole remodeling business. But the good thing is that this will allow us to better gage what can be done by whom and when.

The Kitchen

This weekend's activity was research, research, research. We went to Ikea, Home Depot, a kitchen showroom and visited $2M+ open houses, trying to narrow down choices.

It worked. We picked out the cabinets from Ikea and proceeded to lay out the kitchen in its current configuration (see image below). Those clever Ikea folks even tally up the total cost of the cabinets in your design plan!

This layout is plan 1 (not necessarily the most desirable option, mind you). The existing floorplan is a bit limiting. The kitchen is a decent size and absolutely usable, but the adjacent laundry room has approximately 250 sq. ft. that is currently only serving as a large laundry room. The plan is to knock down the wall between the kitchen and laundry room to make a large kitchen/eating area!



Here's plan 2. This assumes knocking down the wall between the kitchen and laundry area, moving the fridge against the wall and adding an island.

So, to refresh our memories, we we went back to the little Sunnyvale house to take kitchen and bathroom measurements and more pictures. Oh my goodness, do we have our work cut out for us!

First of all, there is indeed no way we can just resurface the kitchen cabinets. They are gross. And the bathroom is atrocious! I felt uncomfortable using it!!

This is the condition of the main bathroom sink...with all its pink greatness...and matching pink cabinets and drawers...and backsplash...and corroded faucet and handles...

...and the kitchen...
This is something like what the cabinets are going to looks like:

This was a model home near Loral that is being "offered" (I love the nice terminology) at $800k. It's a townhome. But price and layout aside, it was nice to get a sense of what the cabinets would look like.