1. Filled a pinterest board with all sorts of ideas and dreams for inspiration
2. Decided on a design and layout. Hired an architect to draw the plans and an engineer to double check his work to make sure none of the walls that we were taking down were load bearing. This drawing was made by Cabinet Giant.
3. Gathered price information on our appliances; plumbing; electrical; drywall; flooring; cabinets etc. Reworked our plan when we figured out our first flooring choice was way too expensive. Our first cabinet bid from Lowe’s was $30,000! Then we went to CabinetGiant.com and did basically the same design for $7,000. We had used their cabinets before so knew the quality and weren’t nervous about that. Also, I dreamed of an $8,000 6 burner viking range. I almost scrapped that dream until I found a used one on Craigslist for a fraction of the price. I <3 Craigslist!
4. Brainstormed a work list of all the tasks big and small to complete the remodel and then put them in chronological order. This included calling around for pricing and ordering a dumpster. Then managing all the demolition tasks into the one week we could keep it before being charged extra time fees.
5. Assigned a person to each work task. I was the most available as far as time goes and the least skilled. While my husband is most skilled but least available (since he works full time; runs our Cub Scout program; is Caleb’s camping buddy; and works on the security force at church.) He taught me some of the skills I lacked (Like how to use a sawzall.) So I could do more things. But some things I just wasn’t strong enough for. Then we assigned the jobs that we were going to hire out.
6. Then I divided my list into weeks. I put way less into a week than I thought we could get done, so that we would actually get it done, lol. I found in our previous remodels that if I pack the time too tightly I get discouraged and stop working all together. Plus, I still needed to keep our family running smoothly with laundry, meals, kid activities, my jobs online, and things relatively clean. Also, Darren and I are in and out of town some this summer at alternating weeks while we take kids to camp and work there. Those weeks I left open so the remaining parent could just handle kids without the added stress of working on the remodel.
7. Once we knew the dates things were happening, I knew when to order flooring (which was when it goes on sale :).) And when to schedule our hired workers to come.
I still need to order cabinets! That’s stressing me a little. I found a mistake in my measurements which means my 24″ home organizing center won’t fit. It will save us $600 on our cabinets though. I just need to find a new place to house it and will look for a craigslist armoire to take it’s place. With so many walls gone I’m just not sure where to put it now.
Here’s a pdf to look at of my plan. I removed some of the dates for our protection.
I was going to talk about budgeting here too, but this is already so long, I’ll save it for the next post.
Angela,
I enjoy reading about your remodeling project and seeing the pictures as it’s in progress. Thank you for sharing. We need to tackle remodeling our house too but are still in the “thinking it through” stage. 🙂 I’ve gotten lots of ideas from Pinterest, too.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I look forward to getting e-mails from the Grocery Shrink.
And that is what I was missing. Reality. Tried to paint all three Sunday school classrooms in two days and move back in on the third. Didn’t happen. But they are now cute anyway 🙂 Still love the pic of you destroying the wall BTW. It needs framing!
Kelly, you are so funny. Maybe I’ll frame it and post it in the dining room :). Yes, 3 classrooms in two days is very ambitious. I can’t wait to see them. We’ll be up for the 3rd of July party celebrating the 4th :).