How to Remodel a Kitchen In 9 Days

May 9, 2014Kitchen Tips

We recently had our kitchen remodeled and it took a mere nine days. How?

9-Day Kitchen Remodel

It took just 9 days to take this kitchen from dark and dingy to bright and functional.

I’ve had two kitchens remodeled. The first one took a couple of months, but it was a very different project to this one. Here’s what I’ve learned about how to remodel a kitchen in a hurry.

  • Live with the old kitchen for a while. In both homes, I wanted to redo the kitchen from the moment I moved in. But I lived with it for bit and really got to know the space — including what already worked. Which brings me to my next tip …
  • Keep what works. In the first kitchen, there was nothing to salvage, so it was demolished down to the studs and redone from the scratch, including altering the footprint and moving plumbing lines. It was also major project that took a couple of months. But for this kitchen, the existing footprint was a good one, and the cabinets were in good shape, too. Keeping both saved time and beaucoup bucks.
  • Hire a good contractor. My enabler contractor, Joey Tellez, has a good network of suppliers and subcontractors. He lined them up on a tight schedule to get the job done quickly and well. But he didn’t sacrifice quality. One of the large pieces of granite for my countertop was cracked on the underside. He rejected it and had the supplier bring in a replacement overnight.
  • Know what you want, but be flexible. Because I had a good idea of what I wanted, I could make decisions quickly. I was also flexible enough to choose from options that were available now. For example, I knew I wanted white granite or marble counters, and was happy to make a choice from what my contractor could get from his supplier. Same goes for the stainless-steel farmhouse sink. I told him what I wanted, he showed me a couple of available options and I made a choice. Done. Inexpensive, off-the-shelf subway tile from Home Depot was ideal for the backsplash. In fact, the only thing that kept this from being a seven-day renovation was waiting for the KitchenAid range that I had to special order. (Was it worth the wait? Hell, yaaasssss!)
  • Make a sacrifice to the home improvement gods. I’m only half-kidding on this. Even with the most well-planned project, things can go awry. We were lucky — nothing unforeseen turned up during the demolition process, but it can happen.

A Kitchen Makeover for More Cooking Fun >>

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