Renovations: Family- and budget-friendly kitchen! (Part 1)

Two months ago I posted photos of our kitchen as we started renovating and updating multiple rooms in our house on a tight budget. We saved for two years and literally did months of investigation before the first paintbrush even touched the wall. By getting quotes from multiple sub-contractors and relying on referrals from trusted sources, we ended up thousands of dollars under budget and pleased with the quality and speed of the work.

It took about three weeks to finish the changes and a month and half for me to publish the photos of the finished product! We are thrilled to have four burners that work on our stove, an oven that actually cooks at the set temperature and every scrap of wallpaper removed from our house. I’ve broken the renovation photos and story into three separate blogs:

Part 1 – Photos of the kitchen update and a list of our sub-contractors — published Monday.
Part 2 – Photos of the updated laundry room, dining room and three bathrooms — published Tuesday.
Part 3 – Top 10 things I learned about doing renovations and a timeline of our work that might help you figure out how to be your own general contractor — published Wednesday.

Feel free to comment but be gentle. It is our home.

Old Kitchen. Notice the short laminate counters and how dark it is. We had a fan with a four-bulb light fixture hanging down. It cast shadows all over the room and made the ceiling feel much lower. (Photos by T. Giarrusso)

New kitchen -- hooray! Notice how much brighter the kitchen is with the recessed lights. The electrician and the lighting store recommended using 75watt PAR bulbs (always 130 volts because they last longer). The granite counter was extended 10 inches without having to build out the cabinet. Also notice how the green paint complements the wood. (Photos by Christopher Oquendo)

Old electrical stove that only had two burners that worked with weird shelf over it.

Old double ovens that were off by about 50 degrees. Also notice the wallpaper. It actually grew on me. It felt homey but alas too much like my parent's house in the 1980s.

I am so much happier with my new gas stove. We had to run a gas line in the basement for it (about $500) but it is worth it. New, extremely bright halogen lights were installed above the stove. The backsplash mixed inexpensive durable subway tile with more expensive glass tiles used in small quantities. Also notice the new toaster oven, which is half the size of the last one. We didn't do anything to the cabinets other than change out the handles and wipe them down. (Photo by Christopher Oquendo)

Our 27-year-old ovens had lost all insulation and put out tremendous heat. The new ovens produce almost no exterior heat. Also note I did at least rotate my knives to keep them away from the baby after your suggestion. (Photo by Christopher Oquendo)

Michael was only insistent on two items in the entire renovation: He wanted me to stop dithering and pick a color for the dining room and he wanted a deep sink with no dividers. I love that I can lay a roasting pan and cookie sheet flat to soak in the sink. I also love our new beautiful faucet. (Photo by Christopher Oquendo.)

Choosing the right color is so difficult especially when you're working on more than one room at a time. I bought six different green samples trying to find exactly the right hue that wasn't too dark with the wood and brought out its warmth. We chose the one on the top right. (Photo TWG)

We didn't get a shot of the far side of the room, but you can tell a little bit from this one how the color plays. (Photo by Christopher Oquendo.)

Sources for our work and products

Editor’s Note: I want to make it completely crystal clear that there was absolutely in no way any trade of mentioning a company for getting a good price on my work. None of these companies even knew I worked for the AJC until after they were completely done with my work. There was absolutely no reduction in price for any promise of a mention in the paper. I did a meticulous job (spending more than 2 months) interviewing sub contractors before making my choices and that was how I got good prices. You all should also know that AJC is very, very strict about writers and editors never taking freebies. I write a lot about travel and we are absolutely NEVER permitted to accept any type of free trips, free services or free products and write about it for the AJC. These recommendations are based on the good service I received and nothing else. I’m not even sure they know they are listed here today. I wanted to share the names because it is hard to find responsible providers.

I am recommending these companies because they did a good job for me.  I found them to be honest, responsible and they fulfilled their contracts. They all did very fine work and were responsive to my requests. I offer no guarantee they will do the same for you, but they all did reliable work for me. (I’ve written more about each company and the work they did for me, which will be published on Wednesday.)

Cofer Electric Co. – 92 Main Street Northwest Lilburn, GA 30047-5000; 770-921-1470

Progressive Lighting – Multiple locations around the city. www.progressivelighting.com

Master’s Painting Services –  Miguel Angel Rojo, cell phone – 678-663-6293.

Northlake Plumbing (Gas line and water lines) — 5347 Lawrenceville Hwy NW, Lilburn, GA 30047; 770-921-2046

A Polished Finish, Inc. (Granite) – 1213 Nathan Boulevard, Suite A-C, Loganville, Ga. 30052; 770-913-8797 (Recommended to me by my old friend New Mom. She had a good experience with them as well.)

Atlanta Tile Supply, Inc. – 5845-C Oakbrook Parkway, Norcross, Ga. 30093, 770-409-8200 (Carroll Robinson actually sketched out a backsplash design for us and figured out exactly the amount of tile we needed.)

The McGill Tiling Company – Owner Butch McGill. 678-778-7322.

Be sure to check back tomorrow to see photos of our redone laundry room, dining room and three bathrooms. Also tune in Wednesday to read the Top 10 things I learned about doing renovations and the timeline we used to set up our work with very few issues.