The Digs Doc

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

It gets worse before it gets better

Here's my kitchen, last winter--when it was freezing outside. Note: No insulation and nobody working to add any either. That's because there was fifty feet of snow outside and nobody would work until the weather improved. So, why didn't they wait until better weather before ripping the guts out of a quarter of my first floor living space?

Principle Number One in Home Renovation: If you want and expect reasonable answers, you will quickly lose your mind.

That lesson learned, one can move on to other matters, like how to keep yourself and your pipes from freezing while a large part of your house is gutted during a New England winter; the latter is easier because, although the insulation (and radiator) were gone from the kitchen, the heat in the rest of the house was sufficient to keep the kitchen above freezing; (my plumber reassured me of this while we both stood in the kitchen in ski jackets and boots). Conversely, that gutted room didn't help keep the rest of the house warm (quite the opposite), which leads to the first advisory:

Advisory Number One: Dress for the Occasion.

This could mean coats and hats indoors, or rain gear--and saying "goodbye" to open-toed shoes for awhile, not that you'd wear them when it's 40 degrees indoors. It definitely means packing away any really nice clothes for the duration of the job, or, at least, wearing and/or storing them at great distance from the work site with two layers of ZipWalls between them and the primary dust site (the room being renovated)--because the whole house will be either a primary or secondary dust site. There will be no 'dust-free zone.' This leads to the second and third advisories:

Advisory Number Two: Invest in ZipWalls (even if you think they're too expensive--at first).

What are ZipWalls? Check it out:

  • http://www.zipwall.com

  • Advisory Number Three: Relocate pro tem.

    If you can live somewhere else while the renovating is going on, most definitely do it. A major renovation is a nightmare to live through on site, unless you like waking to the sound of a nail gun and dust as a condiment with everything. Still, it can be done and how to do it will be part of what this blog is about.

    More to say, another day. In the meantime, some good news.

    Silver Lining Number One: In the end, you most likely will have a space that's a lot better than what you started out with (which, of course, is the point and makes the whole experience worth it, especially in retrospect).

    Here's a photo from my completed kitchen. This is the same window as the window on the left in the above gutted photo.

    Resources:

    Cabinets, plate rack and oak countertop by Neil Kelly Cabinets

    Tile by Motawi Tileworks

    Soapstone countertops by Vermont Soapstone

    3 Comments:

    • nice start! what a transformation. worth all your hard work keeping all the contractors in line. good luck with the blog!

      By Blogger Lynne, at 8:39 AM  

    • thanks, lynne! stay tuned for some inspiration gotten from restaurants!

      By Blogger Carol, at 9:21 AM  

    • The hardship of living with renovation work can only be appreciated when the end results are so magnificent.

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:21 PM  

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