How to Precisely Search for and Pin-point All Things Relating to Kitchen Renovation and Remodelling

It would be a dream to have a unlimited budget to spend solely on you kitchen renovation. However, that is unideal. It is rather ideal to have a set budget, and knowledge on what you want to spend a majority of your money on; whether it be the appliances or the tiles. It is unique to each homeowner.

However, it may be a bit confusing for one to decide on what to focus their energy and money mainly on. Therefore, the most critical tool is to either be extremely sure about what you want, or having another set of eyes to help you make some of the tougher decisions. This will surely make the process much easier, having a set criteria.

For the majority they are unsure what they value most, and want most in a kitchen. We are here to guide you to create your set of criteria you want to see in your kitchen renovation.

How The Kitchen will be Utilized:

When planning a kitchen renovation yourself or with the guidance of a kitchen contractor, you must be extremely clear on how you want to utilize your kitchen when it is completely renovated. This is an example to make matters clear: I want to have people over more often. I want to feel relaxed when i entertain. In order to feel relaxed, I need to make sure that no one is in my way while I cook. I also want my kitchen to stay neat during the cooking process and be laid out so that cleaning up will be efficient. Clearly stating your goals in terms of your kitchen to the contractor can help guide him close to creating your vision, with the allocated budget set by the homeowner.

1. Daily Use vs. Special Events

This subject matter should be discussed with the consideration of how many people this kitchen will host. Considering refrigerator storage, to the seats at the dining table. The number of people residing at a household and the people you want to accommodate as the homeowner will and should affect your design choices. You will also want to keep in mind if you consider this the home that you plan on reside in forever. I have worked with clients who have too much space especially if we are considering an elder couple with no kids, however they also host 25 to 30 individuals during holidays thus they need more room. Therefore, it would be ideal to create a space that accommodates both these circumstances. It is recommended that clients approach their kitchen renovation with maximum capacity in mind.

2. Cost vs Value

As you may have probably discovered if you are considering a remodel or renovation, all the parts that make up a kitchen vary at unique prices whether it is the cabinets or the sink or the appliances. It is a difficult to decide whether it is worth splurging for a high-quality appliance or if it is a better choice to save your money on something else. Here are some factors to keep into consideration:

● Will the investment on a certain product improve your daily life?

● Will the product be part of creating your dream kitchen?

● Will the addition of this element make your house feel more like a home?

In each of these factors, you must decide whether a certain product is worth the cost from the value it brings. For example, a high end dishwasher may eliminate the need to rinse dishes. Perhaps, you hate scrubbing dishes, and can afford an upgrade that would guarantee any minute that you can spare away from the sink. Or perhaps you feel the complete opposite, you do not mid scrubbing dishes, the investment of a high end dishwasher would be rather useless. Framing your choices as cost vs value in terms of your kitchen renovation and possibly the resale value of your home can help you get clarity on what is worth the extra money.

3. Prioritizing Desires and Wants

A helpful way to prioritize your desires is to analyze the frequency and the duration of a given task. Tasks you perform frequently or spend much time on, should get more weight as you consider what is worth investing in.

For example, a majority of individuals utilize the burners to cook 80 percent of the time, the oven 20 percent of the time. If this is applicable, I believe it is best suitable to prioritize the cooktop as opposed to the wall oven, both in terms of placement in your kitchen and quality of product.

4. Function vs Aesthetic

Ideally a kitchen redesign brings both beauty and function, however when dealing with limited funds, trade-offs between functionality and aesthetics may be rather necessary. When speaking of functionality I am speaking of the lay out and the choice of whether it is necessary to have one sink or two.

Aesthetics, are inevitably expensive but they surely make the kitchen look beautiful, and allow you to personally customize the kitchen to make it part of your home. However, having a specified budget may force you to make the decision on what is most important to you: functionality or the overall look of the kitchen.

A client that does not do a lot of cooking and is more concerned with the look of the kitchen should ideally focus on the overall aesthetic of the kitchen, rather than the functionality since it will be of no use.

However, majority of individuals would rather a more functional and ideal kitchen rather than an aesthetically pleasing kitchen. Ways in which you can cut back on focusing on the aesthetic and focus more so on the functionality, you can consider a more simple and less expensive cabinet style. For example, I had one client use a very inexpensive laminate counter so that she was able to put more money into the remodel work necessary to get the layout exactly how she wanted.

5. Speed vs Patience

Every home improvement project takes a lot of time and that simply just part of the process. Once the kitchen is demolished while construction is underway, any delay or pitfall can be difficult particularly if you are the homeowner, dealing with the mess on the daily. The risk of this is that you, the homeowner will be tempted to agree with anything that the kitchen contractor suggests just to get the project over and done with, just to get your home back to its initial state.

One of my clients decided to use a second-choice backsplash simply because it was in stock, whereas her initial choice would have caused the client a month delay. On the other hand another client had some difficult finding a backsplash she found suitable, so she finished the remainder of kitchen and skipped the backsplash all together. Three months later she found the perfect tiles, and brought the tile installer back. I am sure it is evident which homeowner was more satisfied with their kitchen remodel.

When making a large financial investment it is crucial to take steps very slowly and ensure that every step is taken very carefully. Again it is crucial to consider how long you will be living in your home. Those individuals who are looking for a quick fix, if they are looking to sell their home. However, the majority of people will be spending the rest of their lives in that same home, thus it is critical to ensure that the renovation or remodel done effectively.