A Kitchen Odyssey: Follow Along, If You Dare

I was wondering if you might want to make a journey with me. It’s bound to take some time—maybe 6 to 9 months. Where are we going, you ask? I anticipate a trip through remodeling hell. That’s right, folks, I’m in need of a new kitchen and I hardly know where to begin. Given my relative lack of knowledge and the research I’ll need to do, I thought it might be helpful if I shared the thought, planning, and construction process with all of you. I fully expect it to be a bumpy ride, full of potholes, missteps and missed opportunities. But I think we can all learn from this process together and maybe you can even provide some wisdom that will help me as we proceed. (Other than to hire a competent but unaffordable architect or designer.)

I don’t undertake this project lightly. My kitchen is tied to my livelihood and having it torn up and unusable for any period of time will make my [other] job as a food columnist infinitely more difficult. (I might just need to rotate through all your kitchens to do my recipe testing.) So it is important to me to do all the research and make all the decisions and purchases prior to starting any demolition.

My husband and I have not yet settled on a budget, and that ought to be an interesting discussion. In any event, it is not likely to be enough to put the project into the capable of hands of a professional to design. (We will, of course, hire professional contractors to do the work.)

I don’t anticipate any drastic changes, such as pushing a wall out onto the porch, or removing the wall to the dining or living room, but it will be a complete demo—cabinets, most appliances, and the floor. The configuration will remain very close to the existing design, so I hope that will make things go more smoothly (ever the optimist). But who knows? Maybe I’ll be inspired along the way and do something radical. We’ll just have to wait and see…..