The architect came by again yesterday, this time to get more feedback on our “needs” versus “wants” as well as take copious measurements of the spaces that will be remodeled. I had an in-depth list to give him – during the week I had made up a list of things that were vitally important to the kitchen renovation (more storage, bigger ovens, reusing current granite counters as much as possible), as well as things that would be nice but aren’t required (moving laundry room to addition section and converting current laundry into mudroom, converting current pantry into a built-in desk area).
I also went on Houzz.com and found 8-10 pictures that I could show him that had the sensibility of what we want (albeit we don’t have the typical Houzz pricetag – those kitchens are SWANK).
He said that he’ll have two different plans drafted by Friday and can meet with us then to review them. We can then make any change requests at that time and he’ll begin round two of the plans.
We’re trying to be sensible in how we use the money have for this addition – if moving the laundry will be too cost-prohibitive, then we’ll leave it where it is. I don’t HAVE to have a mudroom, you know what I mean? So in that regard, I feel like we’ll be good stewards with this addition. We’ll splurge on some things (we have our eye on an amazing kitchen sink that I can currently get for about 50% of it’s retail price), and make concessions for others (read: mudroom). But I guess we’ll be able to figure that out once we begin sending out for bids – if the quotes come in above our desired number, we’ll scale back if need be.
In sad news, I called one contractor that one of my co-workers used for an 800 sq ft addition a couple years ago, and he is not licensed in South Carolina. That’s a bummer because my co-worker, who generally never says anything nice about anybody, raved about this contractor. But we still have another 4-5 contractors to call for quotes once we get the final drawings.
So that’s the update. With any luck our drawings will be finalized by the first week of May, with a contractor selected by the end of May. And then the real craziness begins!