Announcer: The thought of remodeling your home can be overwhelming and complicated. You’re most valuable possession is at stake. Not to mention your safety and sanity, who can you trust to get you started? The Remodeling Nation Podcast, and your hosts, Neil and Geoff.

Neil Kristianson: Welcome to the Remodeling Nation Podcast, where we offer you inside tips on how to have a great remodeling experience. I’m your host Neil Kristianson and I’m one of the owners of Crimson Design and Construction in Naperville, Illinois. And again with me today is my co-host, Geoff Martin. He is the owner of Cedar Mill Group in Concord, New Hampshire.

Geoff Martin: Neil, what’s happening?

Neil Kristianson: Well, I survived Concord. I’m home.

Geoff Martin: Yes, you did.

Neil Kristianson: I’m still a little…

Geoff Martin: Because you’ve kind of go early go home on Thursday morning, if I remember.

Neil Kristianson: I got up at 3:45 in the morning Concord time, and had to come home.

Geoff Martin: Who made your plane reservations, anyway?

Geoff Martin: Yeah, that was 5 o’clock your time.

Neil Kristianson: It was 5 o’clock my time and yeah, then I get to come home and go back to work. So it was a long day. It was a long week. We’ve got a lot done last week, and learn a lot about your company and hopefully provided some good to you.

Geoff Martin: It was amazing experience.

Neil Kristianson: Yeah. Well, I’m glad you got something out of it.

Geoff Martin: I’ve got to tone up a bit and I already had our first office meeting, on our second office meeting scheduled for Monday with the whole field team and everything to go over all the things that you, like the board of directors was so kind to have them point out. My team was so excited to be interviewed by all of you. It was just a fantastic experience. I can’t recommend it enough.

Geoff Martin: Yeah. Tell me about it. How are we doing?

Neil Kristianson: Not well. I had some technical glitches putting it together from a hotel room at Concord. I’m not sure if anybody tried to get on and leave some suggestions for show topic because I had it messed up and I couldn’t. So, I don’t know if anybody even tried. So I apologize for that and I’m going to fix that this week.

So if you go to the homepage of remodelingnation.com, you’ll find the link there to get to the contest and for those of you that haven’t heard the contest is, we’re giving away… We are re-gifting the book “Linchpin” by Seth Godin that I’ve been reading because I won it from somebody and they won it from somebody. So it’s already a third generation book.

We’re going to hand that off to whoever gives us the best suggestion for a show topic. So we want you to go to remodelingnation.com and leave us a suggestion. And we are going to give away that book at the beginning of June. We’re going to leave the contest open through May to give people time to find this and get online and put up a suggestion.

Neil Kristianson: So that means that the pot just got even bigger, so people should go there and leave us suggestion because honestly, that’s the hardest part. I can get you talking just about any subject, but we just have an idea what subject to talk about.

Geoff Martin: Well, and you know we don’t want just to talk about stuff that we want to talk about. We want to talk about stuff that people want to hear.

Neil Kristianson: People would find interesting, useful, fun, whatever it is. That’s what we want to talk about.

Geoff Martin: So, what are fun and useful topics of this week, Neil?

Neil Kristianson: Well, this week we decided to talk about planning for a kitchen remodel.

Geoff Martin: Yeah.

Geoff Martin: Oh, I do. I’m excited to talk about kitchen remodel. I love kitchen remodeling.

Announcer: And now, our big topic of the week.

Neil Kristianson: Kitchen remodeling is the big topic of this week and more specifically planning for a kitchen remodel. And, we’re kind of taking it I guess from the logistics standpoint of just what’s involve and getting ready to remodel your kitchen. One of the big things we always talk with people about when we’re getting ready to remodel their kitchen. You know, a kitchen remodel, it can be an extensive process.

Geoff Martin: It can be the most disruptive remodeling project that you can do in your house.

Neil Kristianson: Right.

Geoff Martin: And why is that?

Neil Kristianson: Because you don’t have a kitchen.

Geoff Martin: Well, it’s more than that. You know, OK you don’t have your stove where you normally have. You’re refrigerator is gone from the room. But the biggest thing, you don’t have a kitchen sink.

Neil Kristianson: Yes.

Neil Kristianson: Well it… Your house kind of loses its mojo. It’s because the kitchen’s really the heart of the house in the American society. That’s where everybody gathers. A lot of times, it’s physically the center of the house where you have to pass through. And when you tear apart that room and make it unusable, you’re really disrupting the heart of the house in not just a physical way, but an emotional way as well.

Geoff Martin: And it is typically dusty and dirty when you’re hauling all that stuff out in there.

Neil Kristianson: Right.

Geoff Martin: It’s a very disruptive process. It can be. But you know what?

It doesn’t have to be a disaster with a little bit of foresight, a little bit of planning. So let’s talk about that.

Neil Kristianson: Yeah. Let’s do some planning. You started to mention that you don’t have a sink. So what do you do about that?

Neil Kristianson: Five gallon bucket?

Geoff Martin: Well, you know, some people will… You know, they’ll fill up a plastic dish pan in the tub and do their dishes that way. I remember when I was doing my own kitchen, we did many a load of dishes right in the tub. It was not fun.

Neil Kristianson: That sounds uncomfortable.

Geoff Martin: Yeah, it was great. You know, if you want to get a feeling for it just, you know, take a bunch of dishes and throw them in your tub and get down on your knees and have fun. It’s great.

Neil Kristianson: No, that doesn’t sound good to me. Not good. You could really mess up your back doing that I think. You went down on the ground you…

Geoff Martin: Yeah, you talked about messing up your mojo. That’ll do it.

Neil Kristianson: Well, what are some better options than a bathtub?

Geoff Martin: Well, in some instances, we’ve actually gone to the laundry room and installed a laundry sink if there wasn’t one there already. There have been opportunities to install temporary sinks in some instances. Depending on the time of year, you may have some outside space that’s actually available in that regard.

Neil Kristianson: Right. Do you think there’s a typical amount of time that somebody’s going to be without a sink or a kitchen?

Geoff Martin: Boy, that’s all over the map.

Neil Kristianson: Yeah.

Geoff Martin: I’ll give you the two extremes. The first would be the shortest amount of time is if you’re not going to change the footprint of your kitchen if you’re going to remove the cabinets. And basically put new stuff back. That can be a very short turnaround time.

Neil Kristianson: Right. Yeah and unfortunately I’ve had some even longer than that one. They’re involved with a larger project than just the kitchen where we’re doing the kitchen as part of an extensive interior renovation. It could go on longer than that.

Geoff Martin: Yeah, that’s right.

Neil Kristianson: It’s important that you understand before you get started how long you’re going to be without this and what that means to you. And what the alternatives are.

Geoff Martin: Yep. There’s one other aspect which is worth mentioning here because we’re focusing on the kitchen sink and everything. But again, not to overstate it, but it’s a dusty, dirty process when you start taking down you know, sheet rock and plaster walls and you know, spaces that haven’t been touched for 20 years.

Neil Kristianson: Plastic walls, right?

Geoff Martin: Yeah. And covering all the walkways, the travel pathways where you know, workers are going to be going in and out of your home and really trying to minimize the dispersion of the dust and dirt.

And that being said, you’re never going to get at 100%. So what we typically do at the end of the project is we’ll have the house professionally cleaned to you know, clean up the mess that we made. So that’s another consideration.

Neil Kristianson: Yes, I tell people that dry wall dust especially is just a nasty little bugger. And there’s not much you can do about it. I mean, there are things you can do about it like…

Geoff Martin: You could slow it down.

Neil Kristianson: You can slow it down but you’ll never stop it. No, it’s going to…

Neil Kristianson: Yes.

Geoff Martin: Anywhere around that construction so that it doesn’t blow through the whole house.

Neil Kristianson: Right. And we’ll even shut the furnace off on days that we’re doing things that are extremely dusty.

Geoff Martin: Yeah.

Neil Kristianson: Just to minimize that as well but… Another thing people might want to plan for is where they’re going to cook? Are they going to cook?

Geoff Martin: There you go.

Neil Kristianson: How much do they like McDonald’s? Because people…

Geoff Martin: Yeah. And you can only grill so much.

Neil Kristianson: Yes. You can only stay and barbecue so many days in a row before that gets old as well.

Geoff Martin: Yeah. That’s a little bit easier to accommodate I think. You know, you can do stuff with hot plates and microwaves and Crock Pots. And you can set up a fairly efficient center without taking up a whole lot of space. And in some instances, you can set up the cooktop or the range to still be functional for a good period of time so…

Geoff Martin: That’s a little bit easier.

Neil Kristianson: I had one client once that was the queen of the Crock Pot and everyday… And the worst thing about the Crock Pot is; it runs all day.

Geoff Martin: You can smell that one when they’re working…

Neil Kristianson: So when they’re working on the house; that is painful when you smell that thing going all day long. And it always smelled really good. So she used her Crock Pot almost daily.

But I think one thing people underestimate again here is they’ll plan for eating out. You know, “We’re going to eat out a lot.” They don’t realize how quickly eating out gets old.

Geoff Martin: Yeah.

Neil Kristianson: And how they missed that central part of their kitchen. And they also don’t realize how fast the money adds up when you eat out. So that’s another thing you have to plan in your budget if you’re going do a kitchen is, “Are you going to eat out three or four times a week? And what that does to your kitchen budget?”

Geoff Martin: Right and yeah. You just… You really will know; have a clear picture of that length of time that it’s going to take.

Neil Kristianson: No.

Geoff Martin: Not at all.

Neil Kristianson: Those extra two months plus will not be good.

Geoff Martin: Yeah.

Neil Kristianson: Not be good. Well once we kind of have a temporarily space planned out for where we might set up a kitchen and a fridge and things like that. I think the next thing people underestimate and before they start the project is cleaning out their existing kitchen.

I have had people start that literally the night before I’m going to show up and take out all their cabinets. They started the night before thinking, “Well, how hard could that be?” And they…

Geoff Martin: Yes.

Neil Kristianson: What’s been your experience with that?

Geoff Martin: I really try to prepare people for that. And I like to suggest that they start as much as two weeks ahead of time just you know, boxing up those things that they rarely, if ever, use. You know, the seasonal stuff for the holidays, etc.

And the stuff that’s in those top cabinets or in… You know, way in the back. I like to tell stories about you know, treasure hunting because that’s kind of what I think it is especially if you have like a Lazy Susan Cabinet.

Stuff has fallen off those Lazy Susans over the years. And you know, it’s going to be a walk down nostalgia lane. So, you know, take some time and enjoy the process.

It’s actually kind of fun to be able to go through some of the stuff and say, “Oh gosh, I haven’t used that in years. Time to go,” you know. But it’s not a two-hour process. I mean, it’s going to take you some time to sort through all that stuff and you know, hack it away and…

Geoff Martin: It gives…

Neil Kristianson: That gives a whole new…

Geoff Martin: That gives a whole opportunity for re-gifting.

Neil Kristianson: There you go. Yeah.

Geoff Martin: Run it through the dishwater and send it on to Aunt Sally, “Here you go.”

Neil Kristianson: Aunt Sally or… I’ve had them…

Geoff Martin: Make sure Aunt Sally isn’t the one who gave it to you originally because that will… well…

Neil Kristianson: Good point. Good point. Yeah. And I’ve had people do donations to you know, the local charities with a lot of their kitchen things.

Geoff Martin: Salvation Army is a great organization. They do a lot of good stuff and you know they’ll recycle it. They’ll make sure that it gets to people who need it.

Geoff Martin: Sure.

Neil Kristianson: A lot of the projects I do, the appliances are; they’re dated but they still work great.

Geoff Martin: One of the kitchens that we did last year, the customer donated their old cabinets which were… You know, they were in okay condition. We refurbished them a little bit, rebuilt some of the boxes. They were an older Cherry Cabinet. They were probably 22, 23 years old. And they donated those to the Boys and Girls Club we were general contracting. We were volunteering to general contract a remodeling project for one of their facilities. And we were able to take those cabinets and you know, give them to the Boys and Girls Club. We got some counter tops donated. It was just… It was a fabulous opportunity to, you know, keep doing some good stuff out in the community.

Neil Kristianson: Well, yeah. Yeah, I’ve seen plenty of those. Plenty of those with a nice contact paper and everything so…

Geoff Martin: Ah yes.

Neil Kristianson: Yes. Well, we’ve been rambling on for 15 minutes. Are there any more important things we need to talk about for planning for your kitchen space?

Geoff Martin: Well, yeah. We really haven’t talked about you know, how to work with a designer and that. And I think that may be a whole other subject that we can get into. But you know, I’m kind of itching to tell my story of the week.

Neil Kristianson: Well then, let’s talk about our story of the week.

Announcer: Here’s our story of the week.

Neil Kristianson: Now, how did you pull that off?

Geoff Martin: Well, that was… If I must say so myself, it was a design masterpiece. No, no, no.

It was offense by accident in a certain way. When we looked at their space, they wanted to redo their kitchen space and their dining space. And through the design phase, I honestly forget who came up with the idea.

But we actually switched the location of the kitchen and the dining room. We reversed them. And what that allowed us to do is to leave the existing kitchen intact until like the 11th hour.

Neil Kristianson: I’ve never heard of such a thing.

Geoff Martin: That’s what good planning can do. Yeah. Until then, we had never had such an opportunity to do that.

Neil Kristianson: Yeah, that’s kind of a unique situation where you can flip the two rooms.

Geoff Martin: Yeah, if you go to our website, the pictures on the very front of it. You’ll see the cathedral ceiling and the kitchen with the really cool hood and the…

Neil Kristianson: I’ve seen that kitchen.

Geoff Martin: And that much…

Neil Kristianson: Yeah.

Geoff Martin: Yeah, that was the kitchen. That was kitchen that was fabulous.

Geoff Martin: Yes.

Neil Kristianson: Very nice.

Geoff Martin: The back side of it where the dining is now is where they had a little tiny U-shaped kitchen. It was dark. It was awful. Well, it didn’t have a whole lot of light coming in there. And we opened that right up. And where the stove is, there was this huge stone fireplace that had been very poorly built.

We wound up taking that entire masonry structure out from floor to above the roof and patch the roof up. And we wound up recessing the cook center in there and that was just an incredible project.

Neil Kristianson: Yeah, that was a very nice one. Well, I’ll put some links in the show notes to those pictures. So people can find that and see what you’re talking about there.

Because it’s kind of a cool… I didn’t know that you did all that with only two days down time. That’s impressive.

Geoff Martin: Yeah, that was fantastic.

Neil Kristianson: Yeah, that was really nice. Well, that’s another show for this week. We’ve done another one. Should…

Neil Kristianson: That’s number five. Should we do another one next week?

Geoff Martin: I’m game.

Neil Kristianson: All right. So am I. So we’ll be back the same place next week to talk about more remodeling and remember go to the…

Geoff Martin: Neil will have the link of the story, OK. You’ll be able to put that in. And just one last thing so that we don’t get in too much trouble. Let’s wish all our friends a most happy Mothers’ Day.

Neil Kristianson: Yeah.

Geoff Martin: Enjoy the day. And I’m getting ready to go on a hike with my wife. We’ve already been up and had our coffee and toast and breakfast. And so we’re ready to go out the door and go hiking this morning. And hope all our friends out there have a wonderful Mothers’ Day.

Neil Kristianson: All right. We’ll talk to you later.

Geoff Martin: Thank you, Neil.

Neil Kristianson: Bye.

Announcer: Thanks for listening to the Remodeling Nation Podcast. If you’d like to make a suggestion, ask a question or share a remodeling story of your own, please visit us at remodelingnation.com.