Monday morning started part of my kitchen remolding, something I’ve wanted to do since purchasing my home more then a year and a half ago. It is being done by friends of mine who are top-notch renovators, Highend Construction Inc. We had sat down and talked about what needed to be done back in March, however due to time constraints they weren’t able to fit my house into the schedule until now, no big deal.

The job itself is removing linoleum from the eat in kitchen, pantry, foyer as you enter into the house and transition into the kitchen and a hall closet off the foyer, then installing ceramic tile. A 16×16 tile was chosen and laying it out in a diamond pattern looked the best. In total, the job is about 300 square feet and would require my kitchen be off limits for a few days.

Because of their hectic schedule, I didn’t know the exact start date of the work until this past Saturday, two days prior to install. I had to remove everything from my pantry which is more like a long closet off the kitchen measuring 4 x 17’ in size, do all the dishes and remove them once clean from the dishwasher. All items on the floor in the kitchen needed to be removed as well, such as the trashcan, dog crate, food and water for the dog, etc.

Starting Monday at 8am they moved the refrigerator and range out of the kitchen to remove the linoleum and prep the concrete underneath for the tile. Two hours later it was done, along with the molding from the walls, all in preparation for tile installation.

Lots of progress was done Monday and by the time I got home I was really impressed. I knew I had no access to my kitchen, not a big deal since I made plans earlier to go out to dinner with a friend who was in from out of town.

Tuesday nearly all the tile was installed, but everything needed to set, so again I was restricted from going into the kitchen. Wednesday they couldn’t come to finish the tile and start grout because of another job that was in the way, again no biggie. This morning they are there, doing grout and installing new doors for my coat closet.

Nothing thus far has been a surprise, from what I’ve been told it was a straight forward install and they even did some custom tumbled marble tile work for the threshold leading out of the kitchen and into the pantry, looks really great! I’ve also made the decision to upgrade my dishwasher to a newer one as the one that came with the house has to be at least 20 years old and my pre-washing was about 95% of the work.

What did come, as a surprise was my food bill. Because I did not spend a little extra time moving my microwave out of the kitchen during construction and cooking food over the weekend that I could easily reheat in the microwave, I was forced to eat out nearly every night this week. It adds up, quickly. I don’t mind having my refrigerator in the dining room and the range in my living room, but the microwave could have saved me had I spent a little more time thinking and planning ahead.

With luck, the grout will be done by this afternoon and can set overnight and they can come back tomorrow and install the range and dishwasher and I can get back to cooking myself dinner on a regular basis.

I’ve learned that home renovation costs don’t just include materials and labor, displacement costs need to be factored in. This fall my only bathroom will get gutted and a new one will go in. I’m starting to plan now where I’ll shower and shit for a few days.

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