The Problem With Careful Planning

Bernie Van De Yacht sounded a little alarmed as he emerged from his dust-strewn kitchen. “A problem arose already,” he said.

It was the first day of the first remodel of his first house, and he had meticulously planned every phase.

A chunk of ceiling had unexpectedly come loose. This was not part of the plan, not part of the budget and not part of the tight two-week time frame. But it was too late to turn back.

In January, on Day 1 of what became a four-week, $15,700 kitchen remodel, Bernie and his wife, Val--after three years of dreaming, designing, plotting and preparing--anticipated the project would take two weeks and cost $13,900 to complete.

Their goal: Gut the 1927 home’s bland kitchen, with its tired 1960s and ‘70s look, and transform it into what Bernie called an “American farmhouse ‘50s thing.”

But as the couple, both 38, were to discover during the next month, remodeling a vintage home usually entails facing and fixing a series of unforeseen problems.

“No matter how organized you are,” Bernie said, “things will go wrong.”

After discussing the damage with their carpenter-cabinetmaker, Chris Trauger, the Van De Yachts learned they could either drywall the ceiling or cover it with old-fashioned tongue-and-groove wood.

Despite the setback, Bernie and Val were exhilarated that Day 1 had arrived at last. Outside their North Hollywood English Tudor home, a carpenter’s red work truck brimmed with the broken-down cabinets and counters, which that morning had constituted the kitchen.

The couple had been anticipating demolition day since 1999, when they bought the 1,100-square-foot, three-bedroom, one-bathroom cottage that satisfied their No. 1 requirement for a house--character.

The kitchen’s humdrum brown cabinets, linoleum floor and harvest gold appliances, which looked like something from a ‘60s or ‘70s remodel, were out of step with the home’s charms--a steeply pitched roof, open-beam ceilings, wood floors, French windows, brick fireplace and arched front door. It’s the kind of pristine, story book-style house that causes passersby to stop and ask for a tour.

In their first two years of homeownership, the couple took care of what Bernie calls “the basics.” They took out the ineffective wall heater and put in central heat. “This house was so cold, I cried,” Val said.

They stripped the white paint off the beams, refinished the floors, replaced a few windows and gave on Old World paint job to the distinctive orange peel-textured plaster. For a personal touch, they painted into a wall nook a gold star reminiscent of the gilding in the church where they were married in 1996.

But after a year the Van De Yachts were sick of the dreary brown kitchen. Aware that a kitchen remodel still was a way off, they brightened the room with a coat of white paint and a refurbished vintage stove.

To organize their various home improvement plans and projects, Bernie, who works as an actor, put together a thick notebook with section dividers for each room. Each section contained before photos of the room from various angles, plus clippings from magazines showing details or overall themes representing the couple’s ideal plan for the room.

The section devoted to the kitchen was dominated by a picture of an old-fashioned room with a rough wood floor, white cabinets with glass doors, a multi-paned window and a wide, farm-style sink with a front apron. Details tacked on the same page show a cabinet door with a stamped metal insert and a wall of distressed brick.

Besides better aesthetics, Bernie and Val wanted a better-functioning kitchen. While the space would remain small (10 by 10 feet), it could be used more wisely. The sink area was tight, with the microwave occupying the counter to the left of the sink, and a dish drainer taking over the counter to the right.

The blender and toaster sat on the microwave, and all were plugged into the only outlet on that side of the kitchen, awkwardly positioned just below the sink.

“It was awful,” recalled Val, the cook of the household. A stickler for cleanliness, she wanted to get a dishwasher and get rid of the dish drainer. With careful planning, the microwave could be relocated to a shelf in a cabinet.

As the ideas and financing for the kitchen remodel came together last year, Bernie and Val, who would act as their own general contractor and hire out individual tasks, used the time-honored method for finding remodeling professionals: They asked around.

Their floor refinisher, Raymond Sjolseth, suggested Chris Trauger of Champion Cabinets in Simi Valley. Sjolseth had not met Trauger but had seen his high-quality work on other jobs.

Trauger wasn’t looking for more work at the time. A finish carpenter for more than 20 years, he is typically scheduled months in advance.

The Van De Yachts’ job was smaller than Trauger usually takes on, he told them, but the job appealed to him, and he signed on.

Trauger agreed to demolish and haul away most of the old cabinets, leaving some bases in place to be fitted with new doors and drawers. He would build new cabinets around the sink and around the refrigerator on the opposite wall, install ridged bead board on the ends, and build a knickknack shelf above the stove.

Trauger gave Val and Bernie the names of the other subcontractors they ultimately hired for the electrical, plumbing, counter-top and masonry work.

To keep track of the money, Val created a simple Excel spreadsheet. Part owner of a women’s gym, she has budgeting know-how from her previous job in development at Disney.

If the Van De Yachts had hired a general contractor to coordinate and oversee the job, it would have cost 20% to 40% more. As neophyte contractors, they had a lot of pertinent questions. In retrospect, Val said she would have researched the remodeling process much more thoroughly before the job started.

But none of that was known on demolition day, and the couple were filled with anticipation, along with some anxiety. How would the new refrigerator (boxed up in the garage with the rest of the materials) fit through the narrow doorway? Would the gray counter top go with the rest of the kitchen? Would a ‘50s kitchen look out of place in a ‘20s home?

Ultimately, optimism took over. Just hours after part of the ceiling peeled away with the old cabinets during demolition, Val was turning it into a positive.

“I never liked that ceiling,” she said.

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Kathy Price-Robinson writes about remodeling. She can be reached at www.kathyprice.com.