Have you ever remodeled your kitchen? If you have, my next few blogs will probably hit close to home. If you haven’t, well, I hope my experience sheds some light on what is involved because what an experience it was!

My home in Matthews was built in 1985 and was reaching the age that welcomed some updating. My husband and I had been talking about remodeling the kitchen for a few years now and felt that it would definitely need to be redone before the time came to sell our home. We spoke to our Realtor who told us that new kitchens and baths can greatly enhance the resale value of your home.  While we currently do not have any plans to sell our home, it made more sense to update the kitchen now so that we could enjoy it ourselves (the added value we would gain when the time to sell rolled around was a nice bonus!).

We began looking at cabinets, appliances, countertops, etc and quickly realized how many choices there were out there! It was great fun looking at all the options and at a times a bit overwhelming. For instance, let me take you into the world of kitchen cabinets. What style, what wood choice, what color, handles or no handles on the doors, handles or pull knobs, what features did we want on the cabinets – pull out drawers, self closing drawers, dividers for the drawers … when would the choices end? And I thought all of that was overwhelming until we began looking at appliances.

Now, I have to be up front and admit that I have not purchased appliances for several years. But wow!  The options available today can make your head spin!  We looked at stoves, refrigerators, microwaves and dishwashers.  We selected stainless steel pretty quickly for two reasons. First, my husband really liked that option and second, our Realtor told us that stainless steel was one of the best options in terms of resale value. After all, if we are going to spend the time and money on a new kitchen, resale should be a main player in the consideration process in a large home improvement project.  We visited several different stores to look at different brands and different options. Then we talked, and talked and talked.

A few days later we returned to look again and ask even more questions. Better to be safe than sorry I always say!  I have learned you can never ask too many questions. There is always a surprise when you get items home that you did not anticipate.

Once we selected everything, the next step was the demolition of the current kitchen!  My husband and a friend removed a few of the cabinets to install in the basement at my insistence to hide a few things in the garage!  But we were not sure what to do with everything else. It seemed such a shame to throw away all of the appliances that were still in working condition.

After some research and asking around, a member of our church recommended we call Habitat For Humanity. Jerry, a representative from Habitat for Humanity, came out and looked at our kitchen and said that he could use everything but the countertop.  So, a few weeks later just before construction was scheduled to begin, Jerry returned and removed all of the cabinets and the next day a crew came and took everything. They did a great job and left the kitchen in perfect shape and ready for the contractor to begin.  And the best part was it saved us the cost of having everything removed.

Stay tuned for my next blog post when I talk about the real work!

By DJ Stephan