“It had been coming for quite a few years.”
That’s the understatement with which Janice Dodrill describes her decision, last summer, to redo the kitchen she’s lived with since 1980. Janice and her husband, Ernie, live in a brick ranch house in Earlysville, and if you talk with them about their home, you get the sense that they’ve been tolerating, more than enjoying, their kitchen for the last 27 years. “We kind of nursed it along all these years,” says Ernie.
Janice had once refinished the cabinets, but still didn’t like their dark color. They’d also replaced the linoleum floor several times, and were due for that task again. There was another factor too: Now that the couple’s daughter is grown and they’re eyeing their retirement years, resale value is more on their minds. “I decided we were going to tackle this,” Janice says.
And so, beginning last fall, they did. By the time I met with them in mid-April to hear all about the project, they had a mostly-finished kitchen in which we could sit. Here’s what happened in the meantime.
The design
The Dodrills had been collecting ideas for years, they say—from home shows, open houses and browsing at Lowe’s and Home Depot. They’d seen trends come and go, and they’d seen choices multiply. “You used to get 10 or 12 shades of cabinets,” says Ernie. “Now there’s a cornucopia of choices.” They also felt that a lot of trends in kitchen design—smoothtop ranges, for example—had matured to the point where they could feel comfortable investing in them. “We will never redo this kitchen again,” says Janice. “You’ve got to make the right choice, because there’s no going back.” They faced a few big decisions:
Cabinet layout. The Dodrills took their kitchen measurements to Lowe’s and got an initial layout put together. Rollout shelves for storing pots and pans, lazy Susans for corner cabinets, and an open, rounded end shelf for knickknacks made it into their design. They also wanted to add cabinetry on two walls where there had been none—storage around their refrigerator and a desk unit near the table.
 Shiny and new: The island is one of many upgrades that the Dodrills are betting will someday be reflected in their house’s resale value. |
A few problems came up. “I wanted a second oven and couldn’t find a place for it,” Janice says. A salesperson at Lowe’s suggested a convection microwave oven that could go above the range; this freed up space for more cabinets. And with help from their contractor, they figured out how to fit an island into the room according to building codes. (See sidebar on page 20 for more about how the Dodrills chose a contractor.)
Cabinet color. This one was easier: After years of dark wood, the Dodrills were sure they wanted something lighter. “We liked oak,” Ernie says; in terms of the finish, “The wife should have the overriding decision.” They settled on a honey color. From there, they worked with the contractor to match countertops. Ernie says the company’s “contradictory suggestions” were helpful. “They suggested alternatives [to what we’d imagined],” he says. “By that process, we have a kitchen we’re proud of.”
 Ernie had taken up linoleum before and knew what he was getting into, so he sprung for a pneumatic tool to speed the job along. |
Flooring. The Dodrills wanted an upgrade from linoleum, but were wary of tile. “Janice said it would be hard on her feet,” Ernie says. Janice adds, “People told me with tile if you dropped anything, it would break.” They found a middle way with a product called DuraCeramic, which combines tile’s durability with linoleum’s softer feel.
Appliances. Janice liked the modern look of chrome, and tried to find all the appliances—fridge, stove, microwave and dishwasher—from the same manufacturer, to be sure the finishes would match. In the end, she chose Whirlpool for all but the convection microwave oven, which is a GE product and blends in just fine. Other considerations were energy efficiency and special features (a silverware rack in the door of the dishwasher and oven racks that split to allow different-sized pots to cook simultaneously).
The disruption
In order to save some money, and because they hoped to reuse their old cabinets in a utility room, Ernie planned to do the demolition himself, with the help of two family members. This got underway in early January and went more smoothly thanks to a pneumatic tool for removing linoleum. Between pulling up flooring and removing cabinets—which, in the end, they couldn’t save—demolition took about two weeks.
 The Dodrills kept their old kitchen intact as long as they could, even as work got underway. The sink was the last thing to go. |
Ernie says they tried to save the sink as long as possible. But inevitably, there came a time when the Dodrills had to cross over into the land of the kitchenless.
It lasted about five weeks. “When you’re washing dishes in the bathtub, it feels more like five months,” Janice says. They boxed up dishes and stored them in their dining room; they put a microwave in the living room. “Frozen meals get old very quickly,” she says. There was one piece of luck: They’d always had a second oven built into the brick wall next to the fireplace—an electric model made to look like an old-fashioned cast-iron oven—and this didn’t have to be disturbed. And something nice happened: Eating in the living room, at a smaller table than they were used to, the Dodrills found they had “more conversation,” says Ernie. “We liked that idea”—and they kept it in mind when it was time to shop for a new kitchen table.
The cabinets and appliances arrived and quickly filled a large enclosed porch on one end of the house. “You don’t think about it,” Ernie says, “but when you do something like this, you need a staging area.” Workers arrived in early February to install the cabinets, and that’s when the project’s first real glitch popped up: The knickknack cabinet had been damaged in shipping. It would take nearly three weeks for a replacement to arrive, and everything else—countertops, flooring—would have to wait.
Things happened fast once that wait was over, though. A flooring installer came out on a Sunday to take measurements and prepare. When the countertops were unpackaged, the top for the island was 5" short, but it was only a couple of days until the right one was delivered. The floor went in over two days, with the installer working until 9pm to avoid interfering with the countertop installers. “They fit it all in and they were out,” Janice says. In total, subcontractors were in the house for about five days.
From here, it was finish work. Janice did the painting; Ernie finished up the plumbing for the sink. They bought a new kitchen table and chairs and had everything put back together in time to host Easter dinner.
The download
“This is the most rewarding thing we’ve done with the house,” says Ernie. “It’s a lot of frustration, but then you look at the finished product and say ‘Golly, I’m glad we did that.’” They’re happy with both looks and function: Janice feels like she has more work surface for cooking, and laughs about the empty storage space she has now that they’ve added so many cabinets. The new position of the dishwasher makes more sense too. “I would be happy with the layout 20 years from now,” Ernie says.
They know they were relatively lucky in that their renovation stayed almost on schedule. “Friends’ [projects] have taken six months or a year,” Ernie says. “You’d be in trouble.”
Janice is still planning to paint a border of herbs around the back door and embroider matching curtains; she’s already bought the fabric.
And after that, they’ll redo their bathrooms.
THE BUDGET
By doing some work themselves—demolition, plumbing and painting—the Dodrills were able to keep their costs down. Ernie figures his plumbing work would have cost about $800 if subcontracted. He also found it was cheaper to buy the tool for removing linoleum, at $150, than to rent it for three or four days at $75 per day. The Dodrills paid for the project from their savings and donated their old appliances and table to the Salvation Army.
All the following prices are approximate and include labor costs.
Cabinets, including installation, knobs and sink: $11,000
Countertops, including installation: $4,000
Flooring (Duraceramic tile): $4,000
Appliances (refrigerator, smooth-top 5-burner electric stove, dishwasher, combination convection/microwave oven): $2,835
Pull-out sink faucet: $134
Light fixtures: $200
Plumbing materials: $300
Paint: $20
Table and chairs: $535
Linoleum-removal tool: $150
Total: $23,174
THE TIMELINE
Though the Dodrills experienced some delays—because of everything from a floor installer with the flu to some trouble settling on a contractor—their project stayed essentially on schedule once it got underway. In theory, all the subcontracted work could have been completed within one week—had a few snags not arisen. Which, of course, they always do.
Here’s how the Dodrills did the project:
July 2006: Decided to remodel the kitchen; began seriously looking at materials.
October: Selected a contractor, Kitchen Tune-Up; spent about two weeks planning the project with the company.
November: Completed negotiations and signed a contract for work to begin after the holidays.
December: Worked with contractor to fine-tune the design.
Second week of January 2007: Began two weeks of demolition: floor, then cabinets.
February 8: Cabinets and appliances delivered.
February 12: Cabinets installed. One
was damaged; a three-week wait for a replacement ensued.
First week of March: Flooring and countertops installed. Two-day delay because of a mistake in one countertop size.
March 5: Subcontracted work complete.
March 12: Painting, plumbing, and finishing touches complete.
Still to be done: Curtains and decorative painting.
THE DOTTED LINE
Choosing a contractor isn’t quite as serious a commitment as, say, getting married, but it’s nothing to take lightly. “Everyone has heard about contractor nightmares,” Ernie Dodrill says. “You deal with people ‘til you pull your hair out, finally get the project halfway done and are just happy to get them out of your house.”
His and Janice’s road toward signing a contract was a little circuitous. They looked into flooring and cabinets through Direct Buy, which charges an upfront membership fee in exchange for discounts off retail prices. The company has received very mixed feedback from its customers, and the Dodrills became “restless,” Janice says, after they repeatedly asked for, and didn’t get, an estimate on the installation cost for their project.
 The Dodrills added lots of cabinet space, including this new desk unit and china cabinets. “This [project] is the most rewarding thing we’ve done with the house,” says Ernie. |
On to Lowe’s, where they designed and priced cabinets. This was better, but they still weren’t sold. “You don’t get a start-to-finish feeling,” Ernie says. “You don’t get the personal attention.” Even more importantly, “They couldn’t tell you who the contractors were.”
At a home show last fall, the Dodrills finally stumbled upon the company they ultimately hired: the Richmond franchise of a national company called Kitchen Tune-Up. They liked several things about this outfit:
More personal attention. A salesman came to the Dodrills’ house and walked them through the design process. (One snag: This salesman later left the company, so the Dodrills ended up dealing with a different employee through the rest of their process.)
The price. “His price with installation was under Direct Buy’s [without installation],” Janice says.
Known-quantity subcontractors. “This company used these subcontractors all the time,” Ernie says. A Kitchen Tune-Up employee also did some installation odds and ends herself.
The Dodrills seem quite happy with their choice. “I can’t say higher about all the people who came in here,” Ernie says. Doesn’t sound like a nightmare at all.
