On September 14, 2007, we joined a company called Direct Buy with the idea that we would save a lot of money on remodeling the kitchen - a project we have talked about since buying the Wilson Road house. We set up an appointment with their kitchen designer. This is how the kitchen looked before the project - notice we had lost a drawer front last week!!
I had pretty much decided how the kitchen design HAD to be in order to get as much organization as possible and thought perhaps we could squeeze a 27" Sub Zero refrigerator in the space between the hallway and brick wall. That would have left the U shape with all countertop - including the stove top. I told Melinda my ideas and she dutifully drew up my plan AND also proposed a totally different plan. After studying it for a while, it was obvious her plan was much better and opened up the kitchen as well as giving us more space to work.
On December 7, 2007, we signed the final contract for kitchen cabinets and paid for them. They were scheduled to arrive around the end of January or the first of February. We also ordered the appliances to take advantage of paying for them BEFORE the new Governor O'Malley taxes started January 1st. They would be delivered after we returned in January.
We then took a break for the Christmas visits and resolved to come home in January and work on all the other details.
It took us a week so to get back into the rhythm of things at home and when the appliances arrived Jan 15th, we realized we needed to get moving. We visited various kitchen and home improvement stores to finalize ideas about countertop, faucetts, and all the other little details. We got the name of a window person who worked with Direct Buy and ordered a new "garden window" to replace the old, dilapidated one. We would have preferred a bow window, but our kitchen is just not large enough to have one of those AND have cupboards above the countertop. So we compromised and ordered a larger sized garden window, which will be 46 inches tall - from the countertop to the top. The granite countertop will go into the base of the window. Our kitchen could not start until the window was in our hands. It took about 4 weeks for it to arrive.
So on Monday, February 25th, (wonderful Birthday present for me!!) the workers came, started the project by taking out all the cabinets. They have been very courteous workers, letting us know exactly what they were doing every step of the way, asking about things, etc.
