Tips for a better kitchen remodeling project

Herb Weisbaum • Profile • E-mail

My wife and I took the plunge last summer. After years of talking about remodeling the kitchen, we decided to do it. It’s quite an experience — the dust, the noise, and all the strangers coming into the house. And of course, we had to live without a kitchen for a few months.

But it was worth it. We love the results! We spend most of our time in the kitchen and adjoining family room, so we get to enjoy the new space every day.

A kitchen remodel tends to have a high rate of return on investment. In most cases, it will almost pay for itself when you sell the home.

Even so, “Don’t think in terms of appreciating the value of your home,” cautions Bob Markovich, the Home Editor at Consumer Reports magazine. “You really should be doing a kitchen remodel for you.”

According to the National Association of Realtors 2005 Cost vs. Value Report:

-- The average “upscale kitchen” remodel cost $81,552 and had a payback of 84.8 percent.

-- The average midrange “major kitchen” remodel cost $43,862 and had a payback of 91 percent.

-- The average “minor kitchen” remodel cost $14,913 and had a payback of 98.5 percent.

You can’t do anything until you figure out how much you’re able or willing to spend. That means doing your homework — read magazines, visit showrooms, talk to friends and neighbors who recently remodeled. It takes a lot of time to do all this. But I can tell you, it’s worth the investment.

There are a number of free online calculators that can help you decide what you want and how much it will cost, including one from Consumer Reports and one from an industry trade group.

No matter how well you plan, expect the project to “cost more and take longer than you think,” cautions Sherry Ackbar, Good Housekeeping magazine’s home editor.

“Embrace that, and don’t freak out. It doesn’t mean the contractor is trying to be underhanded. Things just come up as the project proceeds.” So set aside a little extra money — 20 percent of the total cost is a reasonable amount — to cover the unexpected.

Here are more tips:

Shop for a contractor
Get bids from several contractors. Remember, while price is important, choosing the company with the lowest price “is not always the best idea,” warns Sara Ann Busby, vice president of the National Kitchen and Bath Association.

“It could be the quality of the materials the builder selected is different,” she notes, “or it could be that he or she missed something.”

Make sure the job specs are the same for each company. That means you need to be very specific about the products and materials you want used.

“Your idea and my idea of a high-end countertop may not be the same thing,” Busby says. “That seems to be out biggest problem — people don’t get what they thought they were getting quality-wise.”

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