Making mistakes as part of any home renovations can be expensive (and stressful). We wanted to know all the questions we should ask a contractor to assess their professionalism and quality. What are the things we should include or avoid so we don’t regret it later? We don’t know what we don’t know. To help with our research, we scoured Reddit threads to learn of the pitfalls to avoid before embarking on this kitchen renovation project.
Below are all the threads we saved to reference. I did my best to keep the original comments verbatim so you can copy and paste to search online for these posts. Where relevant, I added notes from our own personal experience. You can also read about what we spent and how long it took.
These are good subreddits to browse: r/homerenovations, r/homeimprovement, and r/remodel.
Table of Contents:
Contractor Research
General
have a contract with clear expectations and scope of work. And a projected timeline. I will include a timeline/estimated schedule. Putting in punitive damages for not meeting specific deadlines is confrontational. It sounds like a great idea for the homeowner. My advice is if you think you need that in the contract you have the wrong contractor. I will never sign a contract with punitive damages in it.
ask to see recent work. Not projects from 4-6 years ago. Projects from the last year or so.
We just had a bathroom gutted and remodeled and will do the same to our kitchen in two weeks. I leave no stone unturned. Have read to many horror stories. I had the contractor provide me with a copy of their insurance certificate, their written warranty, their business license. Additionally, in my state workers comp is not required if they have just a few employees, but my contractor paid into it anyway and happily provided proof of that.
While collecting estimates, I had some contractors that just basically put “kitchen remodel – $XXXXXXX. Ummmm….no.
My bathroom proposal was three pages long. It listed EVERYTHING in detail. It included a time estimate of how long to get the job done, what their typical work hours were etc. Example: Remove existing shower stall. Replace with shower stall model XXXX measuring XX by XX inches – which will include two glass shelves on the exterior corner and one tile shelf on inner corner. Install chrome shower head model # XX. Seal around shower with …..”
I mean every single thing was in fine detail. There was NO ROOM for questions or misunderstandings. Each portion of the job was priced out as well. There was a shower grouping (shower stall, shelves, fixtures) had one price. Cabinetry and drawer pulls had another price grouping.
Our contractor also provided a price range for items. For example, he stated how many square feet we needed to tile the floor. He included an average price per square foot x amount we needed. When we picked tile, we could then easily figure out based on the average price he provided, if we were going to go over or under budget. Doing it this was way was extremely fair. Some will list cost at flat/highest price and you may pick a cheaper tile and they pocket money.
When you are spending the kind of money to do a big job, this should be the norm. I didn’t demand this much detail, the contractor I luckily chose just does business this way. I got lucky. Others contractors with every competitive pricing – that I did NOT choose, kinda rolled their eyes when I told them one of the main reasons was the detailed contract sold me. They said most of that should be “assumed”. NOPE.
Edit: Ask if price included them hauling/disposing away old cabinetry and countertops. Do they charge to install existing and/or new appliances, if getting new flooring, will new baseboards be installed, will they be doing all the work, or will subcontractors? If subcontractors, how often have they used them? If subcontractor gets hurt on job, whose insurance pays? General contractor or subcontractors? Whose warranty kicks in if subcontractor’s work fails? If you are getting new flooring..and it is LVP…make sure they do not put cabinets on top of LVP. Had a friend who just had that happen and floor has shifted. BIG SCREW UP.
I would ask If they use in-house crews to install or if they use subcontractors. They probably sub it out but the difference between home depot subs and long standing subs with a cabinet maker is night and day. I would also ask what the process for punch list items and QA looks like.
In addition to scheduling, what is their communication style. If something is delayed, how fast are they going to tell you and what is their solution; a replacement, wait, or another option
My wife and I have owned our construction company for more than 10 years now so we’ve asked and been asked just about every question you can imagine. To start, beyond just asking for references, ask if any of their previous clients would be willing to let you actually go see the work they did (I know that could be tougher in covid times). When you talk to their references, ask about any problems they had, rare is the project that doesn’t have something not go to plan. It’s more important to know how issues were handled than whether or not they happened in the first place.
Are they licensed? Its not always applicable (there is no GC licensing where I am) but if a GC needs to be licensed in your jurisdiction make sure they are. Ask for a blank copy of their contract so you can read it over. Ours is 14 pages long and we’re always happy to give any client a copy of it ahead of time. Make sure you get a detailed scope of work. Even for small projects our scopes of work are typically at least a couple pages long (they can be up to a dozen for a larger project). They detail exactly what you can expect to get for the money you’re paying. Ours also detail any specific exclusions and any allowance items (items you need to choose before pricing can be finalized like wall tiles or flooring).
Are they insured? We carry $5M in general liability insurance for our company and on each of our vehicles – $1M would be the bare minimum I would expect. They should be eager to provide you with an insurance certificate if you ask.
Do they charge and pay tax? It costs more but having a contractor who is 100% above board is vital if something goes wrong. Speaking of things going wrong, do they pay into workers comp? If one of their guys hurts themselves in your house and the company isn’t covered by workers comp, you could be held financially liable. Again, proof of coverage is easy for them to provide.
One other thing that’s a lot less tangible is to make sure you like the people. You’re about to hand over they keys to your house and a pretty big pile of money to someone. You’re going to be seeing a lot of each other, its important that you get along. We were once awarded a basement renovation project before we had even given a quote. We hit it off so well with the clients that they decided almost right away that they wanted to work with us. I’m not saying you should do that but how you get along with the contractor you choose is important.
Agree to weekly and milestone reports. This way you can play the blame game which sounds childish but everyone will play it with you. If the floor is prepped why is flooring not in? You’ll find the gaps.
Most importantly keep on top of things. If you don’t hear anything call them. If you notice something small like piping may be off, ask them. If you can fit a dime though a molding gap, ask them. Anyone worth a shit can explain or will fix it no issue. People make mistakes. It’s how they handle unfucking them that matters.
If you have a busy life hire a designer. Takes the pain away from having to go to the tile shop the cabinet shop the floor shop etc. Have them design it and you say yes or no to the things u like. They pick out all the colors the cabinets the tiles and u save all your weekends and sanity.
Take your time in deciding on the plans. Get at least five quotes. We paid for two plans on our last remodel and took the best ideas from both and made our own design. This was the best thing we did early on. Right now, in our area, it can take a few months for a good contractor to work you into their schedule. Look at some homes that are for sale (to to some open houses) and see what other people have done with their kitchens. Quartz countertops are better than granite for most people. Do not go cheap on the cabinets and hardware, or you will regret it. Spend some time deciding on the sink, as you will have it a long time. White cabinets are classic, and should be in style for a long time. Tall cabinets will give you lots of storage, which you will need. Make sure all the cabinet doors and drawers are tested, adjusted properly, and work properly before paying the last bit to the contractor. Finally, I advise looking at several (the more the better) YouTube videos of people redoing kitchens. We did some of the work ourselves on our last remodel, and it is great to know how everything is put together, what can go wrong, what is needed, etc. before you start getting quotes
Price Range
You have to have a number and be willing to discuss it with contractors. Good contractors will offer advice on how to achieve a look with in a price range. I had one client who thought she should be able to remodel her kitchen for $12,000. When I first met with her, I told her she can’t even buy the cabinets she wanted for $12,000…she was pretty ignorant and had done zero research into basic costs of materials…..this is the client I always avoid for obvious reasons.
Take your top end budget and knock off 20%. This is what you should actually spend and can afford. You almost certainly will need that 20% buffer.
Get all materials in + 10-20% for f ups.
understand the pay schedule and how it’s structured. The way mine was structured, it was 25% to start. 30% after demo. 30% after rough plumbing and electrical. 15% after final. Sounds spread out to a newbie but it isn’t. It’s spread out only in favor of the contractor. This means I had all the wiring and plumbing done and 85% of my bill paid while the contractor SIGNIFICANTLY slowed down. In a bathroom this means your vanity, mirrors, tiling, installing the actual bathtub and pretty fixtures etc. are all depending on a 15% payment. When a contractor has 85% of your money, and you are sitting with a bathroom that isn’t functional, you realize that he isn’t hustling for that 15% to make it through the finish line. Outside of the bathroom this meant that the floors took forever to get done, cabinets took forever to get built, appliances installation and lighting install was forever. STAGGER YOUR PAY SCHEDULE to include finishes. They require focus and attention to detail and if you don’t have money to incentivize them, even good contractors get lazy and go work other jobs.
Design
Layout
From a ‘layout’ perspective, the smartest thing we did was take stock of EXACTLY how we live/cook and make our new kitchen match that. For example, we DO use our microwave, mixer, coffee grinder, decorative tea canisters, etc, etc…but we didn’t want to stare at them all the time. So we were very deliberate in making sure we had dedicated and EASILY accessible areas for all that stuff. We have a convenient powered cabinet that has the microwave, a lower powered cabinet for the mixer that has a pneumatic arm to raise the mixer up to counter height, two lower cabinets just for dog food/treats, couple of junk drawers, etc, etc. We now have a kitchen that is always clean because EVERYTHING has a home. The most common mistake we read about when designing our kitchen was people that got every gadget and organizer, and then still had to put the microwave on the counter, coffee grinder on a high shelf, dog food in a plastic tub on the floor, cook books next to the microwave, etc, etc. You start with ALL THIS COUNTER SPACE and then end up filling it with shit b/c you use it all the time and have no place that makes sense to put it. We literally made a list of the items we used over the course of a month and found out that we probably didn’t need to have 12 place settings take up 60% of our convenient upper cabinets, nor 35 coffee mugs, nor did we need 10 sauce pans in the lower cabinet next to the stove. All that stuff is IN the kitchen, but replaced by the bowls, pans, and tupperware that we use daily…and we made sure those cabinets were designed to hold those items.
And a ton of hidden outlets.
Have you done design on what you want yet, or just “new cabinets and counters”? Think about things like
How high up do the cabinets go, and if you’re going all the way to the ceiling is your ceiling level? If not, you might not want to go all the way up to avoid funky scribes or obvious tiltin
Do you want any specialty cabinets? Think about things that fully utilize space like a vertical pullout spice rack or cutting board/sheet pan storage, trash/recycle pullouts, microwave built-in, drawers vs. cabinets, pullout drawers in cabinets, etc.
I have an inventory and map of all my stuff to see where I’m putting it all. I’m using peg organizers in my drawers (tried to go as few doors/as many drawers as possible), spice inserts for drawers, a custom built pantry, filler panel pullout storage, custom utensil storage.
Shelves, drawers, And organizers. There are all kinds of quality of life improvements you can make if you know what’s going on in your kitchen and how you’re going to use it: racks to hold your stemware upside down, mixer lifts, corner lazy susans, spice racks, etc. Rev-a-shelf is a great source for these upgrades.
Get some graph paper and do a sketch of the new cabinets. Then inventory all your kitchen stuff and “unpack” your current kitchen cabinets into the sketch. This will help you figure out what you need, based on how you use you kitchen. A list to get you started:
Dishes
Glasses
Stemware
Silverware
Cooking utensils
Small electrics (mixer, blender, food processor, slow cooker, waffle iron)
Small electrics accessories
Measuring cups/ spoons
Mixing bowls
Bakewear
Pots and pans and their lids
Cutting boards/cooling racks
Foil/ wrap/ bags
Bulk food
Spices
Canned food
Dehydated meals
Snacks
Colors
We wanted a white kitchen to brighten up the space because we don’t get a lot of sunlight. All white (especially too bright white) along with cool-toned lighting can feel cold and sterile.
Someone on Reddit described an all white kitchen as a Matthew McConaughey kitchen (see below). With that said, we still went along with all white cabinets and countertops, but have been trying to bring in warmer colors (e.g., a warm-colored rug; warm wooden cutting boards). We could have gone with gold hardware to bring in some warmth as well but decided to go with brushed nickel instead.
Our wall paint colors are Olympus White which is a light gray. This was our existing wall color that flows into the living room. Apparently there is such a thing as “Millenial Gray”. According to Business Insider (and TikTok, and Reddit threads), “the idea is that millennials are, in theory, more likely to decorate their interiors using a benign gray color scheme akin to the displays at IKEA.” Welp…!
This is the one saved Redditor comment I have about colors:
My wife and I refer to this as the Matthew McConaughey kitchen because it’s “all white all white all white”
Cabinets
As many Redditors recommended, we did end up adding pullout drawers where we had none. We like them a lot for larger kitchenware and overall Tupperware (food storage containers). Definitely measure what you’ll be putting in them to make sure everything fits, like what one of the comments below suggests.
Drawers
Drawer bases are superior to cabinets. Everything will take longer and cost more. Read your contract carefully. Don’t agree to things you don’t like. Have a clear payment schedule and deadlines for parts of the job.
My kitchen designer talked me into big pots and pans drawers. OMG, life changing.
Take note of sizing for the various items you plan to store in your cabinets. Nearly all of my dishes, pots, pans, etc are 10″-12″ in diameter. With only a few exceptions, all of my lowers are 18″ wide. HUGE, HUGE WASTE OF SPACE!
But don’t get a drawer base corner cabinet – it is a waste of space. I had to take mine back and go with a traditional lazy Susan (I got lucky they had one in stock and just allowed me to swap).
Pullout Trash
We installed a pullout trash can but it was custom-adjusted using Rev-a-Shelf and is not soft close. There have been Reddit threads saying that it’s not possible to get a soft-close trash drawer, mainly because of the pressure of pushing down on trash cans messing with the soft close. Other homes, friends/family we know definitely have soft close trash pullouts. Do with that what you will. Additionally, we’re nervous to start actually putting trash in our pullout trash drawer because we’re worried about the smell permeating the drawer above it. One of these days we’ll start using it…
Things I wasn’t sure about at the time – sacrificing an under counter cabinet for pullout trash and recycling was the best thing the fiance talked me into.
Also garbage pullouts are totally worth it
Trash pullout soft close
Narrow Storage
Our limited kitchen size, layout, and standard cabinets did not allow us much flexibility to add narrow storage for spices or cutting boards anywhere. We purchased an oven that had a storage drawer at the bottom to store some items, and some of these items we found space for in the new drawer pullouts we have. Not the most ideal and dedicated space for things, but it works for us.
I did a toe-kick pull out for baking sheets under a 36″ drawer base cabinet too… didn’t have space for the upright version. No more storage of baking sheets in the oven!
Include at least one cabinet with tall narrow vertical storage for cutting boards, sheet pans, wire racks, etc.
Oil and spice storage away from the stove please. I know people like to keep them handy there but it’s a terrible location for these which go rancid from the heat very quickly. Pull out what you need when you’re cooking. Same for the pantry. Try to put it in the coolest part of the kitchen if possible.
consider a pull out cutting board if counter space is at a premium.
Slim cabs for cookie sheets or pull out spice storage are great if you need to fill a gap.
we have a narrow pull out cabinet for spices and oils and small stuff we use all the time. I use it all the time.
Step Stools
We didn’t have space to bring in any of these step stool ideas, but we definitely considered it.
Not sure on your and your wife’s heights but one thing I missed putting in was storage for a step stool. Wish I had thought of putting in the toe kick area as my wife is 5 ft and I’m 6’2″. I get constant calls to get things from the higher shelves.
Also look into toe kick pop up step stools. They pop out of the toe kick area, and you can reach the top shelf of the upper cabinets. Granted, I am pretty tall, I can reach all but the last top shelf, on my own, and I despise any cabinet that does not go to the ceiling. Soffits are the devil’s handiwork.
You will usually be better off getting high quality pre-fab cabinets. Custom cabinets are usually much more expensive, take longer to get, and are not necessarily better made.
Miscellaneous
What I wish I would have done:
used a legit cabinet manufacturer for the cabinets. Our contractor or had a custom cabinet maker build our cabinets and the quality is not the best.
if you add a cabinet above your existing fridge – have the cabinet face be made a bit longer (dead space) so that it can be cut back if you get a taller fridge (in addition to it being wide) or have some sort of moulding on it as decoration that can be removed easily
Countertops
We went with a quartz countertop to balance price and durability.
My last three homes I’ve put a section of cutting board next to the stove and love it, the rest is quartz. Pull out trash cans under the butcher block make it even better
Use butcher block wood for a cheap and great looking countertop.
Do not use a epoxy counter top kit. They never turn out right and look horrible.
Do not do concrete countertops, they are already out of style.
After living with it for 9 months I would use plastic laminate instead if there were a next time. Plastic laminate comes in an enormous variety of beautiful patterns. It is approximately half the price, and is readily available and can be installed by your trim carpenters instead of requiring a specialist company.
Pros- Granite is beautiful and undercounter sink mounts are much cleaner looking than a drop in sink. Ours is holding up very well and isn’t stained at all yet.
Cons- granite is expensive and often slows construction. Also that inside edge of the sink cut-out is vulnerable to being chipped by a pot, and a glancing blow of a glass on the granite edge is sure to break the glass.
Tile
We found a marble backsplash we loved and are happy with that instead of a standard subway tile. Part of the reason too why we went with tile instead of carrying the quartz up the wall as another option, is ease of replacing the tile in case anything were to happen.
We plan to seal the backsplash once a year, and the process seems manageable.
NOTE though that I have read about grout bleeding into marble on various articles on the internet as well as on Reddit. if you are doing marble tile, be really careful about dark grout. This can especially happen if you don’t seal the marble beforehand. In addition to that, if you seal the edges of the tile, it can impact how the grout adheres to the tile.
Use a high quality backsplash, It’s one of the first things to be noticed.
Use dark colored grout in the backsplash so it won’t show when it gets darker behind the stove/sink.
marble backsplash. Looks great, but it’s super high maintenance
Lighting and Outlets
We have an 8×11 kitchen and did not add any outlets as some of these comments suggested. I could imagine in a larger kitchen this would make more of a difference. We considered under-cabinet lighting, but to keep costs low, we decided to forego having our contractor do that and we will figure out under-cabinet lighting whenever we decide to include it.
We also didn’t specify the Kelvins like one of the Redditors noted either. We installed 4 recessed lights, and asked for them to be on a dimmer. They by default set the color to be a “cool tone”. We asked them as part of the punch list to update it to be a “warm tone” (especially because the kitchen was mainly all white). So at least for us, they did not ask us what temperature of light we wanted and we had to call it out explicitly.
This is from a comment further down but I’m copying it here and replying to you directly- put at least two circuits in your kitchen and make them beefy. My kitchen (in my 1954 ranch house) is on ONE GODDAMNED 15A CIRCUIT and it’s a huge PITA because I can only use one appliance at a time or else I trip the circuit.
This one got me — if you’re doing low voltage wiring (24V for undercabinet lighting), make sure they do it the way you want. Otherwise you may be so unhappy with the result that you don’t even use it. I’ve been fighting with my contractors for months to come back and do it right, and it’s going to end up costing me another $1000-ish to get it redone.
Mundane things like lighting color if they’re going to put in puck lights (I provided puck lights that I asked to be set to 3500K, but they installed them at 5000K and I had to go behind them, pull everything down, reset it, and reseat).
Undercabinet lighting is awesome. I prefer to use LED tape lights, because they’re inexpensive and easy to get. Most can be run on a switch and have a remote for color and level changes.
I put in plenty of outlets but if I were to do it again I would probably use plug strips under cabinets and counters as it not only spaces them out but makes them easier to access then a wall outlet as well as providing more plugs.
Use 24v FCOB led strip under cabinet light, I got some from AliExpress to do my attic and it’s SUPER bright, if you can get it waterproof much better.
You can get in-cabinet lighting from ikea. It’s led, so it stays cool, and is relatively inexpensive. They even have some with a switch mounted on the cabinet door opening, so it turns on automatically when you open the door/ drawer.
Under cabinet outlets/ plug molds instead of outlets on the wall. Keeps the backsplashes nice a free of visual clutter.
Lighting is a big component in the ambiance. Have fun with this.
every light on a dimmer
Appliances
We would have loved to have a dedicated under-cabinet microwave space. However, given our limited kitchen space, building this in would mean giving up valuable storage. For that reason, we went with an above-range microwave.
We did also end up purchasing an oven with air fryer capabilities but have never used it. I have read online that the air fryer function causes a lot of splatter inside. If that’s really true, I have no idea, but we have not used this feature yet.
Pick out your appliances early on. Building around appliances is generally easier than trying to find the fridge that perfectly fits the space.
you say you have two small children I can’t express enough not to get stainless steel appliances yes they’re popular but they’re a pain in the neck to keep clean. You got finger prints greasy hands just endless. You can thank me later.
We redid our kitchen about a year and a half ago. We got a five burner stove. Definitely not worth the money. The burners are so close together that it’s not actually feasible to use all the burners at the same time.
Personally we have stainless steel appliances but the fridge is a whirlpool, the dishwasher is a bosch, and the stove is a GE because we know a guy who sells appliances and he felt like those were the most reliable brands, and honestly you can’t really tell at a glance that they aren’t all the same brand. We got a Dual Fuel range (slide in) which was a bit of a splurge, but we wanted a gas cooktop and the electric oven was nice, but also in the future if we wanted to go induction or something we have it wired up for both if needed.
Electric wall oven. Possibly double oven, or split microwave oven. You can convection microwaves in a split package, which can run convection only, giving you in many ways two electric ovens.
A double oven is awesome and efficient, I use the small section 90% of the time
Get an oven with air fryer function built-in
For appliances make the choice of what you really need and buy better brands. German brands are better like Bosch and Blomberg, GE can be ok and KitchenAid is good too. Even if you don’t want to use a local appliance store pop in and talk to them to get their take on who is good and also who is in stock / producing given the pandemic.
I love a drawer microwave under the country, but they’re not cheap
Microwave: we put in a drawer microwave in a base cabinet. Better than having it sit on the counter and cleaner looking than an above the range one. I like it more than I thought I would.
Oven: We went with a oven with a small oven up top and a big oven on the bottom. Love the small oven and use it 95% of the time – heats up fast. Better than having a drawer at the bottom of the oven. The oven also has wifi, which is nice to be able to preheat the oven from the store so you can pop in that frozen pizza right when you get home or turn it on from the couch. 🙂
Get all appliances in before you start
Faucet and Sink
We went with a Kohler faucet (which we love), and a cheaper sink basin. The sink basin seems to scratch easier than we expected so we maybe would next time find a better quality one. We also decided NOT to go with a touch-less faucet because we were concerned that we would not be able to use the faucet if the power went out.
A touch-less faucet is the best thing EVER in my kitchen. I love drawers over lower cabinets, and hate dead corner space. We have a crap ton of outlets, and they are on alternate breakers, so less likely to trip. We have different appliance brands, but they all have the same finish, so you have to really look at them to notice.
Also, get a high end faucet. with detachable head. The old separate spray nozzles are out.
If you get a soap dispenser go ahead and have a piece of 1/4 inch tubing added below the sink to drop in to a jumbo bottle of liquid soap. This is a life changer for anyone still trying to fill that little dispenser bottle, and is super easy to do.
Buy your faucet off Amazon. Theres no need to drop $350 on a delta that last 50 years.
Buy your undermount sink off Amazon. Hundreds of dollars cheaper than big box.
It would be a good time to update you garbage disposal.
Under-countertop mounted sink
Please remember if you do an undermounted sink to add extra supports. The counter guys usually just use clips but if you fill a big under Mount sink with water it’s heavy and can come down. I’ve seen it happen.
easier to clean and makes your kitchen look bigger.
Sweep food into..
A lot of under mount sinks have an epoxy based adhesive to stick them on that can be difficult to remove. I learned this when googling if I could change one out.
Sink: We went with a farmhouse sink with one basin instead of a divided one. Love how big it is and don’t miss the divided sink since we rarely hand wash dishes. The big sink is nice for hand washing big pots/pans.
Hoods and Venting
determine CFM requirements for desired hood immediately! My duct is extremely undersized because no one told me this & I thought they were more or less universal. And if you need conditioned makeup air because your CFM requirements are high, this will add thousands onto the cost.
What I wish I would have done:
proper vent that vents outside. We have a pop up vent, and it just vents into the kitchen and it sucks
During and After the Renovation
Not having use of a kitchen
This is definitely the time to utilize all the plastic ware saved up from food delivery! It was just the two of us so we managed to not do dishes for the month (mainly using extra paper bowls and plates we had in storage). We kept an extra microwave in the basement, and we did still use our fridge to store food to reheat for some meals. We took advantage of this time too for added “date nights” to try out different restaurants nearby that were on our list!
Not having a kitchen for several weeks or months can be stressful. Set up a temporary “kitchen” near a water source. I set up a folding table in our laundry room. Microwave. Coffee pot. Mini fridge. We had a place to wash dishes and prepare food. Grilled a lot. Carry out. Eating out every meal got tiresome. Especially after long work days. Also clean any mess that escapes from the remodel. Dust. Footprints. Wrappers. Keep your house as clean as possible. It’s easy for it to spiral and add to your stress. The contractor should make sure the crew cleans up after themselves every day but that can be spotty.
That living in your home and trying to function without a kitchen can be a nightmare. Budget for eating out accordingly. Also: pull out drawers in cabinets, nice sized pantry, beverage fridge, under counter lighting, and cabinets that are easy to clean and you don’t have to paint. May the force be with you.
Addressing any issues
I definitely emailed gently to ask or confirm certain things. And at the end when we had our punch list of items to address, I took photos and created a Google slide deck with images, notes, and circles to highlight specifics (I wanted to make sure everything was as clear as possible!). I also printed out a copy and left a pen for the team in case that was easier. They were really easy going about this and had no issues addressing what we asked for, and allowed us to withhold 10% of payment until it was all complete.
One thing we did not think about but that we did identify was the door spring on our dishwasher when it was re-installed. The spring had broken during the move/reinstallation and we asked them to fix it. So definitely add that to your list of things to check as well.
Before paying for any plumbing or electrical for a room, plug your stuff into every outlet, turn on every light, turn on every shower, tub faucet, sink faucet, flush the toilets. Watch for lights buzzing, water pooling, dripping, etc.
if you see something that appears to be “done” and you don’t like it ask questions. “So what do you do next? I’m curious how that works.” That is a better way of saying “I hope you don’t think that is done and acceptable.”
The best time to identify a problem is before you’ve cut the check. It seems like you’re being too thorough but trust me, you’re not.
I have a tub faucet that doesn’t turn off when you switch to the shower.
They built an entire bathroom and either didn’t test this shower or they knew exactly what they were doing and knew they’d be long gone with the check by the time I moved in and found the problem in this third bathroom. I’ve been in the house for about a month now and they have yet to come back to see wtf is up with this shower.
Do not sign off on the project being finished until you are happy with it.
Other Notes
Just remember: the main considerations are price, quality, and speed, but you can only ever have two.If it’s cheap and fast, it will not be done well. If it’s cheap and well done, it will not be done quickly. If it’s completed quickly, and the quality is great, it will not be cheap.