INTRODUCING THE PROJECT

My family recently bought a beautiful house, 3100 square feet, mostly renovated. We were extremely lucky to get the house at $60K under the assessment value since the housing market in the Vancouver area has slowed significantly. This gives us room for some further renovation.


THE LIVING ARRANGEMENTS
My brother and I will be moving in and taking our corners of the place. My brother has the upstairs kitchen which is functional despite the need for renovation at some point to get it out of the 1970s decor.

The downstairs kitchen, however... my kitchen, will need a full makeover from opening up the wall, to gutting out the entire room and replacing it with something that suits my needs. At the moment, it is without a stove, and really doesn't have much other than a functional fridge (which I'm looking to replace).


Downstairs kitchen in its current state. The cupboards wrap around in an L-shape to the left, with a space for a stove (which is currently missing) and a full-sized refrigerator, both of which cannot be seen in the picture above.

MY BUDGET
 My budget is set out at a maximum of $25K which means I will aim initially for a $20 renovation and allow room to adjust as needed. I have scoped out a few kitchen design companies in the area and will visit them one by one to get an idea of how realistic my budget is against what I hope to have. I also bought myself $50 worth of kitchen/bathroom magazines to look at styles, get some ideas and choose what appeals to me.


DATES
Thursday, November 15, 2012 is the day we pick up the keys to the house and are able to move in. In these first few days, my brother, Linus will move into his portion of the house. My other brother, Preston, will fly up from LA to help us with the move.
As well during these first few days, I will be painting several rooms that need a color makeover. But more importantly, it is during these first few days that I will bring designers in for an in-house consultation and choose which designer I would like to work with. So I need to do this research ahead of time.

My move-in date is Friday, November 23rd, and I have opted to get movers to do the hard work since, well, frankly I don't want my brothers to have to move twice. Their own stuff is enough. Everything of mine will go into the upstairs living room to leave a clear path for the construction crew to work on the kitchen in the first 2 or 3 months of our living there.


WHAT I HOPE TO HAVE
 I enjoy a great kitchen. Cooking is a form of therapy for me so the environment needs to be inspiring and inviting. The color and lighting needs to soothe the tired soul. But above all, I am a stickler for functionality. I have specific ideas of certain customizations that I hope can be incorporated into the design. These things I will speak about with the designer that I choose and share as this process unfolds.

This is my first renovation of any kind. I have no idea what to expect. But I'm sure what I am seeing in my head will likely not match what will pan out in reality. So I'm ready for anything!


BUDGET UPDATE
Budget Available: $25,000.00
Budget Spent: $50 (kitchen design magazines)
Budget Remaining: $24,950.00