I'm looking for personal recommendations for contractors and suppliers. I'm looking to use local/independent/eco-friendly suppliers as much as possible. For construction supplies in general, how much success have you had in buying/ordering supplies online (such as countertops)?

My bf and I are completely redoing our kitchen, so we'll be getting all new cabinetry, flooring, sink - pretty much everything new but the fridge and stove.

Also, anything you learned while redoing your kitchen that you didn't think about beforehand that would have made things easier, or what you wish you might have done differently.

2/2/2008 11:02:08 PM

that is so exciting!!! i have no advice. but you should watch HGTV (just discovered it, love it). they have lots of shows and one that focuses on strictly kitchens. you can't get ideas for suppliers off of it obviously, but there are some cool do it yourself tricks on there and cheap ideas (not cheap but like...cheaper. cheap alternatives i guess). interesting channel and probably even more interesting for someone who is actually doing remodeling!

2/2/2008 11:20:39 PM

I am HORRIBLY excited. We're putting in solatubes over the main workstations, gonna get undercabinet lighting...oh my GOD I'm so excited. My mother has been dreaming of a new kitchen for nigh on 15 years now, so she's full of ideas and advice ...on the design end. As far as actually getting it all done, not so much.

I'm going to try and have a contracter picked by the end of the week; my bf and I will lay the tile (unless this is a bad idea) and paint ourselves. He is, at the least, going to fix the subflooring. What prompted all this is a pinhole leak in a pipe that we got fixed. It wasn't unreasonable to hope that the flooring would dry out, and be okay, but it's dry-rotting, and very rapidly. The joists are good, though

2/2/2008 11:26:38 PM

bttt

2/2/2008 11:46:19 PM

I'm a salesman for Ferguson so I can probably help you out... Some of that stuff will have to come from Stock though. But we have the sinks, fixtures, etc.

2/3/2008 12:44:38 AM

ferguson's isn't bad for your basic stuff, but if you're looking anything high quality or hard to find i could suggest a couple of other places.

anyway, i'm a plumbing contractor and would be happy to help any way we can. also fwiw, we frequently act as the general contractor for smaller jobs like this. saves the customer and us some headache.

http://www.ivansealeyplumbing.com

2/3/2008 1:34:14 AM

I live in Washington and I bought a house a couple years ago. We bought granite countertops and I shopped around at several different places. Places like Home Depot and Lowes were by far the cheapest as compared to businesses that specialized in granite. As for cabinets... I dunno, we stuck with the same.

2/3/2008 3:11:01 AM

i got a new fridge

it was enough to make the whole kitchen look cool

2/3/2008 4:36:09 AM

You will hate me for pointing you to this website, but here goes: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/. Prepare to obsess about things you currently know nothing about!

We started a DIY remodel about 2 years ago and are still sitting on a few loose ends, but it's mostly completed. Since we did most of it ourselves, I can't recommend contractors except for granite. And for granite, I have to disagree with the HD/Lowe's bit. If you are interested in natural stone, let me know, otherwise I won't bore you and everyone else here with our experiences.

About online - we ordered almost everything but the floors and counters online. Had a few glitches but not really more than we would have expected from a local supplier. Cabinets came from buycabinets.com and we saved about $10K over the local quotes, and that included a custom pantry/desk area. However, if I were doing it again, I would have the cabinets custom-made by a local carpenter. We originally tried to do that, but the market was HOT when we started our remodel and the lead times were outrageous. You should have better luck now.

Good luck & have fun. Don't get too TKO (see the link ) - it's just a kitchen.

2/3/2008 3:30:34 PM

Quote :

"I have to disagree with the HD/Lowe's bit."

I would too. You have much more in the way of choices and different levels of quality when going outside of Lowes/HD.

2/3/2008 6:11:06 PM

Hollister: we are pretty much set on granite counters at this point.

Quote :

"However, if I were doing it again, I would have the cabinets custom-made by a local carpenter. We originally tried to do that, but the market was HOT when we started our remodel and the lead times were outrageous. You should have better luck now."

I have heard that with some luck, you can get custom cabinets for hardly anything more than standard. One of my mom's friends lives in a mcmansion, and have a massive kitchen. Her husband got in contact with (my mom's words here) some good old boys with a backyard shop, and they turned her out some GORGEOUS cabinetry for less than it would have cost for mid-grade cabinetry from HD.

I rather like Enviroglas, but
1) I am totally overwhelmed by choices right now - this adds another three or four
2) my bf really wants countertops that we can cut on

2/3/2008 6:50:23 PM

Be careful with who you get to install the granite. My parents had their kitchen redone a few years ago and chose the cheapest guy (I know, not a good idea). They had bought a new sink, and when he went to install the sink, the edge of the granite cracked. After a few unsuccessful tries to fix it, he hired someone else, and the new guy said he never should have tried to put that sink in that piece of granite because it was too big and would make the border around it really fragile.

I would find names for you to avoid, but this was back in Ga. I doubt he's found his way up here.

2/3/2008 7:00:16 PM

OK - we love our granite fabricator! Century Stone in Sanford. They were very expensive, but thorough and great to work with. They also sell quartz and EnviroGlas.

You will hear that the counter is only as good as the fabricator, and it's true. That said - if you're looking at a stone that's easy to fabricate (not much movement, not prone to fissures, etc.), then you don't need to be quite as picky about your fabricator. We wanted a funky stone and we probably talked to 6 or 7 fabricators before we found one we were comfortable with. They happened to be the most expensive (of course) but we feel like we got our money's worth.

Their website is under construction but you can get the contact info here: http://www.centurystone.biz/. PM me if you're going to get in touch with them & I'll give you my name.

Will also put some pics in my gallery later.

2/3/2008 7:03:16 PM

Thanks

When I made the thread, we had our color palette picked out (white cabinetry, burnt orange walls*, this greenish-gold tile, and a green/gold/brown granite)


But I'm kind of rethinking the cabinetry, which will of course influence everything else.

*: The kitchen and dining room are one long room; there's a large door to connect the dining area to the living room, which will in time be a dark red, with light hardwood floors.

2/3/2008 7:07:04 PM

I *love* green granite. For some reason it didn't jump out at me at the stone yard; it looks much better when horizontal I guess. But that's the one thing I really regret about our kitchen because we never even considered green at the time.

There's a little corner of our stone that has a lot of green in it that I make sure is always visible, though.

Be sure to check out the finished kitchens gallery on that site before making decisions.

Oh, one more thing - we got most of our appliances from Appliance World on Duraleigh. They have a good selection and good service.

2/3/2008 7:57:27 PM