Our Home Remodel January 2008

We decided to use the same contractor, Kevin Bablewski to do most of the remodel. He had done all of our previous small remodels. George designed a way to make the kitchen 30% larger by stealing family room territory and Marguerite used our excellent cabinetmaker, Dale Hagerty, to make the new kitchen cabinets and new entertainment center for the Georgie. The remodel would consist of a totally new kitchen, new family room furniture, new entertainment center with new equipment, upgrade to Marguerite’s sewing room, new Marguerite bathroom with Jacuzzi bathtub, tons of more crown molding, new carpets and wood floors, and repainting the entire home. And thanks to Marguerite’s post retirement job at UCSD, she was going to pay for it so George would not skimp on stuff.

The first major activity was the gutting of the kitchen. We lost the use of our kitchen for over two months so we used a microwave in our master bedroom with coffee maker and outside refrigerator as our temporary kitchen. Living like this for three months trapped in our master bedroom with two dogs was a major adventure.

As progress was made George had to move our stuff from room to room. In order to minimize this George had a master plan that Kevin did not always follow which made our life even more disrupted. George threw his back out one day and could not even get out of bed. This was our last remodel forever and ever and ever.

As things progressed Marguerite would supervise the activity. The kitchen was going to be her pride and joy. She would buy new Kitchen Aid appliances that had to integrate into the new cabinets.

George’s pride and joy was going to be the new entertainment center and family room. This would consist of a new 46” Samsung high end HDTV, surround sound system, Blu-Ray video player, new cable box, integration of existing VHS and DVD recorders, and a new Juke Box for Marguerite’s CDs. Also remotely controlled lighting and fan were added. This is all remotely controlled with 8 remotes required to operate everything.

Actually the messiest part of the remodel was the remodel of Marguerite’s (guest bath) bathroom. The entire existing tile had to be removed including the bathtub and the bathroom floor. Dust all over the place. In its place we put in cultured marble. Marguerite’s new bathroom cost her over $12,000, which includes the new Jacuzzi bathtub and cultured marble floors and walls. We had to rewire the bathroom to handle the new power requirements for the Jacuzzi jets and heater. The room was torn apart to the studs.

Marguerite’s big job during the remodel, in addition to paying for everything, was to pick out all the stuff. The stuff consisted of the new appliances, new furniture, new plumbing fixtures, new decorative fixtures, new stone, and new wood floors. After a while we both got dizzy. The wood was selected based on the cherry wood of the kitchen cabinets (did not want it to match, but it had to complement the color) and we wanted the wood distressed because of the dogs. So we now have the kitchen, family room, computer room, sewing room, and halls in wood. We left the old tile in our entry way because we liked it and we were afraid the mirrors might get damaged if we tried to remove it. We bought about a half a mountain's worth of granite for our kitchen counters, fireplace, bathroom counter, and bar counter.

Our painter, Allen Hapak, basically lived with us for 6 weeks. He basically helped us decide what colors to paint our kitchen cabinets, other cabinets, walls, and trim. The spray stuff he used on the cabinets was a killer. We had to sleep with the doors open, but the beauty of the finish was worth it to Marguerite ...... not so much to George, Apollo, or Dreyfus..