By Kay Reynolds
The Virginian-Pilot
WHEN IT CAME time to move from Washington, D.C., and find a new home, Jim and Margie Powell thought of Hampton Roads. "We came to visit a cousin who lived here about 15 years and fell in love with the Virginia Beach area," Jim explained.
They eventually found a home in Chesapeake, where the original owner had already done some renovation. Jim was sure he could improve on the work. "I've always been pretty mechanical and love working with tools," he said.
Jim and Margie worked quite a bit - about six months - before moving into their new, personally customized home. Jim is a government contractor and, like many, owes his DIY inspiration to programs he's seen on HGTV. "I look at something and think, 'I can do that,'" he said. Margie now works for GSH Real Estate as a real estate agent. Her practical do-it-yourself experience puts her in a position to advise clients about projects as they look for homes.
Savings from doing it themselves allowed the Powells to splurge on gourmet appliances and features such as DuPont Zodiaq countertops, which are Kosher approved and won't stain or nick like granite, Jim said.
They saved in other areas by searching home improvement stores for non-dented returns. "Some projects don't work out too well so people return great appliances that don't fit," Jim said. Stores then mark them down - in some cases, significantly - to move them out quickly.
Which leads us to Jim's advice to DIYers: "Plan, plan, plan! If you don't put your plans on paper, you'll find yourself stumbling into pitfalls."
New projects include finishing an outdoor shed when the weather cools, more landscaping and painting the driveway.
The Powells' kitchen makeover in their own words:
Jim and Margie Powell decided to slow down the fast pace of their life in Northern Virginia and move to the Hampton Roads area to establish a more peaceful way of life. Their youngest child had just headed off for college, so they started looking for a smaller home on the water that they could renovate to suit their needs. They found an older ranch on an inlet in Western Branch. Although "fixed up," it was still an old design that needed renovating.
Their first project was to remodel the kitchen. The existing kitchen was the original small footprint, barely large enough to be used as an eat-in kitchen. On the far wall was a door with three steps leading down to a lower hallway that housed a bathroom, laundry area and a set of stairs leading to the basement. With a basic understanding of carpentry and electricity, they drew up working drawings for the renovation.
First the basement stairs were relocated to accommodate the new design. Then with the help of their neighbors, Pat Wyllie and his son, Kirk, Jim flipped the attic joists 90 degrees at the end of the hip part of the roof in order to change the load-bearing wall. This was done so they could double the length of the kitchen without an additional support beam.
Jim and Margie gutted entire kitchen portion of the house down to the studs and removed the kitchen partition wall and steps while a licensed plumber corrected the plumbing. They raised the lower floor at that end of the house to match the level of the existing kitchen. They put in a new bathroom, laundry room and pantry. Then they removed the old outside door and part of the outside brick and replaced it with a sliding glass door at the new raised level.
A licensed electrician updated the electricity and added recessed lighting, under-counter lighting and ceiling fixtures. Then Margie and Jim put in a ceramic tile floor just in time for new maple cabinets to be installed. An island was added to hold a six-burner cook top with a downdraft rather than a hooded vent for a more open kitchen. Desk height cabinets and drawers were installed along the outside wall, which was also wired for phone and Internet use.
Coordinating the length of time for each step was a bit of a challenge. Jim and Margie had to estimate the length of time it would take to finish each step of the project so the contractors could be scheduled and the next step could be started without delay.
The entire kitchen renovation took four months. The kitchen doubled in size and included the installation of a Viking six- burner cook top with a downdraft vent, raised maple cabinets, a large built-in convection oven, dishwasher, stainless sink with disposal, a sliding glass door leading to a deck, recessed, pendant and under-counter lights, telephone and Internet cable, new plumbing, and a rewired, grounded electrical service.
A lot of TLC and work went into this project. Although the total cost of the renovation included other related tasks, our investment for the kitchen was about $30,000.
Good teamwork and a sense of humor are essential to happily completing a renovation. Be aware that having to camp out in the home during the project is part of the process. Just know that you'll be washing dishes in the bathroom sink for a while.
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Do you have a DIY success story - or do you want to enter the Pilot's DIY Contest? Reach Kay Reynolds at (757) 446-2640 or kay. reynolds@pilotonline.com.
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