Galley Kitchen Remodel and Laundry Room Update

Project Summary:

Galley Kitchen Remodel and Laundry Update

Summary

This was an older home (1950’s) with a small galley kitchen in Myers Park that had undergone several “handyman” style updates over the years. The kitchen only had 1 plug and the laundry plumbing was sub par.  The kitchen had almost no storage or counter space and the laundry room was a mess.

We decided to remove the wall between the laundry and kitchen and relocate the hot water heater so we could add storage, increase counterspace and create a better laundry space. Because the laundry room was visible from the kitchen (and living room) we decided to hide the washer dryer in some cabinets with pocket doors. 

Challenges And Solutions

From the start we knew this project would have a few challenges and we discovered one or two more along the way. This isn’t uncommon with older homes… especially ones that have undergone updates perfomed by unqualified contractors as this one had. 

• The walls were made from CMU Cement blocks – Since we were adding plugs and switches and moving plumbing we decided in design to fur our all the walls with 2×4. 
• After demo we discovered some shoddy electric work that had to be remedied. This was the only change order on the project
• Due to a bad spec from the cabinet company the washer dryer did not fit in the cabinets as expected. Our carpenters were able to modify them to work

Galley Kitchen Timeline

We started design on August 4th, 2022 and completed design on September 8th.

We ordered all materials on September 12 – 14th and by December 15th, 2022 everything, included cabinets had arrived in our warehouse. Cabinet lead times were especially long as we were still dealing with delays from the pandemic.

Proposed project start date:  Jan 5th, 2023  –  Actual Project Start Date: Jan 5th, 2023

Proposed Completion Date: March 6th, 2023  –  Actual Completion Date: March 17th 2023

This galley kitchen project ran more or less but we did finish two weeks after our proposed completion date. There was no single large delay but a few issues made the job run long. The first was an electric change order to correct some sub par electrci work done by a previous contractor. A delay in countertop fabrication cost us about a week and having to modfiy the washer dryer cabinets took a couple of days as well.

Budget vs Final Price

The initial budget we presented for this project was $93,561.00. The final fixed price proposal we presented was for $105,880.

One reason for the increase from budget to final contract price was that the original budget proposal did not include removing the wall but during design we decided that was the best options.

Change Orders

We put a lot of effort into design and planning to avoid unexpected change orders. However on this project we did discover sub par electric work after demo. This had to be corrected so a change order was created for $2641.00 so the project total came to $108,521.00

Galley kitchens are small but efficent. The tall cabinets in this layout add a lot of storage and that allowed us to go wtih open shelving on the sink wall

Galley Kitchen Remodel: Materials Used:

• Frameless Semi Custom Cabinets by Luxor Cabinetry
  • Seattle doorstyle in Ocean for the base cabinets and casablanca for the uppers and laundry cabinets
  • Sutton pulls by Hardware Resources in Satin Bronze
  • Leyton Cabinet Pulls in Flat Black
• Countertops were Cambria Gladstone
• Backsplash tile is Nabi Argyle Glacier from Tile Bar layed in a herringbne pattern
• Fixtures and Accessories
  • Mid century Sconce from Shades of Light
  • Delta Trinsic Faucet and pot filler

Final Project Photos