Moving your kitchen to another room
Of all the home remodeling projects you can think of, moving your kitchen to another room is definitely on the list of the challenging ones. Why would someone consider want to move kitchen to a different room, you might ask. Well, the kitchen is an essential part of any home. You want it to be operational, spacious, and it needs to serve a daily purpose. Furthermore, transferring your kitchen to another room creates lots of opportunities to change the layout of all the equipment. Also, kitchen upgrades are quite often, so let's see how to tackle this project with ease!
Get all renovation permits
Whether you live in a house or an apartment, you will need renovation permits, especially if you plan to tear down walls. Thoroughly check state or municipal rules because they might be different from place to place.
Furthermore, if you have contractors coming over to do the renovation, they also need to have valid permits.
To sum it up, you will need:
a building permit (covers any structural changes to your home);
a plumbing permit (for drainage and water inlet);
mechanical and electrical permits (for heating, energy supply, and ventilation);
Once you get all the permits, it is time to start moving your kitchen to another room.
How much will everything cost?
The golden rule is that the entire project will be as costly as you make it. The more you complicate, the more money and time is required to complete the job. Besides doing all the electrical wiring and plumbing, you will also have to tidy up the old kitchen room.
With that out of the way, it is crucial to plan what changes you want to make precisely. Put everything on paper, get a quote from your contractor, and see if everything fits into your budget. If the remodel seems too expensive, see how you can simplify it to avoid overspending. Consider some cost-effective kitchen interior designing ideas.
How to plan this project?
The first step of the plan is to empty the designated room for the new kitchen. You need to make space for all of the changes. It is a good idea to consider getting a self-storage unit for this. If you have no idea where to put all the furniture and other things, find the right unit for your items and store them until the new kitchen is done. This is a good approach because it creates more space to work with. If you live in a small place, you can avoid making a mess by piling up all of the stuff in one room.
Before you start moving all of the stuff from the kitchen, it is crucial to make all the necessary changes. Do your plumbing, electricity, and other installations. Furthermore, perform any structural changes to the new kitchen area.
Consider the airflow setup
Every kitchen must have good airflow. You don't want the food smell to spread across the entire place. If you have large windows, you might even reduce air conditioning costs this summer because you won't have to use the HVAC system or the extractor fans to get the smell out of the house.
Clean the new kitchen
Before you start moving in things, clean the room thoroughly, especially the areas where large appliances will go. If there are no other changes to make, it is best to clean everything.
Prepare the old kitchen for the transition
While the contractors are working on the new kitchen area, you can spend that time packing your kitchen for the transition. Good preparation makes things easier, so do not rush it.
Clean all the appliances, and start packing the glassware and the cutleries. If you have cabinets with pots and other kitchen utensils, see if you can move them without taking everything out. If not, pack everything into boxes so you can move the cabinets.
Keep in mind that your refrigerator and freezer need to work all the time. To move them, you have two different approaches to consider:
wait for the new kitchen to be finished, take out all of the food, move the appliances immediately and return everything inside;
if you don't have a lot of food, you can take everything out and defrost and clean the units. Use a mini-fridge to keep the food fresh.
Moving in the kitchen to the new room
When all of the changes are done, and the new room is clean, you can start moving in your stuff. Start with the largest items, like cabinets and electric appliances. If some things cannot pass through the door, you will have to take them apart. Think about it in advance, and disassemble everything.
When all of the cabinets and appliances are in place, connect the freezer and fridge first, and then the stove and other electrical devices.
When all of the more oversized items are in place, you can move all the kitchen utensils.
Cleaning up the old kitchen space
After your new kitchen is up and running, you can slowly start to clean the old place. If you have any electrical or plumbing installations that need to be removed or sealed, do it while the room is empty.
It is a good idea to plan in advance what you want to do with this space. That way, you will avoid potential delays while thinking about what to do with the room.
Moving your kitchen to another room made easy
As you can see, moving your kitchen to another room is a challenging process. It will cost money, so know what your budget is. The main idea is to plan everything in advance so that the contractor can finish the project on time. Even though it might take some time, it is all worth it if you finally get the kitchen you have always wanted!
Guest Contributor: Sophia Perry