Kitchen renos need a lot of preparation. If you have your 10 builder prospects and at least two weeks study of how you use your existing kitchen, you are ready to go shopping. The showrooms are everywhere, and it really doesn’t matter where you start.
What does matter is that you bring your want and wish list, your floor plan, a tape measure and, wait for it, the coping strategies you have developed with your partner. It is very likely that one of you gets charged up shopping while the other, well, you’d rather have your teeth drilled. I’m no psychologist, but while contracting I saw that the best strategy for homeowners when trying to control costs during a complex renovation (and kitchens are the most complex) is unity. You can talk all you want about faucets, fixtures, bricks and sticks, it’s unity that saves you the most money.
