Renovation? Where to start

DH and I want to completely redo the first floor of our house. Right now, it's a kitchen, dining area and living room. We're envisioning a giant open floor plan.

Where do we start? We need the kitchen completely re-done and would actually like to bump into our garage a little bit. Would we hire an architect, a contractor to see what could be done, a kitchen designer, or a regular designer (because it's not just a kitchen but will also be a "great room" and I need help with furniture, window treatments, colors, etc.) first?

Help! We are completely overwhelmed at the scope of this project but we both want it done as soon as possible.

TIA

Renovation? Where to start

You don't need to hire a kitchen designer or reg. designer at all. typically for the kitchen it's based off of your personal taste, needs, and the appliance triangle rule. Typically you'd like to have your fridge, sink, and oven/stove form some sort of triangle. They don't need to be close.
Some contractors can do the design themselves. If you want an architect I'd have them draw out plans first and have the contractor price out how much it would be.

HTH

Oh, you wanted a designer for decor. That would be the last person you hire. Keep in mind that places like Ethan Allen and Basset have their own designers that are available to come to your home to do all the decorating and furniture placement stuff.

Message edited 6/25/2012 12:10:46 PM.

Re: Renovation? Where to start

Since you want to open your floor plan, you definitely need an architect. They would be able to figure out how to move/remove walls, how to restructure the house, etc.

Renovation? Where to start

We redid our downstairs as well. We first had walls removed then the floors, then our kitchen. We also extended into our garage 30 inches. We did not have an architect. Our contractor told us what our options would be.