Bella: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our very first episode. I’m Bella, and I’m so happy you’re here today. A kitchen remodel is never just about cabinets or countertops. It is really about daily life, family moments, and how a home feels in our everyday routines. And I’m so glad to begin our very first conversation with a true expert.

Today, I’m joined by Michael, the president of Bel Air Construction, a design and build company in Forest Hill, Maryland. For over 40 years, Michael and his team have been transforming kitchens, bathrooms, and homes across Bel Air and Holston. And one of my favorite parts, as the president, Michael is personally involved in every single project from the very first idea all the way to the final review.

Michael, it is such a pleasure to have you here. How are you?

Michael Watts: Bella, I’m doing terrific. Thanks for having me. I’m really looking forward to this.

Bella: Thank you so much for being here. I’m really looking forward to our conversation. So let’s get started. I want to start with something many homeowners quietly carry with them long before they ever pick up the phone.

What usually pushes someone to finally decide, “Okay, now is the time to remodel my kitchen”?

Michael Watts: It’s several things, uh, Bella. One thing that always seems to be a common thread is lifestyle changes. When you think about your children are now in elementary school, and you decide, “We love it here, we love the school district, we love our neighbors, and we’re gonna stay here for 10 years before Junior graduates high school.

So we’re s- we’re here for 10 years. And since we’re gonna be here for 10 years, let’s make the kitchen make more sense, let’s renovate that.” So that’s, that’s one example. Our last child is now done college, and our lifestyle has changed because now we have just the two of us living here, but we have groups of people, and they’re bringing their significant others and/or children, and all of a sudden we need a bigger space to entertain.

I think pent-up frustration is another thing. And if you remember COVID, we were all in our houses, and all of a sudden we’re looking at these spaces and we’re thinking, “Oh, this is driving me crazy. I haven’t spent this much time…” So sometimes it’s an event like COVID, or it’s also something maybe like I go to a friend’s party and they’ve renovated the kitchen.

They tore the wall out, they put an island in, and it’s like, “We could do that. That would be so cool.” So that pent-up frustration is it. And sometimes it’s affordability. Sometimes we’ve been in our house 10 years. We’ve gained some equity, our jobs are better, we’re at a better position financially, and the rising house value.

So those are some things that I see. Somebody says, “Hey, you know, it’s really time,” as to why we might do it now.

Bella: Perfect. Thank you so much for sharing, and so many listeners will see themselves in this story, I’m sure.

Michael Watts: Mm-hmm. Sure.

Bella: Well, so once a homeowner makes a decision and they finally walk into your showroom, what does that first conversation look like?

Michael Watts: Yeah, well, so when they come here, when I first meet a homeowner, I… And I’ll use these words. I’ll say, “I’m gonna put you on center stage. You’ve lived in your home for 10 years or whatever. We’ve talked for 90 seconds. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. The first and most important thing is I need to understand how life happens at your house.

Who lives there? Who cooks? Do you cook? How many times a week do you cook? What type of meals are… Do you have family gatherings? How often do you entertain? How do you… What’s your vision for the house? What are your frustrations?” So I’m gonna be peppering you with lots and lots of questions. Again, the goal is information dump this way.

I wanna hear until I feel like I know these folks, and I can feel their pain, I can understand. And long before I’m gonna say, “Oh, here’s a great cabinet,” or “here’s the counter you want,” I really wanna hear from them and understand lifestyle because this is what it’s about. It’s about transforming their lifestyle, and that’s what we’re doing first.

So we have to know, what are the pain points, what are the struggles, what’s the vision, the desire, what it’s gonna be. Is mom coming to live over and she need, needs a space, a second sink? Let me understand that so then if I understand the situation, the prescription can follow.

Bella: Correct. I love how you personally take the time to start with the person, not just the project.

Michael Watts: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely… and I let them direct the conversation too because they, by them speaking, if they’re speaking about function and function and function, or if they’re speaking about color or aesthetics, then I know that is the priority. Rather than forcing them down a rigid checklist, I’d rather let them define the priority so I can read them well.

Bella: Perfect. That’s awesome. And speaking of early steps, one of the biggest concerns on every homeowner’s mind from day one is budget. So what does a realistic kitchen remodel budget actually look like these days?

Michael Watts: Yeah, and I’m gonna talk through… I’ll give you a long answer, and I often do that, give a long answer to a short question.

Um, first I wanna talk about the model that clients would decide to use for their renovation. I have four basic models that I kinda recognize as far as how someone can do a rec- a renovation. One would be they… A DIY. They can do it themselves. Second is they can… And I’ll explain each one. The second is they could be a general contractor.

Third is they could go with a small contractor. Fourth is a concierge contractor. Each one has its own benefits, and each one also has some drawbacks. So- A DIY budget’s gonna be very different from a concierge. So DIY is wonderful. You do all the work, you save a fortune. You get your hands dirty, and you love what you’re doing.

The downside is it is extremely time-consuming. The downside also is, is it high risk? Do you really know how to install cabinets, counters, plumbing, that sort of thing? So the next is general contracting. Well, look, I’m a professional. I can hire the, I can hire the plumber, the electrician, the drywall guy, the cabinet installer.

I’ll buy the cabinets, and I’ll get the painter, and I’ll get the tile guy, and I’ll get the flooring guy, and I’ll get all those guys, and I’ll be the puppet master and do that. The s- the benefit to that is, man, you’re buying at wholesale cost. You’re not doing the work yourself, but you’re buying at wholesale cost.

The downside is that is a full-time job. That is a lot of coordination, calling this one, calling that one. Well, this one can’t make it and so now I gotta back things up, or they said this isn’t the right material. So it puts a lot of risk and pressure on you. But that budget’s gonna be a little bit more than a DIY but still a lot less than a concierge or another.

The next thing is you can get a small contractor. You know, Bill’s Contracting, a small guy, he works out of his dining room. The advantage of Bill is he’s doing the work. You’re not doing the work. He’s doing it. He’s managing. He’s got an electrician buddy. The downside of that model is that it’s hard to find those guys, and their scope, their expertise is very limited typically.

They’re bathroom Bill, deck Bill, kitchen Bill, and they need a lot more direction. But again, he’s gonna be, he’s gonna be a reasonable price. The last is the concierge. The concierge is one-stop shop. This is the interior designers, the CAD designers, the whole team of every- It’s like being on your own HGTV show.

It is fun, the drama really low, the risk really low, the friction really low. It’s very pleasant. And so that i- and the downside of that is, though, is that it’s the most expensive model of all these. And I tell people, “This is who we are. I can’t unbuild the showroom, can’t fire the staff.” So I’m… And we’re really good at that, but that’s where we’re coming from, the concierge, which is that one-stop shop.

So when I give you those budgets, that, that’s kind of where they fall into. And I, I kinda thought through this with maybe four different renovations. One renovation, the simplest, and might be that you’re saying, “Well, look, the floor plan’s good. The cabinets are just old and tired, and the counter’s chipped, and the faucet doesn’t work that well.

But we really like it, and we’re only gonna stay here two years.” So maybe it doesn’t make sense to invest $300,000 into this, but maybe it makes sense to give it a freshen up. So what we could do is we could paint the cabinets and give it a real fresh look. Now, that’s a specialized paint and prop- and then we put a new counter and a backsplash, new faucet, and, may- maybe we do a floor, maybe we don’t, but we freshen the place up.

And so that’s a minor facelift. We haven’t changed the internal parts of that, but we’ve given… We’ve made it look better. We’ve increased the value of the house. Something like that might be 25, $35,000. The next step up is, well, we’re not gonna do that because the cabinets themselves don’t work that well and the internal compartments aren’t that great, and my wife has to crawl into the corner and I have to pull her le- out by the feet to get her out from back there ’cause the storage is so bad.

So I might wanna improve that, and in that scenario, I’m gonna take it all out, what we call a pull and replace. We’re gonna keep the same footprint, maybe it’s an L shape with a peninsula, and it has some wall cabinets as well, uh, and we’re gonna do a pull and replace. We’ll do the floor, we’ll do new cabinets, and the nice thing about that is the internal components.

We’ll get spice racks and lazy Susans and super Susans and all different kinds of interior components, roll-out trays that are gonna make this so much nicer. The lighting’s gonna be improved. And so something like that, and it’s dependent upon the size of the kitchen, but something like that might be in the $50,000, and I hate to be so high as 100, but from a range, I know that’s a wide range, but it also depends how big the kitchen is.

But we’re just trying to give you blocks of information. You know, does it cost 1,000 or does it cost 500,000? So we’re trying to block it out. So that kitchen might be in that 50 to 100,000. The next is, well, we really wanna improve the footprint because the footprint doesn’t make sense, and we might wanna knock a wall out, or maybe the window isn’t in a great place, and if we…

or there’s a big wide door, and if we took that and made that a single door, we could get more cabinets there. And so it’s more involved in the bulkhead. We wanna take the bulkhead out and build the cabinets to the ceiling. Then we’re going to get into more work and more ancillary work, but we’re gonna really dramatically improve the functionality, beauty, and space of the kitchen.

So something like that might be in the 120 to $140,000 range, something like that, in a generally average-sized kitchen. Then a lot of what we’re doing these days is the entire first floor renovation. It’s kinda like pulling a thread on a sweater, and it just kinda keeps going because, well, if we’re gonna do this, wouldn’t it make sense to do that?

And so what happens is we might knock out a wall between the dining room and the kitchen and maybe move the kitchen into that and extend it really long and open it to the family room. And while we’re there, we might renovate the whole floor, replace the stair railing, or redo the powder room.

That model that I just said is so often what we’re facing. That’s not a unique thing. And something like that, and I have to be, because it’s based upon the size of the house and how complex, I mean, that’s a 200,000, $300,000 range. I, I know, Bella, that these ranges are a little wide, but we’re very theoretical at this point.

I am speaking about from a one-stop concierge experience where we’re doing everything and you’re going to work and living your lives. Yeah, I know those budgets are, we’ve given you wide ranges, but it’s really dependent on the size and the amenities and the complexities of each particular project. But at least we have some kind of point of reference.

Bella: Yes, an idea, and there is a specific range for each type of project. And of course it’s not the same, because one project is a big one, and the others, maybe it’s a, like, small adjustment or a, like, a refresh to the kitchen, so I definitely get it, and it was so helpful.

And I am a big fan of those first floor renovations, by the way. They look so good, and you have one big open space at the end of the project, and it’s wonderful.

Michael Watts: Yeah, and that’s one thing, I’ve even had clients answer their own objections because they’re asking themselves honestly, if you’re in a $700,000 house, $600,000 house and you spend 2 to 300,000, is this really, does it really make sense?

And they, and then they talk to themselves, and the reasons they give me are, “We love, love, love our neighborhood. It’s a cul-de-sac. We love our school system. Our kids are close by.” They’re giving me a list of reasons why, and when we started looking, it was, we didn’t feel as good about what we had, and we thought if we could just transform this and put an exclamation point on it, this would be fantastic for the next 15 years.

And that’s why they’re making those major decisions on that whole first floor. Yeah, so a lot of people are doing that.

Bella: Yes. It’s an investment to, the joy of, for the rest of your life. You will enjoy that kitchen, that dining area, that living room. It’s wonderful. And thank you so much again for your answer.

Michael Watts: Sure.

Bella: And regarding the next question, once a project is actually underway, where does the money really go, and what usually surprises homeowners the most?

Michael Watts: Yeah, so as far as the, where does the money go, there’s the big three. The big three are labor, kitchen cabinets, and countertops. Those are the biggest three expenses.

The other thing being what we talked about earlier was the construction model that you choose, whether DIY, general contractor, small contractor, or concierge. So that affects certainly the budget range. But the big three as far as components, labor is always a big thing, cabinets are always a big thing, and countertops.

So if we’re wanting to attack budget, if we’re saying, “Ugh, the budget’s just, ugh, it’s just a little bit too much,” well, maybe we move from a custom cabinet to a semi-custom cabinet, or from a semi-custom cabinet to a stock cabinet, and we get 85% of what we want, and we get a lower budget point. So those three are what we want to attack. As far as what surprises the homeowners the most. Now, here’s where from a design build standpoint, and I’m answering this from how we do it at Bel Air Construction.

And so, we’re gonna be really heavy on planning and investigation, and the reason we’re gonna do that is so that we don’t have surprises. When you go, when you watch TV and they’ve got this box in the ceiling and then they’re surprised that there’s a piece of ductwork there, that’s a lot of theater.

But we also don’t want to have that happen in the middle of your renovation when we’re planning on o- putting a doorway and there’s a big pipe going through that. We shouldn’t be surprised. So number one, when you’re talking about design build and renovations like that, it does require somebody who really knows construction.

So that’s gonna be a very important thing to tamp down the likelihood of a surprise. What we try for are very small surprises. So number one, when we look at a wall, we know whether there’s a likelihood of a duct going through there or a pipe going through there, and then we’re gonna investigate further.

We have tools. The old way is what you used to do is you’d have the person go upstairs, flush the toilet, and you put your ear to the wall and try to, “Oh, there’s the pipe.” But nowadays we have enhanced stud finders. There’s a product called WALLABOT, and you can actually use that on the wall, move it acro- oh, there’s a pipe.

There’s a duct. Oh. There’s a wire. And so then you shouldn’t be surprised with that. And then the third thing is, as we design further, before we order the cabinets, we do recommend that in the question areas, we might wanna cut a small hole in a bulkhead or cut a small hole in a wall just to make sure that we can move the pipe and so forth.

So we really shouldn’t have surprises. But what the surprise that I do see, we shouldn’t have negative surprises is what I’m saying. The surprise that we do see is the transformation. People are blown away. Even though they’ve seen it on the 3D, they’re like, “I can’t…” They have said this, “I can’t believe I live here.

I just, I come down the stairs, Michael, and in the morning I say, ‘I can’t believe I live here. I can’t believe we have that much space.’ We had 40 people over, and we had a great time last Sunday, and it was really wonderful.” And so the transformation often surprises people. They look at the 3D and they say, “This is even better than the 3D.”

So that’s the surprise we’re aiming for, and we shouldn’t be seeing negative surprises unless we’re not doing our job, and we’re not gonna do that.

Bella: That’s beautiful, because normally there are, especially when it’s an older home, you expect some negative surprises, like behind the walls, plumbing.

How are the pipes doing? You don’t know, because it’s behind the walls. But that technology is awesome, and those beautiful surprises and the reactions from homeowners are, it’s priceless. Yeah. It really is. It’s truly priceless.

Michael Watts: It truly is, yeah.

Bella: Yes. Yes. Okay, and I want to ask you this: How long does a full kitchen remodel really take from start to finish?

Michael Watts: So let’s go back to the four projects we were talking about. We were talking about painting cabinets, new counter, backsplash, maybe a light or two or something like that. Now, something like that is several weeks. Now when we get into the other projects, we talk about planning, permits, and procurement.

And so what that means is it is gonna take longer. I know most of the time people ask that question, they want to know, once we start that first day, how long is it gonna take? But… And I answer all that, but then we also are gonna answer on the front end, how long does the planning, and the permits and the drawing and the ordering of the cabinets, we’re going to talk about that as well.

The painting one is the one that can happen relatively quickly. The other one is where we go and we’re gonna do a pull and replace. Now, then we do still have some planning, so we’ve got to have our interior designer. And so I’m gonna, again, give a long answer to a short question. I’m going to describe the front process.

So the front process is the planning process. Somebody comes to the showroom, we talk about it, we go, we measure, we photograph, we give them an approximate budget. If that makes sense, then the interior designer works with them, the CAD designer works with them. They’re creating 3D drawings. We’re making all those selections, and then we’re getting an exact price.

Now, that takes about a month and a half by the time for several meetings to occur and then confirming everything. Did we measure everything right? We’re going to make sure, measure twice, cut once was the old carpenters, they used to say. And so we’re going to measure twice and cut once. We’re gonna… And so that’s another two weeks or so.

So two months have gone by and we haven’t started, and then we’ve got to order cabinets. Now, cabinets and counters or special tile could take anywhere from three weeks to 10 weeks. And so let’s just round it off to another two months. So four months have gone by be- now we’re not tearing up the house, but four months have gone by before we’re really even ready and have everything in hand. Now the actual dur- now I’ll get to the duration of the other.

So a pull and replace is probably three weeks. Like four months, three or four months of preparation, but three or four weeks of installation. When we’re doing a more major renovation where we’re knocking some walls out and maybe moving windows, then we might be in that four to six-week range. Again, construction from start to finish.

But that planning has served us so well because we’re not wasting time in, in the actual doing when it is inconvenient, when we are tearing things up, make that time as short as possible. If we’re doing a whole first floor renovation where we’re taking everything out, all new flooring, new powder room, new stair rails, we’re gonna be over two months and maybe under three months.

So that’s the kind of range. If we do our planning right, then we can get by relatively expeditiously on, on those timeframes.

Bella: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Good to know. And again, it depends on every project, but it was a very detailed answer. And of course, it’s not a one-day, one-night thing. So, Yeah… there is planning stage, there is the, ordering cabinets, countertop stage, and there’s demolition and doing actually, like, um, building the kitchen, bathroom, first floor, stage. So it all makes sense.

Michael Watts: Mm-hmm.

Bella: Okay. And during all of this, construction renovation, families still need to live in their home. So what is it like for a family to live through a kitchen remodel, and how do you help them prepare?

Michael Watts: So I, I think you really hit the nail on the head with that word prepare.

That’s a key thing because we want them to be prepared. Number one, realize that your kitchen is out from day one until day last. You don’t… We can’t share the kitchen. We’re not gonna keep a sink going. If we do that, the time doubles or triples. So let, let’s make that process as quickly as possible.

So number one is you’ve got to have, we’ve got to have complete access to that. Number two, I recommend daily, and I’m gonna… I’m answering your question, but I’m answering a couple different things. Number two, have daily communication with the contractor. One of the… You, we can get through anything if we just know what’s happening.

If we know what happened yesterday, what’s happening today, what’s happening tomorrow. One of the things we do is we have an online schedule, and most people never believe it. They look at it, “You’re not gonna be done then.” And then they’ll see we hit this mark, we hit this mark, we hit this mark. All of a sudden they realize, “Hey, they are gonna be done on the 14th.

It’s not so bad. I only have three more weeks left.” Knowing when that is, is so powerful. So communicating, so that’s one thing. The other thing is since the kitchen is completely out, I say, “Hey, look, got a lot of new restaurants springing up. Go check them out. You know, go check them out. You’ll get DoorDashed, you can have them come in.”

So realize that you’re not gonna be able to cook. Have a, put the refrigerator in another part of the home, put a little card table with some Tupperware, some snack stuff, and then a microwave there or toaster oven or something like that where you can make quick meals. It’s kind of like camping, but it’s only for a short while.

So that’s one thing. Make prepared meals. Have things that are frozen up. Plan on grilling more. So those are some of the things that you can do to endure and enjoy that time that you’re, as much as possible. And I also say, “Look, watch it. Enjoy it. You get a front row seat to your own HGTV show.

What did the guys do? Why’d they do that? Oh, that’s cool. Oh, I remember they put that in. Now I see why they put that in.” And enjoy that. So some of it’s just frame of mind. How you can help your contractor. Number one, make decisions early. Good contractors don’t start projects until all the decisions are made and all the materials are in hand.

So that’s what we do. So you can help by that, by moving things quickly. Relinquish the space completely. Get your stuff out, everything out, so that we have complete access. We don’t wanna compete for space. Um, leave our dust curtains up. I know you don’t like looking at plastic, but it keeps the dust from going in the rest of your house.

Uh, move things out of the way so that when we go down to the electrical panel or the plumbing shutoff, we don’t have to climb over all kinds of storage items. Um, so, those are some things that clients can do to enjoy the process, endure the process, make the process go quicker.

Bella: Perfect. So we can say communication is the key, right?

Michael Watts: Absolutely. Communication is it.

Bella: Yes. Okay. Now, I would love to move into design because this is where it gets really fun. Kitchen trends change so fast, so how do you help homeowners pick choices they will still love 15 years from now?

Michael Watts: Well, one thing I would say is that good, and I’ve always said this, good design transcends time.

And so, good design is a function of a couple things. It’s space planning, and it’s aesthetics. It’s what material you use. And we lean strongly on our interior designers. Now, both our interior designers are women, so I’ll be using she. But of course, there’s men interior designers as well. But anyway, when I talk with the designers, I tell them, “Go meet Mrs. Jones.” And, and they have four goals when they go meet Mrs. Jones. They’re to make it beautiful. They’re to make it all go together. ‘Cause a lot of times people say, “Oh, I love this counter, but I don’t know if this paint goes with it, or this floor, or what…” And so they’re all supposed to make it go together.

And a good interior designer understands it’s not only that the colors work together, you have a balance of drama and visual texture. You also… so that’s what we’re, they’re looking at. Number three, their job is to make it yours. So make it beautiful, make it go together, make it yours. This is not our house.

This is not our statement. This is not what we think. This is yours. I never have cared for the kitchen designers who say, “You don’t know what you want. I know what you want.” That’s not, that’s not me. We, that’s not how we think. It’s like, I wanna find out who you are and what you are, and I wanna help you get there.

So make it yours. And the fourth is, make it easy. So we lean heavily on the interior designers, and they, that, that’s the first foundation block of that. And, and- So how do you know a good interior designer? Number one, that’s their entire job. That’s all they do is interior design. There is so much that goes into that.

People look at these beautiful kitchens and they think, “Oh, I could pick…” No, you can’t pick that out. You’ll pick stuff and it’ll clash, and you won’t know why. They can tell you the science of color and the emotion of color, and again, texture and balance. They know and they live these trends. We don’t realize, but construction is influenced by fashion.

I was talking to one of our interior designers a few years ago, and she was saying, um, “We’re gonna start to see a lot more golds now.” And it was before the, before we started seeing the golds and the brass. And I said, “How do you know that?” And she said, “Well, the trends in jewelry are that way.” And I… The trends in jewelry.

So fashion is, of course, that’s so pervasive in everything we see and do, and that is then going down the pathway to ultimately what influences the knobs, the hardware, the finishes. ‘Cause all these manufacturers wanna sell their product, and they wanna find out what people want, so they’re all very dialed in.

And with the internet, that makes us so connected. So the interior designer lives this, whereas- You may have a good sense of color, but it’s really hard to beat them. So that’s one of the things I would say. The other thing I would make a comment on, I was in a home, uh, last month, and the client we- is looking for some more renovations.

We did a renovation for them 18 years ago. They said, “Michael…” And now they’re older. Their lifestyles have changed a little bit. They said, “We designed this 18 years ago, and we fell in love with it then, and 18 years later, there is not a single thing we would change.” They said, “Not one.”

And so good design transcends time. I mean, that’s gone on two decades, and good designers will help you get that, number one, from the materials. The second thing that’s really key and helps invite people into this is the CAD design. And so CAD helps… W- we like inviting clients into the design team process.

We’re experts, and we have some really sharp people, but you live in your house, and you’re an expert. And so inviting them into that process, letting them be in- letting them be interactive with that to look at option A on the des- on the screen and then option B and say, “Well, I really like option A, but option B’s island was really cool.

Can we do, can we put them together?” And all of a sudden, the client is having a way in that. But also then they’re guided by experts. So, so that’s one of the things that, how good design, good designers and good CAD designers can help transcend that time so that you don’t pick things that are trendy and are gonna be out in four years.

Bella: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Maybe current trends, et cetera, may help, but knowing yourself and being there for your own project and with the experts’ help, like working together for your own project, because it should also reflect you. It should feel like you.

So having an expert to help you over there and being included in that stage is really awesome.

Michael Watts: Yeah. Yeah, and we’re experts. We’re gonna guide, and we’re gonna tell them trends. But then they’re gonna, they’re gonna say, “Well, I kinda like that way,” and then we’re gonna help them fulfill that.

So it’s a combination of both.

Bella: Correct. You know? Yes, correct.

Michael Watts: We could spend a whole video on some of the trends. But to answer the question, that would be two things I would say are really important, using a good interior designer, using CAD design, integrating them in. They’ll keep you, you, they’ll help you make a good, classic, timeless decision.

Bella: Mm-hmm. Who knows? Maybe we can discuss trends in another podcast session, huh?

Michael Watts: I think it would really be helpful to- for what is hot and what’s not. Yeah.

Bella: Uh-huh. Uh, 

Michael Watts: And it’s a whole thing by itself. So yeah, let’s, let’s plan on doing that again. I, I would like that, yeah.

Bella: Okay. Yeah. Perfect. Okay. And design sometimes goes beyond just style, and when does it actually make sense to take down a wall or change a kitchen’s layout? And is there a project you can share where this kind of change really transformed a home?

Michael Watts: Yes. I think of a couple that we just recently finished, and she said, “Children are little. I love this home. I love this home. There’s… But there’s three things I hate, and this is a make it or break it decision.

There’s a… The three things, I’ve got a separate dining room, a separate kitchen, and a step-down family room. And I’m all compartmentalized, and it just doesn’t work.” And she said, “To me, this is a make it or break it, or a love it or list it.” And so the question of whether to take the wall down, with her, it almost, it…

We gotta do two things. We gotta take the wall down, we gotta build the step-down family room up. And all of a sudden, what happened, we got this great big area instead of three chunks that were unworkable, undesirable, not comfortable. You always felt like you were on edge. Watch where you’re stepping or else you’re gonna fall down.

Um, you have guests that back off of that. And now, all of a sudden, it’s one, it’s one layer. So here’s the thing, uh, Bella. More space equals more design opportunities. So as long as the budget will support it, I think it’s always worth looking at. And we looked at one recently where the client said, “All right. We’re gonna do something. Option A is keep the floor and renovate the kitchen. Option B is new floor and powder room and renovate the kitchen. Option C is tear out the wall, do the whole first floor.” And we gave them different options, and they saw the three different options.

What they looked, what they got, and also, what it cost. And so they determined the value. And often, when people do that, they actually pick the more expensive model because they see, they feel comfortable. I know what I’m getting, and I knew I was gonna get a lot, but this is incredible. So knocking down walls are always worth looking at.

I have a lot of times people will say, “Well, I don’t know if I can… I wish I could, I wish I had an entrance in there.” Okay. We can put one there. You can? We don’t look at that as limitations. Yesterday, I mean, literally yesterday, they went way down in the basement and they said, “Gosh, we got a window there.

I so much wish we could put a, wish we’d have put a door there. Wish we could put one there.” And you can. No. So we don’t see those as obstacles. So number one, you wanna ask somebody, “Hey, can that wall be moved? And if it would, what kind of things would happen? What would it do for me? Would it be beneficial?”

And I think that entering into that discussion can be really powerful. It gives you options. Options put you in the driver’s seat. You say, “Hey, budget’s more important and let’s stay with the renovation,” or, “Functionality, we’re gonna be here for 15 years, and I’ll stay in this house. This will be it for me if I can get this big area.”

And- People just get a huge smile when they see what taking that wall out can be. So it’s always worth asking, let’s ask the question. I wish the window was over there. Okay, let’s talk about it. What would we gain if the window was over there? The windows were the tr- triple sliding glass doors down to a single door and we gained extra cabinets.

So, so the point is more space equals more design opportunities.

Bella: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So great. I can picture it as you describe it. Awesome. Well, there are so many choices to make. Where should homeowners spend a little more and, uh, where can they save without regretting it later?

Michael Watts: Yeah, so the two places that I’m gonna say spend money, regardless of which model, is on good design and good CAD design.

E- e- even that is one thing that I will not… we have, on our website, we have some stunning pictures, and we have some stock cabinets that are not, you know, premier custom-made cabinets, but the kitchens look amazing. And it’s because we did great design, great colors. So the point is, is that sometimes you can go with a lesser costing item, like a stock cabinet.

It’s a good quality cabinet, but it’s only available in these colors and these styles, which makes it l- cost less, instead of a custom-made. But that’s an example of where we can save money, but good- don’t save money on design. Save money, save… Get good design, get the beautiful kitchen. And so sometimes you can save, you can…

you look at cabinets and you have a frank discussion with the contractor. If I can save in labor, cabinets, and countertop, those are the big three. But maybe different kinds of floors. Luxury vinyl is very popular and very tough and great. Your, all your new homes have whole first floors luxury vinyl, ’cause you can spill water on it, you can rollerblade on it, and it’s a great product.

Instead of hard tile or hardwood floors, uh, so, or, or, you know, expensive carpet. So sometimes just s- in some of the material selections, don’t skimp on design, but sometimes in the material selections, we can go to a stock, good quality, more available product. Some counters are more available and cost less than others.

And we put red dots on some of these countertops in our office so that people can say, “Oh, they use a lot of those.” So they know that’s not a, in a real expensive countertop. So, so stock items are probably key and one way that you can save money, but don’t save money on design.

Bella: Okay. Noted. Such valuable advice, and I’m sure many listeners just made a mental note on this one already. And 10th question. Something I hear from homeowners very often is how nervous they feel about picking the right contractor. What questions should every homeowner ask before signing a contract?

Michael Watts: Yeah, Bella, this is so important. I am surprised by the amount of people that have that, uh, trepidation. Uh, you know, “I’m just nervous. This is a big deal. What if it goes wrong?” And so any tool that we can give them, and I’m just gonna give you some high points, and we probably could do one on this as well.

But number one, how long have they been in business? Um, the more complex and larger a project is, the more that I’m gonna give weight to that. If I’m building a shed in the background, in the backyard, then maybe I’ll have, uh, the new kid on the block do that. So how long have they been in business?

Um, do they have an office or showroom? Or are they working out of their dining room? Again, if they’re building a shed, I don’t care as much, but if they’re doing a complex 200, $300,000 addition, I’m not really comfortable if they’re working out of their dining room. So what i- what is their op- I mean, what, do they have a physical location?

Third, and this is really important, can you show me projects that are similar to yours? Even if you’re working with a Bill’s Contracting, Bill might not have a website, but he has his phone and he can say, “Here are some pictures of jobs.” Similar jobs. I wanna know that you’ve run into the problems.

I wanna know that you know the answers to the problems that we’re gonna run into. So have they done similar projects? Are they licensed? One of my pastors at church got a guy to do a deck. I wish he’d have talked to me. He got the guy, he wasn’t licensed, and the guy skipped off with the deck about halfway done.

Uh, he doesn’t, you know, all his money is gone, and for some reason all these guys seem to move to Florida. Anyway, this guy moves to Florida and so my pastor is left, and then he has to spend money twice, and that’s just a shame. So are they licensed? Are they insured? And insured is two parts. This is really, really, really, really critical.

General liability. Let’s say they drop a cabinet on your car, on your Lexus. Are they gonna, you know, who pays for that? Well, they do if they have general liability. More importantly is workers’ compensation. You think, “Well, this is not a high rise and they’re not gonna get, workers aren’t gonna get hurt.” You can throw your back out if you sneeze.

So, it’s not hard to imagine a situation in which somebody twists an ankle or some- And so who pays for the hospital bills? Suppose they’re off work a, a year. Who pays for that? Well, workers’ compensation, unless they don’t have workers’ compensation, and then they come after your insurance.

And if your insurance isn’t enough, you lose your house, and that’s literally what has happened to some really sad and unfortunate people. So do they… And just show me your insurance. Do they get permits?

Bella: Mm-hmm.

Michael Watts: Good contractors aren’t afraid of permits. The job gets inspected, they look at the electrical, they look at the gas, they look at the plumbing, they look at the HVAC, they look at the structure, and they look at it multiple times, and it protects you.

Um, what’s their planning process? There’s a lot of moving parts. Guys, tell me, how do you plan? So you’re asking these questions, what’s their planning process? What’s your communication process? This is one of the biggest complaints I hear. People will say, “I got this contractor and then he, uh, he won’t return my calls.

I’m texting him, I’m calling him, I’m trying to get ahold of him and, and there’s no communication.” So what is your communication process? Explain that to me. Explain it to me in the design process, explain it to me once the work is, uh, going on. How does this work? Um, how do you guys ensure that my job is gonna be on time and on budget?

And when I ask somebody these questions, all these questions, I’m looking for very specific answers. If somebody does a lot of hemming and hawing, well, then maybe they’re not your guy. Um, if on the other hand, they have very specific answers, “Here’s what we do. We have an online schedule. We show it to you.

Uh, we confirm this. You know, we do all this,” and so forth. Um, the last thing is, how are you gonna protect my house? You’re coming in here with great big strong guys and big tool belts and carrying heavy stuff. How are you not gonna scratch up my floors? How are you not gonna get dust all through the house?

‘Cause that’s a complaint that this industry sadly deserves that hearing, ’cause we’ve done it for years. How are you gonna do that? So these are the questions I’m gonna ask people to make sure that I get really, really strong answers. You ask somebody those six or eight questions and get their answers, all of a sudden your good contractor’s gonna rise to the top on that.

Bella: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Great questions and perfect tips because you are in the business for so, so many years, plus 45 years, homeowners don’t know these. And because you’re an expert you can give these tips. But it’s, it’s, if you’re remodeling your kitchen, it’s not one to 5K project. It’s a big investment, so choosing the contractor carefully is, can we say it’s the most important thing?

Because it’s a huge investment, so every homeowner should be very careful, and they should ask questions, like, as you mentioned.

Michael Watts: Sure. And this assumes that you’ve gone through their website and Google reviews and that sort of thing. But it’s easy- Of course… to make a website, and it’s easy to even fake Google reviews.

So, so if I ask them these questions, I’m gonna find out who really knows what they’re talking about.

Bella: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Even with a great team in place, sometimes surprises still happen. Once demolition starts, what are the most common surprises behind the walls, and is there a story you still remember from over the years?

Michael Watts: Yeah. So one thing, the one thing that has been a surprise, we don’t run into too many surprises as far as… The, I guess I would say, the older the house, the more you expect and the more you look. Yeah. The houses 1980 and earlier, we’re not running into unique wiring. We’re seeing a lot of the current codes have improved, but not, not drastically.

So we’re not finding a lot of rotten wood and termites and things like that. So, so anyway, the one thing I would say that we run into are two codes that have come in, being, recently come into play and are being enforced by the counties and the city, and that is the smoke detector. We’re renovating a kitchen and getting a permit, and then the inspector, and this has been a couple of years ago, says, “Well, your current smoke detectors aren’t up to grade and you gotta bring the whole house up to grade, up to code.”

And so that was a little bit of a surprise. Now, we’re prepared for that now. We put an allowance in, but that had nothing to do with the kitchen, but the fact that what was upstairs did not meet the current code. So that’s, that’s one of the things that we run into that was a surprise.

But again, if you’re doing your planning, those are the kind of surprises you should encounter. We can… I’m not as much afraid of what’s behind the walls as I am what the county’s gonna start enforcing, a new code or something like that. So that’s been where we’ve seen some of the surprises.

Bella: So as Bel Air Construction, you are ready for the negative surprises, and they are not surprises for you.

Michael Watts: Yeah. And I think our strength is in construction. We started in construction, and then became, 20 years ago, we built a kitchen showroom, and so we’re doing obviously a lot of kitchens.

But we’ve always been in construction, and so we’ve known that, and our whole team has. So that’s our strong point. That’s our forte as far as the construction. Many k- many kitchen bath firms aren’t… that’s a weak part of theirs. That’s actually a strong part of ours, so.

Bella: Good. Great. Okay. For my last question, I want to look at the long view. For homeowners planning long-term, what kind of kitchen remodel actually grows a home’s value?

Michael Watts: And that’s, that’s a really important question. And when we invest money into our home, we wanna know that we’re gonna get it back.

So we’re gonna wanna go with timeless design. And again, I’m gonna go back to the interior designer who knows this stuff. Um, I mean, you can go online and do research, but you’re gonna get conflicting research. If you go to Reddit and then go to Houzz or Pinterest, it’s gonna be all over the place.

And so an interior designer, because designs are, design trends are also local. What happens in San Francisco is very different than what happens in Hartford County from a design perspective. They’re probably 10 years ahead of what our, you know, our designs may look like there. Or Manhattan, our designs are gonna look like theirs maybe in 10 years.

But we’re seeing more transitional design, as an example. So that’s a mainstream. So we’re looking at mainstream trends. What are the mainstream trends for my area? Transitional kitchen design, which means not really, just simply defined, not overly ornate with corbels and heavy crown moldings and a lot of detail, versus ultra-modern, where it’s very sharp, sleek lines.

Transitional is kind of in between. You know, a shaker style cabinet or a thin shaker style or a simple kitchen design, cabinet. So, so classic, timeless design. We’re gonna want to talk to the designer about that. We’re gonna want to have good focal points, meaning that when I look at the range, it might be out of balance now, but when I look at a range, I might wanna see a beautiful hood, but I wanna see some balance on the right and on the left of that.

So I wanna see good focal points, whether it’s the island, which has pendant lights over top of it or just any axis that’s gonna give me a sight line. I want that to be balanced and inviting and beautiful, because it will be balanced, inviting, and beautiful in 18 years. So I wanna do that. I wanna make sure the footprint makes a lot of sense.

So again, I’m coming, I keep coming back to the importance of design, both in functionality layout, but then also aesthetics. The footprint, if you have an island, that works great, and we have a huge island in our house and we have a lot of parties and we enjoy that. And it’s 17, 18, 19 years old, and it is just as great as the day we put it in, and because it’s the good functionality and it serves our lifestyle.

So you’re gonna, those are what you’re gonna, again, keep coming back, Bella, to the importance of design, because that is really gonna transcend time, and it’s gonna make your investment truly pay you back, rather than just a facelift, which is good for a couple years because they use cheap materials or something really trendy.

Bella: That’s such a powerful way to look at it. And like you mentioned, a good remodel really is an investment to your home and in your daily life at the same time. Perfect. Michael, this has been such a wonderful conversation. Before we wrap up, is there anything you would like to add that we haven’t covered today?

Michael Watts: Well, there’s a lot more that we can continue to talk about, and I think we wanna talk about that as we go on further. But I think we covered a lot of really important questions, and we talked about value and long-term value. And that’s what, when you do a kitchen right, and you do any kind of renovation right, you do enjoy it, like you said.

You enjoy it every single day. And then all of a sudden as your house goes up in value, your kitchen goes up in value, and you get your money back, and so you get to use it for 10 years and get your money back when you sell it. It’s like, that’s a good plan.

Bella: That’s right. Yes. Yes, that’s, that’s so right.

And thank you so much, Michael, again. Your experience really shines in every answer, and it is so clear how much you personally care about every single project and every family you serve. I’m sure anyone listening today walked away with so much clarity about what a kitchen remodel can really look like from the very first idea all the way to the finished space.

For anyone watching or listening, if you would like to learn more about Michael and Bel Air Construction or see some of the beautiful projects they have created over the years, you can find their website link in the description below. Thank you again, and we will see you in the next episode. Until then, take care.

Michael Watts: Thanks, Bella. You take care.