I started reading the New York Times’ blog, Dream Home Diaries, late final spring.

Let me say that I truly wish Alison and Paul, the homeowners who built a home in Anna Maria Island, Florida, the very best. I hope they love their kitchen, that it works well for them, and I wish them all good things in connection with their home.

I’ve been a regular on the Dream Home Diaries blog on posts that had to do with the kitchen. My motivation was to help out Alison and Paul, who asked for help, admitting to being totally clueless to building a home, as well as educating the public at large. Many of us helped out. What a great resource of knowledge (and smart alek-y and snarky comments) they had before them. Man, that blog is so entertaining, I’ll be sorry when it’s gone.

I found myself feeling fairly annoyed at times at the authors’ total lack of response to my and others’ advice. Advice on fundamentals! Let me give you an example. Alison wrote that John, their builder, recommended that the kitchen not be designed until the plywood was down in the kitchen and next one could mark it up to feel the space.

I’ve never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life from a builder. And, at that moment, the builder will be screaming for rough ins of electric and plumbing. I, and others, oh what’s the word, valiantly campaigned to the authors to get a kitchen designer NOW…and I offered what to look for and how to do it.

Unbeknownst to anyone else, I offered

my own services way back (not free) considering I was so concerned that the kitchen plan was simply not being attended to…and it really bothered me. I wrote and said I would not wish to be known in the blog as the designer, but I’m here if they needed me to step in (before they got a designer.) It was a brief, but honest, offer, which was met with no response and was not published. I have so many complaints about the way things were done by the authors, I won’t even bore you with it, I promise.

The bottom line is that, given the amount of money they spent on their kitchen ($60,000?) I feel it was wasteful, very much so, to not have hired a kitchen designer early on, to have the luxury of duration to plan their “dream home” kitchen. whether you take a look, you’ll manufacture out me whining, cajoling, nearly pleading at times to pay attention to that or that. It’s really funny how into their kitchen process, or lack thereof, that I got!

Also, one thing to remember is, what looks shiney and new doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good in fundamental ways. But, it’s their kitchen and they are the ones to be happy with it, no one else. But, they could have known so much more along the way….

This blog gave a lot of us lots of raw emotions from duration to instance. I additionally laughed, got impatient, angry, and always hoped for the best. Take a look before it’s gone…

Original post by Susan Serra, CKD