Carmike Kitchens

I am not going to go into the level of detail that I did on my kitchen review. I will just say that Carol is really wonderful to work with. I like to exert a lot of very real direction on my remodeling projects. She is receptive to that kind of interaction. For me, the most important part of the bathroom design was the shower. I had seen glass block showers that I wanted to use as the basis for my design. But the layout of my bathroom made it VERY difficult to implement. Carol came to my house and we mulled over this together for HOURS to come up with ideas that would work. I finally came up with a plan that we agreed would fit in the space available, not spay into the room, and give me the gorgeous glass block and mosaic tile that I wanted. There were several occasions when Carol came over and spent over an hour with me, walking the space, bandying about different ideas. She and Mike spent an entire day installing the glass block walls we'd had made in Baltimore. It was much more challenging than they had anticipated. I may come back to this review and add more detailed description. For now, I just want to upload the before and after pictures. I think they speak for themselves. I love my new bathroom. People are just agog when they walk into it. I love working with Carol. Every project has its bumps but Carol deals with all of them very professionally. All I can say is that, when you work with Carol, you will end up with the room you dreamed of.

This review is very overdue. The good thing about being so tardy is that is that I can state with confidence that I'm VERY happy with the results. We had a remodel of our kitchen, powder room and flooring that included our hallway and laundry room. We interviewed a number of kitchen/bath contractors. All of them produced estimates with total costs that were within about 10 - 15%, so we went with the contractor I felt the best rapport with. We contacted several of Carmike Kitchens' references and I went to see two of them. I was particularly glad that I went to see the second reference's kitchen, because I made some design changes after seeing details that I really liked. At the time we did our kitchen, the economy was particularly bad and Mike was doing most of the installation work himself. This is probably no longer the case, as he was just starting to and quot;retireand quot; from the kitchen installation business and start to do perhaps less physically demanding and quot;handymanand quot; work. Carol was doing all the design work herself. At this point, hopefully the economy has picked up that they have enough work that they need additional staff to handle some of the volume. I would describe myself as pretty much a control freak and Carol was GREAT to work with for someone like me. She gave me wonderful guidance and structure but I made every selection. In cases where I wanted to work with another subcontractor than those she was used to dealing with, she was absolutely agreeable. I'll just try to describe the process we went through. Please excuse the writing if this becomes a bit rambly... At my first meeting, Carol helped me narrow down the cabinet profiles and colors that I liked. We also talked about what I wanted to keep and change about my existing kitchen layout so that she could put together the CAD designs of the cabinetry. Originally, I thought I wanted hardwood floors with the cabinets. Carol talked me out of this. Well, really, she made a comment that the Congoleum Duraceramic/cabinet combinations had more visual interest than wood on wood ... and then she presented me with various combinations of the cabinet doors I liked along with samples of Duraceramic and hardwood flooring. When I saw them together, I agreed that the Duraceramic/cabinet combinations looked better. I'd have to say this was the single most pivotal decision she helped me make with my kitchen. The combination that I chose drove all the other selections I made and the result is a gloriously inviting, warm colored, Tuscan looking kitchen. The first thing everyone mentions when they come into my kitchen is how much they love the colors. I love, love, LOVE my floor. I can't tell you how happy I am that I chose the Duraceramic. Carol was very easy to work with as I mucked around with changing various parts of the cabinetry design. When I went to see one of her references, I really liked the window valence that they'd installed to bridge the gap between the cabinets and added this to our design. I went around and about before I chose the molding for the top of cabinets. Carol lent me several samples and didn't complain when I kept them for about three weeks, trying to decide which I liked the best. At first I thought I wanted to economize on the backspash but, as the design started to come together, I realized I wanted something cool and eye-catching for the backsplash and that I wanted this to be a focal point of the room. I found a WONDERFUL deal with a company in Florida ( www.mosaicmosaic.com) that does custom mosaic work. They had a contract for a pool fall through after they made 150 feet of GORGEOUS trim and were selling it for $35/foot. Of course, they didn't have anything put together that would be suitable for the larger backsplace over the stove. Carol helped me structure a design to complement the running pattern. I did choose my own tile guy for installation. (J and D TILE and MARBLE, reviewed here.) The estimate for under/over cabinet LED lighting was astonishingly higher than I expected, so I trolled the internet and found a GREAT company where I was able to find flexible strip LED lighting. The ENTIRE under/over cabinet lighting cost was under $250. ( www.inspiredled.com ... I STRONGLY encourage you to check out this site if you want cabinet lighting. You will not find a more customer-oriented company anywhere!) With this lighting, I just needed Mike to drill holes between cabinets so we could run connector wires from one cabinet bottom to the next. They were very accommodating of this change. I bought a lot of my own materials and had them install them. [Toilet and faucets/sinks for kitchen and powder room from www.faucetsdirect.com; lights from www.lightingdirect.com; wine fridge ( www.compactappliance.com) and appliances ( www.ajmadison.com).] They did want me to order my cabinetry hardware from them or they would charge $1 per handle to install. I had something like 65 handles/knobs altogether, so I went with them for this. In the cabinetry design, Carol included some drawers where I'd intended to have cabinets. She said I'd love the drawers, but I was dubious. All I can say is, boy was she ever right! I have my pots and pans in those drawers and I'd never go back. I also got the slide out shelving for my cabinets, which I also love. As I recall, the whole installation process took about a month. I think we were absolutely without any kitchen facilities for about 2 weeks. Carol recommended using her subcontractors for electrical, plumbing and flooring. She recounted scheduling horror stories with other customers who'd gotten their own companies and then, when the time came to install flooring etc., the and quot;third partyand quot; companies fell through and the schedule slid to the right. This was the only area where we had any issue with the results in our installation. The flooring subcontractor was sloppy with the grout for the Duraceramic and we had to do some touch-up painting because grout ended up on the walls. The floor itself looks beautiful, though. The tiles are placed in perfect alignment, which I've read complaints about in other flooring reviews. When Artelye (granite contractor) came to measure, they raved and raved about how well Mike had installed our enamel/cast iron kitchen sink. The Artelye rep said he couldn't tell me how many times they'd had to insist that these heavy sinks be re-installed because they weren't aligned properly. He said ours was installed PERFECTLY and was very well supported. He also commented on how interesting the profile was that Carol had designed for the side of the countertop that would include the sink and dishwasher. He said most kitchen designers would just extend the profile right around the sink, whereas Carol had extended it to the two cabinets that surround the sink and that this would look far more interesting. (She accomplished this by including blocks between those two cabinets and the back wall.) Carol's electrician was very easy to work with. I absolutely didn't want any outlets to be cut into my gorgeous marble tile backsplash, so we decided to cut the outlets into the 4and quot; granite backsplash beneath it. I always had trouble reaching the switchplate to turn on the lights over my peninsula, so together we figured out the best solution was to keep that outlet and add another one by my sink. Now those lights can be turned on from two spots. We wanted an outlet INSIDE our peninsula so we could have cell phones/headsets sit in a drawer while they're charging, instead of on the countertop. Carol talked me out of decisions that could actually have made them money. We have never had a deck put on the back of our house. (Vacation/deck decision ALWAYS ends up in favor of the vacation!) So we had this hideous and quot;French door to nowhereand quot; with planks of wood across the outside. There was no way I was spending $50K on this remodel and then continuing to look out over these unsightly 2x4's across the patio doors that opened on nothing. We were considering replacing the French doors with a bay window. Carol convinced me that it would not be a good idea resale wise to eliminate a door to the back yard because a future buyer – especially one with small kids – might well want to install a deck for easy access to the back yard. So, instead of paying a few thousand dollars for a bay window, we have simply put up magnetic curtain rods and sheers over the glass doors. It looks lovely and some day prospective buyers won't have to think about knocking out a wall and re-installing the doors that used to be there. I could add more details but I'm running out of steam. I'll just say that I think Carol is a VERY good listener. My experience is that she will take your likes/dislikes/wants and put together a design that will reflect your personality and the way you like to live/work in your kitchen. I thought she was very easy to work with and that their costs were on par with other contractors we interviewed. I've had the kitchen for 1 1/2 years now and, having lived with it, I can say I'm happy with every one of her design recommendations and the quality of their workmanship. I'd recommend Carmike to anyone who is considering a kitchen/bath remodel. I want to add that, if you look at my reviews, it might seem I'm a pushover or something because all of my grades (so far) are and quot;A.and quot; Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm actually very much a Type A person. I want things the way I want them ... I want them to be done RIGHT. I've just done a lot of research before choosing contractors and have been happy with their work. So I'm adding this statement to my reviews to head off any misconceptions... Side note: I don't have the final contract/modifications in front of me. The $45K I cited for the cost includes the things I bought for myself from the websites listed above. That was a few thousand.

She did a great job. I would recommend her.

JANE BACHMAN WAS OUR DESIGNER AND SALES PERSON. SHE IS A TRUE ASSET TO THE COMPANY. SHE WAS WONDERFUL TO WORK WITH AND ALWAYS OFFERED GREAT IDEAS. THINGS DID NOT ALL GO AS PLANNED BUT SHE STEPPED RIGHT UP TO MAKE SURE IT WAS WORKED OUT. OUR KITCHEN TURNED OUT BEAUTIFULLY THANKS TO HER HELP AND HARD WORK. I HAVE REFERRED HER TO MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE CONSIDERING REMODELING.