Ocean City, NJ is where our shore house is located and we had so much fun upgrading it with all new smart appliances and flooring, light fixtures, and touchless faucets.
We started this project in October of 2020, during Covid and hoped that we could navigate the supply chain issues before prices got out of control and luckily, we did it.
New windows, new doors, remodeled fireplace area & repositioning the TV were needed as well, so we tackled it all at once. We also decided to replace the older heater & central air before prices rose and got in under the wire on that one too. Timing is everything when you take on a major remodeling project, but having the right contractor can make a world of difference.
We selected a local contractor who’s store front was also on Asbury Avenue, so that made life easier on us all. John Compton of Artisan Kitchens in OCNJ was thoughtful and instructive on how to make our old kitchen bigger and better. He also excelled at having whatever contractor we needed from painters to framers, flooring, plumbing, and HVAC. We had a very tiny attic which housed our HVAC and most contractors couldn’t even fit up there to work on it when it needed service, so John came up with a great idea to add an access panel from our roof-top deck so that future contractors could just open a door and have full access to our unit.
One thing that John patiently worked with us on was the 5 steps that went up to the bedroom level. The Cortex flooring had a fake looking stair covering that we just didn’t like, so John suggested painting the steps black and the risers white. It took a lot of trial and error before we got the right color and varnish to make them shine. That is one of the nicest touches that we added to the make-over in our OCNJ condo.
The electrical was the most challenging as we had a vaulted ceiling over the new larger island and we wanted two hanging pendant lights evenly spaced over the island. Fortunately, my engineer husband was able to figure out the math on how to hang one from a flat surface and the other from an angled surface and he worked with the electrical team to make it perfect. We picked a sharp and powerful new 3 blade ceiling fan called the Spitfire and it has a light and is remote control operated. The old fan had chains that constantly broke and no lights, so we fixed that issue during the kitchen remodeling project. Like all projects, once you start with one room, you decide to fix other things and the project expands and expands until you finally run out of funding, but we made some long overdue upgrades that make this house feel like a new home.
If you ask any top Ocean City, NJ Realtor which home projects bring the greatest home values, they will say kitchens and baths and appliances, well we did them all and the equity is growing accordingly. Some day when we consider selling our home in OCNJ, we will reap the benefits of this stylish makeover during 2020.
