New Home

Design Phase

Project Initiation
When you first contact us by phone or e-mail or stop in our Design Center, a Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor representative will ask about the scope and timeline of your project and give you a chance to ask questions about our process, services, or your project details. We’ll then collect your contact information and explain next steps. Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor has a great working relationship with several area builders. If your builder is someone that we have a working relationship with, Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor can work closely with your builder to share information and determine who will be responsible for which aspects of your project.

Depending on the quantity and nature of our design team’s active projects, your project will likely be put onto a design waiting list, in which case we’ll tell you our best guess for when a designer will be ready to start working with you. After your conversation, the Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor Representative will send you a follow-up e-mail and your homework.

Homeowner Homework
After your project initiation conversation, you will receive 3 e-mails. One will be a link to a kitchen design survey (and/or bath design survey, depending on your project scope), which will help get you started thinking about what is important to you in your new space and provide your designer with important details to consider while they design your new space. The second e-mail will be a link to a Houzz Ideabook. Houzz is a website with thousands of photos of all aspects of home design. We encourage you to search Houzz to find photos of spaces, design styles, layouts, etc. that catch your eye. When you save those photos to the Ideabook shared with you, your designer has access to the whole collection, and can use your inspirations as guidance to help them create a design that is catered to you. The third e-mail will summarize the next steps for your project, including your homework to prepare for your design consultation. Attached to the e-mail will be a copy of the ​Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor Customer Expectation Agreement,​ which we ask you to look over, agree to, and sign prior to your design consultation.

Design Waiting List
If your project is on the design waiting list, we’ll send you an update e-mail every couple of months to let you know your current number. When a designer is ready to start your project, we’ll contact you to schedule your Design Consultation, and if needed, we’ll coordinate with your builder so that they can be there for the meeting as well.

Once a designer begins working on your project, it will have their full attention, and you can expect them to provide you with your design and pricing in an efficient manner. We apologize for the wait and appreciate your patience. We’ll make sure that the design and experience we provide is worth waiting for! We encourage you to take advantage of the time while you wait for your project to complete your homework, i.e. getting copies of your blueprints for your designer, filling out your Kitchen Design Survey (or Bath), contributing to your Houzz Ideabook, and looking for other design inspirations to share with your designer.

In-Office Design Consultation
This meeting usually takes about an hour and will occur at the Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor office. Prior to your Design Consultation, your designer will review your Design Survey and Houzz Ideabook. In addition to your designer, the people who need to be present at this meeting are: You and any other decision makers on the project. If you haven’t already sent your blueprints to your designer, you’ll need to bring them with you. During this meeting, your designer will discuss with you how you want to use your space, and what you want to accomplish with your design. They’ll also discuss your project budget with you. You and your designer may brainstorm possible ways to accomplish your goals, and what it will take to do so. After this meeting, your designer will create a proposed design for you to review at your Preliminary Design Meeting.

While you, the homeowner, are our primary contact for the design phase, we’ll be working directly with your builder during the production phase. In order to make the project go smoothly, it is important for your builder to understand our design and production processes and procedures.

Preliminary Design Meeting
This meeting usually takes 1-2 hours and will be at the Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor office. In addition to your designer, the people who need to be present at this meeting are: You and any other decision makers on the project. At this meeting, your designer will show you a proposed design, and recommend materials, colors, and cabinetry door styles for your project. We’ll take notes on your feedback and preferences, and gather any other information needed in order to update your design, and calculate preliminary pricing, which you’ll go over at your Preliminary Quote Review Meeting. If you can’t make all the decisions needed for pricing during this meeting, you may have a second Design Meeting. Up to 3 Design Meetings are free of charge, and typically allow enough time to finalize all the design details for your project. Any design time spent on your project beyond 3 design revisions will incur hourly design charges, which will be payable whether or not you decide to proceed with your project.

Design Release
Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor does not release design drawings, either in digital or hard copies, prior to signing of your contract, and receipt of down payment. If you or your builder need your drawings for any reason before you accept your contract, you may choose to pay a Design Release Fee of $500, or 5% of your proposal price, whichever is greater. Your Design Release Fee will be credited towards your project if you decide to proceed, however it is non-refundable if you decide not to move forward with the project.

Preliminary Quote Review Meeting
This meeting usually takes 1-2 hours and will be at the Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor office. In addition to your designer, the people who need to be present at this meeting are: You and any other decision makers on the project. At this meeting, your designer will present preliminary pricing for your design, and selected colors, materials, finishes, etc. After reviewing the pricing and scope with you, your designer will take notes on your feedback and updates you’d like to make based on the preliminary pricing, and gather any other information needed in order to update your design and pricing for your final proposal. If you don’t want to make any changes to the proposal, you may sign your contract during this meeting, however it is common that one to two more rounds of tweaks are required at this point. If you aren’t ready to sign your contract during this meeting, and require updates, you’ll come in later for a Contract Meeting.

Contract Meeting
This meeting usually takes up to an hour and will be at the Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor office. In addition to your designer, the people who need to be present at this meeting are: You and any other decision makers on the project. At this meeting, your designer will review with you your contract, pricing, final project scope, and anticipated timeline. If you agree with the contract, you’ll submit your signed contract and down payment check for 60% of your contract value. This triggers the beginning of the production phase.

Modifications to project scope after you sign your contract require a change order and may affect price and timeline of your project.

Production Phase

Unless otherwise determined during the Design Process, our primary contact for your project during the production phase will be your builder.

Technical Site Measure
A member of the Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor team will come to the jobsite for detailed measurements, which your designer will use to make any final dimensions modifications required prior to ordering your cabinetry. This may happen before or after you sign your contract. All walls need to be framed out prior to this site measure. If the space has changed significantly from the blueprints used by the designer to design your project, changes to your design and pricing may be required. To prevent unnecessary surprises, please be sure to inform your designer as soon as you know of any such changes.

It is not necessary for your builder to be onsite during the technical site measure.

Following your technical site measure, your designer may make minor changes to your design as needed to accommodate your space, and place orders for materials.

Material Acquisition
Based on your builder’s anticipated timeline for cabinetry install, your designer will place orders for your cabinetry, fixtures, decorative hardware, etc. Typically, the only materials not ordered at this time are countertops, which will be ordered following your cabinetry installation and countertop template.

Once we receive the ship date for your cabinetry, your Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor project manager will contact your builder with our proposed delivery or installation date.

Cabinetry Storage
We’ll let your builder know your anticipated delivery or install date. We’ll contact your builder again 1-2 weeks prior to that date to check in. If your builder will be ready to take your cabinetry when it arrives, we’ll finalize the pickup or delivery schedule at that time. If your builder is not ready to begin install, and there is not a safe place to store the cabinetry onsite, we’ll schedule or plan to check back with them later. Any cabinetry not picked up or delivered within 3 weeks of arriving at Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor will incur a storage fee, which will be billed on the first day of each month.

Delivery
We’ll let your builder know your anticipated delivery or pickup date. We’ll contact your builder 1-2 weeks prior to that date to check in and schedule.

Installation
While it is most common for builders to install cabinetry and any non-stone tops for new home projects, in some cases you and your builder may decide to have the Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor team install. All stone tops will be installed by Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor’s stone subcontractor. We’ll work with your builder to coordinate timelines. The following is a typical sequence of events, with Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor-related tasks in ​bold​:

  • Framing
  • Plumbing and electrical rough in
  • Sub-flooring and wall construction
  • Painting
  • Rough finish of floor and walls
  • Cabinet installation, including trim and associated accessories
  • Countertop measurement
  • Electrical finish
  • Countertop installation 
  • Appliance installation
  • Plumbing connections
  • Casing and associated trim
  • Backsplash and lighting
  • Punch list completion and cabinet adjustments

Punch list Walk-through and Installation
After your primary installation is done, we ask that you and/or your builder do a walk-through of your new spaces. Tell us what you think! If there are any outstanding issues for which you and the install team have not developed a plan, let us know. Making any corrections or repairs at this time is much easier when your installers have the project fresh in their mind.

Following your walk-through, we’ll place orders for punch list materials as needed to complete install. If Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor is responsible for your installation, we’ll schedule the punch list install as soon as we have ship dates for all required materials. Otherwise, we’ll inform your builder so that they can plan for installing punch list items when they arrive.

Payment
Your second payment will be for 20% of your project value and will be due upon substantial completion of your project. Your final invoice for the remaining balance, plus actual costs for the allowances in your contract will be due once the original scope of your contract is completed. Your invoice will show payments you have made and the amount due.

All payments are due upon invoice. Invoices that remain unpaid after 30 days will incur a finance charge. While we do accept credit card payments, payments made by credit card incur a 3.5% service charge. To avoid the service charge, we recommend payments be made with cash, check, or money order. 

If your cabinetry and countertops are part of your contract with your contractor, you won’t get an invoice. In that case, we’ll invoice your contractor directly and they’ll manage payment.

Testimonial
As a local, family-owned and run business, word-of-mouth reviews play a huge role in our success. If you’d be willing to recommend us, we’d be very thankful for your positive testimonial on Houzz, Facebook, or Google. Thank You! Your support means a lot to us!

Photo Session
We love sharing the finished product of our work! If you are willing to share your completed space with us, we may ask to schedule a photo shoot of your new space. We may post these photos on Houzz, Facebook, or use them in advertising and design competitions. We will not share any of your personal information along with the photos.

Welling Kitchen, Bath & Floor