“We needed the kitchen to be bigger,” Ken said. “There’s no two ways around that.” The Needham homeowner was constantly bumping elbows with his husband and son in the family’s old kitchen. “And there was no storage, and no place to sit down and have a quick bite to eat. So we knew that having a kitchen addition built was the way to go.”
That being said, Ken did have concerns about how much the addition would contribute to the cost of heating and cooling the family home. “It just makes sense to me,” he said. “You add a couple hundred square feet to the structure, it’s going to take more to keep it warm in the wintertime. But how much more was the question?”
One of the advantages of working with a Needham kitchen contractor is the ability to build with energy efficiency in mind. “We were all about that natural light,” Ken explained. “We want a bright, airy kitchen, and that means lots of windows. Our builder steered us toward the best, most energy-efficient windows and really stressed the impact they would have on our fuel bill.” He laughed. “At the time, I kind of thought they were over-selling it a bit, but after a year of looking at our expenses, I have to say they were right. We’re spending much less than I expected.”
The impact was so significant, in fact, that Ken made the decision to have other windows in the home replaced. “There’s a large picture window in the front room, and it’s really drafty in there. So that was our first 2021 home improvement project, and while I was really thinking about this in terms of a warmer winter, its been a pleasant surprise how cool it was in there this summer.”
Make sure to discuss energy efficiency with your contractor when planning your 2022 kitchen upgrade!
