When Lisa and George Graves purchased their split level home in Hebron, Maine, “The kitchen was pretty dated, and the animals that had lived with the previous owners had done a number” on the cabinets. According to George, “It was ugly to begin with and then Lisa stored catnip in a drawer” and their own cat finished the job the other cat had started, making their decision to renovate an easy one.

After reaching a consensus as to the layout and coming up with a rudimentary drawing and list of what they might ultimately want to do, Lisa and George went to Sandy Lawrence, a kitchen and bath designer at Hammond Lumber Company, in Auburn, for assistance. Lawrence, who has six years of design experience, stated that, for the homeowner, “The hardest part is getting started; taking the initiative to say ‘We’re going to put ourselves through the annihilation of our kitchen.’ ”

The next step is helping the customer decide whether they want natural wood, a painted finish or thermafoil. Thermafoil, explained Lawrence, is a process that is “kind-of like a shrink wrap.” It is highly washable and it hides seams, giving the cabinetry “a nice clean finish.”

Upon visiting Hammond’s showroom, Lisa’s decision took very little time. “She walked up to the white thermafoil model and said, ‘This is what I want.’ ”

Lisa likes “white” because it is “clean and timeless” and, added George, “It lightens it up in here.” He also likes it “because it’s what my wife wanted.” George is a wise man.

Hammond Lumber works with 16 different cabinet makers including Kabinart and Dynasty, as well as Just Cabinets, a company that is based in Fryeburg, Maine, giving customers many styles and a large range of prices and quality to from which to choose.

Overall, Lawrence found “Team Graves,” including their 15-year-old daughter Leah, to be “very self-sufficient.” They knew what they wanted, and George had the skills to do all of the manual labor himself, making the next step — “creating the plan” — also easy.

According to Lawrence, “Customers often come in with drawings. Sometimes they are complete with measurements and other details, and sometimes it’s just a sketch on a piece of scrap paper.” Lawrence works with the customer to create a kitchen that meets their needs in terms of functionality, that fits their lifestyle, and that satisfies their aesthetic tastes, all while staying within their budget.

Lisa and George chose the layout because Lisa liked the way the kitchen flowed and fit with the rest of the home. “We really didn’t alter the original plan.” They did, however, add a lot of fun, updated and beautiful options.

Hammond Lumber offers a wide variety of functional and decorative options with its lines of cabinetry, including china and plate racks, decorative pull-out baskets and hardware, the “Super Susan” (a marvelously updated “Lazy Susan”), roll-out interior trays, sliding drawers in spaces that otherwise might have been wasted, stylish apothecary drawers, glass cabinet doors with interior cabinet lighting, pantry pull-outs and wine racks, as well as construction details such as dovetail and soft-close drawers and interior solid-wood construction.

Lisa and George chose other features that made the kitchen uniquely theirs. Some of Lisa’s favorites include “the spice rack next to the stove and the wine glass racks,” she said with a smile. George likes the “range top mounted microwave,” and he lobbied hard for the pull-out trash bin.

Countertops, per Lawrence, “can take a lot of focus.” Options include granite, quartz, laminate or Corian. “Granite has become so affordable that people rarely choose corian. It is also heat and scratch resistant, and is nearly indestructible.”

Lisa chose a black marble countertop with an earthy shade of deep green with flecks of white and silver because, “When the lights hit it you can see different colors and variation [and it] looks so much prettier” than the red laminate on which she previously prepared meals. The countertops also qualify as Lisa’s favorite feature.

Lisa and George are both proud of the new exposed, interior brick chimney next to the stove, built by George with a new double flu that will ultimately accommodate a new wood stove in the basement in addition to the furnace. “It made me appreciate (again and more) how handy my husband is,” said Lisa. “I think it helped Leah appreciate the hard work and expense that goes into home ownership.”

When asked if he would do anything differently if he was going to start the renovation process over again, George is quick to say, “I would rip out the wall behind the stove and open it up to the living room.” He would put in a half-wall with food preparation areas on one side and a “two stage bar” with seating on the other.

Given that one end of the kitchen area, occupied by an antique table that the family uses for everyday meals, was already separated from the busy family room by just a railing and several descending steps, Lisa’s preference was to keep that wall so as not to open up the space between the kitchen and the more formal living room and foyer below. Wisely, again, George acquiesced and the wall stayed.

According to Lisa, the destruction and construction of their kitchen “was so much less disruptive than to could have been. George managed to keep me cooking meals for all but two days.”

There were even some funny and enjoyable moments along the way. Lisa recalled, “When everything was in boxes and piled sky-high in the dining room, Leah was appalled that we might be ‘living like hoarders’ permanently.”

George’s favorite moment was, “When everything was ripped apart we had a 15th birthday party for Leah and I got the boys to haul the old cabinets out and we threw them on the giant burn pile.” They burned very well.

Asked what is in line for the next project, George said, “Now that I’ve got the chimney done, I’m going to finish off the basement and make the utility area a separate room.”

Lisa’s project is a little simpler: “George’s closet needs shelves.”

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