Remodel and Reveal Part Three–Kitchen Woes
I think we can all agree that the kitchen is the hub of any household. It’s where people congregate to talk or listen. It’s the place where we create food for ourselves, family and friends. So I think we can also agree it needs to be comfortable and workable.
Mine was not! Drawers that were broken as your pulled them out, not enough storage, not a feng shui flow, and old appliances. It had originally been built in 1973 and while I had painted it to get by, it just wasn’t doing the job. So our next project was the kitchen.
I drew up a plan for what I wanted (as usual). I knew, from seeing other kitchens and thinking about what would work for us, that I wanted drawers not cabinets for the most part. I, also, knew I wanted to take down the wall and make it open to our living and dining spaces. My husband is from Holland so we have always liked the more modern styles–think Ikea–and so I looked at ideas from them also. Then I took that drawing to a local kitchen design place with all the measurements. We talked about finishes, countertops, appliances and putting in an island to make the space flow better. WELL, after a couple of weeks we got the estimate back. WOW–$30,000. Yes that is what I said. $30K. There was no way we could afford that. Champagne taste on a beer diet! Anyway, I had to look at other options.
What did I do? Well, I took those same designs to Ikea. They have great consultants there that can talk you through any design. We worked with adjusting my design with their products. It was really fun to see it come to life in their 3D software. The consultant helped us to order each piece we needed and all the parts for the drawers, including pulls, inserts, and fronts. What did all that cost us? Hmmmm, with a 20% off deal for a complete kitchen order that year…the total cost for the kitchen setup was $4200. Yes, that is what I said. Now, of course that is not installed. Pretty good though, right?
Next step, we acted as our contractor and hired out the other jobs. We hired a handy man/builder to actually build the kitchen. (We built the boxes from the Ikea products but needed them put in place) We gutted the kitchen ourselves and then had him come in to place a false wall to accommodate new doors for the pantry/washer area and to move the frig and build it into the wall. We decided to leave the floor tiles intact and use the same footprint for the cabinets except for placing in the island. That saved us a ton of money. I went to pick out wall tile and countertops. We knew we wanted a special piece of granite for the island as more of a showpiece. I choose to use a light grayish granite for the main counters. This, we were able to purchase from a granite company in town using remnant pieces. That only cost us $3800 with a under-mount stainless sink included and installed. Nice!
For the appliances we went to …you guessed it… Sears–outlet. You can buy floor models of appliances but you can also get brand new, in the box, slightly older but still awesome appliances. We were able to buy new stainless steel stove/oven, refrigerator, and dishwasher for about $2700. They are great quality and have stood the test of time and a four year old so far.
It took so long (whining here) but was well worth all the time and trouble. We were even able to change from an electric to a gas range in the process. I love our kitchen and I have it on authority from a world class Miami chef (Todd Erickson) that it works really well for cooking. Admittedly, our tastes may not be the same as other people but everyone who sees the kitchen has really loved it.
So what was the final cost to us for a gutted and rebuilt kitchen. As best as we can figure with labor and supplies–about $15,000. Less than half what our first quote was. You tell me if we did the right thing!!!!
Final project
Contact me at: taketimetolivelife@outlook.com