Post by daisybuchannan on Dec 16, 2013 18:32:21 GMT -5
Hi everyone- I've never posted here before and am XPing from ML.
Has anyone remodeled their kitchen and want to talk about it or share pics with me? Specifically if you tried to do it with a low budget.
We basically want to combine the kitchen and dining room into one open area- knocking out the wall in between and possibly doing a breakfast bar or island in the middle. Our current kitchen has nice appliences that we would use, and the cabinets are in great shape. They're a cherry color and I'd like white. Do you think they could paint my current cabinets white, and match additional cabinets? That would be a huge savings.
While we don't have a specific budget in mind, I don't want to spend too much bc it would be coming from savings that would ideally be part of our next down payment.
Post by mrs.jacinthe on Dec 16, 2013 19:04:14 GMT -5
If you want to go LOW budget, DIY-painting the cabinets is a huge PITA, but will save you a lot of money. We have a lot of ladies with that experience. (I've done it 3x now, not counting bathroom cabinets). It is easy enough, just time consuming. As long as the wall isn't load-bearing and/or contains a lot of plumbing, knocking it out shouldn't be a big deal. If there's a lot of plumbing to rework or the wall IS load-bearing, that's going to be $$$.
If you want to go LOW budget, DIY-painting the cabinets is a huge PITA, but will save you a lot of money. We have a lot of ladies with that experience. (I've done it 3x now, not counting bathroom cabinets). It is easy enough, just time consuming. As long as the wall isn't load-bearing and/or contains a lot of plumbing, knocking it out shouldn't be a big deal. If there's a lot of plumbing to rework or the wall IS load-bearing, that's going to be $$$.
Do you have pictures?
I haven't taken pics, I can do that and post tomorrow if people would be inclined to make suggestions
I really don't know what a "low budget" is, we're hoping to spend between 10-15 if possible. I think having a kitchen that really works for me would extend our stay here, and we would be able to save more for our next house.
We kept our bottom cabinets and got new ones for the top and used BM Advance paint to get them to match.
I love your kitchen!
Thanks! I just pulled our budget and I think we ended up around $13K total, including the labor we hired out. The cabinets (island included) made up $4.5K of that and granite was $3.2K (we went with a more expensive variety - we could have saved half if we'd chosen a basic one). Those were the two big components.
Post by mrs.jacinthe on Dec 16, 2013 19:52:13 GMT -5
Yeah, cabinets and measurements would be good. $10-15k is a pretty good budget, especially if you're re-using cabinets. Are you wanting new appliances too?
we did ours on a semi low budget... probably spent $7k in the end. we kept our cabinets and painted them, got new countertops, new floors and new backsplash. we hired out the counters and floors. we did everything else ourselves.
we did ours on a semi low budget... probably spent $7k in the end. we kept our cabinets and painted them, got new countertops, new floors and new backsplash. we hired out the counters and floors. we did everything else ourselves.
I still don't have pics of the other side yet.
This pretty much looks like exactly what I want to do! White cabients, carrera marble counters! Is that carrera?
I just had a contractor come and he told me that we could re-use the cabinets we have and just order what we needed to extend the kitchen.
The wall also isn't load bearing, which is great news! I'm anxiously awaiting hearing back a price.
we've increased our kitchen tremendously, made the whole house open. Added a breakfast nook, huge island with prep sink, double ovens, apron front sink - raised front room floor to include some kitchen space.
I can look up our GC's line items if helpful to you.
ETA: had architect draw plans & engineer stamp them before moving load-bearing walls
The wall not being load bearing is great! Pictures, dimensions, floor plans, etc. would help a lot. There are a bunch of really great ladies here with experiences with everything.
How handy are you and your H? Or your close families / friends? The more you can DIY the better you are going to be. Hire out the important stuff (electric and plumbing) unless you know someone that is good at those things, and do some of the other stuff yourself.
I saw you mentioned that you want Carrera counters, does your local market support this? If your local market is bare bones, your don't want to reno yourself out of ROI when / if you do sell. I have HD laminate and I LOVE it, it isn't natural stone, but it looks like it and is pretty tough.
If you like the carrera look, you might want to consider a silestone/quartz product that mimics it. The maintenance on real marble is a bit intense and it won't take long to show wear. Normally I wouldn't worry too much about that, but if you're going to sell eventually you probably want the kitchen to still look new when the time comes.
we did ours on a semi low budget... probably spent $7k in the end. we kept our cabinets and painted them, got new countertops, new floors and new backsplash. we hired out the counters and floors. we did everything else ourselves.
I still don't have pics of the other side yet.
This pretty much looks like exactly what I want to do! White cabients, carrera marble counters! Is that carrera?
I just had a contractor come and he told me that we could re-use the cabinets we have and just order what we needed to extend the kitchen.
The wall also isn't load bearing, which is great news! I'm anxiously awaiting hearing back a price.
the cabinets are a light grey called Fieldstone from BM.
the countertops are carrera. I absolutely LOVE them. we have some areas of etching, but its hardly noticeable unless you are specifically looking for them. and absolutely no stains at all. I was worried the most about that, but I don't think I really take care of them any differently than I would another surface. we do seal them once a year, though. I am also okay with knowing that some stuff might happen to them and, for me, it just adds to the patina. not to mention that we paid $10/sq.ft. for them, so it was a huge cost savings over granite or quartz.