Starting a kitchen reno

[libbygrl109]

I used to be a lot more active on H&F, but since I gave up running, I basically have been stalking this board to get tips for future projects. So - we are finally at the point where we can actively plan our kitchen reno. It would be a full gut that would most likely involve removing asbestos tile (the previous owners covered over something with the current linoleum, so there is about a 3/4 inch difference between the kitchen and adjoining dining area), and definitely include tearing out the 60 year old plywood cabinets. It's a pretty small area, about 11x10 with a weird assortment of doorways thrown in. 

I am stuck on what to do next. I have a budget in mind already, as well as a wishlist that I have been building for the last 14 years since we've been in this house. I have no clue what would be the best way to do the project. Do I go to a kitchen design place that seems to have the cabinets I like? Do I shop around for the best design, but maybe not the perfect cabinets? Do I use their installers, or would I do better by finding my own contractor? 

I guess what I am asking in all of that is how did you decide on your kitchen plan? 

[aprilsails]

At our last house we were on a tight budget and planning to DIY a lot of our stuff so we went straight to IKEA cabinets. We downloaded their kitchen designer program onto our computer and started setting up the layout, determining cabinet sizes and types, and verifying our back of the napkin layouts.

We were able to complete the design very easily ourselves and only had a short consultation at IKEA to verify how to split up our order to take best advantage of the 20% off coupons. We selected tile, granite countertops, appliances and plumbing ourselves and did 80% of the labour. We brought in an electrician and plumber and a drywall ceiling guy to patch and repair.

To build this new house we had to go through our builder’s kitchen cabinet designer/supplier. The design is generally included when you purchase cabinets through a supplier, and they will walk you through layouts, available cabinets and finishes, costing, etc. Since we had just done it all ourselves at our last house, this went very smoothly, even though we basically threw out our builder’s original kitchen plans and changed the entire layout drastically so she was starting from scratch.

I would suggest as a first step that you find your general contractor who will be doing the work if you are not going the DIY route. During the interview process I would ask what is their preferred method and what that would mean for their pricing.

[dr.girlfriend]

I did a LOT of cruising on Houzz, which was Gardenweb at the time. Now, I will warn you they are RIDICULOUSLY stuck-up over there. There's a few posters who seem to boss everyone around, and they are all doing custom-build McMansions. I had to ignore all the "don't even bother renovating that kitchen, it's too small to ever be functional" stuff and just pick things I thought were cool. I had some idea what I wanted to do, and then I had a few friends come over and give their advice -- that was hugely helpful; my one friend suggested moving the sink and that made an amazing difference. Then I did the basic plan in PowerPoint, and tried to tape off things on the old kitchen floor to show where they would be in the new design, and kept that in mind while cooking. I have a bunch of threads on my renovation:

www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apandce.proboards.com+dr.girlfriend+kitchen+reno&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS769US769&oq=site%3Apandce.proboards.com+dr.girlfriend+kitchen+reno&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.16711j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Sorry, it looks like a lot of the pics don't work anymore. If you want to DM me I can send you my big Shutterfly album link, and here's my Pinterest board for the kitchen:

I have separate ones for backsplash and countertop.

I think there was also a big long thread on here recently about "wants" for a renovation? I know the big Silgranit sink with a grid and the touch faucet and the instant hot water faucet were three things I got in my kitchen reno that I didn't know existed prior to that and I absolutely love them.

Oh, I should add that my kitchen was 11x11 I think.  I opened it up to the dining room.  We had a floor-level difference as well, but that was fixed when we did our bedroom addition and changed our flooring throughout the lower level.

Actually, I found my PowerPoint with the design for the old and new kitchen and a lot of my ideas if you want me to email it to you.  I did IKEA cabinets as well.

[simpsongal]

Lots of different approaches available to you. You could do a kitchen design place, a general contractor, act as the GC and hire all the subs yourselves (and even DIY part).

If I were you, I would do some legwork researching companies and talking to neighbors. Get a list of folks who do good work, get some quotes. Figure out if the GC/kitchen designer route is the best approach and within your budget. I'd say the fewer major changes you're making in terms of structure and plumbing placement, the more options and pricing flexibility you have. Also, the more direction you already have and certainty on your design and finishes, the less designer input you'll need (a lot of places are design build now and just build that into the price....doesn't seem like too much of a premium). It never hurts to have a second set of eyes on a design.

We're planning a bathroom reno now and kitchen later. Both will entail major structural, plumbing, and electrical changes. So we're using a GC. Also hiring an architect for the kitchen b/c it's just such a big project.

[k3am]

I would start by taking a honest assessment of your abilities and what you're willing/able to do. Do you have the time/know how/desire to DIY any of it? That's going to dictate where you start.

For us, the answer was/is a resounding no. We did not want to DIY, we didn't want to coordinate different trades, we didn't want to handle sourcing and ordering material ourselves. When we redid our kitchen, I had 6 GC's that also handled the design aspect come out to quote us and give us some ideas. We honestly didn't have anything too crazy we could do based on space limitations, but we were able to get some good ideas out of it.

[mrsukyankee]

We're having people do all the work for us for our kitchen reno. We are using the same people from our last kitchen for the kitchen and surfaces, and this time we're using their installer. We're hoping that it'll work well for us. We love the design and can't wait. (We went to 4 stores/people to get designs done and ended up with the one we knew due to price/knowing how good they are).

[libbygrl109]

Jun 9, 2020 10:21:21 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

I did a LOT of cruising on Houzz, which was Gardenweb at the time. Now, I will warn you they are RIDICULOUSLY stuck-up over there. There's a few posters who seem to boss everyone around, and they are all doing custom-build McMansions. I had to ignore all the "don't even bother renovating that kitchen, it's too small to ever be functional" stuff and just pick things I thought were cool. I had some idea what I wanted to do, and then I had a few friends come over and give their advice -- that was hugely helpful; my one friend suggested moving the sink and that made an amazing difference. Then I did the basic plan in PowerPoint, and tried to tape off things on the old kitchen floor to show where they would be in the new design, and kept that in mind while cooking. I have a bunch of threads on my renovation:

www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apandce.proboards.com+dr.girlfriend+kitchen+reno&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS769US769&oq=site%3Apandce.proboards.com+dr.girlfriend+kitchen+reno&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.16711j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Sorry, it looks like a lot of the pics don't work anymore. If you want to DM me I can send you my big Shutterfly album link, and here's my Pinterest board for the kitchen:

I have separate ones for backsplash and countertop.

I think there was also a big long thread on here recently about "wants" for a renovation? I know the big Silgranit sink with a grid and the touch faucet and the instant hot water faucet were three things I got in my kitchen reno that I didn't know existed prior to that and I absolutely love them.

Oh, I should add that my kitchen was 11x11 I think.  I opened it up to the dining room.  We had a floor-level difference as well, but that was fixed when we did our bedroom addition and changed our flooring throughout the lower level.

Actually, I found my PowerPoint with the design for the old and new kitchen and a lot of my ideas if you want me to email it to you.  I did IKEA cabinets as well.

I have noticed on Houzz that people are very opinionated rather than just offering info. I don't plan on asking anyone there for insights. This board is a lot more helpful. 

My mother has a Siligranit sink, and I drool over it every time I am over. I hope that I will be able to make one work out in my plan!

I would love to see your Powerpoint! I will send you my email.

[libbygrl109]

Jun 9, 2020 10:59:04 GMT -5 k3am said:

I would start by taking a honest assessment of your abilities and what you're willing/able to do. Do you have the time/know how/desire to DIY any of it? That's going to dictate where you start.

For us, the answer was/is a resounding no. We did not want to DIY, we didn't want to coordinate different trades, we didn't want to handle sourcing and ordering material ourselves. When we redid our kitchen, I had 6 GC's that also handled the design aspect come out to quote us and give us some ideas. We honestly didn't have anything too crazy we could do based on space limitations, but we were able to get some good ideas out of it.

This is where we are at - I know that we could demo the cabinets/countertops and drywall ourselves, but would hire out everything else. I am afraid to touch the floor, especially since our kitchen is open to the dining area and living room (open concept ranch). I do want to make a change to ours that would require moving some plumbing. 

[libbygrl109]

Jun 9, 2020 11:47:23 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

We're having people do all the work for us for our kitchen reno. We are using the same people from our last kitchen for the kitchen and surfaces, and this time we're using their installer. We're hoping that it'll work well for us. We love the design and can't wait. (We went to 4 stores/people to get designs done and ended up with the one we knew due to price/knowing how good they are).

I'm glad you found someone you love! Why did you decide to go with their installer this time?

[k3am]

libbygrl109, doing the demo yourself is a great way to save $ that doesn't involve much skill. And it's so rewarding. We had 400 sq foot sunroom at our old house that they wanted like $3k to demo as part of our kitchen reno, and we decided to do it ourselves... we paid for the junk haul away, 4 large pizzas, sodas, and a few gallons of sangria (post demo!) and had about 15 friends show up who all wanted in on the action.

[libbygrl109]

Jun 9, 2020 12:25:29 GMT -5 k3am said:

libbygrl109 , doing the demo yourself is a great way to save $ that doesn't involve much skill. And it's so rewarding. We had 400 sq foot sunroom at our old house that they wanted like $3k to demo as part of our kitchen reno, and we decided to do it ourselves... we paid for the junk haul away, 4 large pizzas, sodas, and a few gallons of sangria (post demo!) and had about 15 friends show up who all wanted in on the action.

Wow! That sounds great. Our space is so small, that I am sure DH and I could do it ourselves. We demo'd our bathroom on our own (except for the help of 1 friend who was in the mood to bust things up, so she volunteered her time  ). Getting a junk removal truck is a good idea.

[mrsukyankee]

Jun 9, 2020 12:15:30 GMT -5 libbygrl109 said:

Jun 9, 2020 11:47:23 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

We're having people do all the work for us for our kitchen reno. We are using the same people from our last kitchen for the kitchen and surfaces, and this time we're using their installer. We're hoping that it'll work well for us. We love the design and can't wait. (We went to 4 stores/people to get designs done and ended up with the one we knew due to price/knowing how good they are).

I'm glad you found someone you love! Why did you decide to go with their installer this time?

We hated the installer we used for our last kitchen and heard good things about their installer.