Kitchen reno question for a more active board :)

[fryjack2]

I know its election day and that's where people's heads may be, but if anyone wants a distraction and wants to answer! We are starting a largish reno that includes gutting our kitchen. Would love to know your experiences with the following and pictures always welcome  

1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them?  

2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use?

3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have?  Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers.  Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last.  Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf...

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain? 

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations?

6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openness?

7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms)? 

8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over?

9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost? 

 

[kitchenreno]

1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them?
Omega? That's on the hardware inside

2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use?
counter is Jet Mist/Virginia Mist granite and I love it. The counter decision was the hardest for me but no regrets.

3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have? Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers. Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last. Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf...
n/a

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain?
n/a

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations?
no regrets, just needed to paint outside

6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openers?
openness? yes. My space is not that big so opening the wall made a huge difference. I don't have a "formal" dining room as a result but that works for us

7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms)?
no


8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over?
I got inset cabinets which was an upcharge. Not a huge deal but not sure I'd pick that again


9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost?
hard to say because we had the contractors do things in other rooms while here but somewhere around $65k in a high cost of living area (that did include floors too)

[EvieEthelGarland]

Nov 5, 2024 17:17:11 GMT -5 fryjack2 said:

Ours isn't done yet, but I need a distraction


1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them?  We went with a local cabinet shop. Full custom, rift cut white oak, soft close hardware is coming in about 40k.  They're not in yet, so I betterlike them because these are the last cabinets I will ever buy. 

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain? I hope not. It can't be worse that being over the range or on the counter, right?  Paying that much for a microwave is killing me though. 

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations? Our window is now about twice the size and I love it! The house is so much brighter.  We'll be repainting the house next spring or summer so right now it's awful outside but I don't have an HOA so who cares?

6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openers?  I love that the wall and dropped ceiling is gone.   I might not have minded the walls if the island was appropriately sized.

8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over?   We're not done yet and after 5 months its getting to me, but the only thing I wish we'd done was do it sooner-prices have gone crazy!  ETA: be prepared to spend more on take out/restaurants/convenience foods. Realize that the little things can cost a lot.  We spent about 20k just on the lumber, paint, insulation, dump fees, nails, cables, other little things at Home Depot.  

9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost? We're doing full custom cabinets and Bosch appliances, so I'd say upper mid level and I expect it to run about 100k before floors. This is with my H doing all the work except for the cabinets and drywall. 

 

[tealblue]

Nov 5, 2024 17:17:11 GMT -5 fryjack2 said:

I know its election day and that's where people's heads may be, but if anyone wants a distraction and wants to answer! We are starting a largish reno that includes gutting our kitchen. Would love to know your experiences with the following and pictures always welcome  

1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them? We had a local guy make them. He was Amish but now is not Amish. It was shockingly nearly the same price as big box cabinets, much better made, stain and measurements exactly what I wanted which would be hard to find premade.

2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use? Quartz

3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have?  Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers.  Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last.  Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf... n/a

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain? Not built in the island but built into a cabinet with a pantry under. I love it, it’s not above the stove and the kids can reach it.

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations? We did the opposite, took out a bigger window to a smaller one so we could put cabinets under the window. I love it. We opened a wall so still got more light with our exterior door and large dining room windows.

6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openers? Our kitchen was very cut off from the living space and we opened it up and loving it. I wasn’t sure how it would come other but I am so glad we did it.

7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms)? N/a have one in the living room.

8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over? we just finished a few months ago, so no regrets yet. I love the space, we lived in our house for years and I hated the layout of my kitchen. This was a huge project, so I wasn’t going to skimp on anything and got everything I wanted which cost money. I could have skimmed back but I wouldn’t have been as happy (I did quartz slab backsplash up to the uppers which was $$ but I didn’t want tile) a lot of my cost was hidden/not fun things ( insulation, beams; electric, drywall, windows) so just be prepared. At the end I was so tired of decisions. I just gave up and kept our old furniture because I was out of brain space.

9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost? We spent $15k on cabinets, $12k on countertops and backsplash, $6k on appliances, $7k on drywall, $7k on electric. Ours was a complete gut job, so we also had insulation and new windows and a $3k steel beam. We also had a pantry full of cabinets $3k and a mudroom built in $3k. Overall I was at just shy of $100k but it involved gutting most of the house and new floors throughout the bedrooms and open space. We diy’ed a lot but paid a contractor to help with demo/putting in the beam which I think was $5k of labor.

 

[cuadrado]

We just finished a renovation on our whole house, but the kitchen was technically an addition. This is our 2nd home renovation.

Our kitchen cabinets were custom. I think that room was around $60k for cabinets but we have a really large kitchen with vaulted ceilings and a banquette with built-in china cabinets. The cabinet company did all of the work with that. We have faux inset cabinets with soft close drawers, and our highest cabinets have glass doors.

We have lighter countertops. They are quartzite. We have had white quartz (from MSI) in our last house and were surprised at how easily they stained being quartz.

We have separate 36” subzero fridge and freezers in this house. We like them. In our last house we had the 48” side by side fridge/freezer and we felt like the freezer was too small for what we used it for. Subzero has phenomenal customer service.

We have a drawer microwave in our island and we love it. In our last house we put a regular built in microwave in the island and hated that set up. I think the drawer is much better if you’re putting it down low.

We added a really large window in our kitchen and I love the natural light. We replaced several windows throughout the house with larger windows. Are they doing any exterior work at all? We already were so the additional costs weren’t a lot, but I probably wouldn’t haven’t done that if we weren’t doing exterior work and replacing all of the windows already.

[zizibet]

I have white/black veined granite on my island and love the way it looks- the cabinets and legs of the island are also white. I really like how it looks. The rest of the countertops are a white/gold engineered product. I wish they were plain white, but so far they have held up well, no staining, no marks from heat. The rest of my cabinets are a wood tone and i intended to pain them. Since we're selling the house, I'm not bothering. I wanted a color on them.
My advice would be to really think about the layout you want and why you think it will work for you. Also think about accessibility issues- especially if this will be your forever house. Can you move a wheelchair easily? Could someone in a wheelchair access stuff generally, etc. Also, think about what kind of storage you need- cabinet wise. Do you need multiple deep drawers for large pots, or do you prefer pull-out shelving? What about a built in spice rack, or specialty cabinets for lids/cutting board/cheese board storage. Do you want stuff to be on display at all, or do you just want clean front cabinets? How high do you want the cabinets to go? Etc. One thing I don't regret choosing was a smaller pantry with an extra linen closet on the other side, instead of a huge pantry.

[audry80]

Our kitchen was renovated when we moved in but we moved the fridge around, added a coffee bar, a pantry and added cabinets during a major Renovation on the rest of the house.


1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them? Ours are a mix of custom to match the existing cheaper cabinets. I honestly can’t tell a difference.

2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use? We have quartz and I love it. We are super hard on our counters and they are inductrucble. We have a waterfall island and it’s my favorite.

3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have?  Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers.  Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last.  Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf...

We really wanted a sub zero fridge. Our contractor sent us to the showroom/appliance place he uses and the owner helped us. She basically refused to sell us one. Said unless you saw the fridge as soon as you walk in the kitchen, it wasn’t worth it and they are not good fridges. Our fridge is not front and center so we bought a Bosch that has thermador handles to make it look nicer.

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain?  N/A

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations? No. We made our window bigger and it was worth the cost.

6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openers? I don’t know what an opener is but we have a Wood beam that matches our floor.


7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms) yes! We flipped our dining and living room and no regrets.

8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over? Love the wine fridge, and so many plugs. We installed an insta hot water and we use it daily.

9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost?  NA

[audry80]

Picture during construction.

[CrazyLucky]

We just finished our kitchen renovation in October.
1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them? Local company, J&K. We like the cabinets, but they're not exactly whta we wanted. We paid $14k, and exactly what we wanted was about double.

2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use? Ours are not white.

3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have? Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers. Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last. Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf...N/A

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain? They tried to sell this hard, but I didn't want it.  I like having the microwave at counter height or higher.

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations? N/A

6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openers? We did take down a wall, and I love it.  It makes the kitchen so much more open.  We didn't gain a whole lot of space in the kitchen, but not having that wall there makes it FEEL bigger.

7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms)? No

8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over?  I wish there was a way to hold the contractors to a schedule.  And also some kind of language in the contract about anything ruined by the painter. The painters dripped paint on a rug, decorative pillows, a mirror, etc etc.  

9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost? We did more than just the kitchen, but I think the kitchen portion was somewhere around $50k. That was taking down a wall and adding a new beam since it was a load bearing wall, all new cabinetry (about $14k for materials), new tile flooring (I think around $7/sqft), new quartz countertop, new sink, new faucet, the backsplash (That was expensive, something like $27/sqft) a lot of new lighting and undercabinet lighting, and the electrician ran a 220 line because we got an induction stove. And the painting.
I wouldn't call ours high end.  It wasn't the cheapest by far, but with the other work we were having done, it came out to about $80k and that was enough.

[CrazyLucky]

Piggy backing on one of the previous responses, this is going to be stressful! We had no use of our kitchen for a full three months. We were in the finished basement during that time, cooking with the grill, a toaster oven, and a one burner stove. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is. Meal planning for three months with no oven is a pain. Not having access to a second TV (because there was plastic sheeting up to protect it from dust most of the time) means a lot of family time which is great and also not great. If you do it during the summer, like we did, and have a young daughter, like we do, you may decide one of you needs to be home any time a contractor is there. It's A LOT. And hopefully it's all worth it in the end, but it kind of sucks while you're going through it.

[stemmie]

It's been ages since we did a big kitchen remodel.

Specific to your questions. Ours was a weird house. Originally a farm building from the 1890s, then turned into a summer house (kind of a modest bungalow) in the 1920s and then into more of a farmhouse style house during which the floor plan was set.

We did change the windows in the kitchen as they were kind of left over from bungalow era and seriously restricted designing a normal kitchen. We removed one on the side of the house and replaced one double hung in the front of the house with a 3-casement unit. The bigger window and light it provided was one of my favorite changes. It was an expensive window and the repair work to the exterior was fairly extensive-- stucco on the side and siding on the front of the house. Still worth it.

A friend who recently did their kitchen did the LR/DR swap. Their home is 1960s vintage with a massive LR. Since they tend to host most of the family holidays and were gifted his mom's ridiculous dining room furniture, it makes sense. The fireplace is very traditional and works with the formal space. Since they have a FR, the smaller LR became a sitting room for my friend who is an avid reader. It's a nice place to escape when her DH and kids are watching TV or gaming.

[sunshineandpinot]

Reno completed in 2017 

1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them? A local cabinet company contracted by my contractor. 

2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use? White macaubas quartzite. 

3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have? Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers. Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last. Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf... JennAir 42" side by side. It's been great. We did matching cabinet front and love the custom look. 

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain? n/a

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations? We actually removed a window. Everyone thought we were crazy but it wasn't a pretty view; right over our a/c and the side of our neighbor's house. I miss it just a few times a year; it was nice to crack on cool mornings but overall I don't regret it at all. We added an exterior side storage room and it's awesome. 

6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openers? LOVE the openness. We turned our formal dining room into our only eating area and now have a big eat-at kitchen island. 0 regrets. 

7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms)? n/a

8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over?  I totally regret our white cabinets. We're a clean family and they still show wear and tear. Our island is painted a gray/greige and I love that. I wish I would have done painted griege and a warmer wood vs white. But no one was doing that in 2017. 

9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost? Including our floors, painting our downstairs, and half bath remodel, I think we were at $180K. eta also included adding an outdoor kitchen. I don't know how much just the kitchen reno was, sorry, we did it all at once and moved in with my parents for 6 months 

We did have an insurance payout for our floors to the tune of $50K, which started it all. That really helped with the sting. 

I'll also share that I love our induction cooktop and am glad we switched from gas.  So easy to cook on and to clean. 

[dancingirl21]

I know its election day and that's where people's heads may be, but if anyone wants a distraction and wants to answer! We are starting a largish reno that includes gutting our kitchen. Would love to know your experiences with the following and pictures always welcome

1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them? A local custom cabinet builder. This was in 2021, but they were right around $18k for fully custom. This number came in lower than other places where we could only do semi-custom.

2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use? Quartz - specifically Calacatta Ultra.

3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have? Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers. Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last. Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf... N/A

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain? We looked into this, but ultimately decided to put it inside a big vertical pantry cabinet. I didn't want to spend the money for a drawer microwave and I wanted it to be eye level. I love that it's behind doors so I can't see it.

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations? N/A

6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openers? N/A

7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms)? N/A

8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over? I still love our kitchen. We added a double oven, which I use frequently, we have a section that is a coffee bar with a beverage fridge under it and that made our kitchen so much more functional (and space saving in the actual fridge). One thing I wish we had done was put in an appliance garage or cabinet to the countertop. We often have the air fryer, toaster, etc. out and I would love to just put them behind a door and close it, rather than putting them away in their spots all the time then taking them back out the next day.

9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost? In 2021 it cost right around $55k. My DH is a general contractor, so he managed all the work and did all the demo. He had his union trades do the work. We didn't do any windows or wall moving, this was just the cost of labor and material.

[atarianna]

I am not going to answer all the questions but we did Amish cabinets and they were pricey but I have no regrets. They are solid wood boxes and doors with a velvety smooth finish. I love them so much.

My biggest advice is to utilize all space in a smart way. Vertical storage next to the stovetop for cutting boards, vertical spice drawer, vertical dividers on cabinets above microwave/oven for cookie sheets, muffin pans etc. (I am a shorty and can reach these whereas with the typical horizontal shelving I cannot).

Also lots and lots of drawers.

[simpsongal]

Nov 5, 2024 17:17:11 GMT -5 fryjack2 said:

I know its election day and that's where people's heads may be, but if anyone wants a distraction and wants to answer! We are starting a largish reno that includes gutting our kitchen. Would love to know your experiences with the following and pictures always welcome  

1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them?  
Cabinet discounters - they're a mix of solid walnut and painted maple.  They were $25K.  I like them, some of the drawer slides are not as smooth as I would like, which I find annoying.  But they're a good price for custom cabinets.

2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use?
Quartz, I can't remember the maker....agree that they can stain - I had to get rust off already from a pan on the counter.  I like my quartzite island best, but it's $$$ - I think our counters were $6-7K total.

3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have?  Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers.  Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last.  Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf...
We went lower price on appliances - I plan to upgrade stoves one day (we have a 36" electric stove), but it was a place to save.

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain? 

I like having the microwave higher, so we did a microwave shelf next to the fridge and our second sink.  It's a convenient little prep area and we tend to microwave things coming from the fridge, so efficient.

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations?
We did a whole addition and did energy efficiency Marvin windows - they were $16K.  No regrets, I think it makes sense to do big structural changes, it will be more expensive but you'll be happier.


6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openness?
Sort of, we have a fair amount of segmentation - we have a separate dining and formal living room, our family room opens to the kitchen.  It's nice to have openness but also some separate spaces.   We widened the openings between rooms a bit to create better flow.

7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms)? No, we have a wood burning one in our family room which we use a lot in winter - it's cozy.

8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over?
I love drawers, though I don't think my mom does (she's older, doesn't love bending).  No regrets on losing most upper cabinets.  I love the 36" glass range top esp b/c you can't put hot stuff on quartz, makes for a nice hot zone.  Having a second oven is awesome - mine is in the island and I use it all the time (heats faster than the 36" range oven).  I don't love the quartz, I might have gone w/quartzite if I could do it over but $$$.  We did a built in banquette and don't use it a lot, hoping that changes.  Our fridge has ice inside which I love (glad I don't have the dispenser set up - kids are too messy for that).  Tons of lighting choices everywhere - love it.  I have a cabinet next to the stove for sheets pans, nothing pull our or fancy, works well. Do a *full drawer/cabinet height trash pull out* - not one w/a drawer on top.  It's a big mistake to have that drawer above the trash, it makes your trash pullouts too small.  I did it right - a lot of my friends regret their small trash/recycling pull outs.

I love my corner cabinet for pot/pan storage - get the biggest size corner cabinet & opening so it's easy to reach in (I think mine is 39").  My pull out space cabinet is fine, but I have almost two full 29" drawers dedicated to large spices (the kind you buy at costco).

9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost? 
Hard to price this out - I had a very reasonable contractor, I did a lot of the GC work, and we did an addition w/this kitchen reno and the floors and other spaces.  All in, we did it for $215K.  If we just did the kitchen, it probably would have been $80K?  Hard to say. 

 

a welcome distraction....

[Susie]

We haven't reno'ed our kitchen yet, so I have limited helpful input.  But as to 5), we did replace the window over our kitchen sink recently.  We didn't go bigger, but we did take out a double hung and replace with a sliding window (left/right).  I really like it for ease of opening/closing while reaching over a sink.  Especially because I am short.

[litasail]

1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them?  Schrock. We have a LOT of cabinets and the bottom ones are walnut ($$) so we spent a lot on them - more than $50K. I love them.

2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use? Quartz. 

3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have?  Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers.  Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last.  Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf... We have a 36" over-under (non-french door) Sub-Zero. I love it so, so much and I think it was worth every penny. It is such high quality and the layout is perfect for us. We did look at others, but it was hard to find one with an internal water dispenser and a layout that we liked (Dacor was too tall, for instance).

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain? We do have one, and no, not a pain. I like it. Anything to keep the counters uncluttered.

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations? N/A to some extent bc our renovation involved a small bump out. I will say, we haven't regretted that at all.

6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openers? N/A

7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms)? No - we actually (as part of this reno) replaced the wood burning stove that was in there with built-ins.

8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over?  It is stressful, but also the end results are so so worth it. Try to remember that it's a pretty big privilege to be able to do a project like this - I found that helped cut down on my complaining.

9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost? Our cost is probably not apples to apples since we did an addition, moved our basement stairs, did a ton of structural work, etc. For just the kitchen, it was $100K+.

[definitelyO]

1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them?  local/custom/$35,000/ no


2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use?  Quartz


3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have? Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers. Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last. Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf...



4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain?  I like it - DH does not.  it is not as high as our other one - so those microwave rice bags barely fit.  It's hard to look into if you're watching for something to boil.  But I like the aesthetic.


5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations?  n/a


6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openness?   yes I really do and that was the main reason for our reno was to remove the wall - BUT now the sound from the kitchen travels much more down the hall to our bedrooms (we have a ranch)


7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms)?  no


8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over?   lower all your expectations on time and quality.  the end drug on for freaking ever.  The punch list was never ending and took 6 weeks.  the dust was everywhere.  DH and the dogs moved out for a few weeks as there wasn't anywhere they could be.  I would have hired someone to project manage.  It was so much to coordinate with the GC as well as other vendors that weren't "under" him and manage the timeline.  


9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost?   we also refinished our hardwood floors through the kitchen, dining, hall, foyer and LR and did a few upgrades in the LR (as it is connected).  All in ~$100,000.  

[mich1]

When we moved in, we had solid maple cabinets with white laminate doors. The handles broke and the laminate chipped off, but the cabinets themselves were in excellent shape. We had custom doors made for the cabinets by a local handyman. He used the door of one of our build-in as a template. Building the doors, installing them and buying/putting on new handles cost about $5000.

Our countertops and island are not white, but they are quartz. The backsplash is limestone, and we lucked out in getting several fossils in the batch of limestone received.

We have been doing our kitchen piecemeal. We are replacing 26+ year appliances as they die. Microwave was just replaced yesterday, stove last month(even though stove was ordered in July). Refrigerator is on death watch now as it’s the only remaining original appliance.

Even though my optimal renovation would be to punch out the end of the kitchen, extend the counter another 3’ and use the 3’ of useless deck area, to do so would require changing the roof line and wound up being waaay more work for what we received.  Otherwise, our kitchen is fairly open.  Other than the side wall to the outside, the only other wall to knock down would be to our bedroom.

The house builder lived in this house for 3 years before we bought it. He put in high end cabinetry, including the island. Because we did not want to destroy the cabinetry, when we replaced the sink the most important thing one of the designers I worked with told me to look underneath the sink before buying a sink. For us, as it turned out there was an electrical box that blocked the sink on the left side. If we wanted a deeper left sink, we’d need to move the box…..which meant a hole would be left in the solid maple cabinetry.

We made decisions for the kitchen that would keep the light (we have large windows and a door), the floor (also high end) and cabinetry. Had the house not already had some high end finishes, decisions might have been different. Strangely, the appliances were really not high end and what we have put in have been a major upgrade from them. DH almost had a coronary when we bought a $4000 induction stove. Discounting appliances, our renovations cost about $20,000.

[devonpow]

1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost? Ours were custom made by some guy in Maine our contractor works with. It was really expensive but I can’t recall the amount now.

2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use? Our counters are white marble and our island is reclaimed wood. Our designer said it’s really important to have the island material be something that doesn’t show damage etc because it has so much direct lighting on it and usually has the most use (hence no marble on the island!). The marble on the counters has held up shockingly well ( it’s been 8 years). I have a thing I use every year or so that gets rid of any etching that works really well and just takes a few minutes.

3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have? Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers. Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last. Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf... We have a blue star right now. We had a subzero that was here when we moved in and had the custom cabinetry built around it. It died about 2 years ago (it was 25+ years old) and the wait for a new subzero was over 18 months omg. The Blue Star was a 4 month wait and fit in the cabinetry so was a win for us! Go see Danny at Yale appliance - he’s great at talking through all the options.

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain? We don’t because we needed storage in the island more. Instead we have a built in combo microwave/convection oven (Bosch) we really like. My sister in law has the microwave drawer and loves it.

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations? n/a

6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openness? We took down a wall but it was to a mud room /storage room. We had an open floor plan in our old house and I hated it. I love having a separate dining room and kitchen. When we entertain I don’t like having dirty dishes/prep on display all the time

7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms)? We do. We never use it though because it has a downdraft problem so smells like smoke too much. I would love to convert it to gas but it was a major pain with permitting etc to do it in our living room and I’m not up for that again

8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over? It’s awful to live through but so great when done! Make sure you work with a contractor and designer you really trust.

9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost?

[k3am]

I’m currently looking at a quote for custom kitchen cabinets that totals $56k - which includes install, paint, etc.

This is the “cheaper” of our two quotes. (I couldn’t tell you how much more the other is, since they lumped together ALL the cabinets for the first floor and this quote broke it out by room.

The designer wants us to go full custom, the contractor is suggesting a mix of custom and semi-custom, in the house which will likely go with.

We have a subzero fridge coming, but no review on it yet that would be helpful. Most of the other questions don’t apply.

We are just beginning demo this week and I’m tired already. These guys are rockstars, they haven’t stopped all day. I don’t know how they do it.

[fryjack2]

k3am. Our cabinet quote came in a touch higher. They are custom Italian cabinets made over there and shipped over. Our kitchen is not small but not expansive.

We’ve been here 6 years and have done a ton of other large projects but nothing this big inside. I vacillate between doing nothing except fixing up the rec room in the basement for the kids and going big and doing everything that would make the house feel more like a place I like as opposed to a place I live in.

We will be here at least 10 more years and may even keep it as an investment so that sways me to just do all the work.

[k3am]

fryjack2 I could have written your last post. We’ve been here 6 years, expect to be here at least 10 more, a couple smaller projects, but definitely nothing this big before. DH and I save/spend similarly, but he’s talked me into a lot of things I didn’t know I wanted.

[DotAndBuzz]

All I have to add to this is I have a SubZero side by side, and FUCKING HATE IT.

It is so small. Seriously. Can't even fit a pizza box in there. Can *barely* fit a mini cookie sheet in the freezer to freeze things on. Like, the door won't close if one of the door shelves lines up with the tray, becuase it's too shallow. It is original to the house, which is from 1996, and lucky me....it will never die, because there's no computer board. It's all physical parts. Repairmen come out if something needs attention, and they're like, "OMG, this is GREAT! this is going to last FOREVER!" No idea if that's how they're still made, but I'm going to be living with mine forever, apparently.

I know this is ridiculous to complain about - a solidly made, reliable appliance, but when I tell you it is so so SO SMALL......
I'd be going to the store 3x/wk if we didn't have a fridge in the garage. And holidays? totally fucked. A turkey would take up an entire shelf, and I have no idea what I'd put it in to thaw (juices running everywhere....ew). Like, I don't think I have anything that would physically fit in there with the turkey, and still allow the door to close,

[DotAndBuzz]

SubZero as a brand seems solid (at least what I have), but hell no no no to the side by side.

[mrsukyankee]

As I live in England, most of the answers won't help you. What might is that we got Dekton as our counter surface. We like it, it's durable and it doesn't stain easily - but we are weirdly getting stains from rust and they aren't coming off (we'll need to hire someone eventually). There are upsides and downsides to every type of surface and I'm still very happy with ours, because my H is not great at taking care of wiping things up all the time and my MIL doesn't wear her glasses so she misses things when she cleans. Plus it's very good with heat so putting a hot pan or dish on it doesn't have an impact. Wine, curries, etc have not stained it at all.

[kadams767]

1) Who made your cabinets, how much did your cabinets cost and do you like them?  We had our original cabinets refaced and refinished.  I think the cabinet piece alone was around $12k.

2) If you have white counters and island top, what product did you use?  Quartz

3) If you have a subzero type fridge/freezer, which one do you have? Bonus if its side by side option-not a fan of freezer drawers. Also not sure I want to spend that much on a fridge/freezer, but like the look of them and how long they last. Also bonus if you have feedback on a thermador, Bluestar, Dacor, Wolf...  N/A, I couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money on appliances, honestly.

4) If you have a microwave drawer built into your island, is it a pain?  We specifically did not add a drawer microwave because I have one at work and my in-laws have one, and I hate using them at both places.  

5) If you replaced a window with a larger one, do you regret that since its more involved exterior renovations?  N/A

6) If you took down a wall to open your kitchen to another space, do you like the openness?  N/A, but my kitchen already was open to our dining room, which I really like.  I don't like full open-concept floor plans, so we didn't open up the other side at all, and the dining room isn't wide open to other rooms, so this works for me.  

7) Do you have a fireplace in your dining room ( thinking of flipping our living and dining rooms)?  No.

8) Any advice for a kitchen remodel? What are you happy about and what do you wish you could do over?   I did a tile floor and definitely picked the wrong grout color.  It looks dirty so easily, I should have gotten a dark color instead of the lighter grey I chose.

9) if you gutted your kitchen and changed everything ( with non budget, more mid level/high end options) except the floors, how much did it roughly cost?  We did not change the layout, but we did change everything else including the floors, adding a hood vent to the outside, adding lighting and re-routing some of the HVAC, and I think we were pretty mid-range on appliances, materials and the finishes.  In 2019, this cost us a little over $50k.