Kitchen Remodel Plans
As regular readers will know, we bought our house, the one we have been living in for almost 3 years, in December of last year. Of course, besides the normal maintenance and cosmetic items that I have been doing for a while now, since we own it, there are bigger more fundamental issues to deal with like the windows we installed in December, the completely unbalanced heating/cooling installation and the tiny crappy kitchen.
I started planning the new space, with some walls to be knocked through, bathroom shrinking to a powder room (toilet for my British readers), smaller laundry room, etc. Reasonably complex but nothing horrendous, no supporting walls, etc. However, as these things always do, (especially if there is a wife involved :-) the project potentially had become significantly more complex, possibly tearing out most of an original supporting brick exterior wall, the one that now forms the wall between the dining/kitchen area and the family room.
Whilst I saw the logic of the choice, it ultimately came down to cost and time. If we chose to take out the wall, it would have really opened up the space between the three rooms, but we would have needed a steel beam to support the removal. It's times like these when you really see the benefit of wood construction, both from a cost and complexity perspective. If it was just wood, I could easily have supported the ceiling with some temporary bracing, thrown up some new king and jack studs, slide in a double or triple LVL beam and "Bob's Your Uncle"
I spent most of this year, albeit not very expeditiously, talking to various contractors and trades to give me some idea on their thoughts for cost. I had originally thought I would do a lot of the work myself, but ultimately settled on doing just the cabinets, tile and floors myself, and having the rest done by a general contractor. More expensive sure, but better for my marriage and sanity, from a time perspective.
It was interesting to see the amount of variety between quotes and thinking, and what people spend on remodelling here in the US. As I am want to do, I have been watching a lot of DIY TV, focusing on kitchen shows for obvious reasons, but watching others too. I recently watched a show where they were refurbing a bathroom, and some of the choices they made were bizarre. For example they spent about $3k on a new free standing steam and multi jet two person shower. It looked fabulous and a great investment I thought. In the same bathroom though, they bought a "vanity unit" (for the British readers, a sink cabinet and sink), nice looking, with a vessel sink, solid surface counter and a nice faucet, but it cost almost as much as the shower at $2700!!!
I know the quality varies, but we have been quoted from as high as $17k for cabinetry, versus the Ikea price of about $4k. So there is a potential saving of $13k right there. Now before anyone gets all high and mighty, I have done my research, and everything I hear and read about Ikea is that they are excellent quality kitchens and very durable. Another area which seems overly expensive here in the US compared to the UK is appliances. Dishwashers costing $1000, fridges at over $2000, ovens at $1500, all seem very expensive. I am hoping that I have a friendly contact at a local store that will be able to secure me significant discounts.
All that to say, that I could, I am sure, easily spend $50k -$60k on this kitchen, but I am hoping to eek out $30k for the same result. We shall see.
Below are a couple of drawings of what it will hopefully end up. The first is the architect plan showing the space, and the other is the Ikea kitchen software rendering for the space with the new cabinets and appliances. There are a couple of gaps due to bugs in the software, but now that I have a full actual plan I should be good to go to redraw more accurately.
We are looking at a white bead board style cabinet door, with galaxy black granite counter tops and of course, stainless/brushed steel appliances.
I started planning the new space, with some walls to be knocked through, bathroom shrinking to a powder room (toilet for my British readers), smaller laundry room, etc. Reasonably complex but nothing horrendous, no supporting walls, etc. However, as these things always do, (especially if there is a wife involved :-) the project potentially had become significantly more complex, possibly tearing out most of an original supporting brick exterior wall, the one that now forms the wall between the dining/kitchen area and the family room.
Whilst I saw the logic of the choice, it ultimately came down to cost and time. If we chose to take out the wall, it would have really opened up the space between the three rooms, but we would have needed a steel beam to support the removal. It's times like these when you really see the benefit of wood construction, both from a cost and complexity perspective. If it was just wood, I could easily have supported the ceiling with some temporary bracing, thrown up some new king and jack studs, slide in a double or triple LVL beam and "Bob's Your Uncle"
I spent most of this year, albeit not very expeditiously, talking to various contractors and trades to give me some idea on their thoughts for cost. I had originally thought I would do a lot of the work myself, but ultimately settled on doing just the cabinets, tile and floors myself, and having the rest done by a general contractor. More expensive sure, but better for my marriage and sanity, from a time perspective.
It was interesting to see the amount of variety between quotes and thinking, and what people spend on remodelling here in the US. As I am want to do, I have been watching a lot of DIY TV, focusing on kitchen shows for obvious reasons, but watching others too. I recently watched a show where they were refurbing a bathroom, and some of the choices they made were bizarre. For example they spent about $3k on a new free standing steam and multi jet two person shower. It looked fabulous and a great investment I thought. In the same bathroom though, they bought a "vanity unit" (for the British readers, a sink cabinet and sink), nice looking, with a vessel sink, solid surface counter and a nice faucet, but it cost almost as much as the shower at $2700!!!
I know the quality varies, but we have been quoted from as high as $17k for cabinetry, versus the Ikea price of about $4k. So there is a potential saving of $13k right there. Now before anyone gets all high and mighty, I have done my research, and everything I hear and read about Ikea is that they are excellent quality kitchens and very durable. Another area which seems overly expensive here in the US compared to the UK is appliances. Dishwashers costing $1000, fridges at over $2000, ovens at $1500, all seem very expensive. I am hoping that I have a friendly contact at a local store that will be able to secure me significant discounts.
All that to say, that I could, I am sure, easily spend $50k -$60k on this kitchen, but I am hoping to eek out $30k for the same result. We shall see.
Below are a couple of drawings of what it will hopefully end up. The first is the architect plan showing the space, and the other is the Ikea kitchen software rendering for the space with the new cabinets and appliances. There are a couple of gaps due to bugs in the software, but now that I have a full actual plan I should be good to go to redraw more accurately.
We are looking at a white bead board style cabinet door, with galaxy black granite counter tops and of course, stainless/brushed steel appliances.
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