Back in March, my wife and I kicked off a remodel of our kitchen that we planned to do ourselves. Different projects started and paused, work demanded travel and things have dragged all year. But here we are 8 months later, and the damn thing is nearly done. I'm also happy to say that we've done nearly everything ourselves (with the exception of drywall texture and tile work).
For the tl;dr version, just skip to the picture at the bottom. For the rest, here are some highlights.
Background: We bought our 1959 house about 7 years ago, loved the size of the kitchen but hated most of the rest of. The wall color was bad, the cabinets were beat to hell, the drawers on wooden guides were a pain, the flesh colored laminate countertop looked gross. This spring the sink drain started leaking inside the wall, causing a huge moldy mess. Within a couple weeks, we also had a gas leak in the wall oven. Those two events inspired us to finally tackle this project, while taking care of 2 kids (4 yrs and 1 yr).
Cabinets: The cabinets have survived 60 years and the frames are in great shape. We decided to strip down the frames a repaint them. We ordered new doors, drawer boxes, drawer fronts, drawer slides and hardware online. Keeping the existing cabinets proved challenging at times because the sizes were non-standard. The original 1959 sink was 27" wide and we had to hunt to get a new one to fit. Same problem with the sink. We also cut some new holes in the frame to add a drawer and a new door.
Shelves/Backsplash: Open shelving was on my wife's wishlist. We removed part of the soffit and took down some of the upper cabinets. The whole wall got tiled and we mounted 12 steel brackets that we found on Etsy. The boards are 12x2 hickory that we distressed ourselves using a combination of vinegar/steel wool, hand scraping, stain, shellac and finally wax. The tile is 2x4 mini-subway tile that came in mosaic sheets. We ended up hiring someone to do the install for us because I was travelling for work, though I fought hard. In the end he did a great job and had it knocked out in 1.5 days, as opposed to the week it would have taken me.
Countertop: The countertop is maple butcher block. We bought sheets (an 8 ft and a 12 ft) of butcher block from Lumber Liquidators and then cut them ourselves, including the undermount sink. We finished the butcher block with something like 12 coats of WaterLox. It's hard to see the sink, but it's a single bowl black composite granite. It's big enough to bathe children or slaughter livestock.
What's Left: We have a few things left to do. Though it's not pictured, I have installed the range hood. We still need to paint and install the upper cabinet doors and add knobs everywhere. We also want to do something with the lighting over the island to replace the temporary bare bulbs you see. Phase 2 in 2016 will include opening the kitchen into the living room and refinishing/replacing the floors throughout.
The budget: All in, we came in under $10K. The breakout is below. This includes a grand for the initial plumbing/gas leak disasters: plumbing repair, environmental inspection, framing repair (because the plumber cut some studs) and testing for the gas leak. We have a lot of stuff hiding in the "Misc" category, because I need to go through and split some receipts.
All in all, this has been a great learning experience. It tried out patience at times, but really patience was the only thing we really needed. Once we committed to a direction, no single task was all that challenging. I'm glad we've done it ourselves and we've inspired at least one neighbor to start their own remodel.
If anyone has questions on specific steps, I'm more than happy to share what we did and what we learned.
| Category | | Amount Spent |
| Appliance - Cooktop | | $789 |
| Appliance - Wall Oven | | $889 |
| Backsplash - Labor | | $700 |
| Backsplash - Materials | | $275.52 |
| Cabinets - Doors & Drawer Fronts | | $749.24 |
| Cabinets - Drawer boxes | | $205.98 |
| Cabinets - Drawer guides | | $152.85 |
| Cabinets - Hardware | | $260.59 |
| Countertops | | $772.69 |
| Door trim | | $110.45 |
| Drywall - Labor | | $200 |
| Drywall - Materials | | $47.8 |
| Electric | | $80.44 |
| Environmental Inspection | | $295 |
| Framing repair | | $300 |
| Garbage disposal | | $170.72 |
| Gas leak check | | $75 |
| Kitchen sink | | $329.68 |
| Kitchen sink - Mounting | | $39.85 |
| Lightbulbs | | $157.99 |
| Misc | | $407.84 |
| Organization | | $83.2 |
| Paint | | $235.37 |
| Paint stripping | | $94.03 |
| Painting | | $214.63 |
| Plumbing | | $42.67 |
| Range hood | | $347.72 |
| Shelf boards | | $345.84 |
| Shelf hardware | | $290.14 |
| Sink drain repair | | $375 |
| Sink lighting | | $107.17 |
| To split | | $74.52 |
| Tools | | $78.54 |
| Wood finish | | $12.16 |
| Grand Total | | $9310.63 |
Here is a collage of before and after, with some progress shown along the way:
