A KITCHEN STORY
BEFORE: The thing I liked the least about the house was the counters. Brown speckled with more brown, builder grade fakery, a stubborn level of ugliness that sapped light from the room and my soul. But the kitchen would be the last big project we tackled, and the one on which we both spent the most – and saved the most – money. After living with it for two years, having moved in as 2020 and COVID both punched the world in the face, I just couldn’t take it any more. Those years gave us plenty of time to ruminate, plan, shop, revise and revise again before we got underway. We also had to be realistic. Rob is extremely handy and has a lot of experience with renovations, but some things are better left to the experts for a number of reasons.
Here’s how it all went down:
1 Habitat for Humanity accepted our donation of the existing cabinets and counters. That means they did the demo and we get a tax writeoff!
2 Vendor 1 removed and replaced all of the floor tile.
3 Rob did all the drywall repair from the demo, and eliminated the overhang.
AFTER
4 The cabinets were delivered fully assembled to the garage. Rob installed them, and we worked together to install the hardware.
5 Vendor 2 installed the countertops.
6 Rob plumbed in the new sink, faucet and disposal. (He also replaced the water heater, which died unexpectedly mid-reno.)
7 Rob put up the wall tile, while I handled staging, tile cutting, and a lengthy cleanup process – that’s a LOT of grout lines.
8 We put up the wallpaper.
9 I stained and poly-ed the shelves, then Rob installed them.
10 Rob installed the new range hood and light fixture.
TO COME:
• Paint the white walls a light peach pulled from the wallpaper
• Add a bifold door to the laundry room
MONEY SPENT: $16,000
Countertops (installed) $3,992
Cabinets $6120
Floor tile $1,174
Floor tile remove/install $1,600
Wall tile $600
Mastic/grout/edging/etc $300
General supplies $100
Threshold $37
Sink/faucet/disposal $513
Cabinet hardware $90
Range hood $210
Light and bulbs $130
Undercabinet lights $100
Wallpaper $121
Floating shelves $913
Running the Numbers
MONEY NOT SPENT: $7,700 (probably a lot more…)
Drywall repair $775
Wall tile install $950
Wall tile delivery $150
Cabinets remove/install $1,575
Cabinet hardware install $200
Counters remove $75
Baseboards $470
Fix pony wall $500
Replace disposal $300
Replace sink $170
Replace faucet $240
Replace outlet $275
Wire/install ceiling light $300
Install hood $200
Wallpaper $150
Stain/poly shelves $900
Install shelves $225
Install threshold $45
Paint $200