How to Remodel an Expensive Kitchen On A Budget

the expensive part of my kitchen

You have a low to medium kitchen remodeling budget but you have GREAT taste. Where do you compromise?

Things You'll Need

• knowledge of how much money you really have to work with
• an ability to stick to that figure
• a contractor who won't steal you blind
• a vision of the finished product

Instructions

1. Find a contractor through recommendations. Check his history with the Better Business Bureau. If you have the skills & muscle power to do it yourself, even better.

   Get all necessary permits well in advance of the job so you won't be tied up later. You can go down to the township offices yourself and do it without involving the contractor, or you can just let him do it. Financially it won't make much of a difference if you have already negotiated a fee.

   Use a fee basis for your contract with the contractor. Decide on this fee, put it in writing, and include a date. DO NOT include cost of materials in your contract. If you do, he will inflate the cost and you won't have any idea what you're paying for. This can be your responsibility and it means running around to a supply house to pay, but that's okay, at least you know you're paying the right price.

   Include absolutely everything you can think of in the contract. Ask for examples of completed contracts from friends who have done this, so you can get ideas of what to include in the contract.

   Remember to require warrantee of workmanship in case a cabinet falls off the wall in 6 months (no, this did not happen to me, thank God--but it could).

2. Once you know your budget and the cost you have agreed upon with the contractor, you know how much you have to buy cabinets, ceilings, floors, appliances, countertops, fixtures, etc. What is more important to you? Do you think a fancy farm sink is important? Or would you prefer to put your money into custom cabinets?

3. Find a place in your house where you can put an ad hoc kitchenette so you don't completely lose your mind during the remodel. If you share the house with someone, be prepared to listen to a lot of complaining. Try to find restaurants in the area that are really cheap so you can at least have some kind of food during the months that it will take to complete the job. This might be the time to learn to love raw food. It's good for you anyway.

4. I don't understand or truly appreciate custom cabinets. I understand appliances. I fell in love with this French range and it costs about as much as a Wolf or Viking range, which is upper end, but not royalty upper end. Still if I wanted that one, I had to compromise somewhere else.

   So I happily bought stock cabinets from the local hardware store and didn't bother with upper cabinets at all. My pot rack is a metal plumber's pipe that costs about $5. I had the builder put up those simple open shelves which I painted.

5. Because the kitchen is small and not open to the rest of the house, a normal refrigerator would have cut the space, so I had to get a 27 inch deep refrigerator and I went with a SubZero because of that and the glass door. This makes the kitchen seem larger. I really sweated that one, because the SubZero is so expensive.

   But overall, this put my total appliance budget (including the dishwasher and the completely unnecessary pot filler which actually sits about 2 ft. from the kitchen sink) into the just under $18,000 range. That sounds like a lot of money...and therefore, the compromises.

6. Companies who sell marble and granite counter tops usually have countertops that have been custom ordered and then rejected, so they have to sell them cheap.

   If you dream about wood countertops, these can be very inexpensive and you can get creative about them. I have seen a beautiful kitchen counter made from hardwood flooring material for instance.

Tips & Warnings

• Respect the style of your house. My house is a Victorian cottage.

• Save money by keeping the appliance and architectural footprint. I didn't move plumbing or walls.

• Be aware of insulation when ripping things out. Once they are covered up, you won't see anything and it'll be too late.

Resources

• How To design a Kitchen Island