Kitchen Remodel Steps

Posted on 29 March, 2008 By Csara

I know we’ve been talking about this for a while, but we are finally really knee-deep into the process of remodeling our kitchen. I’ll post about each step individually in more detail, but for now, I wanted to post a list of all the steps we’ve been taking and still need to complete in order to finish this entire project! It definitely takes a lot of time and energy, but I know it will be worth it.

1. First of all, we had to come up with a kitchen design.

2. Pick out kitchen cabinets. The hardware can essentially come later, but needs to be done at some point too.

3. Buy new appliances. This needs to be done in order to measure correctly for the cabinetry.

4. Find contractor(s). J and I are working as the general contractors, but we needed to find people to do the actual work. I wrote about this step here.

5. We figured since we would be replacing our cabinets with taller ones that go up to the ceiling, we needed to scrape the popcorn off the ceilings and of course repaint.

6. Pick out granite for the counter tops.

7. Pick out tile back splash.

8. Choose new sink and faucet. We are going to keep our current garbage disposal and let it run it’s course.
9. Decide on whether or not we are getting new lighting fixtures and get an electrician for some other minor electrical changes.

10. Speak with phone company to see about adding a new phone jack. We changed things when doing the design and need to make sure that what we planned will actually work.
11. Empty all of the current kitchen cabinets to get ready for demolition. What a job!!!

12. DEMOLITION

13. Install the new cabinets, reconnect all of the appliances, sink and counter top installation.

14. Putting it all back together……..

Stay tuned for photos and updates.

Categories : Kitchen | Remodeling

Comments:

God Bless you! I saw this as I take a break from CLEANING in our work-in-progress kitchen!

Can I mention a boo-boo we made? DON'T finish the painting/ceiling BEFORE you make your final decision on LIGHTING!!! If you do... you're going to end up cutting holes in your new, perfect ceiling to put in your new lights!

We did good with the other wiring etc (we're doing all of this ourselves ) but hubby finished up the ceiling before discussing lighting... mistake! It'll be fine - but he's still a little irritated.

Also, (not that you don't know this) don't let them install your countertop until almost everything else if finished! Otherwise you're going to be like me and having a FIT afraid someone is going to screw up your new, nice, expensive counter while working on something else... by Turtleheadfred
Yeh work from the top down.

So far we scraped the popcorn, primed, and painted the ceiling. We made no changes to the lighting ie drilling new highhat can holes. If we do any lighting changes they will fit our current light setup.

I'm considering doing one of those bendable tracks though in place of our current dining room fixture and replacing our highhats with LED highhats from Cree Inc : Cree LED Lighting Solutions : the first and only general illumination LED system that provides beautiful color, high efficiency and eco-friendly technology.

However, I'm waffling on if the cost is worth because I NEED two LCD tv's by Jester
Good tips, THF! As J said, we are not changing the lighting in the ceiling, but we are adding under the cabinet lighting which I am SO excited about!!! Oh and yes, about the counter top. When the cabinets are in, I have to call our granite guy (we already bought the granite) and he is coming to make a template and then will cut the stone and install it last! We are going to be without a counter top for over a week.....ugh!!!

Today they installed the TOP cabinets and they look amazing! We already have so much more storage space. I'm so excited!!

Oh and yeh, the two LCD tvs he "NEEDs". Men! lol by Csara
Quote:

Originally Posted by Csara

Oh and yeh, the two LCD tvs he "NEEDs". Men! lol

Well... is one of the TVs for the kitchen? HA! by Turtleheadfred
I love this thread because when the TUNDRA area finally melts we will be tackling this ourselves. I am still trying to pick out cabinets. Here is our dilema. We are trying to fix up our house as inexpensively as possible because we want to move to a bigger house. It is way too small. It is an older double wide so its not a "house" so adding "value" to it is nearly impossible. I want it fixed up so we can get a decent price for it then move on. It would be a good starter home for someone like when we moved here 11 yrs ago. It sits on a full basement so it look more like a ranch style home rather than a doublewide so thats a plus. But I want a bigger house and don't want to dump money into something I don't intend on staying in...kwim? But for the time being we're here and I am tired of the bad kitchen. So please keep the tips coming.... by heather6773
Heather, have you thought about just refacing the cabinets instead of getting all new ones? You could also get new hardware to spice them up. That would definitely be less expensive, but would add some newness and probably a better look. by Csara
There are several options. Use "jazz it up" things vs replacing.

New knobs or pulls are a huge difference maker and you can do that for about 30-40 bucks.

You can also try stainless steel sheeting covering. Like this.

Maybe even look into reclaiming someones old cabinets on freecycle or craigslist or even check your local dump for them. We just recycled our kitchen cabinets and moved them into our garage, but we almost dumped them so there are definitely people out there doing the same as us.

I don't think a full blown kitchen redo is probably the best choice. Save your cash for the move. If everything around you for sale has a full blown kitchen redo than you may need to redo the kitchen to sell. If thats the case you can:

Resurface with Veneer, sand and paint the cabinet fronts - White, or just get new doors.

If you have to do full redo use Ikea prices as a comparison. by Jester
Thanks guys. Thats what I want to do is just spruce it up a bit. I will keep my eyes open on freecycle. I check it out every once in awhile. I saw some that weren't too much at Lowes. Pretty basic ones. by heather6773
Heather - our cabinet "boxes" are still our original ones, and we "added on" to make extras. What we've done (this go round) is make new doors. That is REALLY making a difference! And it's MUCH cheaper than resurfacing or new cabinets and I'm LOVING the outcome!

Just FYI... by Turtleheadfred