Kitchen Remodel DIY

Neo27

United States154 Posts

February 23 2010 06:52 GMT

Hey guys! I've done quite a bit of work on my house in the past few years, and rather than let all these pictures sit on my SD card, I might as well share them with fellow TLers.

I bought this house in 2005, and the first major DIY project was updating the kitchen in 2006. I have more projects to talk about (siding, doors, windows, bathroom) but I'll post in chronological order as time permits. I'll try to keep the commentary to a minimum as picture is worth a thousand words. Hope you enjoy!

Kitchen Remodel

So we buy a house. It's sort of a dump, must have been un-ambitious tenants before us. The kitchen is 12.5' x 12.5'. There is hardly any cabinets, and a bunch of open space in the middle. I suspect it used to be an eat-in kitchen.

For base cabinets, there's a sink base, with a dishwasher to the left, a lazy susan to the right, and a 12" to the right of the lazy susan. Wall cabinets above the floor cabinets.

The cart to the right of the stove and the cabinet to the right of this picture are both free-standing. Lots of empty space...

A shot from the adjacent dining room. There are stairs to the basement in-between. I never liked those black steel hand-rails.

+ Show Spoiler [More "Before" pics] +

This won't do. We had a floor plan laid out in less than an hour at our local home-improvement store. In Northeast USA, we have Home Depot, Lowes, and 84 Lumber. We went with Lowes. Most of the cabinets were in stock, which saves greatly on cost. We had our countertop color and design picked out, cheap formica. All delivered to my house in 3 weeks.

Day before Delivery Day: Started Demolition!

The old wall cabinets had drywall/plaster above them to the ceiling. I ripped this out too.

What a mess.

With that overhang gone, I patched the gaps with 2 layers of 3/8" drywall. The original wall thickness is ON AVERAGE 3/4". With plaster walls, there is little uniformity.
Once I had the drywall up, this is when my wife came home. It's always smart to get her out of the house for the first phase of demo - she gets nervous that the job is too big for me to handle.

I know this look. I could read her mind. "WTF have you done with my kitchen??"

I got 2 coats of spackle on before the day's end.

(Spackle always looks awesome in photos)

Delivery Day:

Here they are!

Countertop:

Cabinets:

Once the truck pulled away, we realized that we were missing half the cabinets... I love my wife, but I will say this. DO NOT EVER mess with a woman who didn't get all her cabinets. I would have hated to be the guy at Lowes to had her calling.

In about 30 minutes we had the rest:

While she was taking care of cabinet delivery, worked continued. We had something on our ceiling that looked like a paper plate glued to it. It turns out it was a disconnected exhaust fan which was covered up with this steel plate. I ripped that out, and put another coat of spackle on the walls.

Next phase: Base Cabinet Removal.

These out easily. I added wiring for an outlet behind the fridge (it was previously plugged in by an outlet above the countertop) and another outlet under the sink. I also removed a lot of the water damaged drywall/plaster. This is when I realized my walls did not have a lick of insulation. (Insulation added to the list - for a future project.)

I took some loose insulation from the attic and stuffed it in where I could fit it, just in case I never got around to the insulation project.

Drywall and spackle.

Next day: Paint!

Red, with pink primer.

I didn't take a lot of pictures, above is the only one with the third coat of red, and before the cabinets.

Cabinet Install!
I forgot to take pics during install, but here's immediately after we put the countertop on. I also got rid of that light fixture and patched that hole too, along with the hole from the exhaust fan.

Wow, I was feeling good at this point.

It was time to put the sink in. This is when I encountered a major problem. We opted for a garbage disposal, never had one, sounded cool. However, the output from the disposal was BELOW the sewer pipe in the wall (has a rag in it

Oh crap. Now what?
I took pictures of the system directly below the sink, in the basement.

I decided to drill down through the cabinet and floor and install an "S" trap, and cap the wall input.

"S" traps are frowned upon, since they collect sewer gas, where a P trap typically does not.

Here's what the basement plumbing looks like after:

I put a T on the end too, to make future drain snakes easier:

Next step: Dishwasher. Once this was in, I had a fully functional kitchen with running water.

Any DIYer knows that once you can USE the room, progress slows. I took about 2 months off.

Then I did a lot of stuff without taking pics.

Painted ceiling, light brown.
Microwave over the stove.
Island Cabinets! Finally! The whole highlight of the kitchen.
Ice maker to fridge hooked up.
Recessed Lighting.

But still the old vinyl tiles. The next phase was the floor. Gray Ceramic Tile.

After grouted:

At this point, I considered the kitchen done. Phew.
Finish work commenced over the next 4 years in my free time. I took some pics tonight, it looks great, and I'm glad we did it. Some things you may or may not see in these last pictures are new pantry cabinets by the fridge, Crown molding, Base molding, and, replacing those ugly steel handrails, OAK.

I hope I didn't go overboard on the pictures. I have three times as much for my bathroom remodel, I'll try to include as many as I can in spoiler tags next time.

It was a time consuming project, but completely worth the cost savings from having a contractor do it. I'm no pro, but if you are considering taking on a task like this, I'll give you whatever advice I can.

Shinshin

United States106 Posts

February 23 2010 07:10 GMT

Wow. It looks a lot better and looks more kitcheny now. How much did a renovation like that set you back?

Mickey

United States2606 Posts

February 23 2010 07:24 GMT

God I wish I knew how to do stuff like this =/ I don't even know how to change a flat tire. What kind of a man AM I?!!!!

OmgIRok

Taiwan2699 Posts

February 23 2010 07:30 GMT

i saw the before pics at the top of your post, and i just let the page load and scrolled to the end;

holy motherfucking shit intense work looks really really nice!!

PS: can't wait to see the bathroom remodel

TimmyMac

Canada499 Posts

February 23 2010 07:31 GMT

Damn - that's super nice.

At first I thought it was gonna be a weak and shitty remodel. Then I saw the paint and cabs and was like oh, not bad, but still needs a new floor. Then I saw the floor and lighting and was impressed

Neo27

United States154 Posts

February 23 2010 12:40 GMT

On February 23 2010 16:10 Shinshin wrote:
Wow. It looks a lot better and looks more kitcheny now. How much did a renovation like that set you back?

I never calculated a "total" cost, but I remember some things. (All in USD)

Cabinets and countertop $4400
Floor was $1.09 a tile, so about $150
Paint $80
Sink and garbage disposal $300
Lights $140

So after nails, screws, and wood molding and stuff, It was probably about $6K.

haduken

Australia8267 Posts

February 23 2010 13:39 GMT

Where did you learn how to do these stuff?

lac29

United States1485 Posts

February 23 2010 17:11 GMT

Super impressive. My parents are redoing their kitchen right now and it costs a buttload to hire someone to do it. You def saved a LOT of money by doing it yourself (I'm guessing more than half the price).

ohforkme

Oman18 Posts

February 23 2010 17:13 GMT

--- Nuked ---

Neo27

United States154 Posts

February 24 2010 03:21 GMT

#10

On February 23 2010 22:39 haduken wrote:
Where did you learn how to do these stuff?

I got a big book called "The big book of home how to" which has basic guides for all this stuff. Plus, you have to accept the fact that you can totally screw up your house, and be willing to hire a contractor to fix your mess if need be. I luckily haven't needed to do that yet.

BalloonFight

United States2007 Posts

February 24 2010 04:10 GMT

#11

Very very nice, extremely professional and looks a lot better than before.

On February 24 2010 02:11 lac29 wrote:
Super impressive. My parents are redoing their kitchen right now and it costs a buttload to hire someone to do it. You def saved a LOT of money by doing it yourself (I'm guessing more than half the price).

Of course to do it yourself you have to have the time, effort, and will to do it. Depending on your economic situation, time frame, etc etc I would think hiring contractors is not always a bad thing even if you could theoretically do it yourself. I mean yes, $6,000 is a lot let's say, but over 4-5 years? It depends on a lot of things.

Chill

Calgary26003 Posts

February 24 2010 04:59 GMT

#12

Wow. I'm always super jealous of people who have "general contractor" skills.

nayumi

Australia6499 Posts

February 24 2010 05:08 GMT

#13

I actually prefer the old one. The new one looks much more ... err classier(?!) but your old kitchen reminds me of the one at my grandma's place which is always filled with great food =P

Not to say that the new one doesn't look good though, great job right there =)

XDawn

Canada4040 Posts

February 24 2010 06:22 GMT

#14

Very nice job
I've never actually seen or heard anyone else redo a kitchen/anything by their self without calling a contractor or anything.
I did this a lot with my father a couple years back. We re-did the whole kitchen, living room, and built did literally everything in the basement from scratch - hard work but still fun imo

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