Clearly, the most expensive renovation in the house, but worth every penny!

Doing all the work ourselves, except tiling the floor (that was a matter of time) saved us a lot of money. We also bought a lower-priced tier kitchen cabinet model (which was still made really well), and we had already purchased the refrigerator, stove and microwave a few years earlier. But everything else added up.

COST BREAKDOWN

Cabinets, countertop: $11,432

Lighting Fixture: $349

Appliances: $1,005

Pantry organization: $965

Tile & labor: $950

Plumbing supplies: $200

Window Treatment: $54

Wall art: $298

Paint Supplies: $150

TOTAL: $15,553

Money doesn’t grow on trees. So how did we pay for this? Check out my post 6 Ways You Can Finance Your Renovation and I’ll fill you in!

 Time to complete: 5 months spread out over almost 1 year Because we could only work on the cabinet installation on the weekends, that stretched out over a couple of months.  Then we had to put the installation of the floor on hold for several months while the work on the bathroom and breakfast nook was going on. So there was a lag from the time we finished the bulk of the work until we came back and finished the rest. And there are still a few small items left to finish!

Jun – Jul ’17  Ordered the cabinets; demo’d the old floor and cabinets

Aug – Oct ’17 Installed the new cabinets and backsplash

Nov ’17 – Apr ’18 Hiatus in this room while we finished work on the breakfast nook & bathroom

Apr ’18 Installed floor tile

The challenges in this room were many. I’m not sure I can remember them all but I’ll try!

• We knew the floor was going to be a challenge and we weren’t wrong. Read all about it here.
• The kitchen sink I had my heart set on didn’t fit in the cabinet we ordered and I had to go with the standard stainless. See this post for details.
• The walls were full of surprises (like old paneling). No worries, we painted over all of it. See how we did that here.
• I painted the room 3 times (3’s a charm?) before I found the paint color I liked (Behr Distant Land).
• Because we had to work on the weekends installing the cabinets we were basically without a kitchen for months, but we extended things as long as we could and lived without a sink and stove for extended lengths of time. We made it work!
• We had just plywood for a floor in the kitchen for almost 10 months, because we had to put that installation on hold while the downstairs bathroom was being completed.

For (non-affiliate) links to my purchases, see Shopping Links further down this page.

As many challenges as this room presented, renovating it created a lengthy list of life improvements.

When you vastly improve the kitchen, it can’t help but improve your quality of life since it’s a room everyone uses all the time. There were so many improvements, big and small. Here are the most prominent:

• The kitchen counters are level (they never were before). You can place something on the counter and it won’t roll off. Priceless!
• With two new cabinets and top cabinets that reach to the ceiling, there is a lot more space for all the necessary supplies and tools. Things are better organized and closer at hand when I need them.
• The layout didn’t change a lot but we did add a number of space-saving and function-enhancing features that made working in the kitchen a lot more efficient: the silverware drawers, pots and pan drawers, a cabinet just for my glass storage jars, spice cabinet, lazy susans in the base corner cabinets, a cabinet just for bakeware.
• The new coffee/tea bar is practically life changing.
• With the new pantry cabinet, I completely organized that space with new containers and custom labels. I can find anything in there now and putting supplies away after grocery shopping is a breeze – for anyone.
• The kitchen counter is amazing. I can put a hot pan on it, I could almost take a blowtorch to it and it will still clean up like a dream.
• The sink may not be the exact one I wanted but it’s roomy and shiny new (and the stainless matches all the appliances). The new faucet pulls down and converts to a sprayer and makes it so easy to clean up.
• We combined our recycling/trash into one basket and it’s a pleasure to throw things away now!
• I used to have to stuff my glass containers in a corner base cabinet where they never fit and I could never find what I wanted. The new pull-out storage drawers in the coffee bar cabinet have completely solved that problem.
• I created some very cool custom art for the walls and absolutely love what they add to the room.