low cost kitchen refi
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Anonymous
| small kitchen in rowhouse. what would it cost to get new cabinets and countertops. probably not too much more. doesn't need big redesign but have laminate counters and cabinets that are really falling apart. i think they are from 1990. i don't care all that much but suspect it would increase the house value to fix it up a bit. |
Anonymous
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It will cost more than you think. I have a tiny galley kitchen (7.5ft x 11ft) and figured I could just replace what was there for somewhere in the neighborhood of $15k. The quotes that I've gotten have ranged from $20k to $30k, not including appliances. The higher one was a company that our local Ikea uses. I think there is a lot of crazy markup in these quotes ($3k for demo? my current kitchen has 7 cabinets!!) but without DIY skills myself I haven't figured out how to keep the numbers sensible.
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Anonymous
| Are you handy enough to do it yourself with IKEA cabinets? The quality is actually quite good and the designs are great. You'll save tons of money on cabinets so you can spurlge on counters or appliances. I know a lot of people who have gone this route. |
Anonymous
| We did a small kitchen reno last year for 10K (8K for the contractor, 2K for the appliances). It was in a condo that we were selling, so it was a pretty small galley kitchen. We did new cabinets, granite counter, and new appliances. To save some money, we skipped putting in a new floor, which would have been 1K. |
Anonymous
| 1333 can you please recommend your contractor??? |
Anonymous
| OP, I think it's pretty dangerous to assume in this market that a kitchen redo will increase your home's value. Do the kitchen because you want to use it, or because you've saved up the money. But, I wouldn't borrow to redo it. If you are re-doing your kitchen from the 90s, someone else did a quick, cheap job. I wouldn't repeat it. |
Anonymous
| I did a kitchen reno last year- in total, it cost me about $11K, not including appliances. (I'd already purchased those a few years ago.) I put in nice mid-range maple cabinets, and didn't have to put in a lot of them - 2 base cabinets and 6 wall cabinets ran me around $3K. We also did granite counters and nice ceramic tile, plus new outlets and light fixtures, sink and disposal. I was really happy with it and we got good comments on it from potential buyers when we sold it this spring. (in 10 days.) No construction and we didn't change where anything was located - those things add to the cost. |
Anonymous
| 13:33 -- we used Home Breakthough. |
Anonymous
| It's the cabinets that will be the killer point in your budget. Can you figure out a way to repaint/repair/reface them? Countertops for a small kitchen won't be that much -- maybe $3-7k, depending on what you choose. |
Anonymous
| Ikea and DIY. It isn't difficult at all. You can put in Ikea's pretty butcherblock countertops. They look really nice, stand up to everything---I have them at the farmhouse, and if they live through that they will live through ANYTHING. You can turn off the water at the sink and disconnect everything yourself, then hire a plumber to hook it all back up if you are uncertain. |
Anonymous
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Oh and we did the work ourselves. 9 base cabinets, only one wall cabinet---stupid windows!---that giant farmhouse sink they sell, faucet and butcherblock counters. Get the heavier one---it isn't much more. The wall cabinets hang on a rail that you level first and screw into the studs, so it is really easy. The Base cabinets also have a rail, and then individually adjustable feet, so that there isn't all this precision fiddling around that you have to do with the ones from Lowe's and such. The hardest part was cutting the little corner notches for the farmhouse sink, but they show you how, and that sink is AMAZING! So nice.
The whole thing was under $2000. Add a bit and you can install laminate flooring---also very easy---and hire a plumber to do your sink hookup. I'd recommend that if you aren't used to plumbing. |
Anonymous
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Another good source for saving on cabinetry is Cabinets-to-Go. They come flat packed like Ikea, they are solid wood, very sturdy and very beautiful.
We had a small local contractor install them and we love them. They were half the cost of the midrange cabinets we had priced out that had a very similar look. You have to make the sizes they have work for your floor plan, but the savings were worth it. People can't believe it when I tell them what we spent on our cabinets. |
Anonymous
i think the cabinets really need to be replaced. they are peeling and falling apart, several don't close. one actually fell off the wall over the fridge and i had to pay a handyman $300 to reattach. |
Anonymous
| It's time to acquire some DIY skills. You actually can hang a cabinet yourself. $300? Hot damn, I'm in the wrong business..... |