17:10 - was this all DIY or did you use professionals for any of it?

We did a full remodel for about 26k.

Costco kitchen cabinets, we bought our appliances (fridge, stove, over-stove-microwave, dishwasher) from Lowes, sink and backspash from Home Depot, contractor grade granite, replaced linoleum floor with hardwood wood, moved electric (added 4 outlets), gas line, added roof exhaust, put in insulation on exterior walls, 5 recessed lights, and removed a non-load bearing wall.

You can get it done.

We're in the same boat. $20k is not chump change, and I find it really disheartening to think we couldn't do a kitchen for that.

Look for an individual or a father-son type operation. This will bring your labor costs down significantly. We paid only $9,000 for labor on our smallish (but not teeny) kitchen. That included all electrical, new cabs, new flooring, backsplash, paint, new lighting, adding a wall and a closet and widening a doorway. We also moved our water lines. That cost did not include materials. We found him through our neighborhood listserv. Although the process took a bit longer because he was mostly working on his own, we were very pleased with the work.

This can be done for that price, at first I thought she said load bearing but non load bearing is easy. Don't let the contractors rip you off. There are a lot of wealthy people in our area that overpay for everything resulting in contractors being conditioned into ripping you off.

Fwiw, I bought mid-range SS Frigidaire appliances (fridge, gas range, microwave and dishwasher) from a place in Alexandria, for $3k a few months ago. Plus another $300 for delivery and install of everything. Might be worth a look... www.nowappliance.com

They were friendly and did a good job with everything.

In 2009 I did my 10x10 kitchen over for $21,850. But, when I say "I did" I mean I rented the dumpster and did all the demo down to studs, removed 2 non load bearing walls and laid my own tile floor. I used Home Depot for the cabinets and counter tops and paid for the drywall too. $4,000 of this was plumbing mostly related to the gas line (I had an electric stove and wanted gas). This is pretty much as cheap as you can do it. I think getting a contractor to come in at $30k would be very tough. My estimates were for $35k-$45k.

bump

OP, who did you decide to go with?

OP here

So far, we have been quoted approx $10-12K for cabinets and between $15-19K for the labor. Appliances will be approx $5-6K and countertops an add'l $3500. So we're looking at closer to $35-40K but its a pretty big kitchen and we are (hopefully) getting everything we want.

We used Cabinet Discounters out in Gaithersburg. We have a fairly small kitchen and it was gutted, removed a wall between kitchen and dining room, did not have to move plumbing, but all new electrical, etc. it was about 30k before appliances and the little extras (door handles, faucet, etc). Our cabinets are a mix of stock sizes and custom sizes. This price included their in-house designer, which I never thought I needed a designer for the "basic" remodel we wanted, but she had great suggestions for making the most of our small space.

OP, I'm belatedly reading this discussion after posting looking for something similar not long ago. We are trying to do our kitchen for even less - hopefully around $20k - but it's tiny, and we gave up any hope of moving walls once I realized they were load-bearing. I have no snobbery around HD; I actually started out by talking to them. However, they (along with the Ikea contractors and presumably others) misrepresent the installation costs - the signs say $79 per cabinet or whatever, but when you get the quote you find incredibly high estimates for demo, or other items. (One guy wanted 5k to demo our kitchen, which currently has 7 cabinets in it!)

We are trying to keep the cost of the cabinets themselves to around $5k, plus another $3k for granite, plus $6k for appliances, $1-2k for flooring, and then a bunch of electrical (we need a lot there.) We're not moving plumbing or gas (although may switch to electric in order to change the layout a bit without incurring crazy costs for a trench in our slab foundation.) So you can see how it quickly adds up even before the demo and installation costs, and this is for a teeny tiny galley kitchen with no real structural changes.

I wish I could recommend a great contractor. It seems easy to find reasonable deals on the materials, even cabinets, but not so much on contractors. I got sucked into Ikea for awhile, but found the contractor that the College Park store uses to be slow and really expensive (their bid is twice what the HD-recommended contractor wanted!) Like the 07:11 PP, I've been working with Counter Intelligence and they've been reasonable and very good in terms of customer service. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:07:11 again - guess I should have mentioned that, yes, we're doing it for under 30K - the price for the contractor which included everything except for appliances, flooring and light fixtures was just under 20K. We got a good deal on what I assume are considered low-mid range appliances (SS Whirlpool), 16x16 ceramic tiles and a bunch of recessed lights. We are not getting a backsplash at this time b/c we can't figure out what we want just yet. So excited for a new kitchen

Does the 20K include the cabinets and the granite countertops?

Yes, cabinets including scribe molding, hardware, sink and counters. Medium color, maple shaker style cabinets. All wood with roll-outs. We're getting a group "A" granite - nothing fancy but we like it and wanted something fairly simple in terms of the countertop. I think there are about 5 different granite groups and it's not until group D that things start to get notably more expensive - at least for the counter space we have. We're going from a tiny kitchen and small dining room to a decent sized eat-in kitchen.

Anonymous wrote:07:11 again - guess I should have mentioned that, yes, we're doing it for under 30K - the price for the contractor which included everything except for appliances, flooring and light fixtures was just under 20K. We got a good deal on what I assume are considered low-mid range appliances (SS Whirlpool), 16x16 ceramic tiles and a bunch of recessed lights. We are not getting a backsplash at this time b/c we can't figure out what we want just yet. So excited for a new kitchen

Does the 20K include the cabinets and the granite countertops?

Sometimes those granite/tile places have leftovers that are odd shaped and small. So if your counterspace is not huge, you may be able to go that route.

We bought an Anderson French door for $1500 at an auction. If you have the patience, you can find appliances, flooring, cabinets, you name it. But it's an all day affair.

DCUM isn't necessarily the place for do-it-yourselfers. (Yes, that's snarky - a bit of a slam on most . . . )

But if you're handy - or know someone who is - you can manage to do the kitchen for that price.