The kitchen, down to the studs.
This weekend we finished up spackling in the dining room, leaving it to be the last room we have to paint from our renovation. This means that once it’s done, I can put away the drop cloths and painting rollers for good. I painted the new kitchen earlier in the weekend, and helped Bill to finish installing the cabinets. On Friday we both took the day off so we could choose and order our countertops (black granite). A few weeks before that we’d sheetrocked the new kitchen, including taping, spackling and sanding, plus Bill installed new hardwood floors all throughout the new space.
Perhaps in reading this you’re hearing a cash register ring in your head for each thing we accomplished in the addition. We did spend money on supplies, to be sure, but it’s amazing how much we saved by doing so much of the work ourselves. In fact, here are 5 ways we’ve managed to save $35,000 on our remodel:
- Ripped out the old drywall in the kitchen and installed new. Had we hired someone to do the job, we would have spent: at least $2,500.
- Installed hardwood floors in the newly remodeled space. Had we hired someone to do the floor install, we would have spent: $5,100
- Put in the new kitchen cabinets. Had we had Lowe’s or Home Depot, or another home improvement company install the cabinets, we would have spent: at least $25,000 (this is for the install alone; the cabinets cost is separate.)
- Painted the new space. Had we hired someone to come in and do all the painting, we would have spent: $2,100.
- Went to a wholesaler/fabricator for our countertops. Had we just ordered our granite countertops from a home improvement store, we would have spent: $1,000 more on the same amount of granite
With numbers like this do you think you would jump in and try some of this, to save the big bucks, too? I’m so glad we did. And I can’t wait until the house is done and we can say, “Hey, we did this all ourselves.” Now sure it would be nice to have had someone do all this at once and be done with it, but I know I wouldn’t have wanted to spend that kind of cash to get the job done.
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Wow! Congratulations. These are some incredible savings and I’m impressed by how much of the work you can do yourselves. I dream of renovating my kitchen but the costs certainly make that prohibitive. I’d be comfortable painting and maybe installing the flooring, but hanging cabinets is something I always assumed would be completely beyond my abilities. Did you already have significant experience before starting this project, or are you learning as you go? And what about tiling a backsplash? That’s something that seems I could possibly do (homeowners seem to do it all the time on HGTV!), but since I’ve never done it I would be a little nervous trying.
Jean:
My husband and I renovated the kitchen in our old house, and learned as we went with regards to hanging the cabinetry. Also, the Internet is filled with tips on how to do things you don’t automatically know how to do.
For example, yesterday when Bill was building the wall that would hold our island/bar, he wasn’t sure what depth he needed to make the wall in order to safely hold the granite countertop. Ten minutes spent on the Internet, and he had the answer.
It is our plan to tile the backsplash, for sure, as another cost saver. This will give me practice for when we finish renovating our daughters’ bathroom. (They’ve been sharing our bathroom for the last 18 months.)
I would check and see if your local Home Depot or Lowe’s has any free classes on how to do these things, and then you can learn as you go without risking messing something up in your own home. Let me know how you make out.
Leah
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[...] 5 Ways We’ve Saved $35,000 On Our Remodel (suddenlyfrugal.com) [...]
I did the same when I reno’d a kitchen. I did a huge kitchen, granite, cherry cabs, stainless appliances (unblemished from the scratch and dent store: no scratches, no dents) and most of the work myself…and I ENJOY the work, to boot.
My motto: How hard can it be????
Barb:
Well, some of it IS hard–especially the drywall. But it feels so good to know that you did the hard work.
Leah
$25,000 to install kitchen cabinets? Surely that is a typo.
Nope! One place we talked to wanted to charge us $25K to install the cabinets!
Leah
[...] 5 Ways We’ve Saved $35,000 On Our Remodel (suddenlyfrugal.com) [...]
[...] eating at home.) However, some recent entertaining at home–finally, now that our home renovation is complete–found us spending way more than normal at the supermarket when stocking up for entertaining. [...]