Kitchen remodel question

[fmo24]

Is there a magic dollar amount used for deciding on a kitchen remod budget? Like percentage of house value or is it personal taste and budget?

 

[ductape1000]

Personal taste and budget if it your own home. If you are looking for resale, you make it as nice as you can as cheap as you can.

sent from a van at the waters edge

 

[fmo24]

That's what I was thinking. Just hate to over do in this market. We figure we will be in this house about five to seven years

 

[ductape1000]

At 5 to 7 yrs, I would do something nice but not over the top. Also, do something neutral. Not trendy, not style specific. You will want it to be something that appeals to a lot of women in 5 to 7 yrs from now. This is the #1 thing that will sell your house.

sent from a van at the waters edge

 

[fmo24]

Thx. This is the hard part , getting the other half to think in those terms.

 

[DtB]

At 5 to 7 yrs, I would do something nice but not over the top. Also, do something neutral. Not trendy, not style specific. You will want it to be something that appeals to a lot of women in 5 to 7 yrs from now. This is the #1 thing that will sell your house.

sent from a van at the waters edge

That is excellent advice. The only thing I would add is there is no reason you shouldn't know exacly what it will cost before work begins. I would get
several bids and be weary of one that comes in really low. There shouldn't be any suprises or hidden costs

 

[ductape1000]

That is excellent advice. The only thing I would add is there is no reason you shouldn't know exacly what it will cost before work begins. I would get
several bids and be weary of one that comes in really low. There shouldn't be any suprises or hidden costs

This also is sound advice!! If you know what you want, it can be priced to the dollar.


sent from a van at the waters edge

 

[fmo24]

Thanks guys. The starting point is kind of where I was stuck. I will need to do some homework in ordr to establish a realistic budget. I've been pricing appliances now it's determining cabinet quality level and styles and going from there.

 

[NicPaus]

Thx. This is the hard part , getting the other half to think in those terms.

There goes your budget They always want changes and a set price will only get you so far. women involved bid 35% higher on kitchen and baths and add 2 months to timeline.


The cheapest method lately is prefabbed cabinets that are shipped from china flat boxed and assembled on site. Average kitchen 5k-7500 but after 5 years will look beat. With all the cabinet guy's hurting for work I would have them custom made. Might be looking more like 15k-25 for a complete gut job or more if your Wife has nice taste.

 

[h2oquik]

My brother and I do custom cabinets. Some kitchens go between 15k and 25k. Just depends on what you want.I would also heed advise that low bid is not usually the good bid. I would not go with pre-fabbed crap from china or home depot. But what you might wanna think about is the ease of accessablity, Check with contractor about pull-out shelves , lazy susans and other fixtures that go in cabinets.These are fairly resonable. We have done quite a few kitchens from mild to wild it just depends what you are looking for. Make sure that contractor is licensed and bonded and has good refferals. Also make sure that he uses a good quality hinges on the doors and good drawer slides as these are usually where you will have problems.You definately want something that will last, especially if you are gonna sell later. Good luck on your kitchen.

 

[whiteworks]

First thing you need to do is pick your appliances, my kitchens start at $35K.

Thats for full custom, you can cut those numbers by a lot by going prefab cabinets.

 

[rivermobster]

At 5 to 7 yrs, I would do something nice but not over the top. Also, do something neutral. Not trendy, not style specific. You will want it to be something that appeals to a lot of women in 5 to 7 yrs from now. This is the #1 thing that will sell your house.

sent from a van at the waters edge

Good advice. What your doing is building it for somebody else!! Get all your applicances from the Sears scratch and dent store. Save your money for the house you will stay in.

Go with custom cabs to make sure it looks right. Its not much more than the the home depot crap.

 

[czarmarz]

5-12k with a handyman expertise doing it, 10-20k using individual subs and you running the show and 25k for a GC running the show is about average.

In regards with the cabinets i've used some china box made stuff in the past and there is a huge range of stuff out there from bad to good, me personally i've found a supplier of boxed cabinets that you have to assemble it's real wood cabinets including back and sides, if you compare it to the custom order thomasville (formica material btw) stuff at HD it puts it to shame and at half the cost I might add.

Bottom line is be comfortable with your budget there are a lot of alternative products out there.

 

[ductape1000]

I see alot of numbers being thrown out here. My question to those throwing them is how do you know what THIS kitchen might cost?? How big is the kitchen? Do they want to rearrange the layout?? (move pumbing or electrical) Are they wanting to open walls or move walls?? Do they want to change from gas to electric or vice versa??

The numbers I'm seeing would only replace an existing SMALL kitchen with basic materials. I dont know of many people that are willing to go through a kitchen remodel to just get what they have. Most people that have lived with their kitchen long enough to replace it have thought about alot of things that they want to do different. This house looks like it is in Long Beach, and from what I know about the area, it is probably an older house that has some things that need to be upgraded. I was involved in a job over there that required an electrical panel upgrade to do the kitchen remodel because it needed 1 added dedicated circuit.

My point to this is without knowing what they are wanting to do, and how big the kitchen is going to be, I dont think it is fair to the OP to be throwing out numbers that might set expectations of cost way too low.

fmo24, my advice to you is to sit with the one who shares this kitchen and start with a wish list. The dream kitchen if you will. Then work your way back to reality by figureing out what are needs and which are wants. This will allow you to find a budget and see if it is affordable. If it is not in the cost range you are looking for, then you look to options that will reduce costs and not compromise the needs. With the timeline that you are looking to be in the house, you also have to look at how realistic that is. Are you really leaving in 5 to 7 yrs? Or is that what you are hoping for? If you are on schedule for a planned move, then just update what you have as cost effective as possible. If this is an idea of moving on, then I would say you have a little more room for upgrading since most of us take alittle longer to make those moves than we plan on.


Anyway, sorry for the long winded :rant:

 

[420HOA]

5-12k with a handyman expertise doing it, 10-20k using individual subs and you running the show and 25k for a GC running the show is about average.

In regards with the cabinets i've used some china box made stuff in the past and there is a huge range of stuff out there from bad to good, me personally i've found a supplier of boxed cabinets that you have to assemble it's real wood cabinets including back and sides, if you compare it to the custom order thomasville (formica material btw) stuff at HD it puts it to shame and at half the cost I might add.

Bottom line is be comfortable with your budget there are a lot of alternative products out there.

Whom is this supplier you speak of ?:thumbsup

 

[Maw]

I used Builder's Surplus on two of our rentals, our shop kitchen and our Havasu House. Just take in your layout and drive away with a kitchen load of cabinets (ready to hang) in boxes. They also stock the matching crown, scribe, fillers, etc.


http://builderssurplus.net/kitchens/

Wide range of price and styles.

Cheers, Mark

 

[czarmarz]

I use AA Cabinetry in City of Industry (fullerton rd/60fwy) here's a kitchen did last week with double oven, lazy susans, cooktop, pantry, 6.5k material. btw owner really wanted that pantry there.

 

[rivermobster]

Just for comparison, this is how ours came out. The cabinet alone were 14k, and I installed em myself.

Hope Depot price was 12k, but they has spacers and odd sizes installed everywhere, just to make everything fit!

For a 2k diff, custom was the way to go.

P.S. Their initial price was 17k, my wife put the grind to them!

http://www.ghwooddesign.com/ <- :thumbsup:thumbsup

 

[Deangang]

Dont worry Glenn I supply the dealer