Oh. My. Goodness. When I originally posted our kitchen update photos on Instagram, I was not expecting such an overwhelming response and flood of questions! I’m so flattered that everyone loves our kitchen update, and that you want me to answer questions. First of all, let me say PLEASE ask questions! I was afraid to ask people who had redone their homes because I was afraid of looking silly or asking something that they weren’t willing to answer (like, HOW MUCH DID IT COST FOR GOODNESS SAKE???). Don’t be afraid to ask those questions! There might be people out there who would refuse to answer, but I’m not one of them. I’ll gladly answer any question you have.
So, what did we have our contractor do? Here’s the run down:
- Ripped out the white tile flooring that went from our front door all the way to the back door.
- Replaced the tile with hardwood flooring and replaced all the molding
- Knocked down a half-wall that separated our kitchen and family room
- Replaced the crappy countertops with granite, and extended the island 10 inches
- Replaced the old sink with a stainless steel farmhouse sink and new faucet
- Painted all the cabinets and replaced the hardware
One of the first questions I got was how did we find the contractor and know that we were in good hands? Well, we kind of cheated. Hah! Honestly though, we almost signed a contract with a different contractor who suddenly fell off the face of the earth. We tried countless times to contact him, and to this day he still hasn’t shown up. When that happened, we decided to just wait a few months before trying again. We wanted to make sure our money would be spent wisely and carefully, and obviously there are some terrible contractors out there! I happened to be explaining this to a good friend of mine one day, when she told me that her brother was moving to our area and that he is starting a contracting business. I knew he had helped renovate her (gorgeous, Martha Stewart worthy) kitchen, so I was totally on board with letting him have free reign! Since he is a fairly new contractor and still building a name for himself, he cut us a ridiculously good deal on labor, which was a big factor in bringing us under budget. Most people would not be this lucky, so my best piece of advice would be to ask, ask, ask. Ask your neighbors, ask your friends, ask acquaintances. Go by word-of-mouth! Do not hire someone unless you know personally that they did an amazing job for someone else. Contractors can be verrrrry sneaky, and they will get away with it unless you know what’s what!
Another big question was how did we know how high (or low) to set our budget? The main thing we did here was price out all the materials. Some contractors do this for you, and they tack on an extra up-charge becaus. We wanted to cut price corners as much as possible, and we knew we could take on the task of finding materials by ourselves. We special-ordered the hardwood at Home Depot, and my husband picked it up himself when it came in rather than having the contractor do it. Sam also took his own measurements of the floors and counters so we would be “in the know”, rather than relying on someone to tell us. We also ordered the tile, bought the paint, and ordered the countertops directly instead of having the contractor handle all of that. This way, we knew exactly what was going out of our budget.
How did we decide what to put the money towards? We had 2 options for this kitchen: give it a facelift without changing the floor plan, OR knock out the wall between the kitchen and dining room and create one huge space for the kitchen. Option 2 would have been a gigantic project and definitely out of budget! We would have had to purchase a whole new bank of cabinets, build a brand new island, and re-work all the plumbing and electrical. Since that was off the table (tip #4, always be realistic), we went with the basic facelift that left the kitchen in the same layout as before. The only “major” change we made was to knock down that half-wall between the kitchen and family room. It only collected junk anyways, and it cut down our countertop cost. Win win! We also “got lucky” because our cabinets were in good shape. Our contractor was able to sand them down, add a few coats of paint, and voila! Huge change. The countertops are not my “dream” counters, but they look good with the paint and the flooring. Since we know this isn’t our forever home, I was ok with cutting that cost down. The granite we chose looked good without going over budget. It’s hard to let go of your favorite ideas, but completely worth it at the end! I don’t even remember my ideal choice anymore, because this one looks great anyway.
The final question several people asked was simply, what are my tips for taking on this project yourself? I have a few for you:
#1 find someone you trust! Ask around and see who has worked with someone they loved. Take personal recommendations before hiring someone just based on internet reviews (those are easy to fake). You want a hard worker who will stay until the job is done, and not stretch out the time into weeks or months.
#2 don’t be married to your Pinterest ideas. I wanted one type of granite, but it would have cut our budget for the tile. The cheaper granite we chose is the same neutral coloring of the one I loved, and it still looks amazing with the tile and the paint.
#3 always be realistic. Don’t ask for a miracle if you know your budget is super tight. Big projects, like knocking down walls and moving electrical/plumbing require lots of work for your contractor. Your budget should be closer to $20K to handle something like that.
#4 do lots of homework before you jump in! Price out your materials at Home Depot or Lowe’s so you know what you’ll be dealing with. Don’t forget the little details like switch plates, grout, and even nails.
#5 don’t stress! It’s easy to set high expectations and timelines, but try to be flexible. As long as your contractor is diligently completing phases of your renovation, allow wiggle room. Things happen. It poured rain on the day our contractor was supposed to start painting. Not good conditions for paint to dry! He did the trim work as best he could, but he was honest with me about the timeline being extended because of the weather setback.
Thank you again for taking such an interest in this project!! I’m so thrilled with the results, and even more happy that I can hopefully help someone else with their remodel ideas. As always, please send me a message if you have any other questions!