Kitchen Remodel on a Budget

I have spent too many hours of my life watching various home remodel TV shows. Even the ones that say they want to keep the budgets down, often spend well over $50000 on a single room! We (and most people) just don’t have that sort of money to spend – especially if you just bought the house. With a bit of creativity in sourcing materials and a willingness to be flexible – we think it can be done far far cheaper.

When we first bought our home, the kitchen was a bad artistic study in the overuse of fake bricks…

I guess they were popular at one time… (Note another type of fake brick in the foreground… actual brick on the fireplace…) and they even tried to make it look more real in the kitchen with thick black fake mortar goo.

We agreed on closing day one that all fake brick had to go!! Also, the diagonal tile transition and the random floating cabinet just annoyed both of us… Before the brick could go, all cabinets had to come down. And let me tell you, this brick/goo combo did not want to come down easily… but with slow patience, we got it off without destroying the walls underneath.

Unfortunately, when we pulled out the cabinets, we found out that the sink pipes had been leaking and rotting the subfloor – for quite some time apparently….

Well…. needless to say, there was a lot of work in the middle… (not to mention a pre-existing gas leak that shut us down for a bit), but I’m going to skip forward because I can’t wait to show what it looks like today (nearly done now!)

Still a bit of work to do on the soffit, the hanging light (that hits me in the head 3 times daily….) has to go, some proper curtains and window trim, and our sink plumbing hasn’t been installed yet, but I think the difference is amazing. The room feels so much bigger, brighter, and happier – with multiple countertops to work with.

Total cost including new appliances (and not including the gas leak…) : Less than $5k!
Is it TV worthy perfect? probably not.
Is it still the nicest kitchen we’ve ever had by far? Absolutely!
Do I want to do this sort of major whole room remodel again ever… ask me in a year cause right now I’m at hell no. 😉 When we do the bathroom (and it REALLY needs it…), I think we are going to hire someone…