Kitchen Renovation (updated 10/2014)

When we bought our house years ago, we loved and hated the kitchen at the same time. Loved it because it is so spacious, has so many counter space and cabinets. Hated it because it is so 1980's, everything is so dated. This year we finally had enough. We decided to do something about it. (Many thanks to "jasondand" for her blog on kitchen renovation and her many detailed answers to my questions, so I had some idea on how much things cost before we started to tackle this project.)

Step One: Replacing range hood (DIY)
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: $200

1. Goodness knows how many years the old range hood has been there.


2. The new one though not powerful enough for Chinese cooking (nothing is powerful enough for Chinese cooking in my opinion), at least it looks better.


Step Two: Replacing oven, dishwasher and cooktop (90% DIY)
Difficulty: Medium
Cost: $3,600

3. Believe it or not, we had a Hotpoint microwave oven combo that was made by GE in 1981, and it is still working.


Originally we wanted to find a contractor that does everything we need for the kitchen (countertops, backsplash, appliance, floor etc), but the contractors we contacted either only do countertops, or their quote was so high to do everything we need that we decided to replace the appliances ourselves.

4. Dave managed to take the old oven out by himself.


5. Modifying the cutout to fit our new double ovens is probably the hardest part of the job.


6. Once the cutout meets the requirement, installing the new ovens is relatively easy. Since the ovens weighs ~230 lbs, we can't lift it by ourselves, so we paid $150 to get the ovens delivered and installed.


7. The old dishwasher. Not sure how old it is, but the racks are getting rusty.


8. After the dishwasher is out, it revealed an ugly truth: we have 3 layers of linoleum flooring.


9. Our new dishwasher.


Our new cooktop doesn't fit our existing cutout. We'll put it on once we get new countertops.

Step Three: Replacing countertops, sink, faucets etc
Difficulty: Easy, because we don't have to do the work ourselves
Cost: $5,500
There are a few things we do have to do though:

• Measure our countertops and send the measurement to several contractors for quotes;
• Based on the price, color choices and edge choices for the price quoted, pick a contractor;
• Go to local stone warehouses to pick a slab (better bring a cabinet door with you). For the slabs we saw, each slab will give about 50 sqft, so we actually need to pick two slabs. Make sure they match in color and pattern. It is amazing how different the slabs can look even when they come from the same quarry;
• Once we decide on the slabs, our contractor will have the warehouse 'tag' the stones;
• The contractor comes to our house to do a final measurement (new cooktop and sink need to be on hand);
• Pay 50% deposit and wait 3-4 weeks (cutting the stone, wait till it drys, and seals it actually takes about a week, but there are several people in front of us already).

New countertop installation took 2 days, and the result is beautiful.

10. This is what we had before.


11. This is now. We extended the island by 10 inches and let go the indoor grill.


Step Four: Replacing/Refinishing hardware (DIY)
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: $150

The old cabinet pulls were 1980's style, we replaced them with more modern looking ones. The old hinges were still in good shape, so we took them off, cleaned then spray painted them to satin nickle.

12. Some of the spray painted hinges.


13. Kitchen with new hardware.


Step Five: Adding a backsplash (DIY)
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: $40

14. Initially we wanted to add a glass backsplash. But the quotes we got were ridiculously high (almost $2,000 for less than 10 sqft). So we decided to do a one piece stainless steel backsplash ourselves. Since the store bought back splash is 30"W x 24"H, longer than our space, we had to take down the range hood temporarily, slide the back splash behind and screw it in.


Total Cost so far: $9,490


10/2014:
After 2.5+ years of rest, we finally got the kitchen floor replaced this year. It is too big a project to do it ourselves, so we hired it out. It took two guys 5.5 days to do it. Lots of noise, lots of dust, and lots of hard work.

Step Six: Replacing the floor
Difficulty: Hard, even though we didn't do the work ourselves, it is still hard to live in a construction site, without kitchen for almost a week.
Cost: $6,500 (besides kitchen floor, we also replaced the floor in a half bathroom, laundry room, and the hallway connecting them)

15. The old linoleum floor we had.


16. Because of all the wood we have in the kitchen, we had no choice but go with light colored tile for flooring.


17. The new floor.


18. The new floor.


19. The new floor.


So the total cost for our kitchen renovation is $15,990.