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those who have remodeled a kitchen...


evan9381

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if you did it yourself (ie, not hiring a company), how long did it take you for your remodel, and how much work was included?

 

i think this is one of the projects i would like to tackle once it starts to get warm out...i plan on moving the fridge from one spot to another, and putting a pantry where it used to be...but really other than that, its going to be taking out old cabinets and replacing with new. also im going to be putting in granite counter tops, but i have a feeling that im going to have to wait until everything is in place before i can have them come out and measure for the countertops. also planning on replacing the floor (have some ugly white wood stuff down i hate), but im not sure what i want to put down yet.

 

if i have help from someone who is a carpenter, and help from a couple family members when they can make it over, is this something i should be able to get done if i were to take a week off work? i plan to have the majority of the stuff (cabinets, floor, etc) ordered and here before we start, but im also sure there will be trips to lowes, but its only 1/2mi away, so no biggie.

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Guest 614Streets

The majority of issues from all the kitchen remodeling I have done is how square the walls are. Obviously shims for the cabinets are a must along with long high quality screws. When It comes to the countertops is where you may find yourself needing to knife the drywall to get a good fit.

 

If you dont have a countertop guy yet I definately recommend Dan Cook at Cooks customs cabinets on hudson.

 

I would say it will take you 1 month to finish completely , but with 1 full week you should be able to put a huge dent into it.

 

If you decided to go with sheetgoods for your floor and you want to borrow my 250lb roller just let me know. If you do tile I have a saw you can borrow and make sure you get the floor clean and use kilz to seal the underlayment and use a good thinset.

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The majority of issues from all the kitchen remodeling I have done is how square the walls are. Obviously shims for the cabinets are a must along with long high quality screws. When It comes to the countertops is where you may find yourself needing to knife the drywall to get a good fit.

 

If you dont have a countertop guy yet I definately recommend Dan Cook at Cooks customs cabinets on hudson.

 

I would say it will take you 1 month to finish completely , but with 1 full week you should be able to put a huge dent into it.

 

ugh...i was hoping i could finish it with 2 of us working every day and a couple extra hands on a few of the days.

 

thanks for the input

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Guest 614Streets

you might be able to , i cant say for certain if you guys bust ass id say 85% ing it is probably doable but there can be alot to it.

 

 

I edited my original post so check it out if u need to borrow.

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thanks for the offer to borrow the tools...im *thinking* i want to do tile, but i know i hate walking on cold floors...i know something like linoleum wont be as cold, but i also know it can look cheap and thats not what i want with nice cabinets and countertops...once i get into it and take the floors up, i really want to find out how the slab is layed out underneath...my g/fs dad said it should be beams, but it feels like solid concrete underneath...i want to do something to try to insulate the floor somehow so its not so cold in the winter.
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Guest 614Streets
thanks for the offer to borrow the tools...im *thinking* i want to do tile, but i know i hate walking on cold floors...i know something like linoleum wont be as cold, but i also know it can look cheap and thats not what i want with nice cabinets and countertops...once i get into it and take the floors up, i really want to find out how the slab is layed out underneath...my g/fs dad said it should be beams, but it feels like solid concrete underneath...i want to do something to try to insulate the floor somehow so its not so cold in the winter.

 

If you have a basement under the kitchen floor you should run some insulation downthere so the tile stays warmer. Yes and the tile will increase your home value and the sheetgood does not increase it as much but sheetgoods are alot warmer and if you buy the high quality sheetgoods they are pretty durable. Laminated wood is another alternative. Nick did his whole house with the stuff and I don't think he blew a huge hole in his wallet.

 

I guess my only other flooring alternative is a ton of playsand and just pretend your always on vacation.

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If you have a basement under the kitchen floor you should run some insulation downthere so the tile stays warmer. Yes and the tile will increase your home value and the sheetgood does not increase it as much but sheetgoods are alot warmer and if you buy the high quality sheetgoods they are pretty durable. Laminated wood is another alternative. Nick did his whole house with the stuff and I don't think he blew a huge hole in his wallet.

 

I guess my only other flooring alternative is a ton of playsand and just pretend your always on vacation.

 

unfortunately, i dont have a basement...its the same layout as my g/fs parents neighbor, except where my closet is under my steps, his goes down into a basement (i have a 3 level split, his is 4)...my main level is slab, i just dont know if/what is between the concrete slab and the floor thats down now...no more laminate wood though...thats what i have and i hate it...its ok in my front living room, but i dont want it in the kitchen

 

the playsand would be baller though...old school style.

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I bought my house and within 2 days installed all new laminate flooring throughout the kitchen and entrance, installed new countertops, custom built an island, added a new face and trim to completely change the cabinet doors. Installed under cabinet lighting. Painted the whole house, and started to finish the basement. Finishing the basement took another few days.
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I bought my house and within 2 days installed all new laminate flooring throughout the kitchen and entrance, installed new countertops, custom built an island, added a new face and trim to completely change the cabinet doors. Installed under cabinet lighting. Painted the whole house, and started to finish the basement. Finishing the basement took another few days.

 

holy shit. lol. i wish i had the know how to do all this so i could bust ass like that

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my old house we put in flooring in a few weeks just working a little every night and drinking a ton of JD... my parents house, we re-did everything including knocking down a wall between the kitch and dining room... that project I think took us about 2 months to complete, but it was after work and weekend type of work.
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Owning a painting/remodelling company for several years certainly paid off. It is not my best work. I dont do my best work on my own stuff because who really wants to. It was just to upgrade everything with a new look. I really planned on selling this place(bought in foreclosure) after the work was done but my wife really liked it and it was time to move anyways. This house will look its best the day I sell it when I go through and sprouse everything up. Most peoples evaluation of your house is done in the first few seconds they see it, so I didnt get into the finer details. With 3 kids there wasnt any reason to make it perfect. I certainly would never do anything I couldnt double my money back when I sell.
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Just a small FYI for your cabinets. You'll want to know where your highest point is in the kitchen when laying out the cabinets and then work from there. If you put the cabinets at the lowest point you will be scoring the cabinets (cutting the cabinets) to make them level. When you find the highest point and work from there, just shim the rest. Hopefully I have not confused you on this and good luck.
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hardest part is probably going to be picking out the tile you want lol. Im redoing the whole house as you know. cabinets are easy you can do that in a few hours. Counter tops i would recommend doing whole pieces instead of tile. heated floor is nice but i would spend that money in the master bedroom rather then the kitchen.

 

If you need help...I might be able to help you do some of the stuff, recently ive been working 30+ hours straight for this snow removal and add on hours for my house.

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My house is in DIRE need to gut the entire kitchen and start over but right now the money isn't there.

 

I need to rip up old tile on the floor, rip out the custom shit cabinets the previous owner made. It's probably going to be around 5k if my brother and I did it. I'm dreading doing it but I know eventually it'll need to happen.

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x2 That's the brand we used in our kitchen and lower level laundry room. Works great. I take it for granted really. However, when we have guests over, they notice it as the kitchen area with all it's windows is always nice and warm.

 

Hey Evan, if you want to tile the kitchen put down a heated floor mat before you lay the tile. Solves the cold floor problem and its straight pimp.

 

I have wired several and talking to the tile guys that layed it its easy to do...

 

example place http://www.suntouch.com/

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We have been doing ours for about 4 months or so. But, we have moved alot around and constantly change our minds. If you want it done quick then you need to come up with the full gameplan before starting. Also, consider the timeframe for getting cabinets built. The cabinets we ordered have a 5 week waiting period. Now, we also dont work on it everyday either, we eat out alot so not having a kitchen hasnt really effected us badly enough to rush the completion. As far as the actual work involved, none of it is really difficult but, it is very time consuming. We had alot of walls that were no where near straight, so most of our time has been drywall and mud work. Laying tile was pretty easy but, also very time consuming to get a nice finished product.
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the cabinets i found wont be a custom made cabinet, but some ready-to-assemble ones i found online...hence why theyre so inexpensive...but i can order those well ahead of time, and assemble them and leave them in the garage.

 

chad - i actually looked into those heated floors for my bathroom, but ended up not doing it...in the basement i wish i did. ill walk up both flights of stairs to piss just so i dont have to stand on the cold floor...any idea what kind of electricy bill one of those would run up having it running enough to keep the floor not cold? i have a feeling it wouldnt be cheap...but then again, it'd be a winter only thing.

 

i do want to have the majority of the stuff i'll need ready to go before we get started so theres not constant trips to the store. if i end up doing tile, i'll have that, thinset, grout, etc, have the cabinets assembled, and all that other good stuff before we start, as to try to keep the wasted time to a minimum

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