Kitchen remodel

[Steve Cox]

My wife and I are getting ready to gut and remodel our kitchen. Just curious for those of you who have done it yourselves, what was your actual time to finish? Our kitchen is about 11 x 18, no major wall removal etc. 18yr old house so no plaster and no previous renovations. I'm pretty experienced with cabinet construction and reasonably so with the rest of the skills I need except drywall which I'm new at. Two plumbing changes, moving a gas line about 8' and adding a sink on the opposite side from the existing one. Thanks for any advice or ideas.

[Steve Clardy]

I can do a customers kitchen about that size in a month, start to finish. Just the cabinets.
Now. My own house is a different story. Started in 1995, and not done with the kitchen yet. I have been ducking a lot these last couple of years!!
Steve

[Jim Becker]

Steve, outside of building the cabinets, my kitchen renovation in 2003 took me July through September with a few small things later...two weeks of vacation plus weekends. I did sub the drywall, gas line and soapstone counter tops. This was a complete gut job, including "remediation" of a few little, um...issues discovered once the walls were gone. We scheduled this during the summer as it afforded the least disruptive situation for cooking since we could still grill outside and put the rest of the stuff in the great room during the work. There was only about a three week period when we had "no" functionality in the actual kitchen; at other times, there was a temp sink, etc. Keep in mind that I was mostly working alone on this...Dr. SWMBO helped with the demolition and my mother and brother helped with some cabinet installation.

You can see the complete pictorial at http://sawsndust.com/p_kit-demo.htm

Would I do it again? Yes!

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Wow, Jim...you guys did a great Job!! Great lookin' kitchen!!

[Glenn Clabo]

Steve,
I've built and installed a bunch of kitchens so this wasn't new to me. We were without a kitchen for 1 month. We set up the old sink in the downstairs bath for dishes and used the grill and ate out for many dinners. I completely gutted to studs and floor joists...new window...rewired...insulated...rocked...then went at it. I took 2 weeks off and worked 12 hours a day and weekends. Otherwise a few hours at night.

Now...I "cheated" with the majority of the cabinets. Suffered a little over it...but time was important for us. The ones I built are under the black granite (special height for the baker), the corner next to stove/oven (hinged door), the oven surround and the corner one for the microwave (wanted to make it flexible for different sizes). I used their doors and their finish on my wood so it would match. We had the countertop done...and the gas hookup.

DRLOML is not handy at all. However, she was right there trying to help at all stages. She even finished the install of the tiles after I got her started...and did a great job imho.

Like I said this is one of many that I've done...and everyone is a learning experience. If you haven't designed a kitchen before...I'd suggest getting someone to help. It makes a huge difference. I have a couple of chefs in the family who helped with this one also. This one does fit us perfectly and we now spend more time here than any other room.

Good luck and have fun....and take pictures. Here's some of ours ....
http://www.pbase.com/gclabo/kitchen

[Jim Becker]

Glenn's comment on design is important. Take all the time necessary to get this part right 'cause it has major ramifications on both the construction and the final result...not to mention the time necessary to complete the project. You really do need to think about the "little things" as some of them are really tough to remedy after the fact!

[JayStPeter]

I gutted a kitchen around that size and got it back functional in a month. I did 12 hr. days on all weekends and around 4hrs. a night. Similar to you, I moved the gas stove and sink. I also added a circuit for counter height recepticles. I did all the work myself, but did have my gas line double checked by a plumber neighbor.
I did not build my own cabinets.
It took me just under a month before we could use it as normal. It took another month (of less hrs/day) to install the trim and finish painting it. I had recently redone the floor, so that was only small tile rework here and there where dimensions had changed.
It was a looong month. Fortunately, I lived in an area that had great take out nearby :)

Jay

[Ron Stefanelli]

I install appliances for a living and the best advice I can give you is : Don't do anything until you have every, every, every, single piece you are replacing. Something won't arrive when it is supposed to, or it may never arrive. I've seen it happen too many times.