The Kitchen

In November, this is what we started with...



The New Tile



The New Sink, Faucet, and Cabinet & Wall Colors, and Cabinet Hardware

The Trim Work around the Oven

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And (as promised) the new couch...

Isn't it amazing! Johnny did a great job! We couldn't have done any of it without a lot of help from family members and a few friends. Up next is the new flooring in the family room, living room, and the hall. But we'll wait a little bit before tackling that!

So here are my estimates:
If we has gone through Lowe's or Home Depot and gotten all new cabinets (stock, not special order) and counter tops, it would have been about $5000, maybe a little more.

Instead, here is what we did:
Tile - $125 (I picked out what I wanted, and was waiting for a sale to buy it. As luck would have it, it went on clearance two or three months later, and I was able to use a couple of $10 off coupons I had.)
Tile Supplies - $50 (Thin set, trowel, etc. The grout was left over from when my brother-in-law tiled his bathroom, and was exactly what I wanted, so that saved us some money, too. We also borrowed a wet-saw instead of renting one or buying one.)
Trim around and on the other side of the oven - $40 (For the plywood backer and the paneling. The rest of the trim pieces are leftovers my brother-in-law had.)
Sink, Faucet, and new piping for under the sink - $500 (My sink is AMAZING! It is Granite Composite (the same thing that Corian counter tops are), and one side is about two inches deeper than normal so I can fit my large pots in it. I love my sink. Our Garbage Disposer wasn't very old, so we reused it, thus saving quite a bit.)
Paint & supplies for the Cabinets - $50
Drywall Stuff to patch the Hole where the Range Vent used to be - $20
Hardware for the Cabinets & Drawers - $50 (off of Ebay - they would have easily been 3 times as much in a traditional store.)
Paint for the Walls - $5!!! (This is the best find of all - the day I was at Lowes trying to pick a final color, I looked at the miss-tint table before having a couple of sample cans mixed up. There was a gallon can sitting there of one of the colors I was about to have mixed. The sample cans were $4 each, and this gallon can was marked $5. So I told the guy nevermind on the sample cans. When I got home and put it up on the wall, it was perfect! I asked why it was in the miss-tint section, and they said that a lady was in a day or two before trying to color-match something. They mixed up that whole gallon for her, and then she decided that it wasn't the right match. Lucky for me! We had enough paint that we also painted one of the walls in the Family Room.)
Supplies, Odds & Ends, & eating out on the days when there was no possible way I could cook in the kitchen - $100
(And as long as I'm totaling, I probably should include the Dishwasher and Oven since their purchase is what kicked off the whole project last May - $1050.)

So, after the appliances, and including the sink, our total would have been around $6500 if we had purchased new cabinets and counter tops.

Instead, we spent $940, plus the Range and Dishwasher for a Grand Total of:

$1990 - a savings of more than $4500!!!