The ‘new’ kitchen

Kitchen remodels are all the rage. The hefty price tag for a kitchen remodel can range from $15K to over $50K.  The average American remodel comes in at around $25,000.00.  Just to refresh everyone’s memory (including mine), I am posting some photos from before we started to demo. The upper cabinets were in good shape.  The lower cabinets had been built in place circa 1975.  The Hotpoint refrigerator and GE basic stove/oven were in working condition.  ‘Classic’ white.  The dark blue wainscoting and Battleship grey floor paint made the kitchen too dark for our liking.  Ricky put me in charge of the kitchen.  By in charge…I mean…design, build and finish the kitchen.  This worked out great since he was busy with the dry wall project.  I salvaged most of the upper cabinets, all have found new homes around Little Plum Place.  In the laundry room, the upstairs bathroom and where ever else I needed a cupboard for storage. All but two of the base cabinets had to be tossed out after removing doors and drawers.   I found almost identical cabinets on Craigslist in Menomonie, Wisconsin (30 miles north). I lucked out….I was able to put together a better working layout of base cabinets; complete with a corner lazy susan unit.  I also expanded the upper cabinets. $900.  The counter top is painted and sealed plywood.  A simple solution to what was edging up into the $3,000 to $4,000 range for a laminate counter top.

Sure I would have liked all brand new stainless steel appliances.  Been there, done that…new appliances didn’t make my life any better.  So instead of spending $1400 on a new stove and refrigerator.  I spend $14.00 on a couple of cans of International Harvester Red spray paint.  Red is Rick’s favorite color and he grew up driving I-H tractors.  That decision to spray the doors of the refrigerator and stove drawer helped to drive the design of the kitchen to a late 60’s diner feel.

In my house in Indiana I had a black and white checked floor that I loved.  Since I was going to paint the floors of the basement the same color, I opted to do a black and white checked back splash.  $40 bucks for the floor tiles(on sale) and glue.  The finished kitchen remodel, with new cabinets, counter top, back splash, new light fixtures, trims and paint etc… came in just under $2,500.  I still have a couple of pieces of corner trim to apply and the baseboards to attach, but Rick and I are using the new kitchen and loving it.