remodel my kitchen

Well I was trying to work within a budget but everything so far has come in well above what I’ve budgeted. New drywall is going in this week and new floors go in next week. The cabinet supplier is quoting numbers thousands more than what we initially talked about. If I actually go forward with the design I want it will probably cost me 50% more than I’ve budgeted for cabinets. But I’m not unhappy. It’s just more money that I don’t have. Now that the work is happening I can’t stop so I’ve got to just grin and bare it.

Initial budget for complete job – $20,000
Current working budget – $26,000
Absolute upper limit – $30,000

I moved everything out of the kitchen over the weekend and a crew gutted the kitchen yesterday. Lots of dust but otherwise no worse then expected. Things got started one day late so I’m already behind schedule and over-budget. Now need some plumbing electrical and framing done. The flooring guy starts in a week so everything will be on schedule if he starts on time. Getting back under budget will be a bigger challenge.

I had a flooring guy in yesterday to give me a quote. I’m going to start gutting the kitchen this weekend. Not much fun but something that doesn’t take a lot of skill. Once that’s done I can have the floors redone. In one week’s time, my kitchen will look like a bomb went off in it. In 2 weeks time is should start looking better.

Have met with 2 kitchen designers. Custom cabinets would cost more than $15K. I’m hoping to do the whole reno for that much. So I guess custom cabinets are out for now.