Kitchen Reno - bit by bit?
Saw someone else’s kitchen reno post and didn’t want to hijack the thread so posting separately. I’m in a similar situation in that I absolutely have to reno the kitchen before selling. Luckily there is no rush to sell, so I was wondering instead of dropping $30k+ on a decent reno at once (at a…
Saw someone else’s kitchen reno post and didn’t want to hijack the thread so posting separately. I’m in a similar situation in that I absolutely have to reno the kitchen before selling. Luckily there is no rush to sell, so I was wondering instead of dropping $30k+ on a decent reno at once (at a minimum, unfortunately i think everything has to be gutted), can I do the reno in pieces? Like maybe reconfigure walls and redo floors this year. Replace cabinets and appliances next year. Or is this never done? Thanks in advance.
We easily switched out the old appliances for new in our old coop apt while keeping original cabinets and countertops in place and had no problem with removal or installation of the appliances. It was done in a day.
If you have the option to do it all at once, I’d recommend it. You don’t know what you’re going to find when you start opening up walls and floors. You may have a two-phase plan all tidily put together, but when you start disturbing things in an old building you often run up against unexpected situations (you don’t say how old your building is, so maybe this isn’t a factor).
Also, the mess and hassle of renovation is not something you’re going to want to live through twice if you can help it.
I agree with the above posters that if you’re replacing appliances with like appliances, that part can be put off. Switching out an appliance is a fairly minor deal.
thanks for all the advice everyone. very helpful as always! i keep hoping that a big pile of cash is going to drop in my lap, but it always seems to get spent before i get to spend it on the house. sigh.
thanks!!!
I certainly wouldn’t do floors & walls before cabinets which might change the configuration of your kitchen.
You can put off one major expense for later and that’s appliances. Install the new floors, cabinets and countertops now but buy the new appliances later.
well, we’re doing that but not intentionally. we started our kitchen reno last year, and will finish it sometime this spring/summer. everything just takes a zillion times longer than planned.
If you really plan it well and think it out after considering a lot of options, this may work better. If you’re doing a separate range then that, along with the refrigerator and the dishwasher all come in standard sizes. New cabinets can always be spec’d around them in the future.
I wouldn’t do cabinets and countertop at different times though.
Learn about standard cabinet sizes and this should be no problem.
I think it will end up costing you alot more if you do it piecemeal. I’ve know people that are DIY and they will just do it little by little but they also end up living in a quasi-construction zone. For free-standing appliances it would be ok to wait until you have more cash if you stick to same sizes as your exisiting appliances. But who wants a brand new kitchen with their old appliances?
I wouldn’t do it this way. If you’re gutting and reconfiguring, it’s easier to have everything planned out and all cabinets and appliances out of the way. Plus, you don’t want to have to go through it twice. Maybe just put everything off until a later date?