Shop Teacher said to post mine, since he is sharing his why not. Moved into this house in September, GF has wanted the kitchen done since she’s been here (many years, long story) After a few estimates I decided to stop being lazy and do it myself. A few estimates were close to the budget, but I felt zero comfort with any of the contractors so I decided I’d be GC. I farmed out the tile work counters and cabinets, sometimes the professional touch is required. I’ve dabbled in this stuff since I was 10/12 helping my Pop at work. Being 44 and 10 years removed from my last big undertaking I wasn’t keen to remind my body what this work feels like. The bulk of the work I did is hardly visible aside from the wall addition...but there was plenty of it. This was a total gut, floor included and joist repair.
I had to bump the corner wall out a bit to allow for newer and larger refrigerators, otherwise it would cause a dead area and the drawers wouldn’t open. It was already an issue with the old fridge so I bumped it a few feet.
Storage was a huge issue, so I decided to put a full wall in where the “breakfast bar” was. The other side is the stairs to the basement so I wasn’t hurting any real flow or openness.
All in it took around 3 months, as with any project like this I had a lot of hidden issues that I didn’t document. Raising kids in a house with no kitchen was a huge challenge, you don’t realize the importance of a working sink until you are without. The kitchen really is the true center of any home. The last photo is of what the backsplash will be (the copper one) but it got put on hold due to budget...and kids braces!
When the backsplash is done I’ll take some proper photos...that’s probably on hold until after the holidays now.
