Reader Re-Do: Starting a Kitchen Makeover

For the past five years, my husband Ben and I have been brainstorming, tweaking, and planning the perfect kitchen remodel. We have basically re-done our entire house (see all the before-and-afters here), and now we’re finally starting on the kitchen. I’d love to show you how we started the makeover just these past few weeks!

Here’s where we’ve landed on layout and design, which is going to require full demolition and rearranging our appliances:

We’re planning for brand-new ceiling-to-counter cabinets, drawers below the counters, sleek stainless appliances, and a custom apron front sink. Once we had a definite plan, Ben started building our cabinets:

We splurged a bit on a vent hood and a backless slide-in range. With those pieces of the puzzle on order, we started the dirty (but rewarding) work: demo. First up, we torn down the the soffits and sheet rock, which exposed the studs:

The following weekend, we did tore down the Berlin wall dividing the living room and kitchen:

After that, the appliances started to arrive. The first permanent thing Ben installed was our vent hood:

Recently, we think we’ve made a final decision on counter tops, and we’re going with wood. We still have to see the slabs in person, but we’re hopeful. What do you think of the combination of floor, countertop, backsplash and cabinet finishes?

With all the planning done, we started stage two of demo: tearing out the old cabinets and floor. We tore up the old tile floor, cement board, and subfloor:

After a full day of floor removal, we finally started the rebuilding phase. First order of business: install the new hardwood floors:

With the floor done, we then installed the cabinets Ben built, along with our custom-made stainless steel apron front sink. You don’t realize how difficult it is to live without a kitchen sink until you no longer have one! It’s nice to have it back:

It was also nice to have the new range and cabinets in place. We moved quickly since we lived without a sink and stove for four days:

To me, nothing says high-end kitchen like nice appliances and a built-in refrigerator:

Phew! All this brings us up to this past weekend, when we started adding decorative trim to the cabinets:

We’ve come a long way, but still have plenty of work to do. Next up, we’ll install our countertop, build cabinet doors and drawer fronts, put in a pretty marble tile back splash, add new lights, and much more.

Have you DIYed a kitchen remodel before? Tell us about it!

Psst: You might also like these kitchen re-dos:

• A bright and airy $1,200 kitchen makeover >>
• A reader’s $1,500 kitchen makeover >>
• A $2,100 kitchen cabinet makeover >>
• A $35,000 dream kitchen renovation >>