Saturday, January 29, 2011

Single Guy's Kitchen Renovation: Day 8 (Finale)

If I were in an episode of one of those HGTV or TLC design show, today would have been the day where you would see my contractor Ron and I scrambling in a high-speed montage to try to finish my kitchen renovation project. Well, it wasn't exactly a mad scramble, but the goal was to finish today because I go back to work on Monday.

So pretty much my kitchen is done, with a few minor cosmetic things left to do. I've gotten through all the major milestones so my kitchen is 98 percent complete. I know, you want to see the whole thing, right? But I still have to clean up and "stage" the kitchen before the reveal. So you'll have to check back later next week when I give you a pictorial tour of the change. (Wait till you see the before and after.)

One of the custom-made projects was this floating shelf that Ron made over my bar. I spent all day staining it, so I can actually say I did some work in my new kitchen (along with a lot of cleaning and painting).

I thought some of you who might be thinking of a kitchen renovation yourself may want to know where my money went. So I thought I'd give you an itemized list of my expenses and what percentage it took up of my overall budget. Just so you know, it cost me a total of about $8,500 to renovate my tiny studio kitchen. I'm sure your budget will be more because you probably live in a normal size space (unless you're reading this in Manhattan, then you're probably just going to pay more for living in Manhattan).

Single Guy's Kitchen Renovation Budget

  • Labor (contractor and granite installers): 38%
  • Appliances (dishwasher, range, garbage disposal, microwave, refrigerator): 29%
  • Floor tiles and backsplash: 14%
  • Cabinets: 8%
  • Granite counter tops: 5%
  • Sink and faucet: 3%
  • Cabinet handles: 0.5%
  • Lighting (hallway light, ceiling fan): 1.5%
  • Miscellaneous (paint, outlet plates, etc.): 1%

7 comments:

agent713 said...

Glad it's done! I look forward to the before and afters. From what I remember of before it's going to be a pretty amazing difference.

Just curious...what happened to day 7?

Single Guy Ben said...

Agent, today was spent applying the sealant to the granite counter tops. You can buy granite already sealed but they're pricier. Because granite is so porous, sealant is supposedly to prevent water from being absorbed and then creating mold in your stone. So that's what I did today, along with just general cleaning and organizing of the cabinets. Tomorrow my contractor Ron comes for hopefully the final touches and then we'll be done for sure.

agent713 said...

Ah, the non-glamourous side :) Cool.

foodhoe said...

yay! well next time I want a live tour! Can't wait to see the finished pix.

suenjca said...

looks great! I can't wait to see the "reveal"

Carolyn Jung said...

I like the snazzy backsplash. ;)
Have fun breaking in your new kitchen.

Max Boughner said...

Well, I’m pretty excited about the end results! I know that it will be fabulous! But what’s amazing is that you were able to do this is in a tight budget. It goes to show that excellent and marvelous renovations can be done, even though you have limited resources. Hope to see some pix soon!