Kitchen Remodel

Kitchen remodeling should be fun and exciting, but it can also be pretty intimidating. If you plan well and consider the neighborhood context and don't get too crazy, any work you do on your kitchen will probably come back to you. Kitchen remodels, whether modest or comprehensive, offer a return on investment of about 100% and sometimes more.

If you have plenty of money, you can hire an architect, buy new appliances, cabinets, and finishes, move fixtures around, add walls, take out walls, or add a new space entirely. You may belong to that lucky crowd for whom the question, "Is it nice or necessary?" never really demands an answer. However, if like most of us this happy situation doesn't apply to you, then the following may help.

Should I remodel my kitchen?
If your kitchen is old, and the various elements are deteriorating, then just cleaning may not be enough. Still, you need to see what you have to work with and a clean space is going to make it possible to assess what needs to be done and in what order.

The following questions may help establish your priorities:

• • How do you use your kitchen now?
• • What kinds of activities take place in your kitchen?
• • Are there activities you'd like to incorporate but don't have room for?
• • How much of the work is essential to your convenience and efficiency?
• • What kinds of financial, design, or aesthetic tradeoffs are you willing to make?
• • How old is your house?
• • Does it have a particular style?
• • Do you favor a particular style?
• • How does your home compare in value with the other homes in your neighborhood?
• • If you know that you'll get a 100% return on your kitchen remodel when you sell, how much can you afford to invest in remodeling your kitchen?
• • How much of the work are you willing to do yourself?
• • What work will you have to hire out?

Does your current kitchen work for you?
How well does your kitchen work now? What features are particularly good? What do you really hate? How does the traffic flow work? Do you have good quality cabinets with plenty of drawer space that are just old and dingy? Are the appliances new, but the old floor dating back to 1968 looks terrible? Maybe the light from the big old windows is wonderful, but drafty? Is there enough counter space?

Make a list of everything you want to change. Then refine that list with your immediate priorities, for example:

• • Replace old cabinets
• • Replace dishwasher (spring is broken and it just doesn't work right)
• • Replace flooring (dirty, old, and really ugly)
• • Build a pantry cabinet (get canned goods and staples out of the hall and into the kitchen)

The end game with functionality is to improve how well your kitchen serves you. If you spend time working around appliances that don't work, or a lack of storage and counter space prevents efficient use of your time, then any improvements you make will pay dividends in the long run.

How much do you plan to spend?
To maximize your investment, you can also put in some sweat equity and do some of the work yourself freeing up money for better appliances, custom carpentry, or contractor services like plumbers and electricians to move fixtures and install new circuitry that might otherwise be unaffordable. Projects that you might take on yourself might include painting, laying tile countertops, and installing flooring.

Your remodeling budget is going to be driven primarily by how much you can afford, but you'll also want to consider how much your home is worth. Redoing your kitchen can range from a few thousand dollars to spiff it up a little to $50,000 or more. Depending on where you live, if the value of your home is between $160,000-190,000, then a mid-range remodel could be a good value at about $25,000, especially if homes in your neighborhood are selling for around $190,000-220,000. It also depends on how much equity you have and how old the kitchen is. If you bought your house in 1974 and the kitchen has never been redone, you could probably get a home equity loan at an extremely good rate and do whatever your heart desires. If you bought your home two years ago, your options will be different. The goal should be to improve your home to the extent you can recoup any investment you make. If you have the money and want to do more, you may not get as much back, but it's your kitchen and you're the only one you need to please.

Are you a Do It Yourselfer?
You may be really handy around the house and not hesitate to gut the room yourself. In that case, all you need to concern yourself with is making sure that you obtain any permits needed for your remodel. Your local city or county building inspector can tell you what permits are required. If that's the case, the only work you'll probably need help with is electrical and plumbing, both of which for safety's sake should be done by licensed contractors. Lots of folks do that work themselves, bypass the inspections, but then have to have the work redone when they sell, because it wasn't done up to code in the first place.

If you are willing to live with the mess and do the work yourself, you can accomplish a lot. A word to the wise…it's easy to make mistakes and fixing your errors can be as expensive as hiring a professional in the first place.

Should you hire a professional?
An architect can determine structural conditions, incorporate the designer's vision, and work with a general contractor to make sure that the final outcome meets not only your desires, but also the building codes to ensure a perfect blend of aesthetics, building integrity, and safety. As a professional, the architect is legally responsible for the final design.

Designers can help you choose and coordinate materials, build needed functionality into the design, and help you achieve your goals within the context of the home's character. The net functional and aesthetic effect can add substantially to resale value as well as your satisfaction with the remodeled space.

Contractor specialties range from plumbers and electricians to carpenters and plasterers, artisans to create and install custom tile and glass applications, and window specialists who will replace old single-pane windows with state-of-the-art triple glazed, custom fabricated windows.

A general contractor is qualified to coordinate the entire project, orchestrate the schedule and supervise work as it proceeds. They are accustomed to working with subcontractors and can get action when a homeowner can't. A general contractor takes responsibility for permits and meeting building codes. They usually offer a warranty, so if work needs to be redone, they'll take care of it.

Remodeling Advice: