Do-It-Yourself Home Remodeling:
Kitchen Cabinets
Information current as of
One of the most important aspects of your home is the kitchen. Families spend more time in
that room than any other place in the house; talking and laughing about their day, sharing their most important moments. Its usually the central
gathering point in the house. From the perspective of value the kitchen can do the most to boost your property value and the resale value of your
home when you're ready to sell. Real estate investors looking to quickly buy and sell homes will spend the most time remodeling the kitchen in
order to get the most value for their money.
If you're in the middle of a home remodeling project, or are looking to start one, we strongly advise that you evaluate the kitchen to see if
there are any improvements that you could do quickly, easily and within budget in order to boost your homes value and your own appreciation for
where you live.
Probably the most often examined aspect of kitchen remodeling is the kitchen cabinets. We have focused on a few of the hot button issues to
provide you with "food for thought" and some guidance for your new project.
Each area has its own importance and we cannot stress enough the value of doing all the research in order to make an informed
decision.
We are fortunate enough to be on the other side of a major kitchen remodel project of our own (you can see our before and after pictures here). We bought our home in 1999 and got to work making the necessary updates. One
of the first thing we did was completely overhaul the kitchen. The floors were slanting, there was exposed electrical wiring and the cabinets
were mismatched and falling apart. We tore everything down to the studs and rebuilt from scratch. Talk about a major overhaul! We saved thousands
of dollars by doing the work ourselves and learned a lot along the way. This site on is a look at the factors we considered when
deciding whether to upgrade or replace the cabinets and whether to get stock pieces or have custom units built.
We got our kitchen cabinets from Menards, they were the Medallion series. It's considered middle of road for cabinet quality. We did price
around at a local hardware store, as well as talking to friends and family about custom built units. We paid $3,000 for our cabinets (definitely
wait for a special, free sink base and 84% off retail, which is just a gimic, but hey)... the alternative was over $15,000 for custom units.
You've seen the pictures, I don't think our stock cabinets look bad, do you?
We wish you the best of success as you tackle this home remodeling project.
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