Kitchen remodel

[campingboaters]

Well, we HAVE to do SOMETHING before it's warm enough to camp again!
 
Looks like my DH and I have a LARGE project to complete before camping season begins for us (2 months away).  We decided to knock down a large part of the wall between our living room and kitchen (we don't have a dining room).  Since we're doing that, the might-as-wells started!  We will need new flooring in the kitchen and living room since they will be more like one big room... we might as well redo the Kitchen cabinets since we have to move the old ones for the flooring... we might as well move things around so we have more cabinets... we might as well paint the kitchen and we might as well paint the living room... blah, blah, blah...
 
I just priced out the flooring for the kitchen, carpet for the living room, cabinets for the kitchen, etc... We're at a budget of around $4500.  Plus $1200 of those items will be put off until a later date.  We live in a small house and we're not getting new appliances at this time.
 
Saving the money by doing it ourselves is why we are going to tackle it ourselves -- not to mention working off that cake and ice cream from my birthday and DH's b-day is coming up in less than three weeks!
 
I figure our biggest obstacle is knocking down the wall, moving the heat vents and wiring in that wall.  Our basement is all open and we can see everything.  After that, we tear out the old cabinets, lay the laminate "wood" flooring, replace the cabinets, countertops and appliances.  Then, we get new carpeting in the living room.  Does anyone have any advise or gotcha's?
 
I watch those home re-modeling/decorating shows WAY too much!  I make it sound so easy, don't I?

[B-flat]

Yep, been watching Design on a Dime way too long.  :J   I did a similar remod on my living room and knocked out a kitchen wall.  I now have a huge den and  breakfast room (off to one side)  and a separate but larger kitchen with eating bar..  We put a beam across the spot where the old wall used to be and put track lights over  and that's where the eating bar is.  Just strip out everything down to the floor, install new vinyl, then install the new cabinets over.  I had fun playing with scale drawings of where I wanted the stove, frige and sinks to go.  I opted to move the sinks to a different wall and it was easy with the pipes being nearby, so remember to do any changes of the plumbing before installing new flooring.  It was a mess for a while but once we got started, and set our minds to it, it shaped up very quickly.  We had the local store deliver the cabinets, vinyl and things as needed.

Hope things go well for you and that you keep us posted of your progress.  I had relatives who had been in building for years to advise of how to do the work and assist with any problems as they arose.

[Michicampers]

Beware of those made-for-TV home make-over shows - they tend to go with very trendy (read: short-lived) themes and often cheap materials. I figure a lot of the homeowners end up ripping out the remodel and starting over within a couple years, if not less. Keep in mind that those shows are made to appeal to the TV audience and not necessarily to work for the long-term satisfaction of the homeowners. I know a lot of people love them, but most of them make me cringe.

Be careful in moving ductwork - I would advise having an HVAC professional check it out. I have seen too many projects where people re-routed ductwork only to really screw up the system.

Also keep in mind that if you take away the visual barrier between the kitchen and living room, you may open up the sight lines to everything in your kitchen (dirty dishes, etc.) Our first home had an open plan, with the kitchen open to the dining room. I couldn't have a relaxing dinner without seeing all those pots and pans waiting for me to clean them up. I hated that floor plan. It is nice to open up the kitchen so the cook doesn't feel isolated, but I would advise taking out only the top half of the wall, or cutting in an opening, but keep the top of the half-wall at least 42" above the floor. You may be able to add a ledge there for a pass-thru or small bar/countertop. You may also find some other surprises in the wall you take out (water lines, drains, structural columns), so be ready for Plan B.

I do a lot of jobs like these, and I've un-done a bunch too, after homeowners got in over their heads. Even though you plan to do the work yourselves, it wouldn't hurt to hire a professional interior designer ( plug, plug   ), architect, or remodeler to check things out and offer some advice before you jump in with both feet. It doesn't have to cost a lot, you could save a lot of $$ in the long run, and you would probably hear suggestions you never would have thought of that you really like.

Good luck!

[Camperroo]

My hubby is a contractor and we can never, ever decide what to do next on the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Right now we are trying to decide whether to put a bathroom upstairs by turning the 3rd bdrm into a large bath and then moving DD's bedroom downstairs.  We have a good size eat-in kitchen and the dining room is off of the family room and we only use use it a couple of times a year and way back when it was used as a downstairs bedroom....I just don't know...what's worse is I also work in real estate and I can't help myself decide which is better to do!!!!!!!!!!  It's like a surgeon not being allowed to operate on their own family!!!!

[wiininkwe]

We were going to take out the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Got a nice big hole knocked into it and discovered the phone lines and electrical lines ran thru there, and an old furnace duct. That was a lucky thing, because then we also realised that the house had been added to a few times (way before us) and the wall we were trying to tear out was actually the original center wall in the house. Yes, the main bearing wall. We ended up with a small "window" type opening in that wall, so you can look thru to the kitchen, but it's not at all what I wanted. If you are working with a newer home, and can be assured that there won't be any surprises, it's a lot better, but beware tearing things out of an older home.
T

 
Forgot to say, congrats on the project, and I'm hoping that you end up with a beautiful new look!!

[MommaMia]

Just make sure that wall you are ripping out is not a load bearing wall or your remodel could end up costing a LOT more!

[angelsmom10]

Just make sure that wall you are ripping out is not a load bearing wall or your remodel could end up costing a LOT more!

My thoughts exactly, after we bought our cape cod, I was wanting to do knock down part of the wall and make a ledge between the upstairs and living room, but found out that it was a load bearing wall, and messed up my plans.  I was also going to do it between the kitchen and the stairs to the basement, but again it too was a load bearing wall.  Just be careful.  If you know someone who is a contractor contact them to find out how to know if it is load bearing.

[kathybrj]

We made a dorrway in a "wet" wall in our home- the wall between our kitchen and formal living room. Blaise had to completely change the direction of the waste water pipe going through the wall, putting angles where there were none in the first place.

It was one of the more challenging projects we've done on our most recent home. I've taken pictures along the way and post them on webshots so our families that are out of town can see the progress.

http://community.webshots.com/user/katebrj


Good luck with your new kitchen and have fun!

[campingboaters]

Thanks for all the replies!  DH and I are SO excited!  We ordered our cabinets last night and the laminate flooring this morning.  We're going to knock the wall down Friday night/Saturday morning and haul everything to the dump afterwards.  
 
I ended up with Thomasville natural maple cabinets from Home Depot because they had one year free financing.  While I'd rather give the local businesses my money, I couldn't turn down free financing for a year.  The floor will be a Gunstock Oak colored laminate floor by KronoSwiss.  I ordered that on-line.  I wanted something durable, but I didn't want to pay a lot of money in case I hated the laminate flooring.  If I swap it out in 5 years, I won't feel so bad.  I also felt like the stuff at Home Depot/Lowes just wasn't good enough quality and it cost more than what I paid including shipped to my door.
 
It's not a load bearing wall because it runs parallel to the joists, but it does have wiring and phone lines to the kitchen in it.  Those things can easily be moved since my FIL is an electrician and we're pretty comfortable with electrical work too.  As for the heating ducts, one duct will remain where it is, but become a floor vent instead of a wall vent.  The other, I'm not sure what we'll do just yet.  Having an unfinished basement with everything exposed is really what's making all of this "easy".
 
Luckily, I'm not one of those people that makes a huge mess when cooking dinner.  I usually have the pots and pans cleaned before I even serve dinner and we only run our dishwasher after we go to bed so we won't be bothered by that noise either.  
 
Our house is just so darn small that we had to do something.  We can't wait to have all of this done so we can have a party to celebrate!
 
I'll keep you all posted of our progress!