Kitchen renovation can be costly. Not only do you have all those costly appliances to buy, you have to pay for somebody to work out where they are all going to go. And then work out where all the cupboards are going to go around the appliances!
The best piece of money saving advice I can give you when it comes to kitchen renovations is 'refurbish, don't replace'. Take a good long look at your kitchen. Try the cupboard doors. Open a drawer. Is it just that you are tired of the tired looking worktop, a drawer doesn't open and you have a hole in the cupboard door? Those are no reasons for a new kitchen!
Most DIY books will give good instructions on fitting a new worktop (Tip: When cutting, remember to place masking tape firmly along the line you are cutting to help prevent chipping!). The cupboard doors can be replaced, or better still, sanded down and re-varnished in a colour of your choosing. The hole can be filled with a small chip of the same type of wood. Oh, and the drawer probably just needs a new runner. It also goes without saying that a lick of paint can go a long way to improving a room.
Grab a pen and paper and write down all the things you dislike about your kitchen. Include everything. Obviously items like cookers and dishwashers may need replacing, but these are rarely the heart and soul of the kitchen. If the final list, to you, represents a somewhat doable list of DIY tasks, then congratulations, you have just saved yourself a lot of money! All you need to do now is have a glance at some kitchen websites or perhaps some design magazines and choose some styles that you would like to recreate.
Remember the less money you spend on perfecting your home, the greater your overall gain at time of sale!
Good advice, Duncan. Thanks for sharing it. We have a relatively new home, so there isn't much we would change at this point. The tip to write down everything you don't like is a good one. We sort of did that when we shopped for a new home. We knew what we didn't want in it.
Thanks for your response, Lorrie. As you will see if you visit You Make A Home, our home is about 20 unloved years from new, so we've got it all to do! I am confident it will get there, though! May you enjoy your home in the meantime :) Respond to this comment
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Article added to SearchWarp.com on 5/14/2009 3:26:40 PM. View other articles written byDuncan Wilson(56)
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