Kitchen Renovation results

Hi all,

As I am constantly seeking (and receiving) valuable input on this forum, I thought I would try and add some input myself and show the results of the recent kitchen renovation we completed in our PPOR apartment.

As you can see from the before photos, there was actually nothing wrong with the kitchen from an aesthetic perspective- it was renovated in 2005 and in great condition. The problem we had was we both love to cook and the space reminded us of a holiday home or caravan- we desperately needed more bench and storage space.

We managed to pick up the last of the old Ikea range, and utilised the existing cupboard shell for some of the kitchen so total cupboards, benchtops, handles and sink was only $1600 ! As the oven / stove was relatively modern looking and worked great, we utilised that. We planned to demolish the old kitchen and install the new kitchen ourselves and only use a plumber / electrician/ tiler where necessary. We patted ourselves on the back for such a budget kitchen reno, took 5 days off work and were on our way !

Needless to say, nothing went as expected. When we started pulling out the existing cupboards, we found the pantry was actually embedded into an old door cavity and was impossible to get out. We then realised the existing backsplash was very well glued and could not get it off, along with some other problems. Help was needed.

We found some (actually amazing) contractors on gumtree to help us with the demo. It took the entire day for them just to remove the tiles and rest of the kitchen as everything was so firmly attached. They also discovered when pulling down the wall cupboards that our roof was essentially balancing on a single brick ! ughhhh.

In the background, we were painting and installing floorboards and the end of our leave had come. So we decided to just use the contractors to finish the kitchen. As they had day jobs, it ended up taking them a couple of weeks of weekends and after work to get everything worked out- it was just hurdle after hurdle... but it's finally done!

Total (actual) costs:

Ikea cupboards, sink, handles, benchtops $1600
Dishwasher $800
Tiles for backsplash $400
Electrician/ plumber $400
Floorboards in kitchen $400 (estimate- we laid them onurselves throughout our entire house for about $2000. They are solid wood too!)
Labour $4000 - this is what really got us but considering all the hurdles we had, it could have been much worse!
Number of arguments/ fights with fiancé during the 3 or so weeks of renovations: 4,367
Number of arguments/ fights with fiancé during the 4.5 years of our relationship to date: less than 10
Total: $7,600

We ended up finding some old bricks behind one of the walls and decided to keep them to give it that rustic look- this was one of the arguments I won but also one where I now get "you were right"

Ignore the dog in the after photo- he's such a camera hog

We do love the kitchen and its much more functional now with extra bench space and a quasi breakfast bar. Whether or not its improved the value by that much (given it wasn't in terrible condition at all before), is hard to say but regardless, having a kitchen we can both use at the same time I think is definitely worth it!

 

Great kitchen What improves value in my opinion is stone benchtops. 4K is a lot for labour - to install a kitchen should cost no more than $800. The funds could have gone to a nice stone benchtop like in the pic attached

Using laminate or any other surface will not last in the long run in my opinion. Cool dog though

 

Looks good. Love the bricks. Completely understand having to cough up extra for labour. Things often take an unexpected turn, as long as you feel you got fair value for money then it's worthwhile. I'm finding the less I DIY the more I get done and it ends up costing about the same when I factor in the loss of income due to time off. I do miss the learning curve though.

@melbournian How much does it cost to go stone bench top over laminate? We're in the design stage of our kitchen and stone is pretty high up on the list.

 

@Vacant I have done a few stone overs including my current place which was high previously diamond gloss laminate.

It depends on ur selection of stone. In the stone benchtop world there are the quartz stones like caesarstone, smartstone or essa stone. Really they are all the same. The cheapest is YDL. Others are natural stone which Granite and marble etc. marble especially is great but it is porous meaning u got high Maintenance as red wine etc will stain if not managed carefully.

For cost effective IP get YDL stone builder range u could get $300-$400 per slab depending on ur kitchen how big stone mason would cost 1.2-2k all up. I did this in pic attached carrera lookalike with 45mm thickness. The stone mason can cut the sides and just flip it over. Normally u would need a template but the stonemason should be able to come and measure.

 

I see a lot more bench space. Lovely dog and lovely space.

 

Love the bricks and blackboard - looks great!

 

How far is it between bench tops?

 

Awesome result at such a low cost. Makes me sick thinking how much I spent on our kitchen renos :-(

Cheers

Jamie

 

Haha.
Makes you wonder if it's all worth it.
I hope it's still fiancé.