Hmm the cabinet budget might be tough if you want real high quality. Could you forgo upper cabinets and do open shelving for now? You can always add those later. What type of cabinets do you like?
For Electrical it might be more if you want to move ad outlets or need to update it.
Do you need a full appliance package? It might be tough to come under 5K with stainless.
Granite might be tough too, but you will only need one slab. What color/type of granite do you like.
We are also in the Boston area it is a bit more expensive here too, plus the cost of the permits you will need.

I don't need ultra high quality cabinets. Its a 3 bedroom house, not a mansion, but I can't stand the color matching and sapwood I see in production cabinets. I want solid plywood cabinets with cherry wood and a natural finish. Raised panels would be nice, but recessed flat panels would be fine as well. Uppers are absolutely necessary. Looks like I might be building them.

For electric, we don't need to add any outlets, just move the DW outlet over and we will have full access to the wall and floor from the basement. I can rough everything in and have an electrician do the actually wire nut connections. The light will be similar, I will place the cans and chase the wire, just have the electrician do the final connections.

We could reuse the range, but its black. The fridge is 1980's era and 33" wide, so it has to go. The dishwasher is a black Bosch, but we got a lemon, it doesn't clean well at all.

We haven't looked at granite colors yet. I was figuring 60-80 dollars/sqft installed.

Permits will be how much? I obviously hadn't figured that in.

20K is a realistic budget if you DIY everything, already live in a modern home, and don't want anything above builder grade cabinets and laminate. For what you described, no, that's not realistic.

$7500 for that much cabinetry will get you barely above builder grade. Better double your cabinet budget at least for premium cherry. Maybe even triple it. Electrical and plumbing are both unrealistic unless you DIY, which you said you didn't want to do. A 1966 home will need a LOT more electric than you are thinking about, maybe even a whole new panel added if you don't have 200 amp service. 5K for stainless appliances is also darn low. Barely above builder's grade for everything you need. Ventilation needs will be higher than you think, even with a basic range.

Thanks for all the replies already. I knew I came to the right place. As far as electric, its already updated by previous owner to new 200 amp panel, all GFCI outlets in the kitchen, two dedicated to countertop appliances, 20 amp each, one for the fridge, one for the DW and one 240V for range. So electric is fine, just move the DW outlet and add some cans. The plumbing is just adding a supply line to the fridge, I will cut the access in the walls and close it up.

I priced out GE Profile stainless appliances at BestBuy for around $5000. That is standard to high appliance level for the neighborhood.

I have a quote from a local cabinet maker for custom cabinets in cherry, fisished, beaded inset raised panels for $15,000. The panels are even bookmatched from solid stock, not veneer. Again, if its 15k, I will build them. I was wondering if people had any thoughts on cheaper alternatives (maybe closer to 7-8K) they had found.

Is granite more then $80/sqft installed with a simple edge? I guess that might be one area I completely messed up on.

Anyway, keep the thoughts coming, this is great.

Thanks

Tile may run you a bit more as well, but it depends on the labor costs where you are located - I'd figure $10/sq ft in labor as long as the subfloor is in great shape. Then add the costs for the tiles. If your existing floor is not tile (and maybe even if it is) make sure that your floor joists will be stiff enough for the type of tile you want to lay. Good prep work on the floor is critical for a good tile job. Your cabinets look to be the budget buster unless you decide to build them yourself.

Don't be discouraged, pshaffer. While it's certainly easy to pay a lot more than 20k for a kitchen remodel like yours, it's certainly doable on your budget, or even less. In fact, we're doing a fairly DIY remodel of a kitchen that sounds almost identical to yours in dimensions (island a little bigger, 36ish x 87), and we're going to pay under $11k.

Appliances--haunt craigslist. Bump and dent outlets. I've paid $900 for all my appliances so far. I've bought a 36" Thermador gas cooktop and hood, 30" Thermador double ovens, 30" Sharp microwave drawer--all stainless steel, perfect condition, from people who were remodeling their already really nice kitchens.

Cabinets--investigate RTA or perhaps Ikea cabinets and just make custom doors yourself. I am very happy with our RTA cabinets from Cabinets to Go. They were a dream to assemble, all quality plywood construction, dovetail drawers, soft close full extension drawers, and from what I've seen, very consistent in color. Install yourself. Total cost for our entire kitchen of cabinets, just over $5k. Our GC friend (who we used to plumb the gas line to the kitchen and hook up the cooktop and sink) was very impressed with the quality of the cabinets we bought. My dad was, too. He's an Electrical Engineer, but is an exceptional woodworker too. He's built harps, fine furniture, a sailboat, and much more. He thought we'd made a great purchase when he inspected our cabinets. They're certainly WAY nicer than the builder grade oak we tore out. Just so you know, Cabinets to Go has a lot more options than they show on the website. All the pullouts and drawer sizes you'd need.

Granite--it's easy to pay a lot, but there are deals to be had here, too! I paid $28/sf (3cm, eased edge, not prefab, and that includes materials AND labor AND installation). Granted, this was a company that specializes in bringing in a container full of a popular color at a time, and offering it at a really good price. They only have 4-6 colors to offer at any given time at those prices, but I found one I liked and was delighted with their workmanship and product. Most other places around here start around $40/sf and go up.

Plumbing--you just need a supply line to the fridge? Ours just runs behind our cabinets, from the RO to the icemaker. That's the way they always do it around here (Phoenix). Is it different in other parts of the country?

Who knows what deals you'll be able to find in your area. My point is just that with your DIY abilities and some creativity and patience, you can build in a ton of sweat equity!

I have a small galley kitchen and here is the cabinet breakdown for the kitchen and adjacent Laundry room...hope it helps for comparison sake....we spent $10,400...would have been $11,000 but there was a promotional sale. We got Dynasty cabinets, natural maple, slab doors, 42" to the ceiling...and this included the knobs as well.

Kitchen lowers: 18" trash pullout, 30" sink base with rollout, 30" and 33" drawers, 12" cab with dividers for cookie sheets.

Uppers: 2---18", 30" over the sink, 30" regular, 12" spice pullout, 30" over microwave, 33", and 36" over the fridge...fridge has panels on both sides.

Laundry room: 36" sink base with 36" cab above, and 36" floor to ceiling pantry with rollouts.

We spent $5300 for appliances. We're not big cooks so we weren't interested in professional grade. We got Kenmore Elite counter depth French door fridge, Bosch 800 series DW, GE profile gas slide in range, GE advantium MW. We saved about $1000 buying the stove, DW, and MW online from number1direct...they were great.

I think your granite budget is realistic. Your flooring could be more based on installation costs and the tile you pick out. We also got our Dal tile online for less than half quoted at local Dal tile store. Hope this helps...good luck! It's a fun ride!

I have two concerns:

Cabinet budget seems very low. You may be able to achieve that using Ikea boxes and 3rd-party doors from Scherr's or Barker. Not plywood like you asked for, but not bad either. (I used Scherr's RTA for my cabinets, which have a 8x14 run + 5' fridge run. Lowest estimate from them for plywood construction and maple interiors was $8500. I wound up upgrading everything and nearly doubling that number.)

I don't actually have a big beef with your other numbers, but you are missing a contingency pot. I constructed my budget in a similar manner to yours, and the problem was all the "small" stuff that I didn't think of. It adds up. Just as an example, I did my floor myself. I counted on the $4/sq ft travertine tile, and estimated some other costs (plywood, thinset), but did not count on the $2.50/sq. ft. for the Ditra underlayment I eventually decided to get nor the $2 sq ft. for the epoxy grout I eventually upgraded to nor the $1/sq. ft. sealer. Oops, budget nearly doubled.

I also have one suggestion: are you interested in DIY soapstone? Depending on variety, you could probably put it in for about $40/sq ft. or less. (I got mine on sale, and, including all of my costs, I got it in for about $30/sq. ft.)

When I started shopping for cabinets I got a price from Home Depot and a local kitchen cabinet supplier. I was surprised to find Home Depots price was around $4000 more for a cheaper looking cabinet. I think my cabinets are by Kraftmaid but I'll have to check on that. I paid $8000 for a kitchen your size without an island. I'm happy with the quality. I didn't add a spice pull out but I wish I had it now.

I bought Kitchen Aid appliances except for the stove which is GE and they cost less than $5000. The store had a rebate deal for buying a package. I didn't buy my dream stove because I couldn't afford it.

You could probably do better on the granite if you pick a popular color. Some of the exotics get pricey but they're beautiful.

My entire kitchen came in under $20,000 and I removed the soffit and lifted the ceiling. I think that was the best decision I made as it made a huge difference.

Good luck with your project!

Permits? Drywall, paint, dumpster, window casings, backsplash, knobs can sometimes be a surprising little line item. Agree with contingency plan - can be as simple as knowing what you'll cut if something goes wrong. Like counters and the island can wait or new appliances can wait if something unexpected comes up. OR

Welcome, friends to the Back of Envelop School of estimating. We're always wrong but you'll fit right in. I'm a charter member.

An example of "something goes wrong" is that you go to change the window and water has leaked into the wall causing some framing members to rot and you suddenly have a larger job.

An example from the Envelope School, is that you make incremental decisions that individually aren't too bad but combined together blew the budget. A nicer tile, more appealing appliances, upgraded cabinet construction were maybe individually 500-1000 but together add up to a chunk.

And that's before the new kitchen makes your... toaster, mixer, plates, pots, paper towel holder and whatever look dowdy.

Unless you already have a woodshop with 5-10K worth of tools in it, and a dust free environment with HVLP sprayer plus some pretty good experience using all of that stuff, forget making your cabinets. Yes, you can do it, but by the time you're done, you'll have more in the premium wood and equipment than your whole budget. You would be better off buying them from a decent custom shop.

The absolute first place to start is to make sure you have a functional layout. Then you can plan a kitchen in stages if your locality will allow that. The Boston area is not known for being DIY friendly or at all inexpensive. Plenty of people have gotten the final sign off and lived with plywood counters long term until they could afford to put in their granite. As long as you have done everything else up to current code--including a bit more electrical than you have budgeted for--then living with great cabinets, used appliances, and the cheapest vinyl floor possible can be done for a while. What you'll find impossible to do is to wind up the wayback machine and upgrade your cabinets after the remodel is completed. The cabinets, the structural elements, the systems elements and upgrades--including lighting and ventilation (which are the usual poor step sisters forgotten about), are the foundation bones of any good kitchen. A lot of other stuff can be changed out later if you need to in order to meet your budget, but those items can not.

I have a contingency built it. The actual budget is $25k, but I hope to hit the $20k mentioned above. I have done enough DIY projects to know all about budget creep. I have a full woodshop, would just need raised panel router bits and other accessories (which would add up, but..). We generally like the layout of the kitchen as is, its functional, just dated. We would move the dishwasher to the other side of the sink to avoid a corner conflict with the oven door. Believe me, I know all about electrical, I have pulled a couple hundred feet of wire (including aluminum) out of the basement. The electrical in the main floor is completely up to code (unless they have changed to NEC2011, I will need tamper resistant outlets).

It seems like the cabinets are going to be the real kicker. Good to hear $8-$12k will likely do it with Dynasty, KitchenMaid, etc... We have a functional island that is about 20 years old (original kitchen is 45 yo), so we could live with that for now. I really need to find a local cabinet shop. Anyone have good reference in the Boston area?

Thanks again for all the advice.

you can trim your granite budget if you are willing to use prefabricated granite slabs. they basically would have maybe 2 choices for granite edge and 10 colors to choose from, but the savings is huge.

Hola,
I'm in metrowest, MA.

I'm planning on using Barker Cabinets and having the doors locally stained and milk paint and finish.

My gf used a local guy in Milbury for her cabs; I'm checking him out tomorrow.

Another gf is getting her oak cabs painted/finish by another local guy, so I'm going to check out his work in a few weeks.

Not that you need high end appliances, but I got 2 great deals (36" Miele induction cooktop and GE Monogram Advantium 120v) from the kitchenguys.com in RI.

good luck.
Amanda

Hello, my name is Dilly and I too am an upgradeaholic. But I only want to renovate once, so I may as well do it right. LOL!

It is very hard to stick to a budget. You will need alot of time for shopping, especially for cabinetry. It is very difficult to compare prices.

Since you are handy, maybe good quality RTA cabinetry would be a good choice for you.

I am VERY intrigued by barker cabinets and doors. They seem like really solid RTA cabinets. What are people's experiences with them. What about their wood quality, lots of sapwood for cherry? What about their conversion finishing?

Also, thanks for the heads up on kitchenguys.com. We are on a long time frame for range and dishwasher, so we will just monitor that site for the appliances we want and get the customer returns for half price.

Keep the ideas coming, I love it. Thanks a ton.

I think 20K is doable. We will be around 20K when we finish.
We bought out cabinets from a company called Conestoga. They are RTA cabinets but beutifully done. Each cabinet took 15 minutes to put together. And for a DIYer that should be a breeze. We even upgraded to 100% plywood, inset, dovetail drawers, and endpanels incomporated into teh cabinet. We spent 4300, but would have spent 2000 more but saved on painting the cabinets yourself. We are painting them white but If you stained your cabinets yourself you could save $$$. we even have all drawers so that was a large chunK. Are kitchen is 11 x 12 and there are 17 cabinets.

we got a french door fridge for 1500 reg 2400, stove 1800 Kitchenaid pro, hood is broan prof 600, and we had the dishwasher.

I think if you put a lot of planning and finding the best prices you could definetly do your kitchen under 20K. If you have any questions on what we got or some great sites let me know.

Conestoga cabinets- cabinetauthority.com if you google RTA or Conestoga they will have reviews.

I meant to add I live in the Middlesex County, Ma.

We priced out our cabinets on Barker Cabinets last night, natural finish (conversion varnish) with all the upgrades in cherry. Including the island, it was around $6700. It didn't include toe kicks, knobs, crown, but it did include end panels and a back panel for the island. We will request a quote for the Conestoga cabinets tonight from cabinetauthority or cabinetmakers choice. I imagine they are all very competitive since they are ordering off the same price sheet from conestoga. Does anyone know how much sapwood is in the standard cherry grade from consetoga versus the premium cherry grade? We would be doing a natural finish, so sapwood needs to be minimal, but there is a 35% upcharge for premium grade cherry. Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

If you have the tools and your wife and you have the patience, I think it would be an amazing experience to build your own boxes and shelves and then buy doors as mentioned above. My husband did a lot of the work but not the actual cabinets. One thing that can be hard is finding the subs for the small things you cannot easily do, ie retexturing a small bit of ceiling to match.

Soapstone would be fun. You might check some out in person before deciding.

Regarding the granite, there are some good ways to save money and some bad ways to save money. The most painful stories on this board are often related to improper stone installations.

Good ways:

1. Check with reputable fabricators. Some will have less expensive granites they get in larger amounts and use regularly. These often include New Venetian Gold, Santa Cecelia, and Steel Gray. If this is a route you are considering, you will want to know which granites are available and take that into account when choosing a cabinet color.

2. Find a stone yard or reputable fabricator that has a half or partial slab of something. It happens. Then, they will give you a good deal on that half-slab but you will need to buy a full slab probably at regular price to go with it. It can be tough to color match, so be careful on this one.

3. Research before you buy your cabinets if you are close to being over a whole slab...if so you *might* want to tweak your layout slightly?

4. Go with a basic choice for the counter edge.

Now, the bad way:
Get a Front-Yard Fabricator. There are guys who come in and do all the cutting in your front yard or even your house, leaving a superfine dust just everywhere.

They may not check your cabinets well beforehand to ensure that you got them level or have enough support for your island overhang, and install anyway. Some don't get their seams tight, sometimes a crack appears, and they don't back it up. Another thing they do is use 2cm granite instead of 3cm. And this can be done WELL, but you need plywood underneath it, and then you need to face out the counter edge with granite (hopefully colormatched) so you cannot see that plywood.

In a largely unregulated industry, how do you know who's reputable?

They should have a shop where they cut nearly everything on your counter except your faucet holes and perhaps a couple more small cuts left for stability. Their shop should have large machines for cutting your stone. They should want you to approve the layout of your counters. They should want you to come by and see their shop, or give referrals if asked.

Places to find them: Ask your stoneyard which fabricators seldom get complaints. If you have a Street of Dreams program, find out which fabs worked on those houses. Call a stoneyard, tell them you have a cracked countertop and who would they recommend to fix it? Call that company and ask if they do installs too.

HTH

Colorfast

For comparison, you should at least price out your cabs from Scherr's. They are fully custom, which may help you maximize your layout.

FWIW, they have a "select" cherry option (sapwood only allowed to show on edges) at 10% upcharge as well as the "premium" cherry (no sapwood allowed) at 35% upcharge.

Here is a link that might be useful: Scherr's door and RTA cabs

Have you decided if you want frameless cabinets or it doesn't matter?
I have a limited number of cabinets for storage, so I can't sacrifice the space for the frames.
I believe Conestoga is only face frame, whereas Barker is frameless.

Conestoga: "Each kitchen cabinet -- and cabinets for other rooms --comes with a solid wood face frame* made from the wood of your choice."

Email me if you'd like a stone fabricator recommendation. I have a story to share about 2 fabricators and their "pricing".

When is demo?
Sounds like your schedule is ahead of me, so I'll be monitoring your progress, especially if you go with Barker cabs.

Amanda

Conestoga materials are very detailed including defining the grade of wood.

eI guess I never mentioned the timeline. It is somewhere between this July and next winter. One of the reasons to nail down the budget is to make sure we have savings necessary for the remodel before we start. Right now we have about 16k cash on hand, and the family will be in FL for July, so if we can get the materials and cash, I would have 4 weeks without 4 more mouths to feed from a temp kitchen. Otherwise it will have to wait til winter. Anyway, we are still deciding things like frameless versus face frame, raised panel versus recessed panel, cherry finish, granite color, backsplash, new window size. We are just starting out, months, maybe a year left. I think RTA cabinets might be the way to go on our budget. I have looked at some threads here, but I need to do more research. If we really go with natural finish cherry, it has to be premium grade or I will flinch every time I walk in the kitchen, just one of my requirements. Thanks for the help, please keep it coming. As we get farther along the planning stage, I will post new threads. I guess one the first things to nail down is the layout of the cabinets, right? Then door style, then colors? What decisions need to be made first?

Hi Paul check out RockTop Designs in Holliston for the countertops. They have a wide selection and prices are great. They did a beautiful job with my granite.

Sounds like you got a lot of great advice re cabinets. I just wanted to mention that I didn't see anything about under cabinet lighting--did you consider it?

I'm Boston-area, too--if you were going to build your own cabinets, where would you get nice cabinet grade cherry ply around here? Or maple, or, indeed, anything that Home Depot doesn't carry...the lumberyards I've checked carry building ply, but not furniture grade--not A or B on both sides, basically. Thanks!

We got a quote for beaded inset cabinetry with premium cherry from a conastoga cabinet dealer, it was 8.5k, fully finished (including island cabinets). Besides 1/2 inch plywood sides, they look topnotch. We also went to Ikea to check that out. Their boxes looked very reasonable for melamine and very reasonably priced. Do people edge band the front to match their third party doors? The white or birch showing through between the doors would be a show stopper for me. Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions, its been a huge help. We will certainly add undercabinet lighting.
For premium plywood in the Boston area, there is Boulter Plywood in Somerville. They even carry prefinished ply. I haven't personally gone there. I get my rough lumber from Northland in Kingston, NH or Highland Hardwoods just north of there. I usually get Shop grade maple because the cabinets I have built previously have been in the basement, laundry room, etc... An imperfection in the back of a laundry cabinet is fine in my book.

Thanks

Thanks! Yeah, things that aren't seen don't bother me either--I was thinking of the parts of cabinets where you see both sides on the ends, etc. And shelves for upper cabs, I suppose.

>Do people edge band the front to match their third party doors?

Yes.

I will anytime suggest you to go with the granite to decor your home, it will give classy look and fill to your home with very less budget. Best granite for less will give you great stuff with less budget.

Check out Country Craftsmen in Uxbridge. Where in Middlesex are you? CC is about an hour outside the city. Everything is custom, all Blum hardware and their prices are good.

You sound like a kindred spirit - I'm going through the same exercise. I do everything except the plumbing, but finding the right cabinets to stay out of divorce court is proving to be the greatest challenge. :)
I'm just below the NH border in Essex county, so we've probably looked at a lot of the same resources - plus I just finished putting in a complete new kitchen in my son's condo in JP. I used RTA cabinets from domaincabinetsdirect.com for him, but I'm looking for an upgrade for my own kitchen.
You might want to look at an inexpensive design program called Plan3D - let's you do reasonably accurate layouts with a minimum of learning curve and pain.
I'm looking at Barker and Scherr as possible options for RTA cabinets, and iEuro, Cabico, and Dynasty for manufactured lines. The jury is still out. I will tell you that it's going to be really tough to find durable boxes and doors with attractive cherry veneer at the price point your looking for.
If you have the time or interest perhaps we can collaborate.

Thanks for the information bosdiyer. I will definitely check out Plan3D. I have actually decided to build my own cabinets. I couldn't find the quality I wanted for a price that I could afford. I am probably going to have the carcasses CNC machined out of prefinished plywood and make my own faceframes, doors and drawers from Cherry. I will assemble them and install them. I found lots of great local cabinetmakers that were in the ~$15k range for solid wood faceframes/doors with beaded inset style, but I just couldn't afford it. Beautiful cabinets, definitely worth the price. Good luck and hopefully we can share some more information, like good sub-contractors (I need someone to run the ducting for the hood through the attic and to the roof/soffit).

Cheers

I have a great plumber (from Somerville) if you need one - very reasonable, shows up when he's supposed to, and does 1st class work. Also, check out barkerdoor.com for doors and drawers.
I prefer frameless with full overlay doors to framed so I've also been looking at barkercabinets.com (same company) for high quality RTA. I don't have a spray booth so I would need to go with their CV process for a finish.
If you like the look of verde butterfly, granite (looks great with cherry), I know a couple of small fabricators that can do it for ~ $35 a foot, edged, with a sink. I'll post some pictures from the kitchen I did for my son.
Can't help with the ducting, but if you need help with floor tile and a back splash, let me know.
Take a look a Columbia Purebond (or their other products) for your case material.
I'd like to hear about local CNC resources you think are reliable
Thanks