Once you have a hole made, take lots of photos. You're bound to get one that will show what's in there.

We had soffits in our old kitchen and our GC poked multiple holes, one or two in each section, and yes, we had some plumbing that needed re-positioning, but it was not a major issue and GC was able to plan for it in advance.

We also removed a floor tile and poked a hole in the flooring to see what was underneath (previous owner had done some dumb stuff), as we needed to ensure we could get to level subfloor easily enough to install hardwood.

We had soffits and some plumbing, HVAC and electrical.
The first GC took a peek and said, NO GO.
Second opinion - spent quite a bit of time poking holes in the soffit - brought the plumber over and they said YES!

Said still probably a price breaker - but quite reasonable - except the cabinets cost a lot more....
Note our "holy kitchen"

Major drain run moved - built a support bridge around it - passed inspection without a problem.

We didn't open walls to peak in, but new it could be a problem. 2/3 soffits removed. The third housed a major cast iron pipe and all the piping that goes to the upstairs bathroom. We were told we could remove the soffits...if we wanted to gut our upstairs bathrooms! If we replaced just part of it with PVC, we were facing a good possibility of leaking. So we're bummed, but moving on...hopefully we can disguise the soffit somehow...

I am in a ranch so no second floor but I had a lot of wires and a cast iron vent stack, that stuck out about 3 inches each way from the ceiling and wall. I took 42" uppers to the ceiling and just cut the cabinet to fit around the vent stack and then just built a little box around it inside the cabinet. It would have been a pain to move based on where it exited to the roof.

Cut holes and see!!! We didn't and were "surprised" by a toilet drain pipe that had to be re-routed through the ceiling--$$$.

By the time we figured out that it was there I would have had to pay to have my ugly soffit rebuilt, or pay for the plumbing involved.

Best to know.

The holes may not be that easy to cut, btw. Our soffits had nothing them. Under the sheetrock they were wooden boxes so when we tried to break through, we hit wood and were all panicked. We were able to look from above but it was not entirely easy to do with lots of 2x4s as well.

If you do decide to take them out, once you determine where your wiring is, you will be much happier using a Sawzall. Those things cut through nails and all. We did end up reusing a fair bit of the lumber from the soffits elsewhere.

I can't emphasize enough how nice it is to get extra shelves all the way around my kitchen, when I didn't have enough storage. I need to find a better before pic for you that includes the soffits but for now, here's my after pics which I just posted last week.

Here is a link that might be useful: No more soffits in my kitchen

We removed our soffits. I asked the GC if it was worth cutting a few holes before we ordered our cabinets (which go to the ceiling) and he commented that unless he really cut into the whole thing, it wouldn't matter. Just because one area was "clear". Another area might be problematic. He really felt that whatever was uncovered we could deal with. As it turned out, everything was fine and could be easily relocated except for one major plumbing pipe. It was at a corner and he cut into my upper cabinet to accommodate the pipe. The pipe takes a small about of storage space out of my cabinet. But unless you are standing on a ladder and looking into the open door of my cabinet, you'd never know.

@colorfast, I saw those, beautiful! I didn't realize the before had soffits due to the angle.

Thank you all for the advice! I have one long soffit that runs along the outside wall above the range and sink to the half wall that leads to the hall. I took a peek above the range and nothing there as far as I could tell. I did not drill on the other side of the sink, I can't imagine there is anything there as the upstairs bathroom plumbing is not along the outer wall, it is on the interior bathroom wall.

Also took a look in the other soffit above the fridge. It is in back of the downstairs bathroom and close to the upstairs bathroom as far as I can estimate.

Now i did see a small copper pipe along the top and a larger black pipe cut through. BUT on further investigation I think there is no ceiling inside the soffit and I can see up to the bottom of the floor upstairs. I also reinvestigated over the range and when looking up I see some ductwork, again farther up than the ceiling should be.

So I think we are ok to remove, but will have to add in some bits of ceiling where the soffits were. My plan is to do a lot of research, then meet with the contractor for a more specific estimate (he gave me a very rough guess the day he finished the bathroom). I was still undecided about floor material, if the soffits were staying or goining, and lighting, so I know the estimate was a fuzzy ballpark. Then the hard part of balancing what I want with what is reasonable to spend in this neighborhood. It's a decent home, but not a $30k kitchen home.

Regarding the copper pipe, poke a tape measure up there and see how many inches go into the soffit before you hit the pipe. That might help you reconfirm how far it is. But your premise held true in our home at least--there was no ceiling above the soffits.

How much of your project is a DIY? Are you doing the demo? You can get to $20k or $25k pretty quickly even if you are doing a lot of the work.

Yes, adding in ceiling takes time. We do our own sheetrock--my husband does most of the work by far but I am generally recruited to help with sanding and mudding. You'll probably want someone good at ceiling texturing--merging the old with the new.
(and thanks for the compliment)

I had the same thought! The hole was small, but it seemed like the piece of wood I though should be at the ceiling line was at the ceiling height, then if I moved the tape off that piece of wood it went up a good bit more, hard to tell exactly how much due to the angle of the tape, but significantly farther than the ceiling should be.

Before I decide how much I need to DIY I want to meet with the GC. DH is NOT handy, he helps friends when needed but is generally the clean up guy while they work. I can pick things up pretty fast with some research, but my work schedule does not lend itself to a reasonable time frame. I traded labor costs for a timely bathroom remodel, but we are talking substantially more labor here so I don't know what compromises might be needed.

I'm thinking $20 k total, with my Kraftmaid cabs quoted at about 8,100 ( still looking at a custom quote soon) and very roughy labor est. of $5k (which will be higher, but did include demo needed to move fridge). I have popcorn ceilings, which I want to tile over rather than remove so that should help as no matching is needed (it is not heavy texture and pretty stable), and will probably put down the tile we used in the bathroom on the floor, so $1.44 /sf probably simple 45 degree offset.

Just replaced appliances, so they are not included. Will need a new OTR micro. Window and sliding door are newer and staying. Removal of wallpaper was part of the initial estimate.

I'm optimistic that is a doable budget. Though I keep finding all sorts of cool things here, so fantasy may have to bow to reality. Time will tell! Not ready for a more precise estimate yet, will probably be a month or two before I get to that point.

Abouttogetdusty- if your cabinets are going to the ceiling and you would like to disguise the pipes without a visible soffit then you may be able to do an enclosure within the cabinet sort of like this:

{{!gwi}}

I've cut holes in mine- every 3- 4 feet. Used a drywall saw. Saved the pieces, stuck my camera through to take pictures in all directions. Used an Angies list special for drywall repair for $99 to get them patched up (with the original drywall that I had cut out)along with some other drywall repairs.Once sanded and painted with flat paint you can't see that there were holes at all.

Get a fiberoptic scope and drill small holes ... resell it later.

http://www.amazon.com/ProVision-SLIPV2636-Series-Borescope-Shaft/dp/B000SC4NBC/ref=pd_cp_hi_2

Thanks, athomeinva. Great idea but I stupidly ordered the cabinets before taking a peak. The soffit faces the outside wall, above the kitchen sink, and I ordered a glass-front cabinet to flank each side of the sink. Williamsem, good luck, and have fun peaking! We had hoped to do our small kitchen in that price range, but wound up doubling. We wanted to take down the wall between the dining room and kitchen. And our electric and plumbing were c1940. Everything had to be gutted. Down to the studs = $$$$.

Oh, those are not good surprises! Our house was built in 1988, though corners were cut where they shouldn't have been. I'll eventually post a cautionary rant somewhere, but the short version is our 10k window/frames replacement ended up a 30k window, plywood, flashing, tyvek, insulated siding, and asst other small items project. None of it was optonal except a new front door, but when you rebuild the whole outside of the house, it's silly not to add in the one door that was ok too.

The bathroom was pleasantly surprising. The only issue was one wall was not square, but that was easily worked around. Though we were lucky the pipes did not leak, there was some connection that was supposed to be attached somewhere that was not attached.

I fully expect our subfloor near the sliding door to have issues, that area was rotted 3 boards deep due to lack of flashing on the deck with a board parallel to the house butted against the frame.

Hoping for the best, but it will be several months or longer before we get to the point where we are ready for demo.

Here is another easy way to check, it's well worth the $100 bucks to be sure. Poke as many small holes as you need to, they are easy to repair.

http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-inspection-camera-67979.html

There are plenty of small cameras and flex scope equipment around now to look through a small hole.

I have used both flex scopes and rigid scopes to get look around.

We just went through this. In our case, I thought our GC should have known that soffits were major given the upstairs bathroom right above, but he didn't. The 23" soffit is now an 8" soffit and $1400.00 "surprise" but worked through it. Does it appear to be worth it? Absolutely! It makes the room look much bigger, and we're not talking about a big space to begin with!