Paid cash for everything as we're not one's to take out loans for anything, if we don't have to. Having debt is not our style nor is keeping up with the Jones', so we're practical about our choices.

Good luck with your remodel.

Cash.

Cash. Saved over time. This kitchen was a long time in coming.

If you get money from friends or relatives you should have your head examined. IMHO
Macbillybob,
I agree with you but I will add to this this to say that friends or relatives who'd lend money for a kitchen reno should definitely have their head examined. A kitch reno just is not a dire emergency.

It's so easy for me to say that we saved and use cash only for remodels because DH makes a very good living (so glad I married well). But I can remember a time when we were young, when that wouldn't have been the case. If we were in our late 20's-early 30's, I'd think nothing of taking out a home equity loan to do the kitchen. We'd have to because in those days we spent every cent we made on clothes and vacations!!!

cash, cash, cash
DH had to cash in some stock options last year. They were given to him a number of years ago with the caveat that they had to be excersized within x number of years. We've had to make a few compromises because we refuse to go into debt for the kitchen. So maybe next year we can afford the wine and liquor storage and garden window that got axed from the project. If they discontinue my door style before I get my wine and liquor storage I'll just die, but in today's economy why go into debt when you can just wait?

I've been saving for about 2 years - for emergencies. But I also recently got a HELOC that could potentially cover all the cost, but I will use at least half of my savings and the HELOC as needed.

This is my last house, have owned it for 16 years, I'm single and 61 and still working full time. I view this Fall kitchen redo as an investment should the need arise to sell the house. But it is also time to do something nice for myself.

Sure, all cash would be nice, but for me it is just not realistic. Everyone has their own priorities.

We saved until we would have enough to pay cash. I totally agree that you need to plan for 25% more than the bid. Stuff always comes up. We also didn't do everything now. I kept all the old appliances even though the fridge is white and doesn't match. SO what! It's perfectly fine and later on I can get other appliances. We didn't do the floor either, it's also fine for now. We shopped carefully and considered all options to best use the amount of money we had. It's all about priorities!

I could just about ditto every word of Treeskate's post. The distinctions don't matter as the substance is the same.

Cash. Our reno was mostly diy and on a tight budget. I still don't have my new fridge because we're still saving for it. We didn't want to go into debt for a kitchen remodel so we opted for fewer bells and whistles and more necessities. It worked for us.

Cash. Although we're comfortable now, I also remember when we were first married (second marriage for both of us - this was only a dozen years ago) and had cardboard boxes as nightstands, and wine crates as bookcases. (I still have the wine boxes in my sewing room). My dad was right: if it's worth having, it's worth waiting and saving for.

We had the cash saved but used our United credit card as much as possible to get the mileage award. We paid the card off immediately.

Saved the cash - over a long period of time. Like others we could not have done anything like this earlier in our life - but finally could afford to do so after being married 27 years.

Cash, kind of.

When we got married we sold my husband's house and moved into my house, with the understanding that we would redo the kitchen and build him a workshop, as he hated my existing kitchen, and had a workshop at his old place.

However, we could have taken the proceeds of his house and payed off my mortgage completely - just. So, in a way, we borrowed the money against our existing house. It's a little easier to justify than taking out a loan, but it comes to the same thing in the end.

This is our "forever" house, although at 32 that's an odd thing to say. Unless we had to move out of town for some reason I don't imagine us ever moving. This is an investment in our happiness together as a family for the years that we live here. Our mortgage is not particularly high and will be payed off by the time our daughter is ready to go to university.

That's how I justify things, at any rate.

We also paid cash and I guess we are one of the lucky ones that didn't have 25% over budget issues. Ours came in just about dead on to what was in our contract. Our GC is the best in this area and in high demand. We started demo on June 3 and we should be done on Monday or Tuesday next week. We made the decision to reno kitchen pretty quickly and didn't have time to save up, but like cheril27 my dh also makes a very good income and the only debt we carry is our mortgage. We decided that we were only going to do this once so we went top of the line on most things and feel very good that it's paid for.

Like mary_in_nc we also made sure we could pay cash for the entire remodel, but we took advantage of using credit card reward programs and deferral payment plans. We got a 1 year deferral on the appliance purchases, will be getting money back on the credit card reward program, and are using a HELOC specifically for paying off the remodel credit card charges. We can then choose to pay off the HELOC in full knowing we have the cash to do so, but keeping that cash free and available for investments. The interest on the HELOC will be tax deductible and we always pay off our monthly credit card balance in full.

As long as you have a full understanding of your financial situation, pad expected budget cost by 25-50% and keep enough cash liquidity to cover all balances in the event of a crisis, there is no reason not to take advantage of credit card and home equity loan programs. Make your money work for you when you can, but never get in a situation where you cannot recover from an unexpected downturn. Peace of mind and security is certainly of more value than new purchases gained by over extension of the budget.

Both cash and cashed in a non-retirement investment. (It will end up putting a new car purchase off for awhile, since we never take out car loans.) Just to compare apples with apples, is everyone's kitchen redo under $50K or $40K? I can't see how some people have the cash on hand to pay for some of the big/giant redos I've seen on GW....some must be $75,000 to $100,000 or more. I give alot of credit to DIYers who pay for most of it with their time and talents.

Is anyone else nervous about spending the money. I guess for me it is a luxury and right now with the economy I am just nervous about spending the money.

Am I the only one?

Our kitchen reno is about 75K.

We did new cabinets, electrical (can lights, undercab lights, new fixtures) corian (yes, corian is what I liked and yes it was *more* expensive than granite!) new sinks and faucets (2 of each)and new tile backsplash for under 15,000. We are not fancy, but we even sprung for the full extension/soft close drawers! My kitchen is 16 x 10. I think we did pretty good! So far no unexpected mishaps, and we have electrical and counters to go.

We are using a combination of resources because our remodel involves a lot more than just the kitchen. By the time we are finished the total will be somewhere around $120K. We live comfortably, but we are certainly not rich enough to have that kind of cash on hand.

1) Started off buying most of the appliances on a 12 mo, no interest deal and paid those off before the final bill.
2) Since this is a DIY project, and since it's taken more than three years already, most of the other smaller items such as electrical, lighting, flooring, etc. have been procurred on a pay-as-you-go basis.
3) Used my AmEx card and some creative moving around of balances to effectively borrow money at a fixed 1.9% interest rate. I have no problem paying back money at 1.9% when inflation is running much higher.
4) Will be using our tax deductible HELOC at 4% to pay some of the higher cost bills such as the final payment on the custom cabinets, and probably the countertops. Since any money borrowed is going right back into the house to increase its value, I don't have any problem using some of our equity to complete the project before we get too old to enjoy it!

Good luck :-)

We will pay cash and sweat equity, lots of sweat equity. We will do all the demolition, plumbing, electric, build the cabinets, install the counters (depending on what we choose).

My parents remodeled their house repeatedly as we were growing up the same way, doubling the sq ft, moving the kitchen and basically refinished the whole house while never taking out a loan. In fact after living in the house for only 20 years they had it paid off.

I used a mix...cash and equity on the future value (our market is stable and we are in a very desirable location, but worst case...I can take the hit if things tank).

We are remodeling the entire house. The kitchen is probably one of the higher ones here (but not the highest on GW I know) but the entire remodel is pushing $400K now (I am trying to stay below that). I have some sweat equity as well (including a broken arm LOL).

I'm a banker, and have no fear of credit used properly. ANd my heart isn't broken when oil hits $140 a barrel :oP

Saved for several years, and paid cash. I didn't have a lot though. For weeks I put together a budget in advance of doing anything. That meant I had to make all my choices in advance, rather than on the fly, from the big items of appliances/counters/backsplash down to the smallest details (like knobs), and including a fudge factor. But the crucial thing is that I stuck to that budget fanatically, obsessively. It is so easy to go over budget. I think that's how the big overages happen; people get carried away with excitement over a big ticket item.

How did I stick within my $27K budget? I shopped on the internet for bargains thereby saving on the price of the items, as well as sales tax, and getting free shipping as often as possible. Saved thousands that way. Also, I chose thermofoil cabinets instead of white painted wood. And for those naysayers to thermofoil, I got a good quality thermofoil (what is out there differs vastly in quality so I shopped carefully), and only a TKO-er could tell it's not painted wood. The thermofoil cost 1/3-1/4 what painted wood would have cost. Everyone who comes over to my house thinks it's white painted wood. I have a large eat-in kitchen, with cabinets that go up to a 9' ceiling, and good appliances (Dacor, KA, Miele), and managed to do the whole thing for $27K.

Paying cash. The kitchen remodel is probably going to cost around $55,000 (that includes the unforeseen stuff - pipes that needed to be moved, new gas line, 3 layers of ceiling that had to come down etc) We are pretty comfortable, and my hubby is a great saver, so we have a fair amount of cash on hand.
We wouldn't do it if we had to borrow (at least not in this market).

I don't think the financial solution for a medium-major kitchen reno (as opposed to a mere facelift) for most people is a simple choice between paying cash and borrowing. You have to take into consideration the entire financial picture.

If you are contemplating this reno as an all-cash endeavor, how big is the reno? If borrowing, again -- how big is the reno? If borrowing against equity, how much of it have you accumulated? What percentage of the equity will be reduced by your loan? At what rate? How many years are left on your mortgage, overall size of the debt and your monthly carrying costs? Or, has your mortgage already been satisfied? What other kinds of debt do you have? Car notes? College Tuition? Credit cards? Private school/daycare payments? What is the state of the real estate market where your home is located? Growing or tanking? (Yes, there are still "hot" and "relatively stable" areas in a down market) What is the overall property improvement culture in the already-existing homes in the neighborhood? High? Not so much? Do you have multiple streams of revenue, such as rental income, entrepreneurial returns, dividend pay outs, annuities, etc? The answers to all those questions, and more, are likely to tell you whether a kitchen remodel makes sense, at this time and, if so, how much risk to take (if even necessary) in doing it.

We've been saving and thinking about the reno for a few years. Fixing the place up is cheaper than moving and we have enough in income and retirement savings that we can splurge on a few things that improve our quality of life. Our selling horizon is about 5 years and if we can even get 50% back, it will be worth it for us.

We had planned on cashing in some non-retirement investments, but decided to take advantage of 12 month 0% interest for our appliances, granite and much of our supplies. We bought most of the construction supplies on 12 month, too. We decided to hardwood two extra rooms as long as we were refinishing the kitchen and family room wood floors, so that was cash. The plumber was cash. A carpenter who built our island was cash. We paid cash to an electrician for a few things that required someone with more wiring expertise. We bought a lot of the plumbing and electrical supplies online with free shipping for much less than local sellers would have charged, no to mention saving on taxes.

I guess of the 25K, 1/3 was cash and 2/3 we will have to sell some investments next fall to cover.

Cash! I expect this endeavor will be about $50K, although I'm still letting DH think $30K. Well, he didn't see what was wrong with the old kitchen, and doesn't cook, so I'm getting what I want!

We have plenty in savings, and haven't done much to this 45yo house in the 13 years we've lived in it. It's a nice house in a desirable area, so I don't see how we can lose. Besides, we'll be here for a long while yet, and the current kitchen, poorly "updated" 20 yrs ago, annoys me endlessly!

All decisions should be this easy.

Like the majority here, we also used cash (from savings) - plus a considerable amount of DIY. We weren't going to take out a loan - even if the economy was great, we wouldn't do that. Though I can see there are some situations where taking out a loan can make financial sense, it wasn't the way to go for us. Our way is to avoid debt like the plague (except for mortgage debt), pay off credit card balance every month, keep a tight rein on spending habits, drive old vehicles... gosh, sounds pretty austere. Anyway, do this for a decade or two and eventually you arrive at a point where you can afford to make a few home improvements.

Cash. We sold our first home which had been a rental for the past 15 years and were able to pay off our mortgage with the money. :>

Unfortunately, the day that we got the contract on our rental property, my dear MIL died. We had a sizable inheirtance from her and decided to do some remodeling. We actually decided to to the remodeling starting with the main bath because we were planning to move my Dad in with us about six months later when his health failed and he was unable to remain in his assisted living. We needed to make a bath handicap equipped for him, so we were looking at this. Then he developed more problems and we lost him shortly after. My husband had decided to take a very early retirement at 55 and was going to be home to help me care for Dad. After we lost Dad, we went ahead with his early retirement and have enjoyed the past 15 months of time together. I also received some money from my Dad, and used it for some of the remodel. I would much prefer to have both of them still with us, be it is nice to enjoy what we have done to our home and know that they helped make it happen. And a very nice feeling to know that the little starter home that we bought in 1973 had appreciated as much as it had.

We used our credit card on anything we could to get the airline miles. Where'd the money come from to actually PAY for the remodel - cash. No loans. Even though we had the cash, it still hurts, just a little bit. :)

We have been living in our house for about 6 years and had wanted to remodel the kitchen when we bought the house. When we first moved in, we painted the cabinets and walls and also installed laminate flooring over nasty linoleum to make the kitchen more liveable in the interim.

We finally saved up enough in cash to remodel the kitchen. But instead of paying cash now, we are using two credit cards with 0% interest due if we pay it off in January 2010. We don't believe in taking on debt for renovations.

Our remodel costs are about $25k for labor and materials. Our kitchen is 9 x 12' and the layout stayed the same. The $25k included the city permit, demoing 2 of the plaster walls, installing new drywall, new Thomasville full-overlay maple glazed cabinets with full-extension soft-close drawers, crown molding, light rail, Silestone Capri Limestone counters, Bosch SHV68 DW, Velos, Silgranit super single, Kohler Vinnata, split-faced slate/glass mosaic backsplash, 5 recessed lights, new ceiling mounted fixture, under-cabinet xenon lights, plugmold, panels for the DW and refrigerator, casings for 2 doors and window, Armstrong Grand Illusions laminate flooring and a new Milgard window. The costs also included an electrical panel upgrade from fuses to circuit breakers, 6 recessed lights for the living room and a french door delivered and installed. Total labor was about $5750 - which we think was quite an awesome deal being that we live in the Bay Area.

We're reusing the Amana counter-depth refrigerator ($1500 incl. tax from Sears Outlet) and Jenn-Air Dual-Fuel Pro stove ($900 from craigslist) that we bought last year. We DIY'd some of the easy stuff, such as portions of the demo, hooking up the appliances, trimming out the french door and painstakingly cutting the holes in the plaster ceiling for the recessed lights. We also bought all the materials so that we didn't have to pay our contractor $60/hr to go shopping at the Home Depot.

We paid cash.

Cash from savings and stock investments. At 43, this is my first house, so I had some padding saved up even on a single teacher's salary.

I've also saved buckets by using recycled/reclaimed cabinets, doors, tile and trim, some of which is much higher quality than I could ever afford new. I can highly recommend resources like the Habitat for Humanity's ReStores as well as CraigsList and eBay.

Cash. I didn't change the floor plan, which I would of liked, or buy all new appliances that I would of liked, and I had to stick with 30K. Then the oil burner went so I replaced the heating system to gas (nice timing), put in central air (yah baby), so I was left with working a 16-18K budget.

Same as most everyone here. Shopped around for everything I really wanted at the best price,(soapstone and sink) and settled for the same floor, appliances, added lots of beadboard and painted everything else, (radiator covers, woodwork and windows....).

I wasn't always able to save, so you do te best you can with what you've got. Be creative.

I couldn't imagine asking friends and family for money, ever and I hope I never run into an emergency where I might have to. If I do, they would know I really, really need help and not just want new kitchen cabinets.

I'm planning on using a mixture of cash, DIY and credit (I'll put as much as I can on my credit cards for the cash back bonus, then pay with my HELOC.) I understand being cautious with credit, but it's just a tool.

If I were in the market for a house and bought a house like mine, at its current market value, no one would bat an eye. I'd be well within all the most conservative ratios of income/debt. But all I want is a new kitchen, and I have lots of equity. If I max out my HELOC to pay for the kitchen, the amount of my HELOC plus my first mortgage will be less than half the value of the house. (And I'm using a very conservative number for my house value.) Seems like a reasonable course of action to me.

Sure, it's a risk, but it's one I'm willing to take.

Cash. We've been married for 39 years, and have lived in this house for 32. Finally our mortgage is paid off, we put our 2 kids through ivy league & professional schools (worth every penny - they are completely self-supporting!), and got them married off.

We did this while I was a stay at home mom for much of that time, and my DH was a mid-level manager at a large corporation - decent money to live on, but it was always tight, and certainly not enough to save much, or take great vacations, or to do fancy things with the house.

So now we have most of those expenses freed-up, I've got a part time job, and we've saved up for the past 3 years. This reno, which includes putting in a large bow window where we now have a little one, and tiling our large entranceway with tiles which will continue into the kitchen, and custom built cabinets and some fairly high-end appliances, this project will probably come in at $100K.

As much as I yearned for a great kitchen, I'm just so glad we didn't put ourselves into debt for it. By saving up for it I have a lot more freedom to get exactly what I want, and not have to cut corners to keep the debt down. It may not work for everyone, but I'm sure that I'll enjoy this kitchen so much more without having to pay for it for years to come.

Add us to the cash is king folk. Technically though I do use a credit card when possible for the protection(online ordering etc) but pay it off immediately.

Clearly many of us who said cash didn't carry suitcases full of money to the appliance store :-). I used credit cards wherever possible for the consumer protection they provide but paid them off immediately.

Cash here too - DIY mostly. But, I second I threw the big stuff, like cabinets on a credit card for protection but I pay off my credit cards monthly. For our cabinets, I had to use the store card as I have a block on our credit cards and Capital One that day refused to raise the limit (got rid of them) so I opened the store card with 6 months free financing and paid it off in about 4 so I could use some savings and some income. Now, if we a second story, we'd have to take a loan, but we DIY most everything and then cash - if we don't have the cash we are comfortable spending, wait and our house will just keep looking like a dump. No biggie (with an almost finished kitchen )

Same for me.
Cash, sticking to the budget, limiting choices and DIY.

Our story resembles helou's--I stayed at home with the 4 kids & DH works at a corporation. We had years of DIY and no vacations to make ends meet getting the kids through college. Last summer we moved from the 6 bedroom home to a 3 bedroom with the understanding that I'd get a nice kitchen right away. We are paying cash for the reno and paid cash for the house, using the profit from the downsizing. We will also do the 2.5 baths and basement and are adding insulation and new siding. If we had to sell in the next few years we would surely take a hit but are hoping we won't have to move any time soon and that potential move would be job related so we could probably get compensated.

We are in the midst and are paying cash. However, we are prepared to tap my parents for a few grand if something unexpected comes up, to be repaid of course. I would have liked to save a bit more but a few things made it so that we had to start right now: wife on maternity leave, contractor with open slot right before major, major job far away; and the necessity to renovate in case we need to sublet or sell our apartment in the next few years, as my wife's job may be moving...our kitchen was in such bad shape that a renovation will definitely pay us back in spades...

We are using a HELOC. We could have paid cash from savings and investments, but interest rates are so low right now, and we have a huge amount of equity in our house, so depleting our cash reserve and selling stock to pay for the house renovations makes no financial sense. Clearly a lot of people think debt is an evil to be avoided at all costs, but sometimes incurring debt is a smart thing to do. At least at the time we started planning our renovation, our stock was earning far far more than the interest rate on our equity loan, which is under 5%, plus we would have had to pay a capital gains tax on the sale of stock, plus those are intended to be long-term investments. Now, of course, our stock investments are losing money, but I'm confident that over time, our stock will recoup at least some of the lost value, and if history repeats itself, ultimately will earn back that and more, over time. If we cashed in the stock to pay for the kitchen, it would never get the chance to earn back the money it has lost.

And I wouldn't want to deplete our cash holdings to pay for the renovation because we could have an emergency, or lose our jobs, etc., and I like to have cash on hand for those unexpected occurrences.

Our house is a very important investment for us, and when we bought it, we always intended to renovate the kitchen, and do other work on the house, to enhance the value of our investment. We took a fairly small mortgage, relative to the price of the house (about 30%, meaning we put 70% down on the house), when we bought it, knowing that we would probably tap into the equity to do work on the house down the road.

DH and I bought a 1960's fixer-upper. The money we saved on the home's purchase price (compared to homes in the area in better condition) went into improvements, including the kitchen. But we were on a tight budget with the kitchen, and I watched every penny, and tried not to get carried away with all the stuff available out there (reading this forum makes that hard!). We also stayed within the original kitchen's footprint, since moving walls, plumbing and electrical really add enormously to a renovation's cost.

Neither my DH nor I are any good at DIY stuff, so we did pay for outside contractors for the work. But I purchased almost all items myself from appliances to granite to sink and so on down to even the xenon undercabinet light bulbs. Although I did not put in actual labor, I put in plenty o'sweat equity in the form of hours spent on the internet looking for deals. As others have said, when you shop via the 'net, you save the tax, and usually get free shipping (if a website did not offer free shipping, I usually moved on to the next one). But it was hours of my time, plus the time spent tracking everything once ordered, awaiting deliveries, and inspecting everything upon arrival. So I saved dollars by not having the contractor do that, but used up a lot of my time. I did have the contractor purchase all building materials like drywall and the like cause that is beyond what I could do.

I also saved money in small ways, like I chose almost all white appliances, saving with each one a couple of hundred dollars over stainless steel. I sold my old appliances on Craig's List, and maybe made a few hundred there, but hey, it all adds up.

Without all the work I put in, we couldn't have managed it without going into debt. And we did not want to go into debt.

mwsigler,

You are not alone! I also am nervous about spending the money on a kitchen reno in this economy. We were planning on spending about 50,000 partly with cash but mostly with a home equity line we already have in place. I was very surprised to see how many people here are able to pay cash. I get the feeling that a lot of people here are either well off or closer to retirement age (I hope I'm not offending anyone!)to be able to pay that much in cash. We have money in savings, but want to keep that for an emergency. We recently told our GC to put our project on hold indefinitely. I'm so bummed but don't want to get into a bad financial situation if things get worse.

Home equity loan. We had to replace all our windows since it kept raining in my house which was over $30,000 and decided to do a minor kitchen remodel at the same time. We have plenty of equity in our home even if prices continue to drop and we live in a desireable neighborhood. We love our home and do not plan to move in the near future. Saving money has not been an option since we just finished putting our 3rd child thru college, and had another get married this year.

We did a mix and we are WAY under budget.

We decided that it was more reasonable to DIY so that's what wound up happening.

We took out a home equity loan for $25K and have spent $15K in total so far (cash and loan)
Cabinets and counters were on the loan. Flooring, appliances, backsplash and fixtures/hardware were or will be cash.

The only thing left to purchase is floors and backsplash so I imagine our total cost for the renovation will be about $18K when all is complete.

In addition to the kitchen, we needed to remodel much of our house (few changes had been made for 35+ years). We had just orderred kitchen cabinets, when an unanticipated major medical expense that insurance company wouldn't cover happened. It was too late to scale back the remodeling for $ and psychological reasons. So, we refinanced our mortage at 6% for 15 years. Looking back, I'm very glad that we didn't cancel the remodeling.

We've been in this house for 19 years and like so many others, remember the times when the house payment was overwhelming. Still - even when we grew into the payment. we would not have taken cash out of the house for a kitchen remodel. When my beloved dad passed away in late 2005, he left all us kids a nice inheritance. DH and I decided to put some away for collage and then do something we would have never done without the cash- we did the kitchen. Everyday, I walk in here and think of him and silently say thank you. Of course, I'd rather have my darling pop sitting with me in that ugly old cramped kitchen but if I cant have him- I sure have the kick ass kitchen of my dreams thanks to him!