In my case, I stained a lot of the ceiling wood.

Actually, for my kitchen remodel I did very little -- I stripped wallpaper, primed and painted the walls and ceiling, but most everything else was left to the crew. Oh, I did fill the holes and gouges in the pine subfloor (that was originally planned to be covered with new flooring, so little care was taken when the linoleum was removed) when I thought that my brother and I would sand and finish it. And, I changed out all the outlets and switches from the bright white installed by the contractor, to color that worked better with the cabinets.

But, before and after that, I have done quite a few things: I've installed new (replacement) dishwasher, garbage disposal, and faucets, tub spout, shower arm spray and installed new pvc trap under the sink -- with the new easy connect fittings available, minor plumbing really isn't hard! I've drilled out and replaced a screw that the plumber that I paid to do the above in the bathroom broke and then wanted 100s more $ to fix... I've installed ceiling lights, porch lights and fans. I've recaulked the tub, installed attic insulation, built shelving in the basement.

Edited to add: last spring I replaced my sump pump, another easy and short task that would have cost me a couple of hundred dollars to hire a plumber to do

Just last week I installed a LVT floor in the family room. Let me tell you, although it did take me two tries to get the cuts around the door molding right, this was one of the easiest DIY projects ever! I used Metroflor floating tiles that adhere to each other with "grip strips" and can be grouted or not (I did not) and it went so smoothly and easily, and I think it looks great!

I did my 3"x6" subway backsplash, about 30sq.ft, my GC wanted $1200 just to install them. I hate grouting and I was willing to pay $500-600, just not $1200 for 30sq.ft.

Still working on making my own cabinets. DH does the plumbing and heating (which is plumbing as well). And today, myself, DH, and our electrician demolished our lath & plaster ceiling so that the electrician had a blank slate to select and install our 8 cans and 3 pendants. We made quite a mess.

Our recent kitchen remodel was mostly DIY, not by me but DH. I have a supporting role. He did not make the cabinet like some of you. That takes a special skill. DH prepared the space by tearing out a wall which was brick on one side, ripped out a ceramic floor, removed the cabinets, installed a new window. He also did the electrical, moved the plumbing and built a three foot bumpout. He installed a supporting beam all by himself. He constructed a walk in pantry, moved and installed a door to the garage.

We hired contractors to do the sheetrock, painting, trim work, lay new wood floor and refinish existing wood floors in other rooms, and install the cabinets and counters. He would have installed the cabinets himself, but we got a good deal from the cabinet company. We have not selected the backsplash yet.

suzanne, very pretty. I especially like the softness of the colors you selected and how they complement one another.

I designed my kitchen, DH and I tore out the old cabinets, I painted the walls and ceiling before the new cabinets were installed. I stenciled the backsplash area (didn't want tile).

Elsewhere in the house, I've replaced light fixtures, replaced an electric water heater, replaced faucets, built shelves, rebuilt my deck.

For my main kitchen I tiled the subway tile backsplash and refinished the cabinets.

In the basement, I tiled the large living area, refinished older cabinets and built shelves for a kitchenette. I had a carpenter set the cabinets and install the counter and a plumber install the sink. This was a budget project done for about $1000 - the electrical and plumbing was already present and no major appliances.

https://www.houzz.com/photos/my-pics-work-in-progress-phvw-vp~65270573

In our first kitchen remodel, pretty much everything. I painted the cabinets and walls. Dh demoed the laminate countertop and built a granite tile top. We pulled down one upper cabinet and built shelves to replace them. Pulled down another and fixed the window trim a previous owner had hacked into to install that tiny useless upper. Pulled up the worn out vinyl floor and replaced with cork. Took down the ugly ceiling fixture that gave insufficient light and replaced it with track lighting. We did pay a plumber to hook up the faucet, dishwasher and gas range.

In our second kitchen (these are all different houses), we did the layout and gced the project. We also built and painted the island ourselves. Everything else we hired out to a carpenter, plumber and electrician.

In our third kitchen, I did the layout and all the materials selection. And that's it. We hired every other bit of it out.

All three projects were infinitely better due to the generous help of the people on this forum.

Those who know me know that I'm pretty hard-core DIY. I built our entire house, mostly single-handed. I hired out excavation, concrete, and drywall. In the kitchen, I built all of the cabinets from scratch. No, I don't work in the building trades, and I'm 64 years young. I've been building stuff my whole life, and designing and building my own house was always at the top of my bucket list.

I DIY'd a lot of our remodel, hence the name. All demolition, wall removal, reframing, adding a beam, RTA cabinet assembly, installation, painting, cabinet customizations, made all new baseboards and window trim, floor and backsplash tiling, appliance installation, & made built-in book shelves. I found it very satisfying, and I got to buy some new tools!

What I did myself:

Luxury vinyl plank install (I did that originally 5 years ago, I just filled in/replaced some planks for the new kitchen layout)

Electrical (ceiling and under-cabinet lights, isolate appliances on circuits, move electric range)

Drywall finish and painting (my ceiling swirls are by no means of professional caliber, but I can live with that)

Design and layout (with some help from GW :)!)

What I did with the help of a semi-pro (my father):

Plumbing (move dishwasher to other side of sink and hook up new sink, faucet, and garbage disposal)

Backsplash tile

Framing larger opening and exterior hood vent

Cabinet removal and new cabinet install

What I left to true professionals:

Quartz countertop install (I didn't want to lift 500+lbs of fragile stone)

Cabinet building (I wanted the bulk of the remodel done in less than a month and I didn't want to spend my free time building my own cabinets when I have a full time job, a part time job, and a toddler)

My husband helped by getting lemonade and vacuuming. He is not a DIY guy,. I'm an engineer. I took a week off of work and then spent a some time on evenings (after bedtime) and weekends to work on the kitchen. Demo started on 7/31/17. Left on my list of tasks is:

• Paint ceiling (I'm putting this off because I can't just stop at the kitchen)
• Replace baseboards
• Put trim around window over sink
• Touch up paint
• Get new curtains for the big windows
• Put molding between the cabinets and the ceiling
• Build vertical pan storage in cabinet next to sink
• Adjust position of roll-outs in pantry

I really enjoy remodeling projects, and I'm pretty sure I found a good balance of time and money spent with the amount I put into doing it myself.

DH is a serious woodworking hobbyist and has built our bedroom furniture.

Also built and tiled the 6'X2' island in our current (soon to be ex ) kitchen..

In our new kitchen, he will build all the open shelves.

My contribution to DIY is to let him have time off to live in DIY-land. :). That means he gets exempted from cooking/cleaning/kids activities/idle chit chat during project time. ... pretty good bargain eh (I demand, he executes ).

We planned a facelift with some DIY: Painting, extending a wall, backsplash, sink and faucet install. In addition, we did the following to repair bad work done by contractors, and also the work they ended up not finishing because we were "too picky": Un-installing and reworking carpentry on cabinetry. Uninstalling and sanding off lousy finish put on by "expert" refinisher on all kitchen cabinets. Re-building those cabinets where bad finish could not be removed and had to have panels replaced. Re-installing (properly) all kitchen cabinets. Installed all new doors, drawer fronts, and cabinet hardware, range hood, garbage pull out, under-cabinet lighting.

Now I think we could just build a whole kitchen from scratch with what we learned re-doing the one we have. Maybe when we retire..... :)

I did the design with the help of GW of course. I did the full set of construction plans required by the city. Then we did the demo of course. We did all the framing, including 3 load bearing walls. When we took out the French doors, a gable went with it, and we increased the size of the window over the sink too, so we ended up re-siding a lot more than was in the plan. We still wonder if it would have gotten to that point if pros had done it.

We replumbed the water supply for the kitchen and the bathroom immediately above, redid waste for both as well. The waste was a royal PITA but we were quoted $2400 and we did it for about $300 in materials. It would have been half that but when we finished we had a leak so had to redo the whole thing.

We poured self-leveling cement to give us a smooth surface. We still have some bumps but they're gradual. We raised the AC ducts so they'll sit in the raised ceiling (going from 7' to 8')

We had the electrical done by a pro since we had a lot of issues with overloaded circuits. we had to get a new panel too. Then we had the drywall done for us too because it would have taken us weeks.

We've just finished installing cabinets 6 months after we started demo. We'll do everything else ourselves too, with the exception of installing the marble on the peninsula. We were considering hiring out the trim, but we bought a quality compound miter saw instead, so now we've got the tools to diy that too.