Plan for at least a year of your time spent doing this. You're not going to save 30K on this unless you're planning a 150K remodel. RTA is 95% junk. By the time you buy the actual high quality RTA that should go in a 150K remodel, you're spending so much time to make all that happen that you'll wish you hadn't. A year might be optimistic. There are people on here that are in their 3rd or 4th year. There's a couple over the 10 year mark. Not kidding. DIY is because you want to control the output, not because it saves much of anything. The additional time and stress cost you much more in other ways.

Green Designs, I understand the pitfalls to

this approach. I am looking for positive experiences and stories. I know people

on here have done projects both ways. We are looking at 100-120k kitchen renovation and I am looking for ways to save our hard earned money.

We did our kitchen entirely DIY which included removing a load bearing wall, moving utilities, and gutting everything. We bought cabinets from rtacabinetsore.com. We like them well enough, but I helped with my parents' remodel and we used Ikea cabinets and I much prefer those. Our nearest Ikea is 4+ hours away so I didn't check more into those when we were planning as we'd never been to Ikea yet at that time. I have no input as to the extra time it might take you and all that though. The meat of our project took the spring with my husband doing almost all of it nights and weekends with me helping. I did assemble the cabinets myself though.

Thanks Nicole! Any pics of your project?

Looks like you are in MA possibly. It can take a very long time to get on schedules with plumbers etc. and as a one-time GC (from their perspective) your job may not be a priority. Good trades are very busy. So that may add time.

I have not GC’d, but I have purchased materials for jobs, and even that gets challenging...when the materials were wrong, I had to remedy (and it was also holding up job, required re-do, etc.)... so that’s a consideration...as a solo GC you may have a lot less pull to get things exchanged, fixed, and back on schedule. Sorry to sound so negative. Stuff will go wrong, and that’s where some savings may be lost.

if you have no time constraints it may work out but a lot of money can be spent dining out for months.

if you are near Stoughton there’s an IKEA and custom door fabricators make some very handsome options. Ikea’s installation system is as DIY friendly as it gets. ETA ikea cabinets are extremely easy to assemble.

Hi there,

I just recently completed a DIY kitchen remodel. I got multiple quotes for all the labor, contractor, and design fees. Including materials, if I had contracted the work out I was looking at a $150-170k kitchen remodel. This price also included a 200amp service panel relocation and upgrade, whole house plumbing and dining room finishing. I ended up doing all the work myself and paid about 70k in materials.

I saved roughly 80k by doing everything myself, and it took me about a year to complete, working 30+ hours per week consistently. If you do a bit of averaging, I ended up “paying” myself a rate of about $50/hour. Not exactly what my day job pays but not too bad either.

I’m not sure I would do it again but glad I did it. I did the work myself to save money and because I knew I could do a better job than whoever I hired. That year of work was a major sacrifice and definitely created some tension in the household.

Hope my experience helps you.

Barker Cabinet is another well liked RTA source. You will have to plan on spending a fair amount of time measuring, re-measuring, and measuring again to be sure you have it correct as well as time learning about all the ins & outs of cabinet planning -- such as where you need to have spacers (like if there is a doorway on the end wall of your cabinet run), allowing for end/cover panels, making sure that handles don't keep an adjacent drawer or door from opening...).

Also, look for local cabinetmakers. You might be surprised to find someone who does quality work at a price competitive with the RTA online sellers. I did.

On acting as your own GC -- you have to know what you don't know, and spend prep time learning some basics.. So learning about what is needed for certain things, proper requirements for plumbing, gas lines and electric, what is truly feasible and doable --- because you will be dependent only on yourself to make sure that the skilled trades that you hire are doing things to code and not cutting corners to meet a low estimate, and that things will end up the way you want them.

Thanks HB. Yes, trades are crazy busy in our area, so I know I would have to be very careful with scheduling and I know that their loyalty to a GC they work with consistently will come above my needs. I’m just trying to work out the cost/benefit. We have always done high end custom cabinets, so I’m not sure I would be happy with the ikea product. We did our last kitchen in 2012 and the cost of labor was about half what it is this time...it’s both a bigger project and a more competitive labor market. So I am just looking for ideas to do the project I want for the budget I have. I’ll keep working on it :)

Catinthehat...the time savings is a big part of the issue...I can’t do all the work myself and my husband travels often, so I worry that just working on it on the weekends between kids sports would get really old really fast. We did our half bath ourselves and it took two months, so I can only imagine that this would take a lot longer. Just hard to decide if it’s worth the time to save the money?? Thanks for the input!

Not a problem at all. If you are motivated it can be done =). If I was acting solely as a general contractor and having others perform the work, I would be watching everything being done with a close eye. If you are capable of doing the work yourself, have done things similar in the past, but do not have the time now, you would be a good candidate to act as your own GC. Since you would only be able to supervise on the weekends, that would make for a slow project.

Thanks Cat in the hat. I have the time and experience to supervise, just not the strength and expertise to do the heavy lifting/trimwork myself, so my husband would have to do those things on the weekend.

I think we can do this and I think it’s just a smarter way to spend our money since I have the time.

We got a nice custom 7’ vanity at what I thought was very competitive price locally, so it might be worth checking that route?

#1 Enjoy the journey

When you are scheduling your own work, "dining out for months" is less of a problem since no trade is going leave your kitchen gutted for months at a time.

Our kitchen may be a bit scattered for awhile, but if need be I can cook with an electric skillet, instant pot and microwave just fine, and don't mind the fridge being a few more steps away. A vinyl tablecloth over plywood makes a dandy countertop, and I lived the first 30 years of my life without a dishwasher. My Rubicon: don't make me wash dishes in the bathtub. Yours may vary.

#2 Know your limits

Four hours is about all we spend each day before starting to make stupid mistakes, and we take weekends off. More energetic folks may be fine working evenings after work and on weekends. Know there may come a time when you are SickSickSick of constantly working on the house and things not being done.

Many people are generous with advice. Our Building Inspector is genuinely helpful, as are the folks at the Woodworking shop. Hire tradespeople as needed.

#3 Make sure it is worth the effort

Add personal touches to make it special. Barker cabinets sells a mini-RTA-cabinet sample - money well spent to see if they meet your standards. https://www.barkercabinets.com/In-Stock-Samples-ships-wihtin-24-to-48-hours-s/296.htm

Skmom, your kitchen is gorgeous! Sounds like you life is even busier than ours

The patience part is what I am worried about. But, I have a laundry sink in my back hall and we would set up the fridge and mini kitchen, crock pot, fridge etc in the porch off of that hall. So even if we were fully without a kitchen for a couple of weeks, I could definitely manage it. I need to price out all of our supplies and see what our actual savings would be...but your kitchen would be at least double what you paid in my area, so you definitely saved a ton of money!

Thank you for sharing!

Barker is not as much of a bargain as people think it is. Or IKEA with custom doors either for that matter. People have invested their time, which raises the value of their personal choice in their minds, but not objectively.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/3032345/barker-cabinets-kitchen-designer-layout-help#14847087

Viewing from outside, you can get just as good results with less than half of the work and time required, and at a not dissimilar price point. People also underestimate the number of hours spent as well, for similar non objective reasons. You're starting with an assumption that you want to prove true, rather than an even handed theory with controls.

DIY should be done as a hobby, because you enjoy it. You can even enjoy some savings, if you have enough professional level skills and time. But if you are doing it to save money, you likely would be dollars ahead by getting a part time job. 8-12 weeks vs 12-15 months, with 40 hours per week spent tiring yourself out and stressing yourself out?

Thor, thank you for all of the wise advice.

I was really afraid to entertain this idea, but the more I think about it, the more I think we could make this really wonderful by trading our time for savings.

We did the kitchen in our old house 6 years ago, so I know how to live through the chaos. This time I have a laundry sink and fridge off of the back hall, so our porch room off of that hall is a perfect alternative kitchen.

There are some great local cabinet makers...so I will check in with them on my design and see what they think. We used very high end cabinets before and I honestly couldn’t tell the difference from what friends have for a fraction of the price. I will check out the samples from barker too.

thanks again!

Live wire oak, those Omega cabinets look great. I have a local retailer that sells them, I will go down and check them out. Thanks for the recommendation!

skmom your kitchen is stunning!

I have a friend with near-unlimited means but she does not like to spend more than is necessary. Her kitchen remodel was very comprehensive, over $100k (more than 10 yrs ago). She had a kitchen designer and contractor, but required extreme budget detail in proposals. She spent a lot of time pricing, and sourced much of the materials herself and the contractors allowed it, providing savings for her. Recently, she did a bathroom which ended up around $55k. She probably saved $20K acquiring materials on her own once again. This is not for the light hearted. She frankly told the designer and contractors that their pricing on fixtures was so far beyond what she could buy on line that she would supply much herself. The pros were well regarded in her area and she had to wait more than 3 months to get scheduled, and they agreed to her participation again. Sure, there were problems, but she got what she wanted in the end and was happy to spend what she felt was appropriate for her high end items. Paid for some re-dos and call backs that were because of her involvement. Some was complicated plumbing fixtures, others like lighting placement were smaller but annoying. There was crazy stuff, like a giant weighty crated jetted tub left at the end of her drive instead of near her house. That's what happens when you don't go through a distributor!

It was a study in detail and communication. Never assume anything, get everything in writing, follow up regularly, confirm dates, open and check everything that arrives at your house. Allow plenty of time between trades you do schedule, as they will inevitably have delays.

As an aside, if you can find a talented carpenter or highly skilled handyman, it could be a great resource for periodic assistance. Unfortunately, those folks are often crazy busy, too.

Please follow up on Houzz so we can watch the show!

TBL, She sounds like me! I research and like contractors to provide detail on everything. I’ve always assumed that my KD and contractor got better prices on everything, so I never shopped around. I’ve learned my lesson on that, and I will be shopping everything around for this project.

I will definitely post our progress...I hope to be starting sometime before May. So excited to make my mark on the inside of this house!