Decide which type of counter tops you want.....

Decide which type of counter tops you want.  Compare the price difference between post form, Formica, granit. You may be very surprised to learn that granit may not be as expensive as you think.

Sure we all know that there are some companies that make a real high quality cabinet. But is this something you are ready for.  Think of the finish of the cabinets you would like.  Pick what you want, not the designer or your mother.  Remember your kitchen, your money.  When you go to the kitchen store you will see many different styles, colors and brands.

Cabinets come either in press board or ply wood for the sides of the cabinet.  Most of the time you wont even see the sides. On the sides you will see, say on the ends, you can get a ¼ plywood cover that is made of the same color of the cabinet to go right on the cabinet. Not even a pro can tell. This can say you some big bucks.

You don’t need to do that very nice expensive crown moldings right away. You can do this later, perhaps when you more money to spend. But you can’t change your cabinets at a later date. That would just be nuts.

Flooring.

Not a big deal, but do it right the first time. If your floor is installed before the base cabinets are installed and you want to or have to replace the flooring, so do the cabinets. Say you had a tile floor installed, and a 12” tile that sits half under the cabinet, OPPS. Now what, or a four foot long piece of laminate flooring. I always install the flooring after the cabinets are installed. Now a real ¾ hardwood flooring would be installed before the cabinets.

Installing a kitchen

I see a lot of people install the base cabinets first, and then ask me how do I get to the wall cabinets. The trick is to install the wall cabinets first. But in order to do this you need to know where. Of course you know your layout but the height is the question. Base cabinets are 36” high, add a 1 ½ on top of that for the counter top and then anywhere from 18” to 20” to the bottom of the wall cabinets. This is the space between the counter top and the very bottom of the wall cabinet. So if we had a 19” space then the height to the bottom of the wall cabinet would be 56 ½. Lets picture only one wall of cabinets going left to right. Measure from the floor, up on the wall to 56 ½ , mark it with a small line. Now do the right side. Now that you have these two marks connect them with a very straight line using a level. Now you would install the wall cabinets right on this line.

Oh you think ,this is the easy part, LOL one would think until you are faced with a hundred choices. Read my section on kitchen sinks..

Well by now I’m sure you know you can spend a little or one that cost about what you paid for your first car.  Pick the color and type you want for what you want to spend. They all work good. As far as what brands. Buy a name brand and you will be fine. Also remember if you cant’ afford that real nice one now you can always change it way later on in under 30 minutes.

The biggest thing I see are home owners that try to save the sheetrock and most of the time this is a big waste. You are replacing and usually redesigning  adding outlets and stuff. It’s never worth trying to save the walls. But now of course if you are just replacing the cabinets you should be fine. But if your not don’t bother trying to save the walls. It’s so much easier to remove all the sheetrock and start from new. You will much better off not to mention happier. This way you can change what ever you like with ease.

Think about upgrading your insulation, not a bad idea considering kitchens usually lack heating. Consider adding a toe kick heater. This is fan forced heater that would go usually under the sink base that works very well. You can get them either all electric or if you have hot water base board heating you would install the hot water type. Either one will require electric to operate the blower fan.

Think hard about this one. But not to hard, what kind of lighting do you like. Do you like just one big light or many hi-hats. Or perhaps a ceiling fan or a ceiling fan with lights. If your installing hi-hats think about have some of them point on top of the counter tops.

Consider installing a light dead center over the kitchen sink.

Most home owners are convinced that the hood range they have sucks the smoke up and blows it outside. To later learn that it doesn’t . So think about venting this out side while you are remolding your kitchen. Most are going for the microwaves now that mount right over the stove or cook top. A great choice to start saving on that counter space. If you intend to install one of these you will want to run a dedicated 20 amp power source.

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