The desire to remodel your kitchen is a pretty common one. Kitchens probably get remodeled more often than any other room in the house and there are probably a number of reasons why that’s the case.
Modern technology probably alters the kitchen more than any other room in the house. Ovens, refrigerators, microwaves, and other appliances have all come quite a long way even in the last twenty years. In a lot of ways, it has to do with energy conversion too, which is getting more important.
And the look of the kitchen is something that is changing regularly too. In general, we want our homes to look as up to date as possible for when we’ve got visitors coming along and a modern-looking kitchen is a big step towards that.
There’s also the fact that we spend so much of our time in the kitchen and we get tired of looking at the same old environment every single day and just want to have a little bit of a change.
So there’s a lot of good reasons for it, but kitchen remodels are notoriously expensive, and one way that you can cut down on that price is to do the entire job by yourself, without the help of professionals.
It will be a big job, it will be time-consuming, difficult and if you’re not used to DIY you will probably have some moments of extreme frustration, but it’s worth it. Here’s what you need to know if you plan to remodel your kitchen yourself:
Think About Insurance
Before anything else, you have to make sure you’re not about to cause yourself an insurance nightmare, and you should also consider how this could affect your chances if you want to sell in the future.
If you are still within the period of a home warranty, look into that and make sure that whatever you plan to do won’t be in breach of that. Check with whoever your home insurance is with too and ask about remodeling.
It probably won’t be too much of an issue if you are planning on staying in the house during and after said remodel but it will be good to just make sure that they don’t have any policies that you are unaware of.
Depending on the size of the job you might also need to apply for some kind of permit, information on which should be available from a local municipality and will be in accordance with city ordinances.
Just cover all of these bases beforehand so that you can be sure that you are within your rights to actually move forward with your remodel.
Draw Up a Detailed Plan
In order to make sure that the process runs smoothly and that you are not going to be spending months and months on this project instead of just a couple of weeks, go into it with every single change planned out.
You need to make a list of priorities because if you’re trying to cut down costs you don’t want to remodel every single cabinet and every single appliance and you probably don’t need to either.
So make your list of things you want to change, order them by priority and then see how much of it you can afford.
Once you’ve done that, do some research and find out about potential new designs and alterations.
There are apps which can help you out with these decisions and once you have your vision in mind, then you should draw up some diagrams for you to work from. They don’t need to look professional, you just need to be able to understand and follow them yourself.
If you don’t do this, then you will basically be working from memory or working on the fly and that’s counter-productive because it slows you down and often results in you having to go back and change things.
Have Good Tools
If there is one aspect of this that it’s worth spending money on, it’s a good set of tools. They say a bad workman will always blame his tools, but sometimes the tools are legitimately the problem.
And also, you might find yourself halfway through the job before realizing that you don’t have the right tools that you need and then you have to get out of the rhythm of work so that you can go to the hardware store.
Hand tools are important. You need a hammer, a screwdriver, measuring tape, a utility knife, and a spirit level. These are essential for putting cabinets and countertops together and really a requirement for every woodworking job.
You will also need to have something strong enough to cut through plywood, so a circular saw will be important and you will need to have a drill too as well as a selection of different kinds of drill bits.
Be Thorough With Lighting
It’s not all going to be about doing a paint job and cutting wood for cabinets, it’s very important that you think about lighting too. You need your kitchen to be effectively lit for you to make full use of your kitchen.
I would suggest that you have recessed ceiling fixtures over any open floor areas where people will be standing and working. It’s good to have some ambient and reliable light to ensure those areas are easy to work in.
Under cabinet lighting will also be a big plus. You have no idea how much that will improve preparing food on the countertops and though it’s a job that requires some rather intricate electrical work, but one that you can do yourself if you put your mind to it.
As you have no doubt realized, a kitchen remodel is a big job and it’s entirely understandable why most people will just hire a professional for it. But it is definitely something that you can work on yourself without professional help as long as you do the right research, preparation and are willing to put in the time and effort.
