Should A Kitchen Renovation Be A Hassle?
The Short Answer: Depends On The Renovation And The Kitchen
Different kitchens have different needs. Imagine a kitchen in an English property that’s been around a few hundred years. The very architecture of such a kitchen requires special workers who must retain professional certification for reasons of historical legacy. Such a remodel would be a hassle even if it were done as efficiently as possible.
Conversely, imagine if your kitchen were in a modern home designed to be compatible with the technological components of a specific kind? There are “tiny homes” prefabricated with this sort of thinking in mind. They come with specific configurations that define kitchens, bedrooms, guestrooms, bathrooms, and living rooms—RVs do a similar thing.
In such situations, mild remodel or upgrade is very straightforward; but to do any in-depth change ultimately requires some work. It will likely be less work than in our hypothetical legacy British situation, but all the same, there’s a situation to consider.
The point is, depending on how in-depth renovations are, and the property you’re working with, there will be more or less hassle. Changing Luxury Vinyl Plank, or LVP is pretty straightforward. So is installing tile. One of these operations will take longer, and be more pricey. You’ve got to weigh your options. This writing will explore these concepts.
First: Plan Carefully In Advance
How much money are you working with, and how much time do you have? Should time and money be a concern, you may want to take renovation one step at a time. Change out the kitchen island piece by piece, replace cabinets one at a time if you can (this often isn’t possible), change the counters one at a time, do the floor as a unit—take things “piecemeal”.
If you have neither the resources nor the time, a piecemeal approach makes sense. If you do have time, and you do have resources, you can get deeper into things. Keep in mind, whatever your time and budget expectations are, when the actual work starts, they will almost always change. Know this, and the hassle diminishes.
Explore Options—RTA, Discount, Or Bespoke Cabinets?
Next, consider specific alternatives. So you know your budget, you know the time frame, now what are your options? You could build a cabinet from the ground up, order a custom or “bespoke” solution, or you might even pursue a mixture of these alternatives. RTA stands for Ready To Assemble.
You choose the cabinet online that you like, put in dimensions, the cabinet is shipped to you, and you build it on-site. That said, this can be a big involved, and it may also take longer. Thankfully, it’s also possible to find discounted Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets from Best Online Cabinets. These have style and quality and are designed with minimal hassle in installation.
Go DIY, But Definitely Get Help When Needed
If you can do work yourself, you save time and money. It may not seem like it, but when you can work from home, even though you will almost definitely be ten times slower than contractors, you’re only working on one job at a time. So you don’t have to divide resources around multiple projects, and you can take your time.
You might put two hours a day in during the week, on average. That’s fourteen hours in seven days. For three guys at $20 an hour, you’re looking at $840. With the DIY route, you lose no money, only time and materials. You could spend that $840 on tools or materials for the job. DIY on such a job over a month saves $3,360 in labor, perhaps equalling total remodel costs.
Even so, there are things that you shouldn’t try to fix yourself. Plumbing and electrical fixtures are an area where, unless you know what you’re doing, you should outsource to professionals. So plan around this reality and save those issues for last, then bring in the pros. Hassle eliminated.
Plan For The Project To Take Twice As Long As You Expect
This was touched on earlier: expect whatever you do to take longer than you expect, and cost more—even if you are skilled and follow a DIY strategy in the renovation. Make the most reasonable cost analysis you can and the most reasonable time analysis. Then double them both, and expect you might go over that margin if slightly. If you don’t, you win!
You Can Control The Level Of Hassle You Deal With
Kitchen renovation brings home value, and it brings utility to your home. But it can be costly and expensive if you don’t think it out. Plan carefully in terms of time and budget, explore different options—especially in cabinetry—follow DIY protocols where appropriate, and double your best estimates of cost and time to end the job in an expected place.
If you follow these generalized tips, you should have less hassle impede your ability to renovate your kitchen. As a bonus, when it comes to contracting work in general, such strategies retain their application. Accordingly, you can bring these principles to all your renovation work in the future.
