Our 30 year old cooktop has two dead burners.  Apparently, the home warranty company has repaired the appliance so many times,  they finally said, “Enough.”  As a result, we were offered either a cash buy-out or a new cooktop and down draft.  We choose to take the new cooktop.  Suddenly, we found ourselves looking for affordable kitchen remodeling ideas to accommodate the new stovetop.  Take a minute to join us on this little life adventure.

Why Affordable Kitchen Remodeling Ideas

When we realized we needed a new, gas cooktop, we also realized that everything else in the kitchen was almost 30 years old.     Not only that.  We wanted to change the style of the island that held our cooktop.  Eventually, we decided that having a level eating bar in front of our cook top made more sense than the raised bar that we have.  Consequently, we would need a carpenter to alter the peninsula.  Years ago, we would have done this ourselves.  Now, we wanted it to be done quickly and with a minimum of mess.

The tile on the counter and the backsplash was dated.  Originally, it was put in to last for 10 years.  It has been there a lot longer.  As well, we have found that the grout between the tiles requires a great deal of maintenance.

We decided that some kind of a slab counter top with matching backsplash was needed.  Of course, this required the special skills of someone who can work with natural or artificial stone.

Affordable Kitchen Sink and Faucet

Although our sink and faucet are fairly new, we decided that new countertops called for new fixtures. Naturally, this meant that we needed a plumber willing to set the sink before the countertop went in and then plumb both the sink and faucet.  All too soon it was obvious that our plans for affordable kitchen remodeling ideas was evaporating.  Understandably, the labor needed to do all the work related to the remodel was going to make the project anything but affordable.

Affordable Kitchen Remodeling Ideas Include Stone Types

The major expense for our kitchen renovation would be the countertops.  We knew that we didn’t want tiles with grout.  Basically, we had to decide if we wanted our countertops to be natural stone like granite or engineered stone like quartz.  We also decided to look at porcelain slabs because of durability and easy maintenance.  The choices were overwhelming.  Unfortunately, so were the prices.

We knew we needed three 5 ft.x 10ft. slabs to do what we wanted to do.  The price ranged from $4200 to $6800 for the minimum we thought we would need.   Consequently, the idea of an affordable remodel disappeared completely.

Thinking about What We Need for a Kitchen Remodel

We decided that the configuration of our kitchen cabinets was fine.  For the remodel, we would simply make new doors, with new hardware.  Fortunately, the timing was right to change the door hinges and drawer slides.  We decided to use all soft-close hardware.  As well, we wanted to change several lower cabinets into drawers.  We calculated the full cabinet overhaul would be about $1200.

That was only a fraction of what our affordable kitchen remodeling ideas cost.

The estimate we came up with became a whole new adventure.

• Lower the bar – $500
• Refurbish cabinets – $1200
• Porcelain Countertops & Backsplash – $4800
• Porcelain Sink and Fixture – $750
• Countertop Guy – $5500
• Plumber – $300

We decided to change the name of this adventure to Kitchen Remodeling Ideas.  We dropped affordable.

Thanks for joining us on this shocking little senior adventure.  Keep watching to see how things turned out.