Kitchen Remodeling: Should You Buy New Appliances?

The decision to remodel the kitchen is a decision thousands of home owners make each year. Change is one of the more common reasons that homeowners use for remodeling.
Without realizing it, you will enter your kitchen about eight times a day, on average. However, over time, your kitchen may become lack luster and won’t excite you anymore. If this sounds like you, you may be ready for a change. By remodeling your kitchen, not only will you get the change you are craving, but a sense of accomplishment as well.

The first thing you need to decide when remodeling your kitchen is to decide what it means to you. For instance, would you be happy with simply putting down new flooring, or maybe a couple of updated light fixtures would do the trick for you? But when you really get the bug, nothing will satisfy it short of redoing the whole room, floors, walls, counters, everything! The time and money spent on your kitchen remodel job is almost always worth it.

But, once the job is done, you may find there is something that isn’t quite right. Despite your best efforts, you have left something out. What could it be? You have new flooring, lighting, counter, sinks and counters. You’ve painted the walls and even put up new decorations. What have you overlooked?

The answer is appliances. If you change everything but the appliances, it’s like cleaning the bedroom but not making the bed. It just feels unfinished. After all, you can put hundreds if not thousands of dollars into your new kitchen, not to mention the hours of work, so, why would you not put in new appliances? It may be advisable to put it in your budget when doing your initial shopping, to give your kitchen a whole new look when you get it done.

A lot of home owners find that replacing the appliances is the update they are looking for. Instead of changing everything about the kitchen, try to envision what it would look like with a stove and refrigerator in another color or how about a stainless steel look to the kitchen? This could be a fun update to do as well, especially if your appliances are older. If you have the traditional top bottom freezer and fridge, how about a side by side model? How about fun features like ice and water in the door and pull out shelves. If it has been a while since you have looked at refrigerators, you are going to be amazed. The same goes with ovens and ranges. You can get ovens that you can program ahead of time so dinner is ready when you get home.

When it comes to replacing your appliances, be it the dishwasher, refrigerator, toaster, oven, microwave, or blender you will find that your choices are almost unlimited. Between the manufactures, models, features, colors and sizes, you will defiantly want to make sure you do your home work before you settle on one particular brand. The nice thing about having so many choices is that you will find something to match your décor.

As you can see, there are a number of ways to update your kitchen from a complete gut which would include all new flooring, paint and wall paper along with new counters and cabinets. Or your can make it a seemingly smaller job and replace your appliances. But do not let the idea that you are ‘just’ going to replace the appliances fool you. There is still plenty of home work to be done and decisions to be made.

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Economical Kitchen Remodeling

In the last century, kitchens have gone from being very small spaces with one purpose only to becoming the central area of a home. The average person today spends an estimated total of 3 years of his life in the kitchen, which is no small number.

If you’re the type of person who loves looking at new kitchen appliances and have always dreamed of starting a kitchen remodeling project but haven’t had the money to be able to do it, here are some tips on simple economical ways to remodel your kitchen.

1) Replace the lighting. New lighting makes a world of a difference and can give a room a completely different look. Pendant lights which hang over-head have become extremely popular in the last several years. Built-in lights which are housed in the ceiling or on the walls are also quite popular, but make sure you set up separate light switches so you have the ability to change the mood of the room without having all the lights on or off.

2) Replace kitchen cabinet knobs or handles. Knobs and handles become tarnished easily in kitchens and switching our the knobs or handles can give the affect of all new cabinets without the hassle involved in buying new cabinets.

3) Refinish your kitchen cabinets. Kitchen cabinets are not too expensive but you’ll save money refinishing them yourself. There are many DIY (do-it-yourself) websites which can give you simple instructions on a DIY project such as doityourself.com’s wide range of projects.

4) Repair your appliance exteriors. Metal ovens and fridges get a lot of use and can become discolored and stained. In most home repair stores and even in car repair shops you can find heavy duty metal cleaner which can handle the majority of the stains.

5) Paint the walls. A fresh coat of paint can make your kitchen look years younger.

6) Install new flooring. Laminate flooring or tiling can be quite cheap and modernize kitchens which haven’t had a kitchen remodeling project in fifteen or more years.

7) Change your kitchen decorations. A new set of kitchen towels, oven mitts, a table cloth, salt and pepper shakers, plates and silverware may be the last thing you think of when you think of kitchen remodeling, but these accessories are used daily and new modern accessories can change the feel of a kitchen easily.

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Kitchen Remodels – It’s What’s on the Menu For Your Next Home Improvement Project

Most homeowners planning on a kitchen remodel or renovation are easily able to find themselves wanting a 20 karat upgrade on a 2 karat budget.  Given the fact that the national average cost of a complete kitchen remodel is approximately $40,000, it is easy for those looking to upgrade to realize how quickly the expenses add up to $40,000.  Many kitchen remodels though, don’t even approach that figure.  The majority of families in today’s economic climate may not have thousands upon thousands of dollars available to spend on a kitchen remodel.  However it is quite common to obtain a small home equity loan for such home improvement projects.

Creating a new kitchen layout is not as simple as one would expect.  There are basic industry standard heights, distances, and depths that need to be observed when positioning cabinets, lighting, ventilation, electrical outlets, doorways, and much more.  Every county within each state has their own particular building codes to adhere to depending on the geographic location of the county.  Because of this it is important to retain the services of an experienced professional builder conversant with the local and state building codes.

Unless the homeowner is exceptionally skilled and knowledgeable about kitchen renovations and building codes, a do-it-yourself approach will involve inordinate amounts of time, frustration, patience, and quite likely several cuts, gashes, and bruises.  Just in itself, researching styles and kitchen materials from countertops and cabinet hardware to range hoods and electrical appliances can be an exhausting endeavour.  Then the truly hard work begins.

Demolition, cleaning, and prepping, if done by the homeowner can take weeks.  Demolition and removal of fixtures needs to be done carefully and safely in order to minimize any damage to the floors and walls.  Should a professional builder and remodeling company be utilized, what may require weeks of work for the homeowner can be shortened to just one or two days.

The easy decision to choose a reputable home builder and remodeler over the homeowner performing the kitchen upgrade themselves is the length of time the kitchen remodel will take.  A realistic time estimate for a do-it-yourself kitchen remodel can easily take over 4 to 8 months depending upon the extent of the remodel.  A kitchen remodel carried out by professionals may take as little as 3 to 5 weeks.  The time savings with using a professional company are readily apparent and the homeowner need never get injured themselves.

www.LKNcabinets.com