Millennial Kitchen Remodel
If you saw our last post about preliminary kitchen remodel design ideas, we have come a long way and have made some big changes to the grand plan. While we would have loved to take on a big remodel by knocking down our kitchen wall, installing a new beam to stabilize, and fully renovating the cabinets has transformed into a much smaller endeavor thanks to COVID and our work schedules – probably for the best because it was great for our wallets and the kitchen is really coming together.
This was taken when we purchased in 2019.
A few factors helped us make the decision to make our remodel less complicated, and accelerate it as quickly as possible. First – interest rates are so low that we decided to refinance and we wanted as high a value as possible to get out of paying private mortgage insurance, which is what you have to pay when you put down less than 20%. To have our best chance of 20% equity, we decided to quickly do the remodel, and we did not want to wait for engineers, permitting, and the city. We wanted flexibility and speed, so we decided not to take down the wall, decided to paint the cabinets, add new cabinet soft close doors and hinges, new tile, and a dishwasher. The project took us less than 2 weeks, and we are very pleased with the outcome. We didn’t have time to replace the counters, but that is on our list! We may try to cut out a small hole in the kitchen wall to finally see the ocean view from the kitchen, but if that doesn’t happen we are content. We made cost effective decisions on the remodel because one day this will be a rental property and we want to be careful not to overbuild.
If you know anyone looking to do their first remodel, we are happy to share our experiences with them!