[morahamy]

Is there an existing thread that explains the correct order to do each piece of a kitchen renovation? If not, can someone talk me through the order for us?

Here's what we need to do:
Remove cabinets and vinyl floors and appliances, etc. Remove ceiling fan/overhead light combo and over sink light..
Remove plastic tile (really!) from plaster walls. Repair walls after removal?
Relocate gas for stove.
Electric for new electric oven. Make vent (or whatever you call it) for hood.
New wood floors, new cabinets (assemble and install) new appliances, new countertops. New ceiling fan/light. New above sink lighting.

I'm not sure what else I might be forgetting...

[climber_grrl]

I'm sure there is a thread out there, but the order you decide may be different from others, mainly because of the decision to floor up to the walls or just up to the edge of the cabs.

Here is how we did it.
1. Gut everything down to the studs and start over. (your level of destruction may vary)
2. While the walls were open and nothing was in we moved utilities (water, gas, electrical) and wired for lights.
3. Put in new insulation and drywalled/painted
4. Installed radiant floor heating and hard wood flooring (we used the capita legs so we needed the floor to go all the way to the walls)
5. Built, ganged, installed cabs (Most people like to do uppers 1st so that the lowers don't get in the way. We had to do lowers first so we could line the upper up w/the lowers - we've always gotta do things the hard way). Put fridge in it's space.
6. Prepped the island for the overhanging counter (we didn't want corbels so we aded flat metal bars as support)
7. Installed 1/2 ply as countertop base
8. Made concrete countertops and waited (and waited and waited) for them to cure
9. Installed undermounted sink and concrete countertops
10. Installed cooktop and oven
11. Installed lights (still not done)
12. Someday we'll install a backsplash when we decide what we want and how much we want to spend (LOL)

We still haven't adjusted the drawers and doors as much as we should, but we did have some yummy pancakes this morning so the kitchen is "done". :-)

[Emmie9999]

Nicole's list is an excellent one. If you are planning to keep your old walls, I would suggest patching them after you have finished plumbing and electrical. That way, you only have to fix things once, instead of patching, then cutting in to run a wire, then patching again.

Also, if your floors will not show under the cabinets (for example, if you are using the regular legs and toekick/plinth), you could do the floor after installing the cabinets. In that case, the order would be :subfloor(if it needs replacing, repair), install cabinets, install flooring, install plinth.

I had plastic tile on plaster, too! Can you imagine, it used to be thought of as so cool and "in"? I had a GC do my kitchen, and he found the plaster and plastic tile under a layer of sheetrock. I think the room got three feet bigger in each direction just removing all those layers!

Plaster, especially old horsehair plaster, can be tricky to work with, and needs patience to patch. Have you worked on it before? My DH and I have removed a lot of it. If you need some information, let me know.

[bogiesan]

the advice you can find here is based on real world experience. However, you owe it to your sanity, your budget, your spouse, and your schedule to visit your library and check out five to twenty books on kitchen planning and remodeling. They'll have plenty on the shelves. You will find information from many different sources must be congealed to fit your specific project's needs.

There is so much that can go wrong. Careful investigation leads to extensive preparation that will help you avoid the worse disasters. You need a fallback plan just in case it all goes to heck.

david boise ID

[cocontom]

This is what our plaster looked like after we took the tile out- it was a mix of liquid nails and something else. I'm going to guess mastic.



Most of the gray areas are about 3/4 inch deep. We put backer board over the whole thing- after our last plaster repair attempts (since spackle won't adhere to plaster), we learned that it's something we really cannot DIY and textured the walls.

I tried to organize the order we did things in, and that's part of our problem- lack of organization.
First we textured and painted the walls, then pulled up old vinyl. Put in new flooring by moving all of the appliances to one side, tiling, moving to the other and repeat. Realize in the middle that we don't know exactly where the new cabinets will go and pack and demo lower cabinets (not a huge job- all of the previous lowers are shown). Tile around old gas valve for range. Have gas line moved to untiled side of room. Plumber nicely removed old gas valve. On second day, go buy cabinets. Spend entire day at Ikea (I missed the "pay in the kitchens area, then shop tip"). Grout by moving stuff around (done in one day- sort of, I'm still scrubbing grout off the floor when I scrub the floors- but the color is close enough that it only shows when wet). Pack and demo old uppers. Put in new cabinets. Put up new light fixture and texture and paint around it along with basic touch up. Use old counters and cabinet shelves just to have a functional kitchen while deciding on counter (that took a couple of months). Tile new counters. Wait on new faucet for over a week because we didn't really want to put three holes in for the faucet, separate handle and soap dispenser. Scratch heads for how to install soap dispenser now that everything is in and grouted.

We still haven't put the fake drawer fronts on- I'm pretty tempted to do a tip out with a chute for the trash, that open hole is so convenient!

[morahamy]

Thanks for the advice. We are actually planning on hiring a handy man to work with us on the project this summer, but I was interested to hear more about what it will look like.

Thanks for the pics of the plastic tile removal! It's still hard to believe anyone ever thought that was attractive. I wonder what we'll be saying that about 50 years from now?

[cocontom]

Oh! I made a smart-arse remark and took it out! That damage was caused by ceramic tile. I think the only reason the parts that didn't mess up the wall came off cleanly was because the 15 layers of paint behind them came off.