Hi,
I'm not the biggest user of the IkeaFans community, but I have done a bit of lurking over the past few months. Today I decided that my kitchen remodel was for the most part finished, and I've been wanting to write a review of my experiences up to this point, both to get it off my chest, and to help future remodelers in their trials and tribulations.
Photos of the finished kitchen are here:
Mike and Music
Photos of the process are here:
Kodakgallery.com*Slideshow
Some background: my fiance and I purchased a three-unit property in September of last year. We remodeled the two 1br units and got them rented by December. The remodel included a lot of paint and new floors, and two entirely new kitchens. While we did entertain Ikea kitchens for the units, we ended up going with no-name cabinets from China. They arrived flat-pack, and construction of the cabinets was very similar to the Ikea cabinets. The base cabinets DID have a top (instead of the two pieces of 1x3), and the cabinets had a frame, which made them easier to built square, instead of trapezoidal. (But certainly limited what you could put inside them - i.e. drawers.) I had never done any remodeling before this point, and cut my teeth on the rental units. (Note to future remodelers: Buy multiple units. You will screw things up, and never have to see them again. By the time you do your own kitchen, you will know how to do things right.)
Timeline:
We started demo on April 25th, and I'll say that today, July 18th, we are pretty much finished. We dropped the sink in two weeks ago, and the stove one week ago, so I'll say we were completely kitchenless for about 2.5 months. During this time both my fiance and I continued our full-time jobs, and I fielded a number of freelance projects, including teaching a class two nights per week. I am not kidding when I estimate I was working 60-70 hours per week, AND remodeling the kitchen. At times, I wasn't sure how we were going to make it, but we did.
Alternate Plans:
When we purchased the new fridge, we delivered it directly to the livingroom. We had a bakers rack in the old kitchen, which we re-located next to the fridge, setting the microwave on the top shelf, and the toaster oven on the bottom shelf. We purchased paper plates, bowls, and plastic silverware in bulk from Costco, and located them below the baker's rack. We never would have made it through without this setup. Give yourself a fighting chance, and make some alternate plans. There was also a lot of eating out, take-out, and ordering in. There are lots of places to cut in the budget, but hungry, crabby remodelers are a bear to live with. Budget a few bucks for Pizza Hut and some paper plates. You have the rest of your live to save the environment, 100 paper plates won't melt the ice caps.
Demolition:
I did the demo on a Friday afternoon while my fiance was out of town. I find it's easy to recruit people for demo, everybody loves putting a sledgehammer through a wall. We made enough noise that people from the street were asking if they could come up and give a hand. (We declined.) We were removing a lot of plaster and re-locating a supporting wall, so there was a lot of demo to be done. Also, our old cabinets (circa-1930) were framed into the house, so removing them took a lot of effort.
Electric:
I did 100% of my own electric. We ran eight new circuts to the kitchen, to run no chance of ever tripping a breaker, for any reason. Part of the remodel included replacing the old panel with a new, and I ordered a panel with PLENTY of extra slots. When you have the walls open, this is your chance to "future-proof". I ran a lot of conduit, so that someday in the future when I run cable, I don't have to worry about where it'll go.
Gas:
For the rough-in, I stubbed off the gas lines. For the finish, I had a plumber come in and finish it up. I could have done it, but I wanted to get it DONE.
Water:
It's surprising how much dead plumbing the house had built up over 80 years... the original cast iron pipes were still in the walls, and we removed a ton of those. Then, there (at some point) were locations for two or three clothes washers in various places in the kitchen. I stubbed off all of these on my own, and plumbed in an icemaker valve. I roughed in the drain and water for the sink, but brought the plumber in for the finish work. After three kitchens in less than a year, I can tell you this: Plumbing is a cinch. Getting what you need is a pain in the arse. I could have done the finish plumbing on my own, no problem. But the fifteen trips to Home Depot would have killed me.
Cabinets/IKEA:
Configuration:
Second to none. We looked at lots and lots of cabs before ordering for the units, and for "cool factor", Ikea has no competition. I will also say that I place a high value on being able to price things out myself, and not wait a few days for a smarmy salesguy to tell me what certain changes will cost. I wish there were more door styles for the Ikea cabs, and I wish some of them (specifically the less expensive ones) looked less "Ikea-y".
Ordering:
I'm a bit old fashioned, in that, when I order $5k worth of something, I expect a little woo-ing, or to sit at a desk, or to be called sir, or to at least place my order with someone wearing a tie. At Ikea, you place your order in the middle of a department store, with someone in their early-to-mid twenties, who is giggling and answering the phone and talking to the person next to them (who is placing someone elses $5k kitchen order) about what movie they saw that weekend. We had to return to our local Ikea several times to order small pieces here and there, and got the same treatment each time. From not following down the written list they ask you to sign up on, to general stand-offish-ness, we never got stellar service from the kitchen folks.
Building:
The cabinets are a typical cam-and-shaft type construction. I built two kitchens in September, yet I was AMAZED at how fast these Ikea cabs went together. Also, how much strength the dowels give the cabinets. Instead of four cam/shaft points to pivot on, the dowels give more structure to the cabinets, and make it harder for them to go out of square. The backs to the cabinets (1/8" fiberboard) are square, and installing them correctly pretty much leaves you with a square cabinet, even without measuring to double check. I easily built all my uppers in just a few hours, and the same for the base cabinets.
Installation:
The rail the upper cabinets hang on is an incredible system... I installed all my upper cabinets by myself in just a few hours. The amazing thing is if in a few years I decide to change things, just loosening a few bolts will give me an empty room again. Lower cabinets were also easy, I installed a 1x4 on the wall, and left the back legs off the base cainets.
Extra pieces:
We didn't know exactly what we needed going in, as we knew there'd be a few changes down the road. Going back to Ikea to order a half dozen pieces was no big deal, but I'm here to tell you waiting in a long line in the Kitchen department, then a long line at the register, then waiting for "full-service" (there are air-quotes around those quotes) to deliver you a single 125-degree hinge can sometimes be an hour or more. Ikea would be well served to have a self-service kitchen kiosk, where one could order one or two simple pieces (drawer glides, hinges, toekick), instead of the absurd process they have currently.
Returns:
About the same luck here as was in ordering, in that it's never fast, and it's never friendly. They were reasonably good about taking back things I'd ordered and opened, but did stick me with a few pieces that I'd have rather not had. The ordering process is long and confusing, and will leave you with extra pieces, no matter how hard you try.
Overview:
The cabinets are good looking, and sturdy. This is not their strong point, as most commercially-available cabinets share these same traits. The strengths of Ikea cabinets are cost, availability, and configurability. They excel at these things. I am satisfied with my Ikea cabinets, and am thrilled with how good they look, and with the price that I paid. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, and if we purchase additional rental units next year, Ikea (though this time, white or birch) will be on my short-list once again.
I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thanks for your help,
Photomikey
