I wanted to add that sink and dishwasher are staying in the same location. range is moving over 12inches. And frig is moving back to original location where water line was capped but still accessible. No new windows, doors. No major changes in layout. Will be Removing a small pantry closet to give a full 7ft wall of pantry cabinets and bar. We already have granite countertops that we will reuse. We do need to run an exhaust over top of cabinets (hidden by crown) to outside.

I'm pretty sure a lot of that depends on where you live and how much work you can do yourselves.

Put it this way, we removed a load bearing wall and completely rebuilt the 5' wide enclosed sunporch area into an eat-in kitchen (everything except the roof), installed 3 new casement and 1 new double hung windows, new back door, are adding 3 times as many cabients, re-wiring, re-pluming, getting all new SS appliances, radiant floor heating, insulating, installing slate tile floor and getting about 23 LF of cabinets with granite counters and all new light fixtures for about $25k. We're doing all the work ourselves except installation of the cabinets.

I won't have a final cost or finished pictures for about 2 months +/- but we've already purchased or firmly priced out over 80% of the project (the 20% is really a moving target for other miscellaneous and incidental items).

HTH!

Yes, but I think it depends on your wants/needs. We are finishing up our 8.5'x7' L-shaped kitchen and we spent a total of $8k. Layout stayed largely the same. That included all new stainless appliances (save the stupid DW), new floor, new back splash cement board, Ikea cabinets, etc. It was basically a gut. But it was all DIY save for the granite/sink. So, I think it depends on what you are looking for and what you can do yourself.

I say the DW is stupid b/c we are having trouble getting the custom panel on it (KitchenAid). I'm thinking of just ditching it and getting another one that will take a full panel. grrr..

Oh, and don't judge mine yet! It's not remotely finished! We finished the backsplash Sunday and still have to grout.

As mentioned by others, it depends on many factors:
Where you live (dictates cost of appliances, cabinets, labor, etc.)
How much you can do your self (this is a big way to save money)
Your expectations/wants/needs...basic appliances vs mid-level vs high-end; material used for flooring; wood species and finishes of/on cabinets; types of cabinets; "extras" or "upgrades" to cabinets; fixtures (sink, faucet, etc.); material used for backsplash; etc.
How much electrical and plumbing work is needed (this is not a do/don't do...sometimes a little extra for plumbing, for example, will save more on sink location, functionality, etc.)

If you're willing to do IKEA cabinets, you will save quite a bit right there.

Remember that if a new cut is needed to the granite and that cut will be exposed, it will need to be polished/finished.

Pantry cabinets can be quite expensive...consider making a drywalled pantry.

Forgot to ask this basic question...you say you're keeping the layout...but, does the layout work well?

You don't want to spend a lot of $$ again just to have to remodel for a third time. This is one of the reasons we suggest to people not to do things piecemeal (like applying a patch) without an overall plan...you spend quite a bit of money doing bits and pieces that often have to be ripped out to fix things that should have been fixed before.

Often, it's better for both overall cost and functionality to wait a year or two to save more money to do it right the first time instead of patching. [The exception to this is if it affects the health and safety of people (or pets)...those need to be fixed as soon as possible.]

We're remodeling our kitchen for under 30K. We did not change the layout. I think that our cabinet area is 11x12.

Our tear-out/new cabinets (Kraftmaid from Lowes)/installation was $8,600. The door style is one of the more expensive ones and we went with a high-lighted finish.

All new stainless appliances (range, refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave) approx. $3,500. Keep in mind, these are not high-end appliances/gourmet appliances, but they are an upgrade to what we had.

Copper Gold granite ($23/sq. foot + $24/sq. ft for fabrication/installation)/tiled backsplash: approx. $3,300.

We're having Venetian plaster/paint done for $550 and lighting will probably be done for $400-600.

The plumber was $600 to hook up faucet/disposal/plumbing (had to rebuild pipes)/and dishwasher.

The faucet was $350 and the sink was $400.

We are almost done, and I will post pictures as soon as I can.

We are not in a neighborhood of 50K+ kitchens, so we didn't want to go overboard with our remodel.

I second what others have said - you can, but depends on your tastes and how much work you do yourselves. We are planning our kitchen now, I'm in NJ where things are pretty pricey, but I've found cabinets I can get for about $10k - I could easily spend 5x that going with a high end cabinet. We are keeping much of the basic layout, but adding some cabs, hardwood floors, granite, new lighting and it's looking like we will come in right around the $25k mark.

I would get as many estimates and floor plans that I could find. You will get many ideas that way. Get estimates from Ikea, Lowes, Home Depot and any local cabinet makers.

I have
a custom kitchen from studs to granite under
$20,000 and it is not small or plain.

We redid our roughly 10' x 24' kitchen in a complete to the studs remodel with new stainless steel appliances for less than $25K, but we're DIYers. We built the hutch cabinetry in our garage which slashed about 8K off our cabinetry bill and DIYed everything including our soapstone and butcherblock counters.

A kitchen remodel can cost anywhere from 1K up to and above 100K.

We're nearing the end of a remodel of a 235 square foot kitchen that's under 30K (barely---our official budget was $25K with a 20% contingency fund for emergencies, and we've just decided to use the contingency fund for a new fridge now that we're safely clear of any unexpected surprises, so we'll probably hit 30K right about on the nose).

We live in a high cost labor market (San Francisco Bay Area), went with custom cabinets and stone counters, took out a wall and replaced all of the plumbing, and had to buy all of the appliances but the stove, which still needed a good bit of work. We GC'ed the job ourselves and DIYed the floor installation, much of the little work (fixing window sashes, prepping subfloor, etc.) and will be doing the painting and much of the moulding. We had minimal electrical changes and didn't remove any load-bearing walls, which helped a lot.

It does take a lot longer to do this way---our contractors all finished over three weeks ago but we're still trudging along painting a little one weekend, a little the next---but it will come in under budget and is still pretty close to the kitchen we wanted regardless of budget, so I'm happy with the outcome so far. You can definitely do it, though it takes some work and close management of contractors. Good luck!

Also, because I am a big dork and track these things, here's how our costs broke down, in case this helps...again, we're in a very high cost labor market, so if you're not, you'll spend less on walls/plumbing/electrical/demo if you don't do those yourself.

Cabinets + Hardware: 30%
Appliances + Stove Rehab: 12%
Counters: 10%
Plaster/Walls: 10%
Electrical + Plumbing: 10%
Demo: 8%
Floor (Marmoleum Click, DIY): 6%
Sink/Faucet: 3%
Lights: 3%
Moulding/Doors (partial DIY): 3%
Permits (DIY): 2%
Roofing/Ductwork: 2%
Paint (DIY): 1%

To answer ?s:
* we are in a high cost market area Northern VA
* cabinets in our neighborhood are either the builder grade oak from 10 yrs ago or the new homes have maple (built 6yrs ago).
* We did an upgrade to the kitchen when we moved in to make it more functional for us. It was all we could afford at the time. It had TWO drawers and only a few feet of useable counterspace. So we updated to make it work for us. It was a liveable affordable fix for the time since the kitchen wasn't functional for a cook before or 2 small kids (small island with gas cooktop and little kids don't mix)
* Now financially we are able to do a bigger/more intensive remodel. But my husband doesn't want to sink too much into the kitchen since we have other projects to do on our list and we already sunk $12K in it originally.
* originally we were going to have a painter come in and paint the cabinets and retrofit them with conveniences like pullouts. But for the price we could get cabinets with more drawers (my kitchen has 6 small top drawers).
* I hate my drywall pantry. I am fine not having pullouts in my pantry, I just don't want this big door and unused dead space in the front of the pantry shelving.

We will be doing new flooring under a separate budget after the kitchen remodel for the entire first floor and a new slider and kitchen window under another separate budget that will be completed prior to the kitchen remodel.

The layout works. Just needs a little tweaking and MORE cabinets! I have 2 36" cabinet and 1 27" wall cabinet. I would love more storage. The new smaller window will allow 2 more cabinets (each flanking the window) along with pantry cabinets.

Ahh....I know the market well, EjbryMom, as I also live in the DC-Metro area (in Maryland, though).

Unfortunately, you're correct...this is a higher cost market! It's also an area that has not been hit as hard as others for homes and remodeling, so costs have not come down all that much, if any.

Why don't you go ahead and post your layout and see what people think. There may be some tweaks you hadn't thought of!

As to the windows...don't replace them just yet! Wait until you have a full plan of what you are going to do in the space. You may find, for example, that you want a counter-height window rather than one raised above the counter.

For the floors, you might consider doing it with the remodel. When you do the kitchen, you will need to know what flooring you're planning anyway b/c you have to be sure the cabinets and appliances are installed at the same height as the planned finished flooring height. If they're not, you run the risk of some appliances not fitting or being difficult to remove for cleaning, servicing, or replacing.

If you're not putting the flooring under the cabinets & appliances, you may have to install a sub-floor to raise them to the floor's finished height.

[Tip: Install the flooring at least a few inches into appliance spaces so the sub-floor doesn't show under them from a distance. This usually applies to refrigerators, ranges, DWs, and ice makers...anything that isn't installed inside a cabinet.]

Your drywalled pantry sounds like our old pantry...what a waste of space! We replaced it w/a step-in corner pantry w/shelves 12" and 15" deep...floor-to-ceiling. Even though it's much smaller floor-space wise than the old one, it's much more useful and I love it!

For those of you that asked for a layout. I don't know how to do that. But I can tell you that my entire kitchen is 16x14 including the eat in area.
And I have attached a slide show of how it looks along with how it looked when we moved in.
I would love for people to give layout ideas! We will be removing our 70" window over the sink and install a 36" window.

Here is a link that might be useful: Slideshow of Kitchen

Our situation sounds a lot like laxsupermom: we are doing everything ourselves except the tile in our 12 x 14 kitchen. Rebuilding cabinets using original gumwood doors (re-sized, and a new layout). We will be spending $30-35K. Because we are doing it ourselves we were able to afford the materials and appliances we wanted. If we had gone with all new cabinets and having all the work done it would have been $80-$100K+.

What? I was expecting to see something sad. You have something very nice already. Good bones. Why ditch all the cabinets and that fantastic window? It seems you could stain/paint the current cabs and install a nice back splash. Then spend your money of some sweet appliances. Maybe upgrade the island to something spiffier and more custom looking, but I would think the general L shape should be left in tact as is.

I'm all for ripping things out, Lord knows I did in my house. But yours doesn't look like it calls for it at all.

My biggest issue with your kitchen is the puny cabs over your fridge. Your kitchen would be an "after" compared to my "before", lol.

Oh for sure you can, but a lot depends on how much you are able to do yourself. In our old home we fully remodeled with all new appliances, floors, drywall, electrical, countertops, etc... for less than $4K. Our new home has all new everything and it was less than $15K.