It’s time once again for another installment of Thompson Price’s “How to Remodel a Kitchen or Bath Without Spending a Fortune”. As part of our ongoing effort to help people get the most out of their kitchen or bathroom remodel, we’re sharing a few of our tips to update your kitchen or bath on a budget. As part of a nationwide professional kitchen and bath group, we have found these tips to work very well not only in the St. Louis area, but in other areas as well based on feedback from many of our colleagues. Here’s a great tip on getting a little more out of your kitchen and it starts with your appliances.
II. Update the appliances: Many kitchens out there are in really good shape and need very little updating. This is especially true if you invested in quality products and solid design the first time you remodeled. Granite is pretty much a lifetime product and many cabinets carry lifetime warranties on their better built lines. Appliances, however, have a limited lifetime. In fact, according the National Association of Home Builders Housing Facts, the average appliance will have a lifespan of thirteen years. Assuming you’ve purchased quality products, your cabinets and countertops should certainly outlast your appliances.
If you think about it, it makes sense…appliances are the most ‘technological’ items in kitchens today. They have computer chips, electronic sensors and some of the more expensive products have networking capabilities so you can set your oven to begin preheating before you leave the office. Considering these facts, it should be no surprise that appliances can often have high failure rates or limited life spans. Fortunately, most appliances have standard sizes available so replacement should be relatively easy. Notice that I say replacement should be relatively easy. There has to be a catch, right?
Although most appliances are fairly “standard” there is no guarantee that the new in-wall oven you purchase will have the same ‘cut-out’ dimension that your old one had. If you replace a cook-top in your granite counter top, you may have to have your granite fabricator come back to make the cut-out slightly wider or deeper. It’s possible that the new cook-top is taller, so drawers beneath it may have to be notched or the sides may have to be scooped. Perhaps the connection for the gas line is on the right of your new unit and your old one had a gas connection on the left. Again a drawer may have to be notched at back to accommodate this. What if you want to add a refrigerator that has ice and water in the door and your old refrigerator didn’t have one? Now you need to get a plumber involved and have him install a water line behind your refrigerator, which probably won’t be inexpensive if the floor and walls have already been installed. This is why professional kitchen planning and design is so essential. If you’re remodeling and think you may have a need for something in the future, have it installed during the remodel. Trust me; it will be far less expensive than having it installed at a later date.
You can also add appliances where you wouldn’t have thought to earlier. Occasionally, we find ourselves replacing a customer’s regular kitchen drawer with a warming drawer. Again, it’s something that is easier to do during a remodel, but as long as we can get an outlet behind the cabinet and the drawer is the appropriate width, it’s do-able. Again, when it comes to any type of kitchen remodel, proper design and planning are the keys to a successful project.
Tags: kitchen appliances, kitchen design, kitchen remodel, remodeling on a budget
