Home Building

The following is another segment from my recent interview with Paul Ryan:

Randy: What are some kitchen renovation projects that homeowners can do to get the biggest bang for their buck?

Paul Ryan: Well, I would say that all depends on the homeowner because a lot of times we've talked to people about "...what can you really do yourself?","...what are you not comfortable doing?" There might be some people out there that are comfortable doing plumbing, whereas, other homeowners won't want to touch it. There might be some people that maybe just want to contract out the construction of the project but maybe they can do all of the demolition themselves. So I think within each project, you have to look at your skills as a do-it-yourselfer.

What I tell people to do is to really take stock in what they can and cannot do and create your project that way. Say, "I want to save money on this but I know I can do that". So maybe you do that and you spend more money on appliances or maybe you might have to spend more money on plumbing and install the cabinets yourself and that kind of thing.

It's all in the eye of the beholder...what's important to you.

As far as the bang for the buck goes, I think that so many people that I talk to...it's like they want to really do something nice in their kitchen. They want to do this. They want to do that. They don't want to spend a lot of money but where I think people are spending a lot of money these days is on appliances because obviously if they do a lot of cooking, they want effective cooking. So they want a six burner cook top or a really nice oven and a lot of times people will start compromising. It's like "...well, I want really nice cabinets but I don't really want to spend the money on the appliances." and then they get done with the project and they're disappointed because they don't have the cooking needs that they want. It really depends on the individual person.

So I would say what's important to you as a homeowner and then if cooking is generally important to you, maybe you want to spend the extra money on the appliances and make sure that you get the effective cooking that you want. Maybe if the main important thing is the look of it, maybe you want to spend more money on cabinets. It's all in the eye of the beholder...what's important to you.

Related

HGTV Kitchen Design shows you how to refinish your cabinets.

DIY Network's treasure trove of information for creating the kitchen of your dreams.

Read up on all of the excerpts of my interview with Paul Ryan. Go to the bottom of that page for all of the links to various posts.