Another Reader Gets The Glossy Treatment
Our readers have officially scored a hat trick with Better Homes & Garden’s Kitchen + Bath Makeovers magazine. Like Lindsay and Jessica before her, Christina’s affordable kitchen makeover (which we shared as a Reader Redesign back in February) landed in the magazine’s “Do It For Less” section after they saw it here on YHL. Yeah, we’re doing the happy dance right along with them.
Here’s Christina’s and her husband Trevor’s starring page that shows off their dramatic $1,400 kitchen transformation (and no we didn’t forget a zero on that number). Plus it was a total gut job (they even replaced appliances, the floor and the cabinets for that unbelievable price). Congrats Christina and Trevor on the feature! Well played, handy homeowners. And thanks for giving us a shout out! We’re totally blushing.
Note: click the image below to enlarge the article and check out our original post about their kitchen right here.
And on the subject of amazing kitchen makeovers on a seriously enviable budget, what’s the best deal you’ve scored when it comes to your kitchen? Have you snagged a secondhand appliance on craigstlist, negotiated a killer deal on cabinets, or even found hardware on ebay? Do tell. Here’s the story of how we took home a free dishwasher along with a super cheap faucet and sink back in the day. Don’t good deals make you feel like the king of the world? It can’t just be me…
Images courtesy of Kitchen + Bath Makeovers.
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My fiance and I are getting his townhouse ready to sell, so we decided it was time to update his kitchen a little… I promise, it looked like it was all from 1970! Luckily, his parents were completely gutting and remodeling their own kitchen, so we were able to snag a slightly-used above-the-stove microwave for free!
That is so great! Congratulations Christina and Trevor! It’s always fun to see how others have brought big impact to a room with a little dough. You all did a wonderful job!
Jacci
I can’t wait to gut our kitchen and start over (think original 1950s kitchen, no upgrades), but for now, we are settling with cheap DIY tricks to tide us over – like painting cabinets and countertops, etc. Our greatest find so far was a gas slide-in range on craigslist…it was 2 years old and being replaced because the owner decided to go with a different color in the kitchen. Generally those go for around $1200 in my area, and we scored it for $150 – which my mom paid for as my Christmas present, so we got it for free! It was in perfect condition and we’ve had it for almost a year now with no problems. Love it! :-)
Christina and Trevor really made their dollar stretch, that’s awesome! You guys really inspire alot of people, that must feel great!
Hello! I was just clicking through your links above and saw that you mentioned your kitchen contractor in the faucet post. Could you explain how you started your kitchen project? Did you go to contractor’s first to get estimates? Lowes/Home Depot to get prices of cabinets/counter tops? We’re ready to start getting estimates, but I don’t know who to start with! If this is too much for a comment answer, perhaps it could be a post idea? (and sorry if you’ve already written on this — I didn’t see anything in your archives.)
Thanks!
Hey Erin,
We actually documented the entire kitchen process from start to finish when we began blogging (it was our first project) so if you go back in our archives to the very first month (September 2007) you can slowly see how the entire kitchen evolved over the course of a few months. We basically relied heavily on the (free!) services of a Certified Kitchen Designer from Home Depot since it’s where we got our cabinets and counters. And we also used their installers which helped when it came to hanging things straight on old 50 year old walls. There were lots of other projects in there from expanding doorways and updating lighting and all that good stuff so it’s fun to poke around in those old archives. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
We’re coming to the end (well, probably a month out) of our kitchen remodel. I’m definitely sending pics when everything’s finished because your blog has been a major inspiration to me this past year! Ordering my sink and faucet over the phone from a midwest distributor earned me a discount on the faucet. Also, I purchased our appliances at Sears- they offer price matching + 10% of the difference. I found our fridge for less at Best Buy and got more than $100 back from Sears. We’ve done all demo ourselves which has saved us oodles- we’re not particularly “handy” so we leave that piece to the professionals. Can’t wait to show you the end product!
In 2006, we built a new “old” house, and during construction, I found a wonderful chandelier for the dining room. A short time later,I realized we also needed something for over the eating area of the kitchen and since one area is close to the other, I thought I’d just go back to the store and get something from the same lighting collection for over the kitchen table. When I got to the store(Home Depot)and looked around, I couldn’t find the display. Asking, I was told that line had been discontinued. I explained my delemma to the nice man in the lighting department, and after a few moments of thought, he showed me a wonderful fixture on their sale cart. He said it was the last of another collection and he’d been watching it all afternoon, fearing someone would break it before it got sold as part of it was glass. He said if I could use it, he could mark it down even lower than it already was($46). Looking at it, I knew it would match my other fixture so I said yes. It was my lucky day…with the extra markdown, my new $89 fixture cost me $9 plus tax!!!
I need to take some notes from them! That’s about how much my husband and I would feel comfortable spending on our kitchen – its a small galley kitchen that needs some major updates. The one update I will look forward to the most, getting rid of my easily stainable white laminate….really people who designed the house, did you really think that was the best choice, especially against the yellowed poly urethaned oak cabinets? sigh, I can’t wait and I will be soaking up their suggestions!
Any update as to whether or not they sold the house? I went to school in Mount Vernon,Iowa at Cornell and miss that cute little town, especially in the spring! There were tulips in EVERY garden and it seemed like every tree flowered!
Hey Erin,
Yup, the sold their house pretty much as soon as they put it up on the market. Amazing, eh?!
xo,
s
How exciting! They really did an amazing transformation for that amount of money!!
An amazing budget transformation that deserves to be published! Congrats to them!
that is so cool that this magazine gets their kitchen reno stories from young house love! must be so flattering for you guys! maybe you should start a glossy of your own… This Weekend’s Project?
those are some amazing deals they got. well done!
Wow ~ I love ktichen makeovers
I love how Christina shopped smart and gave her kitchen a clean, fresh look! We just moved into our newly renovated house, and to save $ we bought our fridge, stove, over-the-range microwave, pendant lights and hardwood flooring on Craigslist, purchased a faucet off ebay for $70, bought the lowest-priced Kraftmaid maple cabinets from Home Depot and found an awesome huge sink at a resale store. Our big splurge was the countertops, which are made of soapstone tiles. I found a DIY article on IKEAFANS.com which explained how this couple had tiled their countertops with soapstone (normally a very expensive material) and used epoxy instead of grout so they could set the tiles really close together. I drove from D.C. to New Jersey to pick up the 18″ tiles for $10 s.f., then had a handyman friend get me started building the countertops. The end result looks very much like a solid stone slab, and was totally worth the HOURS of time it took to put together!
You guys are so nice, sharing the fame! :-)
I love kitchen makeovers, especially for that price. I haven’t done mine yet (look for it in March!) but I have been working on my bathroom, and I say STALK CRAIGSLIST AND THE CLASSIFIEDS. So many people remodel and upgrade, and they are selling perfectly good and really nice stuff. I got my bathtub, which is nice and deep and cute, for $80. A similar one new would have been over $400. And no one can tell mine is used! And besides, the most environmentally friendly thing you can do when building/renovating is to re-use something that has already been made.
Wow amazing! Congrats to them – what an honor! I have always loved finding inspirations and searching for the ‘lower’ cost replicas. Even though it may be a headache at times it is always worth the steal in the end. Items are always out there… the challenge is finding them – which is part of the fun too!
I was looking at some of your mood boards and got to thinking. I am a design student right now and we really focus on sustainable practices and was thinking that you guys could really use your influence to start incorporating “Dedicated” fluorescent or LED light fixtures into your mood boards. They make some amazing fixtures now and the color rendering of these types of bulbs has come so far to flattering tones, the old stereotype that fluorescent is bad is no longer an issue. Saves the home owner money in the long run and saves our planet one light fixture at a time :-)
Hey Kyla,
We definitely love the idea of incorporating green design and LED lights when we can! Definitely something to think about!
xo,
Sherry
Wow! Speaking of good deals, I got one yesterday. A dishwasher, $650.00 originally, for just $360.00, brand new. Plus more $ later, from the economic stimulus plan rebate for energy star appliance purchases.
Also if you have time check out my old kitchen remodel, complete remodel for $700.00, including tile for 1.56 a box! Screaming deal! I swear it is worth your time. The link is
http://www.remodelaholic.com/2008/08/kitchen-of-my-dreams.html
We just scored a floor model dishwasher for super cheap! It was originally $1300 and we got it for less than 600 bucks! I’m and DONE hand washing all of my dishes – whew! Thank you Home Depot!
Ok, so I’m going completely off topic, but I have to ask… How does YHL transport all of their new furniture? Do you rent a truck? ship it? ask a friend? Everytime I go to Ikea, I leave frustrated because I can’t haul any furniture in my little Civic :(
Hey Sheryl J,
We’re planners! We usually know about a week out if we’re going to Ikea (it’s actually about 4 hours round trip from our house) so we arrange to switch cars with John’s sister who owns a Ford Explorer. The back of that car can fit anything! In fact it’s how we transported both wardrobes and the Expedit workstation that we picked up last weekend. Is there anyone (friend or family) who will switch cars with you for the day so you can load theirs up? Good luck!
xo,
s
neat! and i love hearing about all the great deals everyone has scored!
here’s how i get my appliances for nearly 1/2 off:
http://tearinguphouses.blogspot.com/2009/10/steal-your-appliances.html
and here’s how i made improvements with NO money at all:
http://tearinguphouses.blogspot.com/2009/09/0-budget.html
kelly
That is so great that their kitchen was featured! What a compliment of their hard work they did on their kitchen.
We can totally relate to their story. Check out our before & after’s of our kitchen remodel. We did it all ourselves!
http://ourcreativelife.blogspot.com/2009/07/our-finished-kitchenfinally-we-love-it.html
I love reading this blog and thought I would pass a money saver along, just in case you’re looking at books (in addition to magazines) to help plan your next project! Borders sent out a 30% off any item coupon in their e-mail this week. Happy House planning! I’m sure you’re new basement has the potential to be featured in it’s own spread!
http://www.bordersmedia.com/coup/nw230sl.asp?cmpid=SL_20091110