Originally Posted by
Rick Potter
Jim,
I can furnish you with an example of what I saved making a kitchen about 25 years ago.
I am a competent DIY guy, certainly not a 'fine woodworker', and so was my neighbor, who was a carpenter/framer. We both put in a new kitchen back then. The kitchens were roughly the same size.
He decided to buy pre-made white melamine cabinets and install them himself. He spent $4,000 for the cabinets, not counting the counter tops. They were installed by him in less than a week, then he had counter tops installed.
I decided to make my kitchen, and do it in red oak, with raised panels and doors. I also made each cabinet and drawer to my wife's specs to hold her utensils and pans. Some drawers were 28" long for all the silverware, others were 23" long rather than the 18" that came with his pre-made cabinets. A special upper cabinet fit the microwave, and a hidden door in the end of a run housed a 4" deep medicine or spice cabinet.
In the separate breakfast nook area I also made a cabinet as well as a two piece built in buffet. Each of the cabinets were made to fit the area they were in, with no filler strips like you get with pre-mades.
My cost for materials was $2800 for lumber, finishing stain and poly, epoxy drawer slides, hinges and handles. As with his...not counting the counter top, and I installed it. I had a unisaw, jointer, and a benchtop router table with a PC 690. Wow, what a difference track saw would have made.
To be fair, it took me two years, but I am a slow worker and she is patient, and I did it a cabinet at a time, putting up temporary counter top as I went. We also were extremely busy then, and took several vacations, and worked on other stuff around the house as needed. We did not let it interfere with our life, and were never without a working kitchen.
15 years ago we moved, and the daughter and her family moved into the old house. As of last week the kitchen is still looking good. It took me 3 years to do the kitchen here....getting older.
Prices have changed since then, but this should give you a little insight.