Prior to beginning this project, we had experiences that gave us confidence we could do this ourselves:
- We completed a total remodel in the kitchen of a previous house, which included pouring concrete countertops, assembling and installing all new cabinetry, and installing new tile floors.
- We have the tools and skills for significant DIY work and have acquired more tools as we've taken on more kinds of projects.
- We have a handful of tile projects behind us, including a tiled countertop, several backsplashes of varying complexity, and a few tiled floors, including one of 750sq ft 24x24" Travertine tiles.
If you've never picked up a circular saw or a drill driver, then these articles might just be an interesting 'read' for you. It can be scary tearing apart your functional kitchen with the hope/dream/expectation that you can put it back together later. On the other hand, if you have good DIY skills, patience, and are willing to learn like crazy while you work and build, you probably can do some or most of the things we'll talk about here.
With a kitchen remodel, don't forget that you need a kitchen in your day-to-day life, too. In our previous reno, we had large chunks of time where the kitchen wasn't usable - that created a whole lot of extra stress that complicated things. If you, like us, are doing this sort of thing in your 'spare' time, it takes some planning to break the project into chunks that can be finished independently while the kitchen is still (mostly) usable.