Remodeling A Costa Mesa Kitchen

My Costa Mesa remodeling series this week is focused on remodeling ideas for your Costa Mesa home. Yesterday I posted that I got into a good debate of what it would cost to update the kitchen at the home I did an open house this past Sunday on Mandarin Drive in Mesa Verde’s lower bird streets. Today we will talk about actually remodeling a Costa Mesa kitchen.

Here’s how I came to my number of $30,000 from my previous post. I will add some photos along the way to give you some idea of what is involved. We kept our flooring and the windows all stayed where they were. We did not move our plumbing or too much electrical, and that saved us money. Our project, believe it or not, only took 28 days. It should have taken less (like 24 days), but my contractor was ill and was not able to come for the final 3 days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, what tends to be the most expensive part of remodeling a Costa Mesa kitchen are the cabinets or cabinetry. We wound up spending a little more than $12,000 for our paint grade, bare wood (maple) cabinets which included all the door hinges, glides, custom lighting inside the display cabinets and the pantry, and the under counter lighting and electrical work.

We took out the oven from the wall and added this small bar/cabinet area.

The cabinet maker installed everything, so it saved having a general contractor do it. My kitchen had been extended by the owners previous to me, and the larger kitchen is very comfortable to live in, but I was definitely afraid of the costs when it was time to remodel. We modified the layout of the kitchen to include a counter depth refrigerator (our old one jutted out into the walkway), a new bar area that includes a small wine refrigerator, and a space for a professional gas range because we both love to cook.

Of course the best part of doing a Costa Mesa kitchen or a remodeling project is that you can get exactly what you want. We are in our third house now that we have owned, and we had always inherited someone else’s kitchen/design, so we have know for a long time what we wanted. Our new favorite design element that we have is the cabinets close flush into the frame of the cabinets for all the drawers and doors – it really creates a very clean, modern look. The little things go along way too- we had to have those soft close glides on the drawers- it is sooo nice just to gently push the drawers closed and have them slowly come to a soft close all by themselves. We were also able to get deep drawers for all the pots and a built-in sliding utensil drawer that is super convenient and a really cool way to keep all the cooking utensils organized.

 

Cabinets with fresh paint, waiting for the backsplash.

 

So where did the rest of the money go? The appliances were the next big ticket item. The 36” range was expensive – nearly $5k. Ouch. The fridge was only $1500, we kept our old dishwasher ($450 last year) and the wine fridge was relatively inexpensive at $500. We did save a lot of money by buying our appliances online – I saved approximately $1900 over buying locally.

So now our tally sits at $19,000 and change for our remodel.

Some of the other little costs:

• Painter – $1,800 (painting cabinets and touch up)
• Demo day $1,000 (contractor labor and dumpster)
• Gas line $1,000 (contractor had to move line to new spot)

My wife and I never had a solid surface counter top in our kitchens that we loved in the past. We had Corian once, but we didn’t love the way it wore or how it cleaned up. Two of our homes had tile countertops (4 x 4 tile) as we had in our current home, so we were definitely excited about granite or another solid surface.

We did look at many options, but found a granite that we really loved, and felt it was perfect for the price ($1400). We did have to get three slabs because of the surface size of our kitchen, and that was one of the reasons the other nice options (quartz, silestone) were a little too pricey for us. The fabrication of the granite is always one of the expensive parts of a kitchen too, and that cost $1,600.

Just the backsplash! We wound up going with a stacked glass mosaic that blends well with the granite – it comes off a bit modern, but it really created interest since the cabinets are all white. The expense of the tile for that was about $1400 and the labor to install was $300.

All told that is a grand total of 27,500. I had one other contractor bill of $1750 which put us just under our $30,000 budget by $750. So, going back to the kitchen on Mandarin Drive – yes, you sure can do your Costa Mesa real estate kitchen for a lot less than $50,000!

Tomorrow I will look at ways to do it less expensively, and later this week I will look at national numbers that tell what you can expect to recoup on the investment you make into remodeling your Costa Mesa real estate.

Adding a backsplash can bring interest and a focal point to a kitchen.

Interested in a home or in remodeling ideas that pay off? I would love to talk to you! Even if you just need a good contractor reference. I can be reached at (714) 743-9882 or E-mail me here to reach me.