Disneysteve's Common Cents Blog

I'm sure the one question many people have about our remodel is what it cost.

Our contractor came back yesterday to finish the job. The replacement cabinet doors were in as was the scribe molding he needed. He installed all of that. He did a second coat of paint in the bathroom and the window sill and cleaned up all of the paint in general around the woodwork and such, and he did any other final touches that were needed.

He sent his invoice today. The grand total for his services and everything we spent out of pocket came to right around $36,000.

When we first met with him, the budget number I gave him was $30,000 and asked if that was realistic. He thought it was and told us that what would push it over that would be specific choices we made in materials and/or any unforeseen issues found in the course of the job. Of course, I knew there would be some problems along the way, and there were. We hadn't planned on replacing the dishwasher but discovered that it was leaking so had to buy a new one. The old floor was a mess and took him a lot of time, effort, and added expense to repair. And there were various little things as we went along that all added up.

When I threw out the 30K figure, I had absolutely zero expectation that it would actually get done at that number. In my head, I was okay with it costing no more than 50K. The fact that we ended up at 36K is great as far as I'm concerned. I'm very satisfied with the cost and the final results.

I thought I'd make one last kitchen update for now.

We've now been living with the new kitchen since Tuesday afternoon, cooking and eating there. Everything is great. The new stovetop and oven are much better than our old ones. There's a bit of a learning curve with the controls but nothing major. Just knobs for the stovetop and a touch pad for the oven. Microwave controls are a bit different too. We've run the dishwasher twice now and that's fine. Pretty simple controls that aren't all that different than the last one.

Today my wife and I spent a good amount of time bringing up items from the basement and putting them away in their new places. I'm sure we will shuffle things around some as we work in there and figure out our new work flows but things are mostly away for now. We still need to bring in a lot of the food items that got moved into our temporary space in the living room. Some have come in already as we've used them but the rest need to go too. Once that is done, my wife can start putting that room back together as it is her crafting room. I started getting the family room back in order last night. That's where I do a lot of my reselling business like taking pictures for ebay and packing china for Replacements.com. Having limited access to that space for nearly 2 months was lousy for business but I knew that would be the case. Time to ramp back up to normal.

All in all, we're happy with the remodel. I think the new space looks great. My wife even commented today after I posted before and after pictures on Facebook, that the old kitchen looked so bad. How did we live with that for so long? It's funny how you just get used to what you've got. When you walk into someone else's house, you'll immediately take note of things like that, but in your own home, it just is what it is and you don't even think about it. Now that it's all changed, though, looking at the before pictures is really jarring.

If you're thinking about a remodel and can't decide, just do it. It's a royal pain in the butt while it's happening but it is very much worth it in the end.

Our contractor left today. He has some finishing stuff to do but is waiting for items to come in so he is done for now, 57 days since beginning. He only worked Monday to Friday, of course, except he did come a couple of times on Saturday to finish some things but didn't do full days. He also took a couple of days off along the way, so he probably worked a total of 38 days I think. Pretty damn impressive when you look at what he did and consider the fact that he worked alone with the exception of the electrician coming twice to do the major electrical work. Other than that, he gutted and rebuilt the entire kitchen and bathroom.

I've never shared photos in a blog before so hopefully this works.

So there it is. We are very pleased with the outcome. As I said, there's some stuff to finish but we are back in the room, loading the drawers and cabinets, trying to remember where we stored everything and figuring out where we want it all to go in the new room. We didn't just replace what we had; we redesigned the layout quite a bit so nothing is really going where it used to be. It will take a while to get used to everything being in a new place but we'll figure it out.

I could have sworn I posted an update since 7/12 but I'm not seeing one.

Except for some finishing touches, the kitchen is done! We moved the fridge into place Friday morning. The dishwasher was delivered a short time later and our guy installed it. He had installed the toilet on Thursday and did the sink on Friday as well as installing the new bathroom light fixture and the toilet paper holder.

Every major component is now complete and we've started using the kitchen again. We moved the table in last night before dinner though we will need to take it out Monday morning before he arrives. We'll have to clean off the counters too.

What remains to be done? He needs to finish some painting in the bathroom, paint the woodwork and doors, stain the window frame over the sink, finish some caulking, and a couple of other things. As my wife put it, it now looks like a finished kitchen that just needs a little work done rather than looking like an active construction site.

We love how it has turned out. The backsplash tile is beautiful. The kitchen paint color goes great with everything. The bathroom paint color is bright and vivid without being too much especially thanks to the lower third being white bead board. The whole project came together very well.

I don't have final numbers yet but I'll post when I do. I had told our guy that our budget was 30K though I never expected to actually come in that low. he had said that 30K was realistic but would be mainly driven by choices we made as far as materials. We didn't really splurge on anything and I think the total will end up under 35K which is great. Even if it goes a little over that, that's fine too. It won't be over 40K.

Yesterday our guy picked up the backsplash tile before coming in for the day. We took out a few tiles before he started working so that we could use them for paint shopping. While we were out, he did about 1/2 of the sink wall, and finished the rest after we returned. It looked really nice, though it was hard to fully appreciate it with the spacers in place and stuff smeared all over it. He returned for an hour or so this morning, removed the spacers, and cleaned it all up. Now it really looks good. He will put up the other wall on Monday. On Tuesday he will do the grout then clean and polish everything after that sets.

We did shop for paint yesterday and came home with 4 color samples for the kitchen and 2 for the bathroom. This morning I painted swatches in several places around the kitchen. We decided that all 4 just weren't right. They were all too bold saturated colors for the kitchen, though we might use one of those colors for the bathroom. Today we went to Sherwin Williams for some professional help (the paint department guy at Lowe's was worthless). This woman helped us pick a few options and we came home with two samples. I didn't like one of them but my wife thought she did. I painted swatches of those and I think we may go with the one I liked initially. We'll consider it tonight and tomorrow as we see it at different times of day with different lighting as colors change so much throughout the day.

We got the bathroom faucet today and also picked up the toilet paper holder. We had gotten one already but it was way too big so we're returning that one.

Turns out we did not get the sink hooked up yesterday. He really needs to wait until the backsplash is finished so that he doesn't need to work around and behind the faucet so he said he should be able to do it last thing on Tuesday. We had hoped to have it for this weekend but it'll have to wait a few more days.

Despite not having the sink, my wife did cook breakfast this morning on the new stove, our first time using it, so that was a huge step.

So Monday and Tuesday will be for finishing the tile and connecting the sink. Then assuming we've settled on paint colors, he can start painting on Wednesday. He also still needs to install the bathroom toilet, sink, and light fixture as well as paint that room. I don't know if all of that can get done in 3 days (W, Th, F) but we will see. If it stretches into the following week, that's certainly not a big deal. We want it done well, not rushed through. But in any case, the conclusion of the job is near.

Looks like I forgot to post yesterday so let's see if I can remember what happened LOL. So much is going on it's hard to keep track.

Our guy came in yesterday having visited the tile store and not finding anything either. He suggested we go to one other store (where we had shopped for our floor initially) and talk to a specific person in the contractor department and have him help us. So we headed over and this guy was great. We showed him the granite and the floor samples and told him what we were looking for. He took us into the showroom and within a couple of minutes found a tile that we both really liked. We ordered it and our contractor will pick it up tomorrow morning.

He attached the cabinet hardware yesterday so that was a significant step. It looks great. Cabinets are white and hardware is brushed nickel so while not adding "color" it does give a nice contrast and a bit of shine to offset the plain white of the cabinets.

He started putting up the bead board in the bathroom which he finished today along with the top molding and baseboard. He said that as soon as he paints that he can install the toilet.

Today was a big day. The countertop was installed! It looks great and now the room is really starting to look like it's nearly done. He will start installing the backsplash tomorrow. He said he wants to do the sink wall first because it will be easier to tile there before he installs the faucet. Hopefully he'll get that done tomorrow so that we can have a working sink by the end of the day. I'm pretty sure that's his plan. If so, we can actually start using the kitchen tomorrow night and this weekend. The only thing missing is the dishwasher which isn't coming until next Friday but we can obviously live without that and hand wash stuff for now.

Once he gets the backsplash tile tomorrow, we will take a few pieces and go paint shopping. The tile isn't a uniform color. It's got some variation from piece to piece and even within each piece. We have to decide which tone we want to pull out for the paint. We want the bathroom a different but complimentary color to the kitchen so we have to pick that, too.

Our guy said he's hoping to be done by the end of next week. If that happens, it will put us at 7 weeks, 3 days total. His original estimate was 4-6 weeks, which I never expected to happen. In my mind, 8 weeks was what I anticipated so it looks like he will come in just under that. I think he is disappointed that it has gone longer than his estimate, but the whole floor situation really set him back as that turned out to be a much bigger job that anticipated due to the condition of the old floor layers once he started the demo. We are not the least bit upset though. As I said, I didn't think 6 weeks was realistic anyway. If he's done in under 8, I'll be totally satisfied. And if it goes beyond next week for any final touches, that's fine too. We want it done right, not fast. We are waiting for several replacement cabinet doors so I don't know when those will come. Probably not before next week, so it won't be totally done even if he's out of here otherwise.

We actually spent most of the day out today which was nice even though we were still doing kitchen-related stuff. We went to 3 tile stores to continue searching for our backsplash. This time we remembered to bring the granite sample which ended up altering what we had been looking at when we saw it together. We came home with samples of one tile which looks very nice against the granite but is a pretty drab color. The whole goal has been to use the backsplash to bring color into the room and this won't do it. Our contractor took the granite with him when he left and he's going to go to the tile store and see what ideas he can come up with for us to consider.

He fixed the mounting of one cabinet today. He installed the cabinet over the fridge but it turns out that they sent it with the wrong doors so he put a call in to get the correct ones. He installed the microwave so that's now up and running. He did the scribe which is the finishing molding over the cabinets. That looks nice. He replaced the water lines in the bathroom which needed to be done before putting up the bead board and installing the new sink.

I'm not sure what he's got planned for tomorrow.

Busy day today as both our contractor and the electricians were on site. We now have the new recessed lighting and the new fixture over the kitchen table installed and operational, new light switches and outlets throughout the room, new under cabinet outlets for the disposal and dishwasher (code now requires that), and the oven is installed and connected! Everything is in place for our guy to hang and connect the microwave which should happen tomorrow.

As a side job, we also got a new outdoor outlet today. It shared wiring with the kitchen so when he had gotten to that in the demolition, he just capped it until now.

I don't know if I mentioned it last post but the new pedestal sink for the bathroom was delivered on Thursday so he stood that in place today just for us to see it and so that he could see what work he needs to do on the water lines to get it installed.

He removed the cabinet doors and painted the underside of the soffit. He also put in most of the kickplate and baseboard today. He would have finished but the weather turned rainy so he had to pack up his saw and outdoor cutting station.

Over the weekend we went shopping for the backsplash. We found something we really like but the accent tile is very expensive. We only need about 4 sq ft of it but it's crazy expensive. I think we will end up going with it anyway as it's really not that much in the grand scheme of what the entire job is costing and we both kind of fell in love with it. It's just a lot for tile. We are waiting for the countertop to go in on Thursday before we make a final decision. We neglected to bring the countertop sample with us when we were tile shopping so we will go back with that and make sure it all goes together okay. If not, we'll keep looking. One problem is that a lot of the tile isn't in stock so there's a 2-3 week delay before we would have it.

They also came and measured for the countertop today. Then we went to the shop to finalize where each piece is being cut from the slab.

Like I said, today was a very busy day but a lot got done. Having the finished lighting is very nice and even though the room is still a mess, it looks a lot more finished between that and the baseboard going in.

Our guy was off today (and will be off tomorrow). Yesterday he painted the ceiling and did a couple of coats of primer over the soffit mural. The kitchen actually looked better before that because the mural was bright yellow with green vines and blue flowers so it was the only thing colorful in the room right now. Now everything is white so it's a little stark but once we do the backsplash and paint we'll remedy that situation. It's a blank slate now.

The last cabinet for over the fridge just came today so he can install that on Monday. Oven and microwave are coming Saturday. Countertop template will be done on Monday and installation on Thursday. I'm not sure what day the electrician is coming. Now that the ceiling is painted, our guy can install the new recessed lighting on the cooking side of the kitchen and the new fixture over the kitchen table area. The pedestal sink for the bathroom came today. We need to open that, make sure it's okay, and make sure we like it. And we picked up the replacement bathroom light fixture yesterday (first one was defective).

By the end of next week, we are hoping to have a functioning kitchen again.

Our guy finished installing the cabinets today (except for the one over the fridge which we don't have yet). We had to compromise a bit on the spacing around the window but I think where we ended up is okay. Not perfect but we can both live with it. The only other alternative is to buy a new cabinet which would probably run $700 or so.

He plans to sand the ceiling and start priming tomorrow. We have a mural around the soffit that needs to be covered up before he can paint.

He said that if everything happens as scheduled (appliances, electrician, countertop) that by the end of next week we should have a working sink, oven/cooktop, and microwave that we can start using. We won't be able to fully move back into the kitchen yet since he'll still need to do the backsplash and paint the walls and do some other finishing work (molding and such) but we should be able to use the kitchen so that's pretty exciting. If he's right, that would put us at 6-1/2 weeks from start of work to a usable new kitchen which isn't bad at all.

He will also still need to do the bathroom but we knew that would get done last since the kitchen was first priority.

I returned an extra box of floor tile today. We had two boxes left but kept one just in case there are any issues down the line. That got us a $48 refund. Not much but it's something. Tomorrow I need to go back to the lighting store where we bought the bathroom fixture. The one we got was damaged when I opened it and they had to order a replacement which came in today. I'll be sure to inspect this one while I'm there just in case.

He installed the cabinets along the sink wall today except for the one over the fridge which hasn't come in yet (there was an issue when we ordered it).

He hung the top cabinet to the left of the sink and we did not like where he put it so we went back and forth on options. The problem was it was too far to the left which he did so that it was the same distance from the window as the one to the right but that resulted in it being too close to the sliding door. We had him move it in 3". We may need to replace the cabinet on the right to go from an 18" to a 21" but we aren't sure yet.

The bottom cabinets all look nice I think though there's so much stuff piled in there right now it's hard to fully see them. The pantry is a little too tall for the space so he needs to cut down the base to make it fit which is no big deal. He just couldn't get to that today.

We scheduled the countertop folks to come out to do the template next Monday and then the install next Thursday so that's cool. By the end of next week, we should have everything pretty much in place with the possible exception of the dishwasher as we don't know when that will come in or get delivered. We also ordered the bathroom pedestal sink and that should come next Monday also. Still lots to do but it's moving along well.

Big happenings today. The cabinets were delivered bright and early at 7:30am.

By end of day, he had installed 3 upper cabinets (on the oven side of the room) and the 2 lower cabinets on that wall. It's really exciting to see it start materializing. You can look at renderings all day but until it's physically in front of you, you don't fully know how it will look.

He will install more on Monday and Tuesday I'm guessing. Then the electrician will come back to finish all of the wiring for the appliances. We need to set up delivery for the appliances. Once the cabinets and appliances are in they can do the template for the countertops. I don't know how easy scheduling all of that is going to be. Hopefully it will go smoothly and we won't have much down time.

Edited 6/28/25 to add that we scheduled delivery of the oven and microwave for next Saturday, 7/5. The dishwasher isn't in yet so that may or may not come at the same time. Fortunately, that's the least important appliance since it goes under the countertop and doesn't need to be there for them to create the countertop template. Still it would be nice if they could all come at once for ease of installation.

I haven't posted for over a week but there hasn't been a whole lot to report. Now there is.

He finished the floor today. He completed putting down the tile yesterday and did the grout today so it's fully done and looks great. He also did more spackling yesterday and today and will do the sanding tomorrow.

Our cabinets are being delivered tomorrow morning! That's exciting. I also picked up the cabinet hardware today. He wasn't sure if he will hang the cabinets first or paint the ceiling first but he does want to get the cabinets in place ASAP so that the countertop folks can come out and measure everything.

We bought the kitchen faucet yesterday. In the past week we also bought the light for over the kitchen table and the bathroom light. The bathroom one was damaged when we got it so they had to order a replacement which should be in within the next few days.

I'm really looking forward to the cabinets going in as right now it's still just a big empty space with a pretty floor that echos a lot. Even without a countertop, with cabinets it will at least start looking like a kitchen again.

It's been 30 days since start of work. I think it's progressing nicely. The demo and the floor are the most time-consuming parts of the process. Things should start coming together faster from now on. We still need to select our backsplash but we want our guy to come shopping with us to help with that. And we have no idea yet what color we are painting the walls but everything else is bought and ready to go. Oh we also need to buy a vanity for the bathroom. It's a very small space so there aren't a ton of options but I did find a few on Amazon. We just need to make a decision and order one.

He just worked on the floor today. He didn't get as far as I had hoped but we'd rather have it done well than done fast. He was working out from the outer wall which is where one set of cabinets will go so that area needs to be perfectly level. That took him some extra time. He said he'll be able to progress faster tomorrow. Today he laid 21 tiles I think. They're 12x24 so he put down about 42 sq ft out of a total of 237 sq ft, in addition to what he put down yesterday (maybe about half that) so I think we're around 25% done but I didn't actually measure exactly.

He said he will be working late tomorrow but then will be off on Friday because he has a graduation to attend. He will come by for a short time on Saturday because the spacers between the tiles need to be removed once they're set.

Even though only about 1/4 of the floor is in place, we can at least get a much better idea of how it will look in the room and we're happy with it.

Over the weekend we found and ordered the light fixtures for the bathroom and over the kitchen table. The kitchen one really took some work as there are literally hundreds of options to choose from. It's quite insane. Yesterday we placed the order for the cabinet hardware. We haven't bought it yet but we know which kitchen faucet we want. The only major things we still need are the bathroom sink and faucet, the backsplash, and a paint color.

Our contractor called out yesterday because his back was acting up. We actually kind of appreciated having a down day ourselves. Having someone here working 9-5 is a little strange and just kind of throws off everything.

Today he started on the floor. I didn't realize how time consuming the process is at first. He started along the outside wall and every tile in contact with that wall needed to be cut to size and some needed to be shaped around the door frames. He also explained how important it is to get that first section set perfectly straight because the rest of the floor builds off of that. By the end of the day, we had 16 inches wide of tile in place down the length of the room. He said the middle of the room will go much faster until he reaches the opposite walls. I'm thinking that by end of day tomorrow we will probably have the majority of the floor in place but we shall see.

Until you start on a project like this, you really don't appreciate how many decisions there are to be made. There are really only about 10 main things to decide: floor, cabinets and hardware, countertop/sink/faucet, backsplash, paint, lighting, and appliances. The problem is within each of those items there are at least a dozen and up to hundreds of individual options. We went to 6 lighting stores I think and browsed multiple online suppliers before finally settling on the celing fixture we bought. Cabinets come in many different colors and finishes, multiple door style options, many varieties of size and configuration, etc. Years ago, life was far simpler but we as a society have made things far more complicated in the name of capitalism and consumerism and individualism. When we were growing up and visit friends and family, most people had relatively similar stuff in their homes. There weren't a zillion choices like there are today. Now, it's fairly rare to see the same things twice since there are so many options to choose from.

Today he did more finishing work on the drywall, joint compound, tape, etc. He patched some damaged studs by the sink and put up the drywall on that section of wall once he did. Then he turned his attention to the floor. Instead of a traditional mud bed under the tile, they now use a product called Ditra which is a plastic rolled out material that is much faster and easier to use. Roll it out, cut it to fit with a utility knife, and then the tile goes onto that (I don't know the whole process yet since only the Ditra is down currently). Not only is it fast and easy, he said it also provides a bit of cushioning to the finished floor which reduces the risk of tile breakage. A mud bed is solid rock so there's no shock absorption to protect the tiles.

My wife and I went shopping for lighting today again. We saw a couple of possibilities for the bathroom but not really anything we liked for the kitchen. Then we spent time at home online looking for options and found a couple that we like. No decisions made yet.

We still haven't ordered hardware for the cabinets but I think we've settled on the one we're going with. I just need to contact the cabinet place and order them.

The plastic barriers came down today which makes a big difference. Our kitchen has a doorway into the living room (where our temp kitchen is), the sitting room (where we hang out and watch TV and stuff), and the family room (where I do my reselling stuff and leads into the garage). The living room doorway was completed blocked with a solid plastic sheet. The other two doorways had zippered access It was rather annoying but kept the dust under control. Now it's all back to normal access which is very nice. And we're parking in the driveway again. Progress is happening day by day.

Yesterday he put up most of the new drywall except for around the sink and the ceiling section. Today he took care of the ceiling. He had to cut out and replace a water pipe there because it hung lower than the ceiling (there used to be a soffit there which we removed). He did the spackling of the new drywall as well, did the corners, etc.

The dumpster just got picked up a few minutes ago. We were glad to see that go. Now we can use our driveway again.

I changed the HVAC filter yesterday, which I meant to do a week ago and really should have. It was FILTHY. Totally covered with a thick layer of dust and debris. I'm sure our AC efficiency was horrible with the filter completely clogged like that. I'll change it again in a week. All of the dirty work is done. Maybe once the kitchen is finished, I'll look into having our ducts cleaned.

Yesterday morning I filled the hole in the lawn left from removing the basketball pole. Of course it was raining all morning but it's done and no longer a huge safety hazard.

We still need to finalize our cabinet hardware decision. We also need a new light fixture over the kitchen table and one in the powder room. We've been browsing but haven't settled on anything yet. Those are last minute finishing items but we still need to get them. We also need to find a sink for the powder room. We want to do a pedestal sink instead of a vanity but it's a small room so the standard pedestal sinks are a few inches larger than we need. And we need faucets for both sinks. I think DW found a kitchen one she likes. We haven't really looked for the powder room yet.

I'm not sure what he has planned for tomorrow as I didn't get to talk to him before he left today, but it's continuing to come together step by step.

Nothing huge to report today though a lot was done. He finished all of the floor plywood in the bathroom and last section of the kitchen. He put up more insulation on the outer wall. I'm not sure what else got done. Tomorrow he will do the heat guard where the oven is going, start putting up new drywall, and also finish some of the plumbing. I feel like starting to close up the walls is a significant step in the process. The motor of the old bathroom exhaust fan died so he's trying to find a replacement that fits so he doesn't need to replace the whole unit (which involves cutting a hole in the ceiling to get it out). He told us today that the dumpster is getting picked up on Wednesday so we'll get our driveway back which will be nice.

Unrelated to the kitchen job we also had a concrete guy come out today to remove the basketball pole next to the driveway. It was there when we bought the house. We used it a little in the past but haven't for 20+ years at this point. We just never bothered to get it removed until now. The concrete footer was super deep. I'll have to run over to Lowe's in the morning to get a couple of bags of top soil to fill the hole as that was the only thing the concrete guy doesn't take care of but I'm fine with doing that part myself.

Today was the last of the demolition. He removed the old floor from the powder room along with the vanity and toilet. He did find a leak around the toilet and some condensation around the air vent so he's got a fan going to dry those out over the weekend and he'll need to repair some of the subfloor on Monday.

We bought our floor tile today! That was exciting. We went back to the original place we had shopped, found one we liked, and it turned out they didn't have enough in stock to do the job. We went to one other place and found nothing. Stopped back home and had lunch and then went to a third place and that was the winner. We found one we really liked there. Bonus was it was nearly half the price of the original place. They have it all in stock so we bought it and they will hold it for us until our guy is ready to pick it up, probably by sometime next week.

The cabinet guy called our contractor today and said the cabinets won't be in until 6/27 but that gives him plenty of time to put up the drywall and install the floor. And I'm sure there's some other stuff he can work on in the meantime.

As he was leaving today, he said we're moving into phase 2 now that the demo is done. It's been 9 working days so far and I feel like it's moving along nicely.

The main focus today was on the electrical work. Our contractor and the electrician were here working on that all day. We now have the cutouts and wiring for the new recessed lighting. 2 lights on each side over the counters, 1 in the middle, and one over the sink. That should give us much better coverage than the old single fixture that was in the center of the room (and there was a light over the sink). Before no matter where you were standing the light was always behind you which made the counters be in shadow.

He installed the wiring for the oven and microwave and a new outlet for the fridge which is also moving. One light switch on the wall between our kitchen and family room had to be moved to the other side of the wall because it would be in the way of the fridge now. We did confirm that we'll be losing one wall outlet because our new counter and cabinets will extend further along the one wall than the old ones did. That's okay because we almost never used that outlet anyway. I occasionally plugged in the vacuum there but there are several other places to do that. A side bonus is that in the course of everything, they had to pull out the outside outlet that shared the wiring and will replace that with a new modern weatherproof outlet.

While the electrician was doing his stuff, our guy was working on the water pipes installing new PVC. He also insulated the outer wall. Our house was built in 1964 so it had minimal insulation. This will make the room much more weather resistant. The old tile floor was always cold in the winter but should be a lot warmer now without cold air coming in through that wall.

The plan tomorrow is to do the last of the old floor demo in the powder room. I'm not sure why he left that but he had some good reason.

My wife and I will go to the tile place tomorrow and hopefully make a final floor selection and get that ordered. As soon as that comes in, the contractor should be ready to install it. This weekend we need to shop for a bunch of stuff like the faucet, the bathroom sink and toilet, a couple of new light fixtures for over our table and in the bathroom, light switches and plates, and other little stuff like that.

I realized I haven't updated this week. Things are rolling along. We did order the cabinets and appliances. Our guy ran into an issue with the old flooring which took him an extra couple of days to deal with but it's all done and he's actually putting down the fresh plywood as I type this. We will probably order the flooring in the next couple of days. Until he was sure how things would end up, we couldn't commit to porcelain tile vs luxury vinyl but all is good and porcelain tile will work.

He took down the old drywall yesterday and put up fresh drywall in the space where the pantry is going. The rest has to stay open until the electrician does all of the new wiring but the pantry space needed to be closed because the air return for the HVAC is in that wall and he wanted that sealed up so it wasn't getting a bunch of dust in it. I think the electrician may come tomorrow but he hasn't said for sure yet. Oh he also took out the old pipes to the sink (I'm not positive why they needed to be replaced but they did). He also has to lower the drain because the new sink will sit lower than the old one.

It's nice seeing construction happening instead of destruction. Just having a fresh plywood floor looks much better than what was there this morning. Once the tile comes in he will install that, which needs to be done before cabinets and appliances can go in. So right now the next step is doing all of the electrical work. The oven is moving to a different wall and we'll have a built in microwave so he has to wire all of that, as well as move some outlets and do the recessed lighting in the ceiling.

Our kitchen remodel started today. The fridge got moved into the living room where our temporary kitchen is. So far, he has removed almost all of the cabinetry as well as the wall oven/microwave and the stovetop.

The first unexpected problem has arisen too. Woo hoo. When he removed the dishwasher, which we were planning on keeping because it's not that old, he discovered that there has been a slow leak somewhere. The flooring beneath it is wet and there is mold or something growing around the casing of the unit. As it turns out, we have seen a tiny bit of water in the basement recently but it's right by a window and right next to our extra fridge and freezer so we couldn't tell where the water was coming from, and it was intermittent and very minimal. So the good news is we found the source of the leak. The bad news is it means we have to add a new dishwasher to the list. Yes we could try and figure out what's wrong with this one but I have zero faith that they'd be able to do that and I don't want to reinstall it only to have it fail soon after and damage the new kitchen.

One thing that is kind of neat was seeing the likely original 1964 wallpaper and the original floor tiles.

We have an appointment tomorrow morning to actually order the cabinets. We're also setting up a time to go to the appliance store to order the oven, microwave, and now dishwasher.

We met with the cabinet guy yesterday and dove deeper into the details of what will likely go where and what types of cabinets, drawers, and pullouts make sense for each. We also browsed hardware options and have a pretty good idea of what we like when it comes time to pick them.

At this point, we just need to clean out the kitchen and set up the temporary kitchen area in the living room. We've already done some cleaning out but can't finish until this weekend since we'll be using the kitchen until Monday night. I'm going out of town Wednesday and Thursday but once I'm back, we'll focus 100% on getting the house ready for work to begin on Tuesday.

I also need to clean a bunch of stuff from the family room where I do my reselling business. Materials are going to need to be stored there while the work is under way. I'll shift my focus to there once he actually starts in the kitchen. I also need to get back to cleaning out the garage. I had to pause that as I was prepping to take my next china selling roadtrip to NC tomorrow. There are currently 25 cases of china packed and stacked for that so with all of those in there, I couldn't really work on other things.

I'm sure the job will be super disruptive to our routines but I'm actually looking forward to it getting started. I'm just afraid of what problems he will discover along the way once he starts opening up walls and removing the existing floor.

We had already done one round of materials shopping but hadn't made any final choices. Today we went back to the countertop place. We thought we had decided on one last time but once we got home with the sample we decided it wasn't right. After browsing the warehouse again, we chose a new one for sure. Very different than what we had thought we would go with but we both liked it better. They even measured it and roughly drew out where the cuts would be made.

Then we went to the flooring/tile place and tentatively chose a backsplash, though we want to add some accent tile to that which we haven't looked at yet. And we made a possible floor tile selection. Until our guy tears out the existing floor, we can't be 100% sure if we can use porcelain tile or if we'll need to go with luxury vinyl.

We also made an appointment to meet with the cabinet guy again on Monday to start fleshing that out in more detail. We can't order anything until we have final measurements but we're pretty close to final now, close enough to start shopping seriously.

It is a fun process but also very stressful trying to visualize how everything will look once you put it together. You're only working with photos or small samples and things can look a lot different when an entire counter is there or a full floor.

Hi all. I haven't blogged for a long time but it occurred to me that the blog would be a better place to post about this than the forums.

We have been in our house since 1994. The kitchen was remodeled 2 years before we bought the place. Coming from where we were (a rowhome in Philadelphia) we thought the kitchen was great. Bright, roomy, lots of counter space, etc. After living here a while, we came to recognize some of the issues with it. The layout created a pinch point between the fridge and counter so we're always in each other's way. The previous owner did the work himself and used economy grade supplies so a lot of things just weren't done well and things haven't held up great. So we finally decided it was time to start fresh.

We have a good friend who does kitchen and bath remodels for a living. We've seen a lot of his work and know he does a quality job so we are using him. We've been refining the design and browsing materials but we're now getting ready to actually start the job. He begins on 5/27. We don't have the absolute final design quite yet because until he does the demo, he won't have exact measurememts, but it should just be minor tweaks from what we have.

We've looked at cabinets but haven't finalized those yet since we need the exact measurements. We looked at countertops a few days ago but want to go back for another look as we think we've modified what we want as far as color is concerned. We checked out flooring in a very general way but until we settle on the countertop we can't decide on the floor.

We've been working to clean out the cabinets and the basement storage area where things will go while the kitchen is under construction. We can't totally empty things out yet since we still need the kitchen for 11 more days.

I will try to remember to update along the way.

2023 Totals

$13,325.29 gross
$9,455.82 net

$1,608.44 Cost of goods sold for the year

My average monthly profit was $787.99 with my lowest month being $610 and my best month being $1,033.

For 2024, my goal is a monthly profit of at least $600 and to get my average daily sales up to 2 items. My 90-day running total right now is 142 so about 1.58 items/day.

Since the business year ended on 12/29 I was able to review my year-end numbers a couple of days early.

For the year, our portfolio was up $323,751.18.
That's a whole lot better than a year ago when we finished 2022 down $252,713.52.
It took 2 years to recover but we're now just above where we were on 12/31/21.
We're up 10.6% for the year.

2023 was the first full year I was per diem at work and was also the first year when we drew from our portfolio to support spending. We took out about $66,000 but I contributed about $9,000 to my 401k for a net withdrawal of about $57,000 which wasn't bad at all.

The plan is to work even less in 2024 and withdraw more from our portfolio.

I hope you all saw great growth in your portfolios in 2023 too. It was sure a heck of a lot better than 2022.

Happy New Year to all!

I wrote a long post earlier today and when I hit submit it disappeared so I'll try to recreate it (and I'm doing it in my word processor this time just in case).

It's not quite time for the year-end wrap up post but figured I'd give some updates.

All is going pretty well. I'm finishing up my first full year of “semi-retirement”. I'm really not sure what else to call it. I went per diem in August 2022 meaning I no longer have a set schedule or required hours. Technically I am required to work 24 hours every 12 weeks but unless I consistently miss that mark, nobody will say anything. I've mostly worked 8 hrs/wk this year, some weeks 4, a couple of weeks 12, and several weeks zero. My plan for 2024 is to cut back to 4 hrs/wk. I just chose my January shifts yesterday so 16 hours scheduled for the month.

My wife is doing well and finally back in good health. Not 100% and never will be after 2 back surgeries and a lung surgery but her most recent labs had her inflammatory marker (C-reactive protein) normal for the first time since this began in early 2021. She has been crocheting up a storm, did quite well at a local craft fair in October, and has made numerous other sales, especially to our daughter's co-workers who keep ordering stuff from her.

Our daughter is enjoying her job and they love her. She's gradually taken on more responsibilities and helped them streamline workflow and improve processes.

My mom turned 93 in August. She's having more trouble with her back and an MRI in October showed a new herniated disc. She's had a couple more epidural injections since then but those really don't help. The only thing that helps a herniated disc, other than surgery, is time. It can take 4-6 months or more for those to heal. It's made it harder for her to manage and we finally increased her aide to 3 days a week and we are going over there more frequently to help out.

My ebay business is cruising along well. I have a running thread on the forums where I give monthly totals and periodic updates if anyone wants details. I enjoy going to the estate sales and finding treasures that I can flip for good profits. This year I had several of my all-time best sales so I must be on the right track.

Between my wife's health and my mom's, we didn't do any major traveling this year. We did try to do a number of day trips and earlier in the year a few overnight getaways. We have a trip planned to Riviera Maya in late February. I'm hoping things are stable here and that we are able to go as scheduled. It's a group of us going to celebrate a friend's 50^th birthday.

Speaking of birthdays, my wife turned 60 last Sunday and we had a party for her the day before at a local distillery that we really like. The 3 of us along with 14 friends had a good time celebrating her.

The other thing we did this past week was sign up for new health insurance through the ACA. The premium will be about $1,000 less than we've been paying on COBRA though the out of pocket costs will be higher so that will be offset somewhat.

I'm looking forward to tallying up the year-end numbers for our portfolio, our spending, my ebay business, and everything else. At this point, I've got a pretty firm grasp on it all already but want to see the final numbers.

I guess that's all for now. I'll post again in January with a full 2023 wrap up.

I reviewed our 8/31 Vanguard statements this morning. Year to date as of 8/31/23, our Vanguard accounts generated a combined $37,135.13 in investment income (interest, dividends, capital gains). If I extrapolate that out (which isn't quite how it works), that would mean about $55,700 for the year.

About 68% of our total portfolio is with Vanguard. I haven't looked at the other 32%, and a lot of that is taxable mutual funds that will pay out most of their income in December, but let's say another 20K comes from there.

That would mean around $75,000 total portfolio income for the year. I'm on track to make about $72,000 at work, though that might come in lower as I'm thinking about working even less than I already do. Add another $8,000 from ebay. That brings us to $155,000 for the year approximately. That should exceed our spending, which is partly why I'm considering working fewer hours. I think more like $130-140,000 would cover everything.

Since this is the first full year that I'm per diem, I'm really trying to see where everything falls. I won't know fully until after we do our 2023 taxes next spring, though.