Kitchen Remodeling

tricia r asked:

I live in Chicago and the housing market here is crazy. I don’t want to spend 30 years paying off a home I could barely afford.

There are several houses owned by the state for sale for 5-10,000 cash only .

They are in horrible condition from the pictures Ive seen however a few look like they have good bones and decent exteriors.

me and my husband are prepared to take it slowly 2-3 years and will not buy one which has water or termite damage. We will have it looked at first by an inspector.

We are anticipating
the following

new roof, new interior walls, bathroom renovation, kitchen renovation , floors, electrical repairs and plumbing repairs

We will hire cheap labor for most of the easy stuff but the biggies we will have professionals do the work.
What is the minimum cost price range to do these jobs on a tight budget ?
We will buy a single story home brick exterior approximately 1200-1600 sq ft
This is not a flip so we are taking our time and the point is to make it livable at

Question posted courtesy of: Jesse

Regularguy asked:

The cabinet beneath my kitchen sink and disposal smells like rotting food, but I can’t pinpoint the source of the smell. Oddly, the disposal itself does NOT smell — I stick my nose down the drain and it smells OK. But if I open the cabinet doors and kneel down, the smell of rotting food is strong… but I’ve cleaned everything out of the cabinet. I have put ice cubes, lots of citrus peel and baking soda down the disposal to clear any smell, but again, the source appears beneath the sink and not the disposal from the top side. (House is 10 years old; disposal is 3 years old.) There are no visible leaks beneath the cabinet. Two hints:1) While the disposal from the top doesn’t smell; the pipe beneath the sink does; and 2) the smell is strongest when I run the dishwasher, but it comes and goes all the time. Any thoughts on what could be causing the smell or ideas to fix?

Question posted courtesy of: Rhonda

kerky248 asked:

Need great websites redoing my kitchen need ideas or perhaps one of those 3d softwear product that you can put together your kitchen and find out where appliances and stuff will fit. all suggestions welcome.

Question posted courtesy of: Esther

cbmtrx asked:

We’ve just finished a kitchen renovation and we were stunned to find that all of our hard work tracking down good Ikea cabinets & appliances is essentially wiped out by a 20% “owner-supplied materials” costs. What on earth is THAT??
This was for cabinets and appliances that they installed during the renovation–so not only are they already charging for labor and their own materials, but they also tack on their 20% profit/overhead in ADDITION to this 20% fee!!
Many good answers–thanks.

There is a mention of 20% for “labor and materials” in the contract, but I has assumed this meant BUILDING MATERIALS that the contractor would obviously need during construction…nails, caulk, sandpaper…

So, no matter what you do, the contractor makes a profit on, essentially, ANY money you spend in the course of the project, whether it involved them or not. Wow. What a racket this is.

I’m a website designer by trade, and I would never DREAM of turning around and charging my client 20% for a copy of Dreamweaver or web hosting that they paid for!! All I charge for is building the site!

An absurdity…
Yes, there was indeed a line saying “profit and overhead at the rate of 20% on all of the following: all Owner-furnished materials…” OWNER-FURNISHED MATERIALS?? Yeah, maybe paint and screws, but microwave ovens and cabinets?? I don’t get it.

“Materials” is such an all-encompassing term that they could pretty much throw in “dog food” and “water consumption” as billable items. …and all this ON TOP of a 20% profit/overhead on the total job cost! WOW!!

Question posted courtesy of: Christopher

mami asked:

My kitchen is an open concept and I have a mentally retarded sister who loves to snack at night and she make a lot of mess after eating so I have to lock the kitchen cabinet that content food from her. Is there a lock specially for kitchen cabinet

Question posted courtesy of: Cheryl

gus asked:

does anyone know what to use to support kitchen cabinets. we have a granite counter top and a deep kitchen sink, and we would like to support the cabinets under the sink as a safe measure. let me see if i can describe what i am looking for: its a metal rod in another metal rod. it would go from the floor to the bottom of the sink. it would adjust be either screwing it or unscrewing it. does anyone know what these are actually called as i would like to go to home depot or lowes to pick them up today. thanks.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CRDD6Y/ref=nosim?s=merchant&m=A3ONVYY4BUAORQ&v=glance&tag=yahoo-tools-mp-20&creative=380341&linkCode=asn&creativeASIN=B000CRDD6Y
this is similar to what i need, but it is to big, only need it to expand from about 30″- 40″.

Question posted courtesy of: Cory

bnols26 asked:

My friend had planned a destination wedding that I was supposed to attend. However, I lost my job, my parents and a few other family members in the last few months. She was well aware that I would not be attending. About a month ago, my husband decided to remodel our kitchen himself(we paid for no labor) my friend is now mad that I didn’t use that money to attend her destination wedding. At which the whole kitchen cost me less than the trip would have. Am I wrong????

Question posted courtesy of: Yvonne