Doing all the labor on our kitchen saved us a ton of money. Like thousands and thousands. I'm extremely grateful that my husband knows his way around power tools so that we didn't put ourselves into debt to re-do the kitchen. We are pretty frugal and obviously shopped around for the best deals we could find, while still getting the items that we wanted and not skimping on quality.
The bottom line dollar for the entire kitchen came to $4,993.33. The budget we set for ourselves before we started was $5,000 so I'm happy we came in under that - by 7 dollars! HA!! Here's an itemized list of the budget breakdown so you can see where that money went:
Flooring & Walls - $768.85 (this includes the tile, grout, thinset, backerboard, tiling tools, baseboards and all trim, spackle, paint, etc.)
Cabinets (stock white cabinets from Home Depot) - $1,551 (we lucked into buying the cabinets during Memorial Day weekend and they were having a 20% sale on all in-stock cabinets. We also opened a HD credit card the same day to get an additional 10%)
Cabinet Hardware, Knobs/Pulls and Screws - $134.54 (we ordered all the knobs off of Ebay for less than a dollar a piece, which was the best price we found anywhere)
Countertops - $1,862 (this includes the templating and installation through Home Depot)
Faucet - $197.00
New over-the-range microwave - $297 (again, we hit up a Memorial Day Sale at Sears for the microwave)
Lighting and Electrical - $249.94 (this includes the new overhead light, the pendant light over the sink (that hasn't been installed or blogged about yet), under cabinet puck lights (again, not installed or blogged yet) and random wiring parts.
Miscellaneous - $360 (this includes the beautiful shelf liner paper I NEEDED and the supplies for the fridge built in, shelving and desk that Jake built (which again hasn't been blogged about!)
So that's how we spent less than $5,000 on a brand new kitchen, from floor to ceiling. It was an extremely gratifying project and it made the months of eating off paper plates with plastic silverware all worth it. We cook SO MUCH more now and I'm baking up a storm as well. It makes me happy to walk into our house and see the kitchen. I told J we're never moving because I'm not ever leaving this kitchen!
On a jet plane! We are off to Puerto Rico to celebrate our birthdays with sun, sand and relaxation! Can't wait for 4 days of tropical beaches, Pina Coladas and good food!
Love this green color from J.Crew!
I'm a little worried it's too "momish" but I really love the shape and colors. I can always return it if it's a bit too granny when it arrives I guess.
I can't believe we've been married for 2 years today - the time flew by! We had a wonderful 2nd year of marriage and I can't wait to see what's in store for the next 20+ years!
In love with the new lazy susan corner cabinet (that corner is where the dishwasher used to be)
Right after the counters were installed, before any of our "stuff" was on the counters. The counter space to the right of the stove used to be where our fridge was, so we gained all that extra storage and workspace. Also, I don't know how I lived without an over the range microwave for so long. 
Yeah, so it's probably pretty obvious that during my 1.5 month hiatus, we finished the kitchen. It's 99% done and I couldn't be more in love with it. I won't bore you with a ton of posts of installing the cabinets, waiting for the counters to be installed and all the last details. That's what July and August consisted of. I think our official end date was August 6th, which was when J installed the faucet and hooked the dishwasher back up. We started May 15th, so I'm pretty proud that less than 3 months later, we have a completely new kitchen.
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