My DIY Home Improvement Project or Nightmare on Elliot Street

Remodeling a kitchen from the ground up was not what I had in mind when I found this little fixer-upper of a house. I thought maybe a few cosmetic changes like painting the inside and outside of the house would be it but I got more than I bargained for on this project.

It might be easier to say I did everything the experts tell you not to do when choosing and buying a do-it-yourself handyman special. The most important advice I ignored was not to buy a house with foundation problems. Did I listen? No.

My first major surprise came after contracting with a house leveling company to lift this tiny 1950s cottage out of the mud into which it had sunk over the last fifty years. They lifted the house up, alright, and the entire floor stayed on the ground fully rotted into uselessness. Long story short, all the base cabinets in the kitchen stayed on the ground along with the floor. Not good. Same with the bathroom remodeling, but that’s another story.

_{This material was written by PegCole17 who retains all rights to publication. If you are reading this on any site other than HubPages then this material has been copied without my permission and is a violation of copyright law. I would appreciate if you would contact me at pegcole17.hubpages.com to report any misuse.}

Once the contractors replaced the plywood sub floor, I measured the gaping space where cabinets used to be then drew the space on graph paper to determine the placement of cabinets and sizes I would need to buy. It was a small space; just two walls joined by a corner, a pretty simple layout.

This brought me to comparison shopping and getting three competitive bids for the replacement cabinets. I took long walks through the ready-made and build it yourself cabinet department at the home improvement stores taking notes on components I would need along with their cost. I used a simple Excel spreadsheet to compare the price differences for various qualities of cabinets from different manufacturers.

Next, I invited a custom cabinet maker to come in and estimate the cost to build and install the kitchen cabinets. I was pleased that the estimate was comparable in price to the ones I would have to carry in, assemble and install myself, so I placed an order. A couple of weeks later the cabinets showed up and within one day (it would have taken me weeks by myself) the cabinets were in and beautiful, made of fresh wood that would need priming. Finally, a do-it-yourself task that I could handle.

I was able to get the cabinets primed before the countertop was installed which made things a lot easier. I used a quality water-based enamel primer to seal the new wood with a light coat over the inside and outside of every surface. I started with the hardest to reach area of the far back corner and worked my way toward the outside. Once I masked off the hardware on the doors, I painted one side allowing it to dry for several hours before turning them over to paint the other side.

By ordering new upper cabinet doors I was able to match the new base cabinets without having to replace the upper cabinets. That was one good thing. The cabinets had hardware that allowed the doors to come completely off with a release lever, rather than having to remove each hinge. The bottom of each door had a small finger indentation in the wood for opening the door which made door handle hardware optional. I chose to leave the handles off for a clean smooth finish on the cabinet doors.

For the finish color, I chose a semi gloss in a neutral antique white which complemented the faux granite counter-tops I had on order. The timing on the counter-top installation was off; they were ready to install it before I could apply the finish coat of paint and allow time for it to dry. Having the counter-top in place required more crawling into small spaces than when I painted the primer, but it was still doable.

For the upper cabinets there was a lot more preparation work to do than just vacuum out the sawdust. These cabinets had seen decades of kitchen grime and needed some good scrubbing with a degreaser. I used products like Formula 409 and a weird one called Fabuloso in a bottle that looks like grape soda, both of which I found at the Dollar Store quite economically. After the degreaser I gave the upper cabinets a good rinse down with TSP, Tri Sodium Phosphate which comes as a powder and mixes with water as needed. This helps to prepare the surface to accept and adhere to a new coat of paint.

The finished product took me several weekends to complete since I was working a full time job and travelled quite a bit. I wasn’t in town when the foundation people lifted up the house and maybe that’s a good thing. It probably would have given me nightmares for life.

Doing those small DIY jobs that I could manage, like painting the cabinets, not only gave me a feeling of accomplishment when I finally finished, they saved me some money on the total rehab cost of the house, which was nicknamed The Money Pit for a reason.

Heavy duty plastic drop cloth – This can be used several times on various projects

Natural bristle paint brushes – Get a box of the 2” brushes found at Harbor Freight or Home Depot

Flat razor blade scraper to remove lumps of old paint

Screwdriver to remove cover plates and open paint cans

Hammer to replace the paint can lid and pull out nails

Roll of paper towels for spills and messes

Wiping rags or a wet sponge to wipe off paint mistakes

A flashlight for dark spaces under cabinets

A sturdy ladder to reach those upper shelves

Lots of patience