The best equity is sweat equity – ask any home DIYer. But when it comes to renovating a kitchen, it helps to really know what you’re doing and sometimes even that might not be enough.
Amadeo Giron Jr. had been used to doing his own home renovations, he can be described as a semi-pro handyman. He doesn’t do it full-time, as he is employed as a piping designer for an oil and gas firm. Mainly, he just does it to help out.
He has done all the decks and fencing in all their previous homes, not to mention for their friends. He has also worked on developing the basements of their homes – the present one and two of their previous ones – largely by himself – installing everything from walls to ceilings and floors.
But when it came time to renovate their kitchen, he knew he was going to need more than just willing hands to help.
Amadeo, his wife Raquel and daughter, Patricia, have been living in their northwest Calgary home for the better part of 15 years. Built in the early 2000s, the Girons had fully maximized the potential of their two-storey home with walk-out basement. The backyard is a great entertaining place, the basement has become a stylish and comfy entertainment/gym/home office combo.
Their kitchen – though large and spacious with a corner walk-in pantry – was beginning to show its age. The original kitchen had an angled centre island topped with black granite and plenty of kitchen counterspace. Reddish brown hardwood flooring gave it a dark patina that worked well with the traditional Craftsman style that was popular in the early 2000s.
They had already once attempted to renovate the kitchen on their own by repainting what was originally maple cabinets to white and retaining the black granite countertops and appliances. But they knew they had to do something more drastic, as they were looking to update to a more contemporary look.
“Renovating the kitchen seemed less expensive and less stressful than moving to a new home, besides we like the community we live in,” Raquel tells Reno + Decor.
Amadeo, “Nyoy” to his friends, knew doing the entire kitchen renovation may be beyond even his considerable prowess to do by himself. So they did their due diligence and shopped around the kitchen renovation companies in Calgary.
The average cost to change the kitchen cabinetry and the countertops plus most of the appliances hovered just under the $50,000 mark. But they found out that by doing the dismantling of the old kitchen themselves, they can save up to $17,000. “We also found out we could make a couple of hundred bucks by selling the old cabinetry and granite on Facebook Marketplace. We didn’t even realize that was a thing,” Amadeo says.
So, he got down to it. Every spare moment he could get away from his full-time job for the next three weeks was spent working on the kitchen. The cabinetry was the first to go down.
“That was the most challenging part, we didn’t realize how heavy those were and my wife and I were finally able to bring it down. But my back ached for days.” He then had to take down the drywall and install new electric wiring for the new appliance configuration they were planning. “That’s where I needed more help from my electrician friends to help me figure out the required amperage,” he says.
The granite removal, he left to the professionals. “That was going to be way too heavy to remove by ourselves.” They did also find buyers for those reused online too.
They did end up hiring Ekko Cabinetry Ltd to complete the renovation - installing the white, glossy-finish cabinets. Crown Granite & Marble Inc did the countertops and House of Mirrors was hired for the backsplash. Other than those, most of the initial work they did themselves.
That included reworking the flooring around the kitchen to follow the contour of the new centre island. “It’s a good thing our builder left plenty of spares of the original planks we used when we had the house built,” he says.
Finally, all was set for the cabinet installers to come in. They chose a glossy white cabinetry that extended all the up to their nine-foot ceilings on the main floor. “Our old cabinetry left maybe a foot of space between the ceiling. The new design allows for more storage, and looks way more stylish,” Raquel says.
They still chose stainless steel appliances, but they are now wall-mounted making for a more seamless look.
The white quartz countertops further emphasized the stylishness of the kitchen. With the tall windows and high ceilings they already have in the main floor, it worked to accentuate the room and make it seem larger than it is.
Challenges remained - the glass backsplash they chose to replace the old tile one has not arrived yet due to the prevailing global supply chain issues. But the new kitchen they envisioned is already taking shape. “After months of not being able to enjoy a properly homecooked meal, we were finally able to cook our favourite Filipino dishes again,” Raquel says.
The long and the short of it is that they were able to accomplish the remodelling of their kitchen more economically than they would have otherwise had. Maybe marrying a semi-pro handyman pays for itself, Raquel jokes. Nyoy laughs along, hoping renovating the bathrooms won’t be happening too soon.
His advice: doing the grunt work themselves may be more economical, but even then one should really have to know what they are getting in to when undertaking a total kitchen renovation. Otherwise, the money you hope to save can quickly end up costing more.