The $12,000 luxury kitchen remodel

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An enterprising homeowner in the Portland, Ore. area set out to do a luxury kitchen remodel for $10,000, according to his blog (which is anonymous, so we have to take this story with a certain amount of skepticism).

He did go a bit over budget at $12,040, he writes, but that's not bad. He made his own cabinets, but he insisted on some luxury items like granite counters, travertine backsplash, a flat-screen TV (not for everyone), a handsome faucet and a granite sink (pictured, click to enlarge).

The granite sink came from Home Depot for $380, the blog says, and I think it looks fantastic.

Here are assorted costs:

Appliance lift - $100
Appliances - $3,270
Backsplash - $240
Bar stools - $80
Cabinet drawer hardware - $490
Cabinet lumber - $1,070
Cabinet pulls and knobs - $160
Cabinet stain and finish - $100 • Calphalon 52" pot rack - $100
Cherry beadboard and trim - $100 • Decorative Carving for hood - $50
Design software - $100 • Electrical parts - $100
Flat screen TV - $450 • Garbage disposal - $130
Granite counter top - $1,640 • Island and hutch doors - $400

See the whole cost list

How do you think this guy did with this kitchen? Take a look at it and then share your thoughts on it. Great? Graceful? Goofy?

What would you do differently for the money?

Dream Home Diaries: Breaking ground (finally!)

Back in November 2006, writers Paul B. Brown and Allison Davis set out to build their dream home. How hard could it be? Trouble is, they live in Massachusetts and their dream home is on a tiny island in Florida. And, they have never done this before. So, yeah, the learning curve has been great.

We've been able to follow along with the couple's journey on their blog, Dream Home Diaries, which they write for the New York Times. There were many ups and downs as they looked for an architect and a builder, as they learned about local zoning laws, as they tried to discover their own needs and wants, as well as their budget.

Now, finally, they are breaking ground. What I like about the blog is not so much the couple's essays, but the passionate comments from readers, who have tried to guide and educate the couple in their adventure. Much can be learned from these readers, many of whom have built or remodeled a home.

The couple figure the house will be done in six months and for $600,000, but readers have their doubts.

(If you are a writerly type and starting a new home or major remodel and don't mind sharing every intimate detail of your project with the world, I'd love to feature your posts on this very blog. Email me. We'll talk.)

(Photo: NY Times)

Blog about your remodel? It's all good

When John Park (shown here with daughter Bea) did an addition to his Burbank home, he created a blog, Park Haus Addition, to share his adventure with the world. We wanted to know his motivation:

Why did you decide to blog about your addition?

One, we wanted to share our designs with friends and family. Two was to document the process and prove to ourselves that we actually lived through this chaos. Three, it actually became a good way to collaborate on design with our architect. Better than email, really, since it was easy to refer to.

What have been the greatest one or two benefits of your blog?

A big benefit of the blog has been tens of dollars in Google Ad revenue! Just kidding. I think one benefit has been to make the whole thing public. Usually this sort of thing is private and hidden away. It's between you and your contractor. You've got no one to vent to, and they've got no one to answer to. I think that Los Angeles is too big for contractors to really worry about negative word-of-mouth. But the scope of blogging changes that. With hundreds of people reading your posts every day there has to be some impact on how everyone involved behaves.

What has been the biggest downside to doing the blog? None.

What advice would you give to others who might want to blog about their remodel?

Anyone who remodels and wants to blog about it should take loads of pictures, even on days you don't feel like it. Some stages come and go quickly, and you don't want to miss those moments. I saw some advice posted by Mark Frauenfelder on Boing Boing to always include a photo with your blog posts. Everyone loves to see the progress. In fact, I wish I'd posted more photos per post than I did.

Another interesting bit of blog advice (that I didn't follow) is to make it anonymous. Since we knew that our friends, family, and architect were reading the blog I'm sure we subconsciously edited our writing. With anonymity we would have probably written differently, in ways that readers would likely find more interesting.

Southern California house blogs

Park Haus Addition Following a Burbank home addition.

Our Cosmetic Fixer Jason and Lori discover that their 1926 Spanish home in Los Angeles needs more than paint.

1921 Bungalow Where the Los Angeles homeowners wax lyrical about their old/new home.

Our 1916 Craftsman Bungalow An eclectic house blog of a young married couple and their first home, a 1916 craftsman bungalow in Southern California.

Casa de Solariego Documenting an owner-builder project to build a solar powered, solar heated, tree huggin’, granola crunchin’ house on the Central Coast of California.

Fixin' Up the Bungalow In which a stalwart do-it-yourselfer dives into his Pasadena passion.

Duderosa A new home rises from the ashes of the 2003 Cedar Fire. Watch and enjoy the chronicles of building a brand new home from the ground up. (Blog not active, but still a great lesson in how the local homebuilding process works.)

Also, with hundreds of house-oriented blogs across the country and the world:

Houseblogs A community for home-improvement enthusiasts.

Got a blog to add? Let me know.

Park Haus Blog: See how this Burbank addition evolves

More than two years ago, on April 19, 2005, John Park started blogging about the Burbank home he and his family had outgrown, and how they planned to add onto it. They struggled with the architecture and layout and colors and materials and styles.

If you have big dreams for your own home, this robust blog will let you know what you're in for. In the remodeling business, they call it "managing expectations." In other words, you can expect to spend a lot of time, effort and money to pull off a major project like this.

If you go here and start at the bottom of the page, you can follow the family's two-year journey from that first moment to this one when they are eagerly waiting for their occupancy permit. Naturally, the contractor has told them "two more weeks" for about six weeks.

Follow this blog and be there when the magic moment happens.