No experience here, but thinking about the same thing as we are exploring options for our next home.

In terms of cost, I want to find something that does not require significant structural changes. If possible, I'd look in the attic to determine where load bearing walls are likely to fall.

You need to consider the real estate market where you're looking. In some, you would have time to let a contractor or designer look at the property before making a decision to buy (realizing that you'll need to pay for their time). In other areas, sellers are receiving multiple offers the first day the house is listed, so time is of the essence.

If you have a contractor and can take them along on your second viewing (compensating for their time) that would be amazing. Our contractor came for inspection as a favour to us.

We bought a house knowing it would need a kitchen reno and ignoring some major costly issues that made the reno expand quite a bit in scope. Our bad, but, we didn't know what we wanted or what we wanted to spend. If we knew going in it would have been a lot easier.

We considered total square footage, walls that could be removed, bedroom size (we didn't want to change bedrooms), layout & flow of potential floor plans in the space, window placement, where existing plumbing was located. That's a few I could think of right now.

We accidentally found our forever home in a beautiful setting that we fell in love with. The house was a 1970's nightmare but it wouldn't have mattered as we 'knew' we had found the place for us and the house was really secondary.

I guess the biggest mistake I made was being too excited and jumping the gun on a couple big-ish purchases.. er, maybe more and then not being able to use them when things changed. I would change that if it were to do over... wait until the final measurement is done before ordering.

We spent the $$ on really good windows and don't regret it at all even though they were pricey. Quiet, beautiful and solid.

I guess if we had a contractor, I'd take him along. DH wears all the hats so we didn't have that issue.

We bought recently and looked at a lot of houses that needed kitchen remodels. Bought one of them.

Things we tried to consider were the underlying things. Doesn't matter what the cabinets look like if you are going to replace them anyway. But whether or not the kitchen is big enough. If it's not big enough, is there space nearby to borrow from and how hard would that be. Is the current layout good? If it's not, how hard will it be to change--so if the kitchen is on the first floor over a crawl space, that's probably not too hard to move some plumbing around. If it's on a poured slab foundation, that's a whole different story. Is the electrical system for the house adequate or will you be looking at upgrading that to accommodate new kitchen appliances and potentially more lighting, etc.

Taking a contractor along would be a great idea. We had one look at the place we bought before we bid. He gave us ballparks on the big projects and pointed out any big issues he saw with those projects and with the house as a whole.

We paid him for his time, but it was just a couple of hours (he did not do any formal bids or anything, just said things like about $10k to redo the bathroom if you leave everything in place and choose lower cost materials, you'll want to replace all the pipes in the house at some point because they are galvanized and full of sediment and that's causing low pressure, the roof is good for just a couple more years, etc, etc.). So I think it cost us $400 or so and it was very useful to us.

lakeviewmamma:

Think comprehensively when shopping. Even homeowners who are considering remodeling should think this way. Let your imagination run, because sometimes the craziest idea leads to one not so much and the perfect solution.

Our current house needed a new kitchen badly when we purchased it, because, this...

Ideally you would find something where the existing size of the kitchen is workable. Barring that, at least something where no changes are needed to the footprint of the house. And it would be even better if any changes in interior walls would be only in non-load-bearing walls.

A total kitchen redo in the existing kitchen footprint = $$
A redo involving moving/removing non-load-bearing walls = $$ 1/2
A redo involving moving/removing load bearing walls = $$$
A redo involving an addition to the house = $$$$$

Other things to be aware of the could (greatly) affect the cost.
If the new kitchen requires more electric, it might mean you need to upgrade the electric service for the whole house.

Moving plumbing supply pipes is much easier (and cheaper) than moving drain pipes. And both are harder if that would involve cutting into the slab.

In our case it took 3 years from when we moved in to finally figure out a workable plan.

When we first started looking for our home, we thought we would be able to find a house that did not need any major remodeling. But we soon discovered that the majority of homes with updated kitchens were not to our taste, and that we'd end up having to pay a premium for someone else's taste if we bought the house. So we resigned ourselves to the high probability that the house we ended up with would need a kitchen reno.

Our main criteria in evaluating the home was the space itself-- whether we would be able to eventually have the kitchen we wanted without a major addition to the house, or without having to take down walls if the result would be an open floor plan (nothing against open floor plans, but we didn't want one). In general, we wanted a house that already had a good layout-- while we were willing to spend money to update, we didn't want to have to significantly recreate the existing house. Obviously we also considered structural issues as well-- we knew we would need to do some structural work in an older home, but did not want one that had been completely neglected. We also wanted to be able to have the work completed before we moved in.

The house we ultimately found needed a gut remodel of the kitchen and baths, but had a great layout for us, so we didn't bring an architect or contractor in beforehand. But it's a great idea, especially if you think you want to reconfigure the existing space.

This post was edited by sas95 on Mon, Mar 31, 14 at 16:54

I live in a house built in the 1940's, and the first thing that jumped out at me from your post was wanting a big island. In a lot of older houses, open plan kitchens with islands are possible only if you take down load-bearing walls and completely rework the layout and flow of the house. In other words, if you want a kitchen with a big island, you might be asking something of the house that it was not designed to have. It can be done, but sometimes it means more trouble and expense than either buying a house that was built with a big open kitchen in the first place, or modifying your vision of the kitchen to fit what the house already has.

Of course you might find an older house that already has the kitchen layout you want. That would be easiest! But if you don't find one, keep an open mind. Islands serve a function in some layouts but aren't needed in others. Our kitchen doesn't have an island or a peninsula, but with two sinks and two prep areas, it works for multiple cooks.

The only other advice I have is to ignore everything about surface design right now and concentrate on layout and logistics. Don't decide yet on painted vs stained cabinets or what kind of countertops you want; you can have those in any house. Try not to be swayed by how charming a kitchen looks, if you're going to be taking it out anyway. Look at traffic flow, positions of doors and windows -- are the windows too low to put a countertop in front of? -- ceiling heights, etc. If you're looking in a neighborhood with historic designation, there may be limits on what you can do. And be aware that you might have to include lead and/or asbestos abatement in your budget.

Good luck and have fun looking! I make it sound kind of grim, but I like living in an older house and I would love (most days) to live in one from the 1910's or 20's!

Live there for a year prior to starting a major remodel. You will learn so much about how you live in and use the space, where the light is, and where you need simple things like outlets or doorways that isn't immediately obvious.

@trebuchet - that happened to us! We ended up moving the kitchen completely which we would not have dreamed of, going in.

How exciting for you. If I were in the market for a new home, I would look at windows, how many and on what sides of the house. I would also imagine having a good mudroom for coming in from the garden. I would imagine being able to have an ensuite and adequate closets in the master. Depending on your age, would the home be appropriate for retirement? Accessibility? Some of these things are hard to find in an older home.