Whatever you chose to do first, be sure to live within your means. What's your budget like?

You get more money back on your investment with bathroom and kitchen upgrades.

I would do your floors last because once you have contractors and handymen in your place rehabbing your place they may accidentally ruin or nick your floors.

I did my whole upstairs with laminate floors sans bathroom first. Now I'm redoing my kitchen and bathroom countertops. We have tile in the kitchen that came with the house but that may later be replaced as a future project.

Tile that looks like wood are typically more expensive than laminate but then again, depends on which color you go with.

Countertops have to be done at the same time as cabinets. Do the sinks at the same time as well. Kitchen should be one whole project.

Hope that helps!

This post was edited by ContactLina777 on Wed, Jun 4, 14 at 17:20

Are you also doing the floors in the kitchen?

4 of your 9 things are kitchen related so I would do the kitchen first as a separate project. Bring home paint samples, counter samples, backsplash samples and floor samples to get your colours (although many live without a backsplash long after the kitchen is finished). Your sink/taps needs to be chosen so that the counters can be templated.

I would chose appliances and do the recessed lighting first.

For me, it's paint first..
Then start the other bigger projects, but you have to know you'll like the colors..

When I redid my kitchen and bath..after removal of old cabinets and appliances, I painted the walls..then cabinets, then flooring...
So first I would tackle the cabinet painting, then the walls...then the flooring in the kitchen. Lighting, before painting ceilings..finally appliances and countertops then backsplash.

mpp798:

List your items in order of the color selections they come in, picking from the ones with the least selection (appliances) to the most (paint).

This way your choices are always expanding instead of shrinking. Nothing is more frustrating than watching a customer with a wall covering swatch trying to match a countertop to it.

What Treb said, start with item with least options for color. My floor was pretty much set as we were trying to mostly match existing. Then I picked cabinets color and door style. I did paint colors and counters about the same time, and backsplash last after everything was in, including UCL.

Thank you so much for your excellent advice!!!

Can't help you with color, but above all try to avoid redoing previous work. It's expensive and saps you of energy.

Start at the top and work down and do projects first that can be isolated from later work: Start upstairs, bedrooms and then baths. Then stairwells to upstairs. Then first do downstairs rooms that can be isolated. Lastly, do main through traffic rooms.

Mechanicals first (electric, plumbing, ventilation), then ceilings, walls, initial coats of paint, THEN floors, then any built-ins, trim, and finally touch-up paint.

If you follow that general order, you should have a minimum of touch-up when you are done and you will avoid going back over previous work.

Do not leave a room until it is completely finished. Even dragging a ladder around to install permanent light fixtures "sometime later" will result in nicks and dings and scratches on the walls and floors somewhere.