We are approaching five years. It is still not done. But we're doing our whole condo, not just the kitchen.

Edited to add that we have been doing about half of it DIY. And the work has not been constant. We both have jobs, and I have battled some health problems. Although each pause because of work or health has given us necessary time to save up more money, so we'd have had to wait anyway.

This post was edited by Jillius on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 22:55

We diyed our first kitchen remodel. Kept and painted the cabinets and didn't move any plumbing, venting, etc. Took us about three weeks-- I was out of town for work for a week of that, but dh was "studying for the bar" so he got a lot done.

Second kitchen (different house), took about three and a half months. We were GCing it from across the country so there were lags on coordinating trades. That was a down to the studs gut job that included removing part of a wall, a powder room gut job and adding a laundry closet on the main level.

Our GC is predicting two and a half months to completely gut and remodel our current kitchen and hall bath, including moving the laundry to a closet that will have to be reconfigured, taking down a wall and moving our attic access from the new laundry closet to the hall. I'm betting at least three months--hoping not more but we will see.

Good luck!

When we did 2 bathrooms, the first took 2 months - we tried to diy all but the shower and surround. Big mistake, as we are not diy'ers. The second took 2 1/2 days for a total gut and install. We hired a pro and what a difference. They waited until all materials were ordered and delivered to them.

I am dreading the kitchen. One of my friends did hers using a kitchen designer and it took 18 months.

DIY entire house gut and rebuild without going into debt. So far have finished the roof, porch, windows, siding, bedrooms, half the insulation, and half the wiring. Going into the 4th year now. Remaining is all the plumbing, half the wiring, half the insulation, living room, dining room, kitchen, and powder room, as well as the upstairs bath. I have at least three more years to go and about two-thirds of my budget.

Is worth it? Yes,100%. Even now the house is so much more comfortable (damp northwest coast climate).

I've been working on our 1953 house since 1984, are we ever really "done"?
Just today I replaced some termite infested dry rotted decking...don't let anyone tell you termites don't like Redwood!!

We must be neighbors, rmtdoug!

Well, it's been five months since we started and we're still in the demo phase. We're doing it all DIY and DH travels frequently for work so there's only so much I can do without him. Just what has been done so far is such a great improvement! As long as all appliances are still hooked up and working, I'm OK with the snail's pace. I learned years ago during other projects to just take it a step at a time; it's better than fretting about it.

our kitchen took about 4 months, from start to finish, but it was DIY and we work, so that wasn't too bad. But - we kept our floor, our existing layout. We did a complete refacing, new doors, mouldings, etc. And painted. Of course, if you are starting from scratch, moving walls, plumbing, electric, replacing floors, etc its going to take a lot longer. We just started our bathroom remodel, which we originally planned to finish by the end of Feb. Not happening. We just got the demo work done, but haven't even picked up our tiles and supplies. The snow keeps getting in the way, seems like all we do is shovel snow. I know how frustrating it is when you are in the middle of a project, as we've done a lot of them over the years with this and other homes. The mess, the disorganization, the delays and it seems like you will never be done. But hang in there, eventually it will all be finished and you can sit back and enjoy your beautiful new kitchen.

18 months, however this included three large other areas adjacent to the kitchen. 100% DIY, and 100% rebuilt from the crawlspace up.

It was scheduled and he knew about it ahead of time? Uh, yeah, I think I would have been cutting off his (bleep!!) with his hacksaw!

Maybe start having fresh Krispy kernes on site? Might motivate the subs to show up? Lol.

The bank I was in yesterday went from used car lot to turnkey Chase in 90 days. General Motors can disassemble and reassemble factories on Christmas break and I have to read more threads about how people can't get their remodeling done.

What's the difference? Unlike Chase and General Motors, nothing bad happens when you don't get your residential remodel job done on time.

Fourteen months and counting. Our job was renovating the whole first floor of the house, not just the kitchen, but the kitchen was about 80% of the decision-making and contractor hold-ups.

We started demo the first week of December 2013 and we are at punchlist now. Hoping all is done, including inspections and final sign-offs, by the end of this month.

Don't hate me. 3 weeks to completion from full demo gut job to fully funtional. BUT, I had my layout 100% finalized before they started, and my cabinets were Kraftmaid from HD so nothing custom. That includes all new electrical, moving our main plumbing stack, the whole shebang. I had everything lined up so there were no delays on my end waiting for granite, hardware, etc. I bought most of my stuff myself...my sink, my hardware, my lighting, etc. We also lived through the remodel with three kids so our contractor was under the gun to get the work done because we NEEDED our kitchen back. We did it in early spring so we could BBQ outdoors as much as possible but being in the Northeast we did have some snow slow that they worked right through.

You need to have a hard talk with your contractor and have them commit to a finish date. Also, they shouldn't get paid their last 1/3 on the project until they meet it so they should be motivated. I can give you a break out week by week what they did if it's helpful. Good luck!

Ours was a completely DIY project except for electrical which we hired out. It was a complete gut, to the studs and start fresh from the bottom up, including taking two walls down to half walls. We started demo a couple weekends before Thanksgiving, 2013. Everything except a tiny bit of trim work (which is still not done, by the way) was done in July, 2014. It felt like it took FOREVER.

Our kitchen remodel was relatively simple - no walls removed, no plumbing changes. I acted as general contractor (using an electrician recommended by my cabinet maker).

I first met with the cabinet maker in January, and signed a contract with him in March. That got me on his schedule for July. From the time DH and ripped out the old cabinets until the new counters were installed was about 10 weeks. I allowed plenty of cushion, and the cabinets started 2 weeks late, which pushed us back on the counter install - it was 4 or 5 weeks from templating to install (Cambria), so that was half the down time (and at least we could use the kitchen, just without a sink).

"Whiners," she muttered, shaking her head in disgust as she stepped through the studs into the living room. "Who needs a doorway," she wondered...

Ever been to the grand opening of a new mall? Every shop is ready to open. Why? Draconian fines for missing the opening are written into every GC's contract by the developer.

I just bailed a sub out of big trouble at our new mall. We had to work after mall hours; the mall would not tolerate finishing up during the day. No goin' to Home Depot at 3:00 a.m., so it better be in the truck if you need it.

Talk to ur contractor about coming in on off hours (Saturday, stay later), to finish plumbing work so it will be ready for rough in inspection. (Luckily, I did not have to propose this to my contractor - he offered).

I think if you ask them to do this at this early stage of project, u are subtly setting the tone of your expectations for the rest of the project.

We are 8 months into a remodel that included kitchen (gut, move walls, new everything), master bath (gut, move walls, new everything), convert attic into play space for kids, a bit of trim work throughout the house and paint everything inside. It was supposed to be complete at Thanksgiving ... like our previous house went under contract in August, we could lease back to turkey day, and contractor promised he would be finished with the remodel (which started 6/1 and originally was supposed to be done mid October). Turkey day was 10 weeks ago, my family of four (a 5 and 2 year old) are crammed in a hotel and no one will give me a ball park of when we might be in ... because they've already so disappointed me.

I stop at the house everyday after work to see the day's progress. Most days it's like "oh, they changed 3 can lights today ... and nothing else" and smoke comes out of my ears.

Refinishing the hardwoods starts tomorrow; paint isn't 100% complete; electrical finish isn't 65% complete; plumbing is about 70% finished; appliances will come next ... and then we'll be there. I think spring break ... which was my estimate when the previous house went under contract in August and everyone told me I was crazy ... no way it'll take that long. Told you so give me no comfort.

We are DIY and built a new addition onto the back of our house for the main part of the kitchen.

Slab was poured August 2013 and the space was useable by February.

Once that area was done, we turned to where the original kitchen was to gut it and put in a large walk in pantry, expand the utility room, put in a wet bar, island and built in buffet/sideboard.

We still haven't finished. We have the pantry but still haven't built the shelving or installed the counter.

We have the wet bar, a temporary island I built for less than 100 bucks, no sideboard and no flooring.

But we knew going in it would be like this.

We mainly DIY - a full kitchen reno, including removing a load bearing wall (and a foyer tile re-do...that was a PAIN).
DH mainly did it all himself with the exception of taping/spackling/mud job...cabinets were built and installed by a local furniture maker.

We ordered the cabinets in June. Demo began Sept 1st. Kitchen was *mainly done* around December 23rd. I was able to host Christmas...that's how done it was.

DH still needs to finish up some electric (funny...married to an electrician, I can't get him to install my UCL and outlets). We still need to pick out, order and install back splash.