bump

That’s a full gut of the entire space. Nothing is salvageable when there is water damage. And those awful cabinets are not worth the effort to pay someone to knock them out. Do it yourself. Get rid of everything in the room. Start over.

My cabinets used to look like a sheet of plywood with hinges and knobs. Having them refaced made a huge difference. They made new doors and drawer fronts, replaced the knobs, drawer hardware and cabinet hinges, and covered the visible parts of the cabinet boxes with matching wood verneer. If a total gut is not in your budget, you should look into refacing.
Just make sure you talk to someone with lots of experience who can provide you with references.
I didn't really understand your tile question. You would have to have your old tile removed and repair any water damage before having new tile put down.

Sophie Wheeler I don't understand your response--how am I supposed to do it myself if I don't have the skills?

John, do you have a budget at all?

Really, the cabinets aren't worth refacing. They weren't good quality to begin with.

Cheryl do you mean water damage to the subfloor?

lhutch I am at the very beginning so I haven't really worked out a budget yet. I have a GC coming to look at it tonight to give me an estimate. I want to go slow and pick the right person and find out exactly what needs to be done before rushing in.

I know it isn't going to be cheap though.

John, subfloor is what I meant. You might have some water damage under the tile. I hope you and the GC can come up with a good solution.

50-70K. And you only need very basic skills to do demolition. If you don’t even have a hammer and a screwdriver and a few other basic tools, then you need to give up home ownership and rent only. Owning a home costs a lot of money when all you can do is pay labor for other people to do work for you.

Get some skills. ASAP. Don’t let an almost 80 year old woman out man you here. Shame.

The house is slab on grade. There should be only concrete under the tiles. That is what is in another room, under the carpet.

Sophie Wheeler if you're going to be rude on every post and make assumptions about people you've never met, don't bother responding to my thread anymore.

“how am I supposed to do it myself if I don't have the skills?”

You're the toddler whining about having no skills. Do. Or, do not. There is no try.

When you said "do it yourself" I didn't know if you meant do the whole rehab yourself. Obviously your shtick on this forum is to be rude to others.

If it's in your budget to do a total renovation, go for it! If not, you have two options-do nothing now and save up for a renovation in the future, or spend what you can now to do a cosmetic upgrade.

I chose to go the reface route for my kitchen about 10 years ago. I could have taken a sledgehammer to my kitchen and gotten a whole new one, but I chose to spend my money on other things such as travel. My grown kids often tell me that they appreciate all the traveling they got to do when they were younger. If I had spent all our money on our house, I don't think they'd be telling me "I'm so grateful I grew up in a designer kitchen."

Here are some before and after pictures of my kitchen. I had to dig through my picture albums to find the before picture, so just try to concentrate on the background.

Here's a picture inside one of the cabinets. You can still see the old yellow wood with the new veneer on top.

Talk to your contractor, look at all your options, get an idea of costs, and do what works best for you. Good luck with your project, whatever you decide to do.

great, thank you cheryl!

the touch up looks very nice

Refacing only works if you have something worth refacing. Disintegrating cabinets are not. And you also have to be OK with spending more than you would to buy new cabinets. Because there is more labor. Which is the most expensive part next to the doors and drawer fronts, which are the most expensive part of a cabinet.

John, what's the size of your room? Can you provide other photos? Do you like the layout or does that need fixing?

lhutch the total floor space is 132 square feet. I'm fine with the layout the way it is.

There's nothing in the pictures that says disintegrating to me, although we certainly can't see everything. I'm trying to figure out what that raggedy looking stuff is on the inside cabinet. Looks like masking tape or paper that's peeling up.
That's a good point though. You certainly don't want to put new doors and such on boxes that are not sturdy.
I think what happened with our project is we hired a guy who was just starting his business and he didn't know how much to charge. It was very reasonable and the craftsmanship was outstanding.

John, youtube can be your friend here. DIY videos abound. you can save a lot on doing your own demo.

Those cabinets are toast. do not even consider doing anything with them. they were the bottom of the barrel 30-40 years ago. sorry, they just are.

if you want cheap, then look at the pre fab chinese cabinets. those can be had for 2500-4K. learn how to install yourself and save another 1K.

or, look to Ikea. they are decent and look great.

Do not, DO NOT, go through the big box stores. you'll pay twice as much for them doing the legwork.

Heck, look on Craigslist,,,people unload decent cabs and granite all the time, for next to nothing!

(and in all honesty, you did kind of whine about having no skills. buck up and learn. If you own a house you need to learn things or you'll pay through the nose for those that do. Sophie doesn't sugar coat anything, especially if you act like you're helpless. )

Thanks Beth H., and Cheryl. I am definitely taking my time to investigate all my options. I have no immediate plans to put the house up for sale so the good thing is I don't have to rush. I'll check out Ikea!

PS there's a big difference between "not sugarcoating things" and being rude/hostile