(Because the last thing you need is another $80,000 mistake you’ll stare at every morning while making coffee)
Hi, it’s the team at Remade Home Construction. Thinking about planning your kitchen remodel? We’ve scraped and installed more bad kitchens than we can count—and yes, we’ve got the therapy bills to prove it. Here’s everything we’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) so you don’t have to!
1. Start with How You Actually Live (Not How Pinterest Thinks You Live)
Real talk: If your current routine involves eating take-out sushi on the couch while the dog judges you, a 14-foot island with seating for 12 is probably overkill.
Ask yourself these brutally honest questions:
- How many people actually cook here on a Tuesday night?
- Do you bake, sear, sous-vide, or mostly microwave?
- Are you a “hide everything” person or a “I want my stand mixer to feel loved” person?
- Do you have kids who think the kitchen island is a gymnastics mat?
Lesson learned the hard way: The family who swore they needed a 48″ Wolf range used it exactly twice in three years. They now use the burners as extra counter space for Costco rotisserie chickens.
2. The Budget Conversation Nobody Wants to Have (But We’re Having It Anyway)
2025 San Diego pricing reality check (mid-to-high-end finishes):
| Scope | Realistic Range | What You’re Really Paying For |
|---|---|---|
| Cosmetic refresh (paint, counters, backsplash) | $25k – $55k | Keeping your marriage intact |
| Full gut remodel (keep walls) | $60k – $120k | New everything + therapy |
| Move walls / big layout change | $90k – $240k+ | Structural engineer’s yacht payment |
Golden Rule: Whatever number you have in your head right now, add 20–25%. Then round up for “I saw this waterfall island on Instagram and now I’ll die without it.”
***(Note: Remade Home construction is a wholesale/investor priced contractor, and we work hard to provide the BEST bang for your buck on your construction project!)***
3. The Triangle Is Dead. Long Live the Work Zones.
Forget the 1950s “work triangle.” Modern kitchens need zones:
- Consumables zone (pantry + fridge)
- Non-consumables zone (plates, glasses, Tupperware chaos)
- Prep zone (preferably 36–48″ of clear counter next to the sink)
- Cooking zone
- Cleaning zone (dishwasher + trash/pull-outs + sink)
Pro tip: Put the dishwasher 6–24″ from the sink. Any farther and you’ll do the “wet plate dance of rage” for the next 15 years.
4. The Top 10 Mistakes We See (And How to Avoid Looking Like a Cautionary Tale)
- Island bigger than your first apartment → You need 42–48″ walking space around it. Measure your current kitchen while carrying laundry baskets. That’s your real number.
- Not enough power → Plan for at least two-four 20-amp small appliance circuits. Your air fryer and Instant Pot having a duel at 6pm is not cute.
- Undercabinet lighting? → Choose Hardwire LED strips. Trust us this will change your life. Bonus → add toe-kick lighting for added ambience and low-lighting when you’re half-asleep and need water at 3am.
- The “soft-close” drawer that slams like a guillotine → Don’t buy cabinets/drawers without this. Accept no substitutes.
- Quartz that looks exactly like the 47 other houses on your street → Go look at slabs in person. Photos lie. Also, leathered finishes hide crumbs better than polished (you’re welcome).
- No dedicated coffee/tea/beverage station → You will thank us on the third school morning when you’re not moving seventeen things to make coffee.
- Trash pull-out right next to the oven → Your kitchen will become a factory for baked garbage smells.
- Not planning for where everything goes BEFORE demo starts → We’ve seen clients live out of boxes labeled “random kitchen crap” for 14 months. Don’t be them.
- The microwave drawer you thought was genius → Until your 5-year-old can’t reach it and you’re lifting a toddler with one hand and hot soup with the other.
- Natural light → Don’t forget to plan out your kitchen around windows, skylights. Bonus → every client who has installed an accordion window pass-through to their patio or backyard has LOVED it!
5. The Timeline (Because “How long could it possibly take?” is a dangerous question)
Real 2025 San Diego timeline:
- Design + selections: 1–2 months (or more, this is where 90% of delays happen)
- Permits: 4–10 weeks, to 4-7 months (Not all kitchen remodels need permits, and most municipalities have no-plan permit options for these types of interior remodels. If making structural changes, permits are required)
- Actual construction: 3–12 weeks
- Total: 3–12 months from “Let’s do this” to cooking real food again
6. The One Thing That Separates “Fine” Kitchens from “Holy Cow I Love This” Kitchens
Storage that makes sense for YOU. Our favorite recent win: A client who meal-preps for bodybuilding competitions. We gave her 42″ deep pull-outs for 47 tubs of protein powder. She cried. Happy tears.
Another client does almost zero cooking but has 100 cookbooks. Built-in floating shelves with LED lighting. Now the books have a home and her marriage is saved.
Final Piece of Advice (From Someone Who’s Seen It All)
Your kitchen doesn’t have to be perfect. It has to be perfect for how YOU actually live—on a random Wednesday when everyone’s late, the dog made a mess, and you’re trying to find the garlic press that’s been missing since 2019.
If you do nothing else, do this today: Grab a glass of wine (or three), stand in your current kitchen, and narrate out loud everything that drives you insane. Write it down. That list is worth more than any Houzz ideabook.
Then call us. We speak fluent “kitchen rage” and translate it into actual solutions.
You deserve a kitchen that doesn’t make you want to sell the house every time you boil water. Let’s fix that.
Cheers, The Team at Remade Home Construction | Reach out to us for questions or for help planning your dream kitchen!