It is vital to determine a cover any do-it-yourself project, and kitchen remodeling is not any exception.A word of caution: I spent a long time researching kitchen remodeling cost and budgeting on the net to gather data because of this article. kitchen fitter Northampton ran right into a couple websites that gave square footage pricing for kitchen remodeling. Although I commiserate making use of their attempt to look for a simple method to find out remodeling pricing, this kind of advice is not located in reality. Remodeling jobs generally are so specific to the conditions of the building and tastes of the homeowner that no square footage pricing will ever be realistic. I also ran into many sites that didn't offer you any real information regarding establishing a budget but basically interpreted Hanley Wood's Remodeling Cost vs. Value report which is published each year. You are far better off visiting the Cost vs. Value report online and evaluating the outcomes for yourself.Like anything else in this world a kitchen remodel will probably cost a lot more than you thought it could and the sky may be the limit on what it could cost based on your tastes. There are multiple factors that get into determining a remodeling budget.There are numerous places online it is possible to go to help you set up a basic budget number to start with. My own recommendation is Remodeling Magazine's Cost vs. Value Report which is released by region and major city each year. The really nice thing concerning this report is that it gives a description of the "average" project to help you gauge if your kitchen remodel is going to fall above or below the benchmark. I also find their average pricing to be an accurate reflection of the pricing for the company, so by recommending to clients before I even talk with them that they investigate this report they are more likely to set up a realistic budget we are able to work within to give them a fantastic kitchen.http://construction117.onepageadvertising.com/kitchen-remodeling-questions-to-ask/ constructed with Semi-Custom CabinetsWhile Remodeling Magazine's report is quite helpful, it is still an extremely one size fits all method of establishing a budget. Continue reading if you'd like to make an effort to hone your numbers a little.Escape a pad and paper and write down several notes about each factor as you go through this list:Factor 1 Home Value- Consider not only what you think your property is worth, but also the worthiness of similar homes in your neighborhood that already have updates. The best website to check home values is zillow.com, simply enter your address and you get an interactive map with home values along with other information listed directly on the map. Observe which homes are of similar size to yours, have been purchased recently, but have a higher value, then peek in their windows to see what the home appears like. Ok, seriously, I was only kidding. If you don't know them perhaps it's time to meet the neighbors and ask for a quick tour.Factor 2 Wow! - This has everything to do with your targets and motivations. Jot down each motivational factor that is vital that you you in a kitchen remodel. Here are a few possible examples: Kitchen is falling apart. You love to cook and the layout doesn't suit you. You love to entertain and want to open up your kitchen as a place to assemble. You will want kitchen that wows your guests. You're getting ready to sell your house and the kitchen is a sticking point with buyers... Now that you have your list, evaluate which motivations are most significant and relist them in motivational order. Imagining your budget starting in "the middle" observe which factors might move the budget up or down...i.e. wanting to remodel to encourage a sale might move the budget down, remodeling to wow guest might max it out...etc.Factor 3 Did someone say AGA? - List any "must haves" for a kitchen remodel to be worthwhile for you. Possible examples: granite counters, an island with an extra sink, a second dishwasher, a commercial quality gas range, etc.Factor 4 Longevity- Determine to the very best of your ability the length of time you plan on owning the house.Factor 5 Size Matters- Know what percentage of your house your kitchen encompasses. A sampling of over 100 modern home floorplans of 1000 to 3000 square foot homes revealed the common kitchen square footage to be 7% of the home's square footage. If your kitchen is larger or smaller than this average you may want to increase or decrease your budget accordingly.Factor 6 Layout- in the event that you already know you're going to want the sink moved, an island sink added, an interior wall moved and an exterior door added, then you need to add money to your budget well beyond what a basic facelift would cost.Tricky layout: the decorative column conceals an audio wrapped drain pipeFactor 7 Funding- Determine the most of money you could afford to spend. In case you are financing your project you can calculate just what a lender will probably lend you. Lenders desire to visit a debt to income ratio(DTI) of.36 or less. Your DTI is established by taking all your monthly debt obligations (charge card payments, auto loans, mortgage, etc.) and dividing by your monthly income. To find out your maximum safe monthly debt multiply.36 times your monthly income. Now subtract your existing monthly debt from this number and you have a monthly budget maximum. Here is a link to a calculator which will do the math for you: mortgage calculatorPutting everything TogetherThe key to determining your allowance is finding the percentage of your home's value you need to use as a budget guideline. While researching this short article I discovered recommendations to use percentages ranging from 10% to 25% of home value. For a kitchen remodel of any substance which includes new flooring, appliances, cabinets, sink/faucet, lighting and bringing electric up to code I find anything less than 15% to become a very dubious number. I suppose on a million dollar house 10% will be a workable budget, but on a 200k house a 20k budget is marginal at best for a complete blown kitchen remodel.If resale value is important to you it really is wise to keept the expense of your kitchen renovation project within 20% of the current value of your home. Staying in this range insures a majority of the brand new kitchen's cost is recouped in increased home value immediately, and the rest of the cost should be recouped within 5 years as your house appreciates.Ok, let's run through an example. Bear in mind, there is no exact formula here. We are simply doing our best to be as informed as possible and make a smart decision about how much to spend on our kitchen remodel.For the example let's use the house. It is a 50's cape cod with a modest square footage of 1500.Factor 1 value: Zillow gives me around value of $167,500, however, I notice zillow hasn't yet updated and accounted for the single family homes that have been recently built-in the field behind us with a starting price of $270k. Zillow also offers our square footage listed at under 1200. Appears like the prior owner did just a little remodeling without a permit. I'm going to base my budget on a price of 180k which is much like other houses in the neighborhood that are exactly the same size.Factor 2 Goals: My wife and I love to entertain guests. To produce a kitchen remodel worthwhile for us we must lose an inside wall to start the kitchen and dining nook to the family room. I'll add 1% to budget for this.Factor 3 Must Haves: As a former chef two must haves for me are a new oven and an extremely nice propane range(no natural gas service here), preferably a commercial range modified for home use (real commercial ranges don't have insulation round the oven, critical for home safety). I'll add another 1% to my budget to ensure there's enough money to obtain me my range and propane installation.Factor 4 Longevity: We plan to stay in our house at the least 4 years. Generally of thumb it takes 5 years for some remodeling to understand and recoup most of its cost. Since we will likely be at least 5 years I'm not likely to penalize the budget, but since there exists a good chance we'll move right around 5 years I'm not going to increase it like I would if we were staying much longer.Factor 5 Size of Kitchen: Our kitchen is approximately 140SquareFeet(SF). That's over 9% of the SF of the home, 2% above average. Obviously this kitchen is going to require some extra material and cabinets. I'll up the budget 1% because of this, I hope it's enough.Factor 6 Layout: We will change the layout of our kitchen pretty extensively. We now have a cooktop peninsula. The range is going to embark on a differnet wall and the dishwasher will proceed to the peninsula, though we may ditch the peninsula, move the fridge and add an island instead. About the only thing that won't move is the sink. I'll add another 1% to my budget, again hoping $1800 (1% of our 180k value) will do to cover the electrical and plumbing changes.For my base I'll use 20%. As I mentioned before, there are going to be individuals who will argue with me on that, but going lower often doesn't leave you with workable budget numbers for full blown kitchen remodels. I'm adding 4% predicated on my factors listed above. I adjusted my zillow.com estimated home value to 180k using the comparable square footage and value of other homes around me. Thus giving me a working budget of 24% x 180k= $43,200 When I compare this to the price Vs. Value report I see that in the centre Atlantic Region a Major Kitchen Renovation is $59, 098. It appears like my budget could be bit low, especially since i have really would like granite countertops and the Cost Vs. Value specs call for laminate tops. However my kitchen is significantly smaller than their 200SF benchmark, so I think I'll go with my budget number and see what my contractor can do for me for the reason that budget.Please be aware that I ignored Factor 7 Available Funds. Obviously Factor 7 either makes or breaks budget numbers and there is absolutely no point in discussing it here.Good luck together with your kitchen remodeling project!