I Built An Entire Kitchen In 7 Days (Start-To-Finish)

Tackling an entire kitchen transformation could be extremely daunting. Not to mention, it could take weeks or even months to accomplish. And the reality is, I've done a few of them. And it's not that hard. And it definitely doesn't have to take weeks. You have no reason to be intimidated. And in today's video, I will be building an entire kitchen in my cabin in the woods in in just 7 days. And after the 7 days, I will show you exactly what it cost. Let's get into it. All right. I just got a mockup from the cabinet shop. Kind of the layout of the land of the kitchen here. And let me show you what we kind of came up with to kind of use the most amount of space that we can. Big island centered on the window here. I really want to add some floating shelves on the side of this cabinets here. I'm already anticipating some of the things that could potentially cause us problems not hitting our 7-day deadline. First, getting the countertops and the backsplash done all in one day. Without that happening, we're going to be wasting an entire day. Second, making sure we get our appliances that are very specific to our cabinet sizes here on the same exact day. Tracking down a counter depth fridge could be a little bit of a problem. And third, getting all of our electrical and plumbing all situated in order for all the appliances to run. But before I can deal with any of that, I got to go pick up the cabinets and get them out of here to the cabinet. Behind me is 29 kitchen cabinets that just got finished by a company here in town that makes cabinets, American Lamb. Shout out to them. And my goal for today is to get a dolly and get them inside the house. We're sitting in a good position because all of this was covered in snow up to about a week ago. We got a local guy that was use able to use his tractor. Get the ice out of here so it was able to melt. So, we shouldn't be able to slip and fall too much today, but you know, your boy got one in him. Let's throw them inside and uh see how they look. This is going to be like one giant puzzle piece to put together. Easy girl. This mud's going to be an adventure today. Wish me luck, boys. Feel like I'm off-roading with a cabinet. One down, 28 to go. I don't know what I'd prefer, mud or snow. I love you, Spring, but you got to warm this up [Music] quicker. These microwave cabinets are [Music] heavy. The hard part's done. We got all the cabinets in safely. Didn't damage anything. Awesome. Now comes the fun partish. Uh, putting it all together. Let the record show, I've only put cabinets together when I've built them. Since somebody else built them, I have to follow their instructions. They're really cool about making sure I know what I'm doing. At least have a good game plan. First order of business is we're going to install these ladder boxes. These ladder boxes are basically a toekick that if you were to not incorporate a token kick in your cabinets, you can just use this, which is pretty slick. They got it labeled nice and well. 33 right of dishwasher. Dishwasher's there. First order of business, lay out the ladder boxes. Shim them up. Make sure they're leveled. After that, the cabinet should go on smooth sailing. Let's get into [Music] it. Hey, the framers did a good job with leveling the floor. Nice work. All they said is with these ladder boxes, just tack them with brad nails into the studs from the back. And then from that point on, you can just put your cabinets over it. And the cabinets will be secured into the studs and then side to side. So, they shouldn't be going anywhere. We have these side panels that are in the same texture. And that goes on the wall side filler. It goes anywhere you need to conceal it, like where the dishwasher ends here and then begins here. And then the outskirts of it. We have plenty of these fillers. They said that we're supposed to trim these pieces, which they intentionally cut long. 15/16. That'll create it to be completely flush with the cabinet by the time you put the bumpers on them. All the doors. 15/16. Okay. 80 to on the table saw. Trim the sucker to size. I'm already drooling cuz I'm excited. Pop these drawers off and secure them with inch and a quarter screws from the back. Should be no [Music] problem. So, this is the annoying part here. The sink. Uh, we have our 24 in distance for our washerd dryer. Got both side panels on. I got to drill three holes for the water lines. One for the dishwasher, two for the faucet. I got to drill a hole for the drain and a hole for the power. There's an outlet. Oh, yeah. For the garbage disposal. Makes [Music] sense. Pretty damn good hole, though, if I say so myself. Freehand. Not too bad. Not terrible. Not the best, just not [Applause] couple of things per instructions of the cabinet guys. Uh inch and a quarter screws and uh these are not your standard Phillips. These are the square tips. So if you have a Craig pocket hole jig, these actually fit better than spack screws. These are awesome. Second thing is don't use compression clamps. You know the ones you clamp with your hands. Use these screw on tight ones. Bessies. Home Depot has a killer deal on these. Reason why is it's a lot easier to get a hold of them and make sure they don't move versus with the squeeze ones. That sucker can move on you any minute. This one's more precise, especially when you're dealing with a 16th of an inch reveal. That'll be a big one. So, we had a couple options when we were designing this kitchen. And we had an option of lazy susan which I don't like the idea of them. I think it's a dated concept but also it costs extra cuz you have to get the spinning mechanisms and all that jazz as opposed to I don't know if it's called a dead cabinet or a blind cabinet something like that. Essentially this opens up and the shelf that's in here goes around. So I personally like this function of space. Yes, it's a little more awkward to get into but so is the lazy Susan. I just don't like the idea of having this like biffolding door in the middle of it. I like the symmetry son. Moving forward, we're by the stove here. Clearance for the stove is 30 and 9/16. Quite specific if you ask me. Ladder box. This should be the matching size drawer for it for symmetry. Okay, here's going to be the awkward part. The vent hood is not perfectly centered, which who could predict that? We have a couple options. Move it a couple of inches, replacing the OSB on the other side, which is a whole ordeal, or create a range hood. And even though it's off by a little bit, we'll be able to use that corrugated exhaust hosing to kind of pivot it a little bit. Seems like that's the predicament that we're in. And that is the route we're going to [Music] take. We're moving on to the uppers. And they're not too complicated, but they don't make too much sense in my head yet. Narrow cabinet on top, long cabinet down below. I did that because I didn't want to just have traditional cabinets and all this empty space. I want this thing to be grand. So, we have a transition piece down the middle here, spacer. So, what we need to figure out is how far off the top we're going to go. So, we're at 56 in. So, what that means is we're going to run it off this top plate, which is 9 ft tall. We're going to hit 56 in. All right. So, from the base, we're looking at 18 and 3/8. So, I'm going to cut up some scrap pieces of wood and use them as my little kickstand, put them on top, put the lower cabinet on, put the spacer, put the upper cabinet on, and then hopefully I don't screw it up. And then continue that 9 ft line all the way around, including this slant right here. And in my prediction, that's going to fill the top part so well that you're not going to feel like it's missing anything. [Music] This is harder than I thought. See, the reason I said it's a lot harder than I thought it would be cuz there's a crap ton of panels that need to go in to like conceal everything. So, you have the panels between the two cabinets on top. You got a panel that's going to go here. A panel is going to go here, here, and here. It's just all day panels. And I mean, they're not they're labeled, but they're not labeled in my language. They're labeled in their own shop cabinet making language that I'm not very well worse. All right, guys. I got to be honest. I'm burnt out. Between building, remodeling homes, creating content, it's nonstop. But I love what I do. But wearing all the hats, it could be exhausting, right? I rely on outside help just to keep things moving. Sure, hiring full-time employees sounds great in theory until you're drowning in payroll and paperwork and all the other added stress that comes with that. Well, that's why I started using Upwork. It's been a total game changer. Upwork makes it easy to find talented freelancers who are willing to jump in and help with things like video editing, website design, uh, graphic design, e-commerce, and beyond. It's fast, it's flexible, and the best part of all is I only pay for what I need when I need it. Right now, with everything going on in the world, I've realized efficiency and impact matters more now than ever. Upwork helps me scale up or down without massive overhead or long-term commitments. The bottom line is if you're stretched thin like I am, cut cost, not talent. Don't try to do everything yourself. Whether it's marketing, admin, sales, whatever, post a job for free on upwork.com and finally take something off your plate. Trust me, your sanity will thank you. Okay, we're looking pretty good. It's day two. We're back for more. We're getting to the point of the fridge. So, we have one side panel here. Here we're going to have second one and then another cabinet here and then a cabinet up top. The issue that we're running into is how to position the cabinets over the refrigerator. We could create a support bracket, but we don't have any 2x4s with us. So Ben had a great idea to put the next cabinet over, put the side panel to it, and essentially sit it on top temporarily. And then if we need to adjust it, we can move the cabinet in and out before securing it. I think it's a great idea. We're going to give it the oldfashioned college try right now. Okay. Okay. So, and then it's the same depth. Uh it should be like 20 like every other wall uh panel with your So, I got off the phone with Jeremy from American Lamb. He says the way they install these to make it easier is take these panels off, lay them on the ground, attach the lower cabinet first on the sides and then stand it up. It'll have legs on it. It won't be super strong cuz, you know, you're wiggling side to side. Secure it to the studs in the wall and then you can bring your cabinet on top, which to me makes 100% sense. Now, I can still create a little ledger here, and then put it on top. I don't want to be poking extra holes into this wall, especially behind the refrigerator, cuz that means I'm have to patch those up. All the other holes in the wall, that's backsplash. That's not a problem. All right, option B. Ben wants to be a cowboy, and we like to do cowboy around here. He says, "Let's not take the panels off just cuz we don't want to mess with the threads again." He says he was going to take the doors off, prop it up over over himself like he's holding the world over his shoulders, and I'm going to try to secure it above it. It's going to be a tight fit. Two big ass grown men under a refrigerator opening is not the most ideal, but we'll give the old cowboy a [Music] try. Boy, uh, day and a half. We got it all up there here. And I early mentioned that this is harder than it looks. And the reality is hanging cabinet carcasses is not that hard. The hard part in this style is actually the panels and knowing where they go. What I mean by it is the carcass is hung up, but then you also have the side panels and middle panels and then another panel on side. So unless you're the one making them, you have to have a pretty good explanations. And the guys at American Lab U Lamb were excellent about holding my hand through this entire process. And I'm pretty damn proud of how that looks. So right now, what we're going to start approaching is this island. Same ladder boxes. We have four external cabinets right here. You know, you have your microwave, your garbage, your under thing. But then to use utilize the most amount of space, we put four cabinets on the back. You know, your Easter fine dishes, your Thanksgiving turkey platter, all that fine stuff. But the big kicker here is going to be to making sure these suckers line up with two pendants that are on a slanted roof coming down. So, the plan of action here is going to be these going to be free floating cuz it's a free floating floor. You want to stay within those guidelines. We're going to put the cabinets on panels on both sides. And then we're going to try to carefully shimmy it. And we might even dangle something off the top just to make sure it's dead center. Cuz if it's not, it's going to drive me up the freaking wall. [Music] It's a big day for us today. We got countertops that are finally coming. They came out. They measured it. Big old island. Big old wraparound. We're going to have a seam in the corner here. The sink is here. Today, big things are happening. And I cannot be excited. And frankly, I'm just happy they got here. But the big problem is going to be actually the deck. Check this out. The small pieces are going to be not a problem at all. The island is the only issue. We have about a about a twoft drop here. They do have a ramp, but we don't have too much space here. But we have about four set of hands. We're going to wheel this down. I already spread some rock for drainage just cuz the snow melted and the ground's still muddy. So, that's going to be our biggest hurdle. Listen, I'm just I'm just excited that I'm here and they're here and we're going to have a freaking kitchen. Let's get [Music] messy. They won't let me touch anything. [Music] A lot easier than I thought on this one. One thing I'm really concerned about is this notched out section. We got it to go right into the window sill, which is going to look so slick. But precision is what we're dealing with right now. I have a good feeling about it, though. I think my I think they did a good job [Music] measuring. Woo! Perfect. Look at that seam. Woo! Nuts to butts. [Music] guys kept the film on for me. He says like until you sell it, keep the film on. That way you can put tools and stuff on it and nothing's going to damage it or scratch it while driving up here. So, I think I'm going to keep that film on there. It's a smart way to [Music] go. Everything is safe. My back is tight. I hurt my back this weekend. But, we got everything up here. Thank God. We got to bring the sink, screw it from the bottom, press it up against this silicone around there. Then, this is where the guys are going to work their magic. They're going to put the seam here cuz they couldn't fit on the entire slab. By the way, they used two slabs in order to get this done. They're going to match the color of this pigment here with this epoxy to bring them together. It's going to look flawless. They're gangster at this stuff. And lastly, they're going to buff out another about/2 in on both sides here, just cuz this panel is about/ an inch too short to what this overhang is. It's going to look beautiful. I guarantee it. Over the years, I figured that the simplest decisions are sometimes the most hardest one to envision. I give you an example. Why have a single whole faucet here? But I almost gonna have an air switch button and a soap dispenser. And I don't know which one would look the most cleanest. At first I thought button here, soap dispenser there just to keep it consolidated. But then it looks crowded. So I think what we're going to do since the outlet is on this side in the cabinet for the button. We're going to do the disposal button here, soap dispenser there. I think we'll break it up. It'll give symmetry. And symmetry puts my ADD at rest. So that's the plan. [Music] [Applause] [Music] All right. The coolest part about being your own builder or being in control of being your own project as a general contractor is that you are in control of the pace and the momentum of things. And what I mean by that is these countertops just went in. Granted, guys just left and I get to put in backsplash that same day. That is freaky fast delivery, boys and girls. So, my overall budget for the backsplash was about 300 bucks and I'm right at that. This is about 350 bucks worth. I'm trying to remember was like 20 square ft or something like that. So, I got the stuff Home Depot. It looks great. Originally, Arena wanted to do like vertical backsplash just like keep it simple, keep it classy, but I think this stuff will give it a lot more texture while also being in the same kind of family of backsplashes, which maybe it's family adjacent. At this point, we are running into a very small issue and it's the has something to do with the window sill. I want to work out of the corners. And the reason why is because I want to have a perfect mirror match of that tile seam in the middle and then work my way out, but I can't get too far because I still need that window sill. And I could do a little bit of math, but the sill on the side is going to be gapped out and then the trim piece, the 1x4 is going to sit over it. So, I don't know how far it is. And I want it to be nice and tight. So, to keep the party going, I'm going to try to work in weird sections of the stuff that I can accomplish today without getting myself into a weird situation. So, I got my transitions, got that cut and loaded, got the bottom starter pieces all lined up, and then we're going to work here, work from that point on, get close enough to the window sill that I could throw in another, you know, section on it right when the trim is on. I'm doing my absolutely hardest not to shoot myself in the foot by getting too ahead of myself. Let's get into it. [Music] I don't want to toot my own horn, but it's my horn to toot, so I'm going to toot it anyway. I think I crushed it with selecting this tile. It gives it the perfect amount of texture that I truly believe that traditional subway tile would not achieve. And I'm extremely satisfied how this mirror look turned out. I think it looks flawless. I'm done with this section here. I got my window sill that will be done once I get close enough to it. So, what I'm going to do now is start moving on to this section and move my way out the same way. And if you're kind of wondering what kind of tri to use for this kind of application, uh, if you have a a mesh in the back of your tile backsplash, you can use a 3/16 uh, V notch tri. Anything bigger than that, you'll have to bump up to a quarter inch tile triel. I'm sweating. Now, if you have a question about what kind of triel to use on this, because there's a mesh background, you can use a 3/16 V notch triel. Anything larger than that, you got to bump it up to a quarter, which, you know, as long as you don't have to squeeze out, this stuff applies just perfect. [Music] So, we're we're making great progress. We're getting towards the range section. Now, here's one thing you got to really pay attention with ranges. If it's a gas or electric range, this applies to it. If it's a gas range, you'll have a gas line usually sticking out somewhere right here. And what that means is by the time you push your range in, most of the gas ranges have a little divot behind it to be able to get as tight to the wall as possible. And the same applies to electric ones. The plug is so big that and the cord is so bulky that it's really hard to conceal it all. You can do a little bit, but not all. So thus it creates sometimes almost like an inch, inch and a quarter gap behind. There's a couple of solutions to fix this. One is to have your countertop person cut you a piece that's…