Finished Orlando kitchen remodel with espresso cabinets, Calacatta Gold counters, and stainless Bosch appliances.

This homeowner hired us for her kitchen because we had already remodeled her bathroom. It was a small job, just a guest bath, and she loved how it went. So when she was ready for something much bigger, she already knew who she wanted on it.

About a year after her bathroom, we posted the final photos of our Sweetwater Cove kitchen in Longwood, and she fell in love with it. She shot us a text right away, said she loved the cabinets, and wanted to talk pricing for her own.

What began as a dated, closed-in kitchen in Dover Shores ended as a clean, modern one. She did not want a face-lift. She wanted the whole thing redone, so we took it down to the masonry, rewired and replumbed it, and rebuilt it from there. All in, the project came to around $116,000, including her appliances.

What We Started With

The kitchen was dated and closed in. White cabinets with pink edging, pink laminate counters, white appliances, and a checkerboard vinyl floor. The layout used the space, but nothing in the room had been touched in decades, and it showed.

What she wanted was modern and bold, a kitchen that felt like hers while still paying homage to the home's original character. A surface refresh would not get her there. To do it right, everything had to come out.

Down to the Block

This is the part that never shows up in a finished photo, and it is the part that matters most.

A full gut was the only thing that made sense here. Once the soffits came out and the wiring and plumbing had to be rerun, doing anything less would have meant building a new kitchen around old problems instead of fixing them.

This is an older home with no attic. The ceiling is framed in 2x8s, which leaves only about seven and a half inches between the drywall and the roof. That tight space shaped almost everything that came next.

Electrical. We brought the whole kitchen up to code, which meant a full rewire. Code requires the new circuits to run all the way back to the panel rather than tying in along the way, and with no attic to route through, that meant opening the drywall all the way back to the panel to pull the new wiring. The kitchen electrical alone came to $12,406. Like we say in our kitchen cost guide, on an older home the electrical can pass $10,000 before a single cabinet goes in. [[LINK to your kitchen cost guide]]

Plumbing. We hooked up the new sink, installed the disposal, and ran new lines for the dishwasher. We also moved the refrigerator to a new spot, and since it had never had a water line, we added one. $2,268.

Ventilation. The old kitchen vented straight up through the middle of the ceiling. You can still see that vent in the before photo. A range hood has to vent near the wall, over the range, so we patched the old roof opening, cut a new one for the hood, and ran the duct, all threaded through that same seven and a half inches.

Then we insulated the exterior wall and hung and finished new drywall.

None of this is optional on a home this age. It is the difference between a kitchen that looks new and one that is new.

Being Real About Change Orders

Every honest remodel of an older home has change orders, and we would rather tell you why they happen than pretend they do not. This kitchen had two.

The first was the wiring. Once the walls were open, we saw how rough the old wiring really was. It was bad enough that we resized the wiring feeding the water heater, ran a new line for the washing machine, and ended up rewiring the laundry room on the other side of the kitchen. That came to $2,485. While we were in there, we also re-piped from the water heater for $710, so when the rest of the house is eventually repiped, the plumber ties into lines that are already new and the finished kitchen never has to be opened up again.

You cannot see any of this until the walls are open, and skipping it would have meant building a new kitchen on top of old wiring and old pipe.

The second was a choice, not a surprise. The homeowner upgraded her countertop to Calacatta Gold, a higher-end stone, and ran the backsplash full height in the same material. That pushed the stone cost up, and the overage came to $5,479. The right call, and it was hers to make.

Cabinets, Counters, and the Floor

With the walls closed back up, the new kitchen took shape.

Cabinets. Custom Bridgewood cabinets, solid cherry in their Scandia door, a flat slab front with clean, simple lines, finished in a deep espresso stain called Safari. They are frameless, built with no face frame, which is what gives the run that flush, modern look. $27,723. Stained wood cabinetry sits at the higher end, and it is one of the three things that move a kitchen budget the most.

Counters and backsplash. Calacatta Gold on the counters, with a full-height backsplash in the same stone running right up to the cabinets. Combined, the counters and backsplash came to $19,978. The full-height backsplash turns the wall into one clean surface instead of a counter with a separate tile band.

Floor. The home had its original terrazzo hiding under the kitchen's glue-down vinyl. We pulled up the old vinyl so it could come back, and the homeowner had the terrazzo refinished throughout the main living areas on her own, outside our scope. The kitchen above it went bold and modern, but the floor under it is original to the house. Bringing it back was the nod to where the home came from.

The Finished Kitchen

The finished kitchen is a different room. Bosch 800 Series stainless throughout, a 30-inch induction range, a counter-depth French-door refrigerator, and the quiet pocket-handle dishwasher, with an XO 30-inch chimney hood over the range. An undermount sink under the window, recessed lighting in place of the old fixture, and the full-height stone backsplash tying it all together.

Same footprint, completely different kitchen.

Where the Money Went

In our kitchen cost guide we say three things drive most of a kitchen budget: cabinets, electrical, and countertops. This project proves it. Together those three ran about $62,600, close to 60 percent of the contracted work. [[LINK to your kitchen cost guide]]

Cabinets: $27,723
Countertops and full-height backsplash: $19,978
Electrical: about $14,900, the rewire plus the corrections we found once the walls were open

Everything else, about $43,800, covered the rest of a full gut:

Permits, drawings, and admin: about $7,500
Demolition, framing, insulation, and drywall: about $11,600
Cabinet and appliance installation: about $8,600
Plumbing, including the water-heater repipe: about $3,000
Roofing and the new hood vent: about $3,500
Paint, doors, and trim: about $3,200
Materials, site protection, detailing, and cleanup: about $6,500

That brings the contracted job to about $106,000. With the homeowner's Bosch and XO appliances at roughly $10,000, the kitchen landed around $116,000 all in, the premium range we describe in the cost guide, $100,000 to $150,000.

This Project at a Glance

Location: Orlando, Florida
Project type: full kitchen remodel, single-family home, repeat client
Scope: full demolition, complete rewire up to code, new plumbing plus a replumb from the water heater, new hood vent, insulation, stained flat-panel cabinetry, Calacatta Gold counters and full-height backsplash, original terrazzo exposed, Bosch 800 Series and XO appliances
Timeline: about eight weeks from demo to finish, March to early May
Investment: around $116,000 all in, including homeowner-supplied appliances

Why It Costs What It Costs

Look back at where the money went and the pattern is clear. The cabinets, the stone, and the appliances are what you notice when you walk in. But a large share of the budget went into work you will never see again once the walls closed up: the rewire, the replumb, the new venting, the framing and drywall that had to come out and go back.

That is the honest answer to where our pricing comes from. On an older home, a full gut is the only way to fix what is wrong instead of building over it, and that hidden work is most of what you are paying for. A lower bid usually just means a smaller scope, and the difference tends to show up years later, behind the walls, where you cannot see it until it is a problem.

We would rather do it right and be straight about what it costs. If you are weighing a kitchen of your own and want a straight answer on what is really involved, [[CTA - soft, e.g. tell us about your home and we will walk you through it]].

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