Inside a 2024 Kitchen Renovation: Real Scope, Real Numbers

Most renovation content shows the finished result and skips everything that got it there. This project spotlight does the opposite. Below is a complete breakdown of a kitchen renovation we completed — the original scope, every change order, and the final project total. If you’re weighing a kitchen renovation of your own, this is the kind of detail you should expect from any contractor before you sign.

The homeowners had renovated this kitchen themselves decades earlier. The DIY cabinetry was no longer holding up, the space had gone dark and outdated, and the kitchen was walled off from the dining and living rooms. It worked hard for the family but wasn’t performing the way they needed it to anymore. Our job was to open the room into the rest of the home, bring in significantly more light, and update the kitchen to perform the way they needed it to. Below is a complete breakdown of a kitchen renovation we completed in 2024 — the original scope, every change order, and the final project total.

Final Project Cost

$67,147

All-in, including every change order

The original contract at $58,835 covered the full kitchen update agreed to before construction began. Here’s what was included from day one:

• Opening up the kitchen into the adjoining dining and living rooms to remove the sectioned-off layout (the structural beam this required came in later as a change order — see below).
• Opening up the stairwell to allow natural light in from the exterior wall.
• Installation of large picture windows to bring significantly more daylight into the room.
• New cabinetry built around the homeowner’s preference for drawers over traditional doors, throughout the kitchen.
• A large center island sized for casual seating, giving the homeowner’s college-aged kids a place to sit and talk without being in the working zone of the kitchen.
• Stove upgrade, the one appliance replacement on this project, since the homeowner’s other appliances were still relatively new.

We price our projects as fixed-price proposals, which means this scope was locked in before a single tool was picked up. The homeowners knew exactly what they were paying for before construction began — the same standard we apply to every project.

Change orders happen on most renovations. What matters is that they’re documented, explained, and approved before any work proceeds. Below is a full breakdown of every change order on this project, totaling a net addition of $8,312.46.

The structural beam was by far the largest single change order. Once the wall between the kitchen and the adjoining rooms came out, a beam was needed to carry what the wall had been holding up, and the asbestos abatement bundled into that line item was an additional cost tied to safe handling of the materials involved. Both items were documented, priced, and approved before the work moved forward.

At the end of the project, this kitchen went from a dark, walled-off space that the homeowners had built themselves decades ago to an open kitchen that connects directly to the dining and living rooms. The aging DIY cabinetry was replaced with the drawer-forward build the homeowner specifically asked for. The new island anchors the room and gives the homeowners’ college-aged kids a place to sit and talk without crowding the working space of the kitchen.

The new picture windows and the reworked stairwell bring in the exterior light the original layout couldn’t. The upgraded stove sits alongside the appliances the homeowners kept from before.

The final project came in at $67,147 — roughly 14% above the base contract, driven almost entirely by a structural beam that wasn’t optional and a small handful of client-led selections. For a kitchen that needed to open up, bring in more light, and connect to the rest of the home, that’s a clean outcome. We’re proud of the work, transparent about the numbers, and clear about where the original scope grew and why.

If you’re planning a kitchen renovation, this is the kind of contractor relationship you should be looking for: fixed-price proposals, documented change orders, and no surprises buried in the fine print.