House needs work, what to do?

[HHSTigerFan]

In a similar position to yours, I would put the kitchen renovation on the back burner for a while, unless you can find a good contractor who is willing to work with you on a multi-year renovation plan. In my experience of getting renovations done, you have to concentrate on fixing any structural issues first. Also, how firm is the $7K estimate for your basement? If the work on your foundation has to be done from the exterior, the estimate can be off by a significant amount, depending on the cause of the dampness--we just got a foundation crack fixed at a cost of about half of the original low-end estimate--it could equally have been double the amount, had there been issues with the weeping tile.

Basement- Its the interior system.. we have a block basement, getting seapage around the entire basement..

Kitchen- really not sure how we can do it in steps

 

[HHSTigerFan]

Yeah, I was about those quotes too. We had DH's cousin custom build us new cabinets for our kitchen when we moved 7 years ago. Total cost for the cabinets, counters, and all new appliances (DW, Glass Top stove, Fridge) was just under $10,000. He also built us 4 floor to ceiling bookcases over the years - we paid $750 for the one in our family room that holds our TV and books/movies and less than $1000 for the 3 that are in our den that just hold books. It must pay to know the laborer

We have 33 linear feet of cabinets..

From Lowes..for Shenandoah cherry cabinets, price was $7800 for cabinets(not installed) and $3700 for a solid top(installed)..Kraftmaid was closer to $10K

Kraftmaid cabinets and a Meganite top from an indy dealer.. $15166

Talked to a local cabinet maker and he quoted about $11K, would install for another $1000..

 

[Darcy03231]

We had to waterproof our basement a few years ago. We went with the system where they went about a foot off the wall, jackhammered out the concrete basement floor all around the perimeter of the basement (about a foot wide), dug down below the footers (about 2 feet) and filled the trench with gravel, perforated pipe and more stone and the redid the concrete. They replaced the exisiting sump pump in one corner and added a second back-up one. So far, even with lots of rain/snow melt, the basement has been dry. If this is the type of system you're installing I highly recommend it. Cost for us ran about $7k too.