What in your quote made it prohibitive? The structural work, the cabinetry, problems with plumbing. It helps us to suggest solutions if we know the actual sticking points.

Hi bigreader, the quote was for $50 000 which included $18000 worth of cabinetry. There were no changes to the existing plumbing except to add a dishwasher, though I dont think we can fit one in with my scaled down plan.

Hi Kate, the layout is exactly the same as in my dream kitchen. The only adjoining wall is for the laundry, but no plumbing is being installed via that wall, we’re keeping the current inlet that comes in through the slab.

Did the $50k include demo and the new flooring or appliances as well? If $18k was cabinetry which isn’t unreasonable, was the remaining $32k just to remove the wall? What structural support was needed? You may not be able to open up the space without the structural work. Was there only one quote? Was it from a kitchen place? Did they sub contract out the demo and building? If so, you may get better pricing by project managing and organising the trades yourself. You need to finalise the structural items and layout before your get to the fun stuff of planning the kitchen cabinets.

Hi bigreader, the quote was from a builder, and didn’t include appliances. Demo was included. $5000 was for new hybrid vinyl planking, which we can probably skip, we just need to update the existing floor tiling ($1000). This was our first quote. A second builder we consulted also quoted $18000 for cabinetry, but that was for my scaled down kitchen! You may be right about project managing it ourselves, but its a daunting prospect for us.

Current floor plan

Can you post a full floorplan showing other rooms to give a better idea of what to work from