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Comment by sitkack | Hacker News Reader

A kitchen remodel in a high income city in the US is 75k-100k for something basic. The lopsidedness of US prices for light construction projects is a huge problem.

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Ikea will sell you kitchens for 4k including appliances and set everything up for 2k. In Europe. (without electricity and plumbing)

You forgot that in US kitchens are huge. Could be bigger than typical studio apartment in a crowded EU city.

True. 40k is the most I can think that 98% of people would ever spend on a kitchen in Europe.

Ingenious question, huge to do what, exactly? I manage to cook for 4 people in my tiny kitchen, what's the purpose of such big kitchens?

And there I was, thinking spending ~£€10k each for two kitchens recently was extravagant.

What country are you based?

One is in the UK, the other is in Germany.

Did that net you a dishwasher?

Dishwashers cost 300-500 EUR in Europe.

In the German one, yes. The UK kitchen didn't have one, and while I'm not 100% sure why — was handled by my rental agency, with me deferring to them entirely for whoever they suggested for the work and whatever design they suggested for the layout — I suspect it may have been too small.

But the cost of a dishwasher is a small fraction of the rounding error, and I was rounding up quite a bit in both cases — even the (more expensive) German one is EUR 8903 with dishwasher, hob, sink, delivery, installation, and all taxes.

Germany has commoditised kitchen installation. Perhaps because kitchens are often not included with the apartment?

That causes kitchens here to be often modular and removable — I've literally seen someone take their kitchen sink with them on a tram here.

The kitchen I got here, is a permanent installation, because my partner didn't want the normal German style.

You got to get multiple bids. I had a small remodel job. I got three bids. One was for 3x the lowest bid, one was about double the lowest bid. After evaluating, I contracted with the company that did the middle bid and they did a great job. Not getting multiple bids on something that pricey is really financially irresponsible, IMHO.

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