A kitchen remodel goes in a fixed order: scope and design, budget and materials, permits, demo, rough-in plumbing, electrical, and HVAC, inspections, drywall and flooring prep, cabinets, countertops, appliances, backsplash, then fixtures and trim. Skip ahead and you pay for it twice, usually because countertops got measured before the cabinets were set, flooring went down before the in-wall work was finished, or tile got ordered without knowing the real wall sizes once the cabinets were in place. I see this go wrong more than I’d like in Colorado Springs homes. Here’s the sequence I actually follow, phase by phase, with the reason behind each one.
Phase 1. Dream: Define the Scope Before Anything Else
Before a single measurement is taken or a contractor is called, answer one question honestly and in detail, the one I ask every new client first: what problem are you actually solving?
“I want a new kitchen” is not a scope. “I want to open the wall between the kitchen and dining room, replace the cabinets, and add an island with seating” is a scope. The difference determines whether you’re looking at a $12,000 project or a $65,000 one, whether you need permits, whether you need a structural engineer, and whether the project is even feasible given your home’s layout.
Common scope categories in Colorado Springs homes:
Cosmetic only: Same layout, same cabinet boxes, same plumbing and electrical locations. Paint, hardware, countertops, backsplash, lighting fixtures. No permits required. Fast timeline.
Cabinet replacement: New cabinets in the same footprint. May involve updating lighting to match new upper cabinet heights. No permit required unless electrical circuits are changed.
Layout change: Moving the sink, adding an island with plumbing, opening a wall. Permits required. A licensed plumber and electrician are required for their parts of the job. Timeline extends significantly.
Full renovation: New everything, potentially including structural changes. Full PPRBD permit process. Budget accordingly.
Pin the scope down in writing before moving to Phase 2. Scope creep mid-project (adding to the job after it starts) is the most reliable way to double your budget.
Phase 2. Design: Measure Everything Twice
Once the scope is defined, design work begins. In a kitchen, design is almost entirely about dimensions, meaning the exact measurements.
Kitchen design follows a few key rules. There’s the work triangle, the path between the sink, refrigerator, and range. There’s walkway space: the kitchen design industry (the NKBA, or National Kitchen and Bath Association) recommends at least 42 inches between facing cabinet runs for one cook, and 48 inches for two. And there’s the fit between upper cabinet height and ceiling height. These are industry guidelines, not building code, but ignore them and you get a kitchen that’s awkward to use every day.
What gets measured and documented:
- Overall room dimensions, floor to ceiling
- Window and door locations with rough opening sizes
- Where the existing plumbing comes through the wall or floor (sink water supply and drain lines)
- Existing electrical panel location and circuit map
- Soffit size if present. A soffit is the boxed-in section between the top of the upper cabinets and the ceiling. Soffits are common in Colorado Springs homes built in the 1980s and 1990s, and they limit how tall your cabinets can be.
- Appliance dimensions for any appliances being kept
If you’re doing cabinet replacement, the cabinet manufacturer or supplier will want a detailed drawing with measurements. Most cabinet suppliers offer design services. Use them, because cabinet layout errors are expensive to fix after the cabinets are built.
Colorado Springs-specific design note: Many homes here have soffits above the upper cabinet line, built when 7-foot upper cabinets were standard. If you’re going to full-height cabinets (to the ceiling or with crown molding), the soffit needs to come down during demolition (demo for short). Plan for this. It adds to the drywall work and can change where recessed lights go.
Phase 3. Budget: Lock Numbers Before You Order Anything
Design and budget inform each other. Most homeowners underestimate by 20–30% on the first pass, and I see it on nearly every budget conversation I have, because they price the parts they can see (cabinets, countertops, appliances) and forget the ones they can’t (demo labor, drywall repair, the in-wall wiring and piping, permits, hardware, sink, faucet, lighting).
A complete budget includes:
Materials: Cabinets, countertops, backsplash tile, flooring, appliances, sink, faucet, hardware, lighting fixtures, paint.
Labor: Demo, in-wall trades (plumber, and electrician if needed), drywall, cabinet installation, countertop installation, tile work, flooring, painting, finish carpentry.
Permits and fees: PPRBD permit fees vary by project value. Budget $300–$800 for a mid-range permitted project.
Contingency: 15% minimum. In an older Colorado Springs home (anything built before 1985), budget 20%. Hidden problems are not rare and are not included in any estimate until they’re found: knob-and-tube wiring behind the walls (an unsafe wiring style from before the 1950s), galvanized plumbing (old steel water pipes that corrode and clog), or asbestos in floor tile or drywall compound.
The budget conversation also sets the material tier. Knowing you have $25,000 total for a cabinet-and-countertop project tells you whether you’re in semi-custom cabinet territory or stock cabinet territory, whether quartz or laminate makes sense, and whether luxury vinyl plank (LVP) or tile is realistic for the floor.
Phase 4. Material Selection and Lead Times
This phase runs at the same time as design, but it must be finished before demo begins. The rule is absolute: do not start demo until all materials with long lead times are ordered and confirmed. Lead time is the wait between placing an order and getting the material.
Lead times that catch homeowners off guard:
Semi-custom cabinets: 4–8 weeks from order to delivery. This is the most common project-stopper. A kitchen sits demolished and unusable for weeks because the cabinets weren’t ordered early enough.
Custom countertops (quartz, granite): 2–3 weeks after templating. Templating is when the fabricator measures your installed cabinets to make an exact pattern for cutting the stone. It happens after the cabinets are installed. You can’t template before the cabinets are set, because their real installed position sets the measurements.
Specialty tile: Imported backsplash tile can run 4–6 weeks. Domestic tile is typically in stock or 1–2 weeks.
Appliances: Standard in-stock appliances are typically available in 1–2 weeks. Specialty or panel-ready appliances can run 6–12 weeks. If you’re doing a full renovation with a specific range or refrigerator in mind, order early.
Fixtures and hardware: Usually in stock or 1–2 weeks. Not a timeline risk.
The practical order: order cabinets first (longest lead time), confirm appliance availability, select tile and order if the lead time warrants it, then select countertop material and edge profile. Fabrication can’t start until after templating, but choosing your material locks in the fabricator.
Phase 5. Permits
Some projects need a permit from the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department (PPRBD): any layout change, plumbing move, added electrical circuit, or structural change. If yours does, apply before you schedule demo.
Permit processing in El Paso County runs 1–2 weeks for standard residential kitchen projects. You cannot legally start the permitted work until the permit is issued and posted. Demo of parts that aren’t structural (cabinets, countertops, flooring) can usually begin without a permit, but in-wall plumbing and electrical work cannot.
What requires a permit in a Colorado Springs kitchen remodel:
- Moving or adding plumbing (sink relocation, island sink, pot filler)
- Adding or changing electrical circuits or outlet locations
- Removing or changing load-bearing walls (walls that hold up the structure above)
- Adding a range hood that needs a new hole cut through an outside wall (in some cases)
What does not require a permit:
- Cabinet replacement in the same footprint
- Countertop replacement
- Flooring replacement
- Painting
- Backsplash installation
- Lighting fixture replacement on the same circuit
If you’re unsure, ask PPRBD directly or ask your contractor. Proceeding without a required permit creates problems at resale and can result in required demolition of completed work.
Phase 6. Demo
Demo is my favorite phase, if I’m honest, and also the one with the most potential for surprises. Approach it methodically.
What comes out first: Appliances (disconnect the gas before pulling the range), then upper cabinets, then base cabinets, then countertops. Flooring comes out after cabinets if it’s being replaced. Pulling the flooring before the cabinets creates a trip hazard and makes cabinet removal harder.
What to look for during demo:
- Plumbing condition behind the cabinet under the sink. Galvanized (old steel) pipe with corrosion is common in homes built before 1980 and should be replaced while the wall is open.
- Electrical condition in the walls. Aluminum wiring, ungrounded outlets, and junction boxes buried in the walls (wire-connection boxes that code requires to stay reachable) all turn up during kitchen demos.
- Subfloor condition. The subfloor is the wood layer under your finished floor. Water damage around the dishwasher and under the sink is common and needs to be fixed before new flooring goes down.
- Soffit structure. Some soffits are structural (rare, but it happens). Most are just drywall over framing that can come down.
In Colorado Springs specifically: asbestos was used in floor tile, drywall joint compound, and some ceiling textures in homes built before 1980. Asbestos is dangerous only when it’s disturbed and its fibers go airborne. If your home was built before 1980 and you’re pulling flooring or opening up drywall, testing before demo is the responsible call.
Phase 7. Rough-In: Plumbing, Electrical, HVAC
Rough-in is all the wiring, piping, and ductwork that runs inside the walls and ceiling, installed before they’re closed up. Any plumbing, electrical, or HVAC (heating and cooling) work that touches the inside of a wall or ceiling happens now: after demo, before drywall.
Plumbing rough-in: New supply lines and drain lines for a relocated sink, island plumbing, or a pot filler. This is also when to replace any worn supply lines or outdated valves found during demo.
Electrical rough-in: New circuits for added outlets. Every outlet that serves the countertop must be a GFCI outlet (the shock-protection kind that cuts power in a fraction of a second), no matter how far it is from the sink. Plan a dedicated circuit for the dishwasher, one for the refrigerator, and one for a new electric range or a range hood that needs it. Add new recessed lighting rough-in if the ceiling layout is changing.
HVAC: If the layout change affects supply or return air locations, this is when ductwork gets modified. It’s also when to add a makeup air solution if a high-power range hood is going in. Power is measured in CFM (cubic feet of air per minute), and code generally requires makeup air for any hood over 400 CFM. Makeup air is fresh outside air brought in to replace the air the hood blows out. Newer, well-sealed Colorado Springs homes are fairly airtight, and a strong hood without makeup air can pull air back down the furnace or water heater vent, which is dangerous.
After rough-in is complete and before the walls close, the rough-in inspection happens. The inspector needs to see the work inside the walls before drywall goes up. Schedule it right away. Delays here stall the whole project.
Phase 8. Drywall, Flooring Prep, and Subfloor
With inspections passed, the walls close up. Hang drywall over any opened walls or ceilings, then tape, mud (fill and smooth the seams), and add texture to match the surrounding surface. In Colorado Springs homes, the most common textures are orange peel and skip trowel. Matching these takes skill and the right equipment, not just a drywall knife.
Flooring sequence decision: This is where the floor goes in, or doesn’t, depending on the cabinet strategy.
If the base cabinets will sit directly on the subfloor (standard construction), flooring installs after the cabinets. The flooring runs up to the cabinet bases, and a toe kick (the recessed strip at the bottom of the cabinet) covers the gap. This is the most common sequence.
If you want continuous flooring running under the cabinets (LVP or tile that extends uninterrupted under the base cabinet footprint), flooring installs before the cabinets. This is less common but worth doing if there’s any chance of a future layout change, because the floor won’t have a visible line where the cabinets used to be.
Subfloor repairs from demo discoveries (rotted subfloor under the dishwasher, for example) happen here, before any finish flooring goes down.
Phase 9. Cabinet Installation
Cabinets are the skeleton of the kitchen. Everything that follows (countertops, appliances, backsplash) is positioned off the cabinets. Getting them level, plumb (perfectly vertical), and correctly placed is the most important install in the project, and it’s the one step I never let anyone rush.
Upper cabinets first. Install the uppers before the lowers, so you’re not reaching over base cabinets and countertops and you have full access to the wall. A ledger board (a straight board screwed to the wall as a temporary shelf) holds the uppers in position while they’re fastened.
Shimming: Shimming means sliding thin wedges under the cabinets to bring them level. Colorado Springs homes on a concrete slab have floors that vary, so level is not guaranteed from one end of the kitchen to the other. Base cabinets get shimmed level before fastening. The countertop fabricator will template to the actual installed cabinet position, but the cabinets themselves must be level for the countertop to sit correctly.
Scribing: Scribing means trimming the edge of a cabinet to follow the shape of an uneven wall so there’s no gap. Where a cabinet meets a wall that isn’t perfectly straight (common in older homes), the front edge of the cabinet (the stile) gets scribed rather than left with a visible gap.
Filler strips: Gaps between cabinet runs and walls, or between two cabinet sections, get filled with custom-cut filler strips painted to match. These are not an afterthought. They’re part of the cabinet order or cut on site, and they finish the installation cleanly.
Hardware: Do not install hardware yet. Cabinet doors and drawer fronts get adjusted after the countertop is in place, so the pulls and knobs go on at the very end.
Phase 10. Countertop Templating and Fabrication
After the cabinets are fully installed and shimmed level, call the countertop fabricator for templating. Not before.
The fabricator brings a template tool (a physical jig or a digital measuring system) and captures the exact shape of the installed cabinet tops: every corner, every angle, every notch for the sink and cooktop. This template goes to the shop, and the countertop is cut to those precise measurements.
Fabrication runs 10–14 days for most quartz and granite jobs in Colorado Springs. During this window, other work continues: backsplash prep, painting, toe kicks, trim.
Countertop installation takes a half day to a full day. After the top is in, the sink goes in. An undermount sink (mounted under the countertop) is usually attached to the slab before the top is set in place. A drop-in sink (with a rim that rests on top) goes in after. The plumber then comes back for the final hookups: water supply lines, drain, and garbage disposal if you have one.
Colorado-specific note: Quartz is the most popular countertop in Colorado Springs right now, for good reason. It’s non-porous, so it never needs sealing, and it comes in a wide range of colors and edge shapes. Granite needs sealing about once a year but remains a strong choice for homeowners who want the natural variation of real stone.
Phase 11. Appliances
Appliances install after countertops for one reason: the countertop height sets the final position of the range and dishwasher. The range slides in, and the anti-tip bracket (a safety bracket that keeps the range from tipping forward) fastens to the floor at the correct depth. The dishwasher mounts under the countertop with its mounting tabs.
Refrigerator: Roll it in last. It’s the largest piece and the most easily damaged by other trades working around it. Confirm the water line for the ice maker was run and capped during rough-in.
Range: The gas connection is made by a licensed plumber or gas fitter. Do not DIY gas connections. Confirm the anti-tip bracket is installed. It’s a safety requirement and it’s frequently skipped.
Dishwasher: Electrical connection to the dedicated circuit, water supply connection, and drain connection to the sink’s drain air gap or the garbage disposal. The air gap is the small fitting on the counter that stops dirty sink water from siphoning back into the dishwasher. The door panel, if it’s a panel-ready unit, goes on after the dishwasher is in place.
Range hood: If it was roughed in during Phase 7, the hood mounts to the wall or ceiling, connects to the duct, and the electrical connection is made.
Phase 12. Backsplash
Backsplash installs after countertops and appliances, not before. The countertop surface is the reference line for the bottom of the backsplash tile. Tiling before the countertops are set means tiling to a line that may not match the actual countertop height.
The tiled area (the field) runs from the countertop up to the bottom of the upper cabinets. Where the tile makes the wall thicker, outlets in that area need outlet extenders, which are collars that bring the outlet forward so it sits flush with the new tile surface. Code requires this, and it’s frequently overlooked.
Behind the range, the backsplash typically extends higher, up to the range hood or to the ceiling. This section often features a different tile or pattern for visual interest.
Grout sealing before the kitchen goes back into use is not optional. See the grout sealing guide for the full process. Colorado’s hard water makes unsealed grout a maintenance problem within months.
Phase 13. Fixtures, Hardware, and Final Trim
This is the finish phase, everything that makes the kitchen look complete.
Faucet and sink: The faucet typically mounts through the sink before the sink is set. Final connection at the supply lines happens after the countertop is in. If you’re adding a separate soap dispenser or filtered water tap, the holes get drilled in the sink or countertop before fabrication.
Hardware: Cabinet pulls and knobs go on now, after the countertops are set and the cabinet doors have been adjusted for level and even gaps. Use a hardware template jig (a simple drilling guide) for consistent hole placement across all the doors and drawers.
Lighting: Pendant lights over an island, under-cabinet lighting, and any decorative fixtures install now. Under-cabinet lighting is ideally wired during rough-in with its own switch. Retrofit plug-in options exist, but the wired solution looks cleaner.
Toe kicks: The panel that covers the gap between the bottom of the base cabinets and the floor. Cut to fit, finished to match the cabinets, and snapped or glued into place.
Paint: Touch-up at minimum, since walls always get scuffed during cabinet and appliance installation. If the wall color is changing, this is the right time for a full coat.
Final caulk: A thin bead of paintable caulk where the upper cabinets meet the wall, where the countertop meets the wall (if no backsplash covers it), and at the base of the backsplash where it meets the countertop. This seal matters in Colorado’s dry climate. As materials expand and shrink with the temperature and humidity swings, these joints move, and without caulk they open into visible gaps.
The Sequence in Summary
- Define scope
- Design and measure
- Budget and finalize materials
- Order long-lead items (cabinets first)
- Apply for permits if required
- Demo
- Rough-in (plumbing, electrical, HVAC)
- Rough-in inspections
- Drywall, subfloor repair, flooring prep
- Cabinet installation
- Countertop templating, fabrication, installation
- Appliances
- Backsplash
- Fixtures, hardware, final trim and paint
Every phase depends on what came before it. The discipline is in not rushing ahead, and in making sure that when the cabinets arrive, the permits are issued, the subfloor is ready, and the trades are scheduled. A well-sequenced kitchen remodel moves quickly once it starts. A poorly sequenced one stalls repeatedly.
For a free written estimate on your Colorado Springs kitchen remodel, call (719) 243-9718 or visit thecoloradohandyman.com.
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