Kitchen remodels

[Irulan]

I thought that after we finished up the addition that it might be years before DH agreed to get the kitchen done after his fall out with the contractor...
Surprise! We have to get a new dishwasher, and after looking at appliances all afternoon with me, DH is making lovely noises about getting going. :D

So, for those of you that have redone your kitchens, here's what I'm looking for input on
1. What do you wish you'd put in and didn't for whatever reason
2. What did you put in that seemed like a good idea at the time, but you don't love for whatever reason
3. Countertops - what do you have, do you love it/hate it/too much maintenance etc
4. biggest waste of $$
5. best $$ spent

I love to cook. I enjoy function and simplicity over decoration and frills. An example is that you'll never find fancy crown mouldings or rope mouldings, or fluted columns in any kitchen of mine as I believe they are dust collectors.

Cheers
Irulan

[Crankin]

When we remodeled our kitchen, we kept the basic structure, although we could have changed that to make it more open. Currently we have a kitchen/cooking area, an eating area that is separated by a counter with shelves, cabinets, and the stove on one side, and a formal dining room that is more open to the kitchen. The previous owners used our eating area as a family room, but it is smaller than most family rooms... we have a huge family room on our lower level that is fine, although it makes our house different from homes built since the 90s. But, we saved A LOT of money by keeping the basic bones of the space.
I don't regret much; this was by far the best of the remodeling we did (and we did a lot). What I would change is that instead of getting a combo microwave on top, oven on the bottom, I would have got a double oven and found some other way to deal with the microwave. I don't need a double oven often, but I always wish I had one a few times a year. Also, when we bought our refrigerator, we did it on line and didn't realize that the mechanism for getting the filtered water sucks; I won't go into the description, but let's just say it's a good thing there's no kids here. Hence, we don't use it, and I'm glad we have good tap water.
We have granite counter tops and while I love the granite, I would not get black again, as it shows every speck of dirt and water that dries on it. I love my stainless appliances, and besides what I mentioned above, I would make sure you get a good dishwasher. We recently replaced the one we put in during the remodel (7 years ago). I'm happy with the maple cabinets and the tile floor. I am super glad we decided to put in cabinets on the back side of that divider; they weren't there before and we have a lot of stuff.
I am pissed at myself, however, for being so lazy that I didn't pick out anything different for the counters and cabinets in our master bath remodel. Even though our house is contemporary, I think having the same thing that's in the kitchen is too plain; thankfully, we did get different tile up there.

[Chile Pepper]

I love my kitchen! I have dark green granite, and like Crankin, I love the granite but would prefer a lighter color. Granite is easy to clean, and you can put hot pots right on the countertop. I also love my range. It's a Lacanche, which is in the same price range as Wolfe etc., but it has some advantages: it isn't as deep as a Wolfe, so it doesn't stick out beyond the standard counter or require a custom fit; it combines both gas and electric (I have a model with a gas range top + one gas oven for roasting and breads + one electric oven exclusively for desserts + one electric broiler for non-pastries); and the smaller ovens don't dry out food. I would absolutely buy this range again.

[luvmyguys]

I didn't do a kitchen remodel, but the kitchen is the one selling point of the house we bought. I'd thought a lot over the years on what I did and didn't want, and here are some of the things I figured out along the way:

* We preferred no island to a small island. It seems to take up space and doesn't give you a whole lot to work with. We actually have a peninsula, which I love. I get space to work on both sides, it's flat so I can put counter top height bar stools on one side, and it makes a great buffet line when we have family gatherings over here. Overall, I have a lot more storage and prep space.

Piggy-backing on to that:
*We preferred the bar stool side to be counter top height, rather than the higher height for full size bar stools. Instead of two tiers of fairly shallow space, you've got one tier of deep space.

We do have a granite/natural stone countertop (technically, it's not granite, but it is a similar natural stone). It does chip fairly easily (particularly around the sink). It doesn't look terrible or anything, but we have had to have it repaired (which, fortunately, is easy, just a pain). We deliberately chose a dark color, because in this house, we do spill things. So I'd say to do your research on the maintenance aspect of whatever counter material you use.

[tulip]

1. What do you wish you'd put in and didn't for whatever reason
2. What did you put in that seemed like a good idea at the time, but you don't love for whatever reason
3. Countertops - what do you have, do you love it/hate it/too much maintenance etc
4. biggest waste of $$
5. best $$ spent

I love to cook. I enjoy function and simplicity over decoration and frills. An example is that you'll never find fancy crown mouldings or rope mouldings, or fluted columns in any kitchen of mine as I believe they are dust collectors.

Cheers
Irulan

1. I wish I had replaced the existing window (original 1939 double hung sash that doesn't open) with a custom casement that opens. I also wish I had installed a dedicated water filter faucet. I have one in the fridge, but I would prefer one at the sink (more accessible, easier to fill teapots & glasses).

2. Nothing. I use everything! It's a small kitchen, though, with little room for extra, single-use features. My contractor sucked. I'd never use him again, that's for sure! I do have a microwave that is also a convection oven. I rarely use the convection oven because I prefer my gas oven (GE Profile--it's great). But if I ever had to bake a lot of stuff, the two ovens would be very handy.

3. Concrete. They are great.

4. Waste of money?...nothing. I use all features. I have had to replace my Bosch dishwasher, however, and I got a KitchenAid. I wish I'd gotten a KA from the beginning.

5. Best $$ spent is custom floor-ceiling bamboo cabinets. Lovely, with no extra unusable, dust-and-junk collecting space on top of the cabinets. Also full glass door to back stoop for light. If that door were still solid, it would be very dreary. I also knocked out a wall to open the 12' x 8' original kitchen to the living/dining area. Now it's all open and I love that.

Actually, the best thing is the size and design. Everything is within reach and I've it a near-perfect work triangle. My counter-peninsula is wide and useful. It's has very clean lines and is minimalist, which is my style. Under counter lights are also a must for me. Oh, and self closing drawers.

Enjoy.

[ny biker]

My brother's advice to me: figure out how many electrical outlets you will need, then add 10 to that number. (His family of four recharges all their various electronic gadgets in the kitchen.)

I have a small kitchen in my 1BR condo. I was just so happy to get rid of the old, dark musty-smelling cabinets.

I love the soft-close cabinet doors and drawers on my new cabinets.

My floor is Marmoleum. Not as cold as tile but not sticky like vinyl flooring because it's made with natural ingredients.

My counters are Eco by Cosentino. Similar to Silestone, looks and feels like granite, but made with recycled materials. It's black with sparkling specks of recycled glass. The only drawback to black is that I think water spots show up on it more than on other colors. But that's not such a big deal.

Biggest lesson learned: pay attention to every detail and check the contractor's work every night. I found a problem with opening the under-sink cabinet door because it's next to a corner and was hitting the cabinet next to hit. After studying the diagrams from the person who handled the cabinet order for me (an excellently helpful woman in the local Lowe's kitchen department) I saw that they were supposed to put a 3-inch spacer between one of the cabinets and the wall, but the contractors had not done that. This was after the counter people had done their measurements, so I had to have several of the cabinets moved to add the spacer while worrying that they might change the overall footprint of the base cabinets and screw up the countertop order. Everything turned out okay, but if I had checked things more closely on the day they installed the base cabinets I could have resolved the problem right away when less was at stake.

Anyway it was a long and tiring process but at the end it was all worth it. Good luck.

[OakLeaf]

I haven't done it either, but we may be in the next few years, and here are some things we'll definitely be doing:

Electric outlets in the island, if you have one. One on each side.

LED lighting. It's expensive now - what you might do to save $ is to put in an incandescent setup for the time being, because the price of the screw-in LED bulbs is dropping very quickly.

Cork flooring. We have cork in our downstairs, not in the kitchen, but when we do the kitchen it will DEFINITELY have cork. It's resilient, comfortable to stand on, insulates both temperature-wise and sound-wise, easy to clean, beautiful, nearly indestructible ... and if you try really hard to damage it, the variegated appearance will completely hide the damage anyway. Best illustration I have to compare tile vs. cork: I dropped a plastic spatula on my tile kitchen floor a couple of weeks ago and it shattered. Shattered. Counterpoint: a couple of years ago I dropped a small TV on its corner on the cork floor. You have to look really hard to find the dent ... and the TV still works. :D

[ny biker]

Cork flooring. We have cork in our downstairs, not in the kitchen, but when we do the kitchen it will DEFINITELY have cork. It's resilient, comfortable to stand on, insulates both temperature-wise and sound-wise, easy to clean, beautiful, nearly indestructible ... and if you try really hard to damage it, the variegated appearance will completely hide the damage anyway. Best illustration I have to compare tile vs. cork: I dropped a plastic spatula on my tile kitchen floor a couple of weeks ago and it shattered. Shattered. Counterpoint: a couple of years ago I dropped a small TV on its corner on the cork floor. You have to look really hard to find the dent ... and the TV still works. :D

Hmmm. I'm hoping to rip up the hideous wall-to-wall carpet in my living room and bedroom and get new wood floors in a few months. Maybe I will take a look at cork. If only it could dampen the noise that comes from the condo upstairs...

[pll]

I love to cook. I enjoy function and simplicity over decoration and frills. An example is that you'll never find fancy crown mouldings or rope mouldings, or fluted columns in any kitchen of mine as I believe they are dust collectors.


I hope you share pictures of the project! I day dream with being able to remodel my kitchen. I'd go for a modern take. Like your dust collectors, I'd put top cabinets that are flush with the ceiling -- my current ones leave a "shelf" at the top, so it's storage space wasted. One thing I've seen in some European kitchens is a glass backsplash. I think it is a special kind of glass. This is appealing to me because the smooth surface makes cleaning easier. Here's a picture of a kitchen in Lisbon (from here: http://www.rbdapp.com/):
15925

[Blueberry]

We had stainless steel appliances in the home we purchased last. We remodeled the kitchen, but the appliances were too new to toss. I hated the stainless steel - every little thing showed (we cook and use the kitchen a lot, and I spent a lot of time polishing the &$%& refrigerator).

Wish we had had enough room to do a kitchen table and a bar area. People always wind up hanging out in the kitchen in my house.

[Irulan]

Re Stainless : I don't love it either, but it's the holding trend. Almond is out, colors are out, black is out.... stainless and white seem to the the options right now.


Biggest lesson learned: pay attention to every detail and check the contractor's work every night. Boy, do we know this one! DH works at home and keeps an eagle eye on them.

I am very interested in the composites like the silestone etc. Granite takes more care than one thinks, and even the resident geologist doens't want it.

I'm hoping to keep the existing floor for now, but I'm not sure how that will work. If it has to go, I will look into cork.

It's got great "bones" in term of general layout, and existing work triangle. I have a huge pantry that I'm going to keep.

https://picasaweb.google.com/penny.schwyn/Kitchen?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLLNp5vGqo6HWw&feat=directlink

[withm]

A few people have commented on having had problems with their contractors. That is too often the case and gives the entire industry a bad name. So let me start by saying that I work for a general contractor who specializes in high end remodeling. We, and certainly most of our real competitors, will bend over backwards to be sure the homeowner gets what he/she expected. Homeowners who go with the cheapest estimate they get, but expect to have a project worthy of House Beautiful or Architectural Digest, are setting themselves up for disappointment. While not impossible it’s probably not likely either. Talk to several contractors about your project, and spend a lot of time evaluating what one will offer over and above the lowest estimate. Budget concerns may drive you to lower priced components, fixtures but you should understand what you are giving up when you buy the $99 toilet (or insert any appliance). You might have to flush several times, but you saved $200 . Think about your trade-offs. Talk to your friends, and their friends, about their remodeling experiences, and get recommendations for a contractor. A more reputable contractor should be able to give you references and take you to see some finished projects.

1. What I wish I had in my current kitchen - a functional exhaust fan. This house came with a non-vented fan that is useless. And better quality cabinets. 30 yr old particle board disintegrates.

2. What I hate the most about my kitchen: stove is right next to the wall. If I am stirring a pot on the right side burners, either the spoon, or my elbow hits the wall constantly, and spills the contents of the spoon. You need at least 10-12" of countertop on either side of your stove.

3. What seems like a good idea - ceramic tile on the floor? It's hard on your feet/legs if you are cooking a lot, and EVERYTHING you drop breaks. Everything. Or worse, cracks a tile. Sure, it's easy to clean, but the grout gets icky, and well, everything breaks. You can drop a glass on a wood or vinyl floor and it might not break. I have tile right now, and would never ever have it again. My summer house has a hardwood floor, which is great. Heated tile might be nice, but you still have the hardness factor, and the breakage. I don't think heat makes up for those (to me anyway) drawbacks, but it’s great in a bathroom!

4. Countertops - I have laminate, it's over 30 yrs old and really needs to be replaced. My next kitchen will have soapstone countertops. We have granite at work - it looks nice when it's been cleaned and not full of lunch dishes and stuff, but it's cold, hard, and if you knock over a glass, oh well. It's broken. We put in laminate at the summer house due to budget concerns. It's very forgiving. Corian and many other new surfaces costs just as much as granite. There are a lot of interesting countertop surfaces out now, and it's one place you can have fun. There are some websites where you can play with your kitchen, change the floor, cabinets, countertops, and appliances to see how they all look together.

5. Biggest waste of $? Hmm, I'll probably incur a lot of wrath by saying granite but I really don't like to break things. However if you bake and need a place to roll out dough for bread, pies, cookies, think about including a baking center with a granite top. I don’t like appliance garages, but if you have a big and heavy Kitchen Aid mixer or a heavy food processor for example, be sure you plan for where you are going to put it.

6. Best $ spent - a quiet dishwasher. I replaced a 30 yr old noisy D/W with a new Bosch. You can barely tell that it's on. We bought a Fridgidaire for the summer house that's even better – it has great racks for wine glasses and bowls of any size. My Bosch does not fit my wine glasses, nor my soup or cereal bowls well at all. :( Task and undercabinet lighting. I wish I had that now. I am always chopping things in my own shadow. We did it right at the summer house. And the slow/self closing drawers are wonderful. We also got some pretty slick swing-out corner cabinets that let you really use that buried space at inside corners, much better than the lazy susan style.

If you are changing the layout, I'd want to be sure to have some counter top on both sides of the sink and stove and even on the fridge if you can so you have room to put things down. Our summer kitchen is not very big, but we have a great peninsula where the cabinets open on both sides, so no climbing into the cabinet to get the big pots out from the back, or the bottom. Just walk around to the other side to fetch them. We can have 4 or 5 people actually cooking or prepping at the same time. Many people forget to plan for a place to put the trash, and a place to put the brooms and mops and stuff, so keep that in mind. The electric code will dictate the minimum number of outlets - you can always add more, and that's probably a good idea.

The trend is for open floor plans, with eating areas in the kitchen. Quite frankly I hate that! When I have people over for dinner, I don't really want them to see the pots and pans awaiting washing. I also want to try to contain cooking odors, and we want to sit in the dining room and not have anyone at the table thinking about the kitchen or dishes, pots and pans awaiting washing. Then there were the 2 women who wanted me to teach them how to make a béarnaise sauce. They were aghast when I put in an entire stick of butter and however many egg yolks were required. Their looks were priceless but they ate it all. While it’s nice to have company and help in the kitchen, there is a lot of merit in Julia Child’s wisdom when she said, “Remember, “nobody can see you in the kitchen.”

[Crankin]

I have no issue with the beautiful tile in my kitchen. Yea, we have occasionally dropped something and it broke (like a glass), but it probably would have done the same in my last kitchen, which had hard wood floors. I liked those, too. At first, we questioned the wisdom of hardwood in the kitchen, but it worked. I have hardwood in my kitchen eating area and dining room now, but tile in the cooking area/entry way. My feet don't hurt, either, and I do cook. We did look into cork, but at that time we just couldn't spend the $.
And +1 on getting the best dishwasher you can. The one we got for the remodel, well after 3 years the top rack disintegrated, fell, and broke about half of our glassware that was in there! The same thing started happening again, so we got a Bosch a few months ago and I like it a lot.
I love stainless. Yes, splatters show, but just a quick wipe with the stainless cleaner after each meal does it. Same with the granite cleaner.

[goldfinch]

I've had kitchens with tile floors, wood floors, marmoleum and old fashioned linoleum. My favorite was the wood. It was an old floor but refinished with some extra layers of finish. It was very durable and looked nice for all the years we lived in that house.

The tile was ok but I did not like the grout line maintenance.

The marmoleum is in our condo. It went down in planks over a cork base. I have some issues with it. One is that the dog has trouble walking on it. She slips. It doesn't feel slippery but for some reason the dog has trouble. It also shows dirt. I got a light, bright yellow and it is very pretty but boy you have to keep it clean. Finally and worst of all I dropped a knife in the kitchen and it made a little chip in the floor. The chip always looks dirty. Most might not notice it but it makes me question the durability. It has only been in a couple of years so I don't know what it is going to look like long term.

The old linoleum is in our summer home. At some point we are going to replace it, probably with wood.

A friend has cork floors in their kitchen. The cork had a light color dye on it rather than natural. The dye is wearing off and it doesn't look very nice anymore. If you get cork I would get it without a dye.

One thing we did in our old house was really work on the lighting in the kitchen. We added two skylights. What a tremendous difference it made in the natural lighting of the room. That was the best decision we made. We also put in a gas fireplace on a timer. In freezing winter mornings I could wake up to a nice, toasty warm kitchen. As an aside, we also put heated tile flooring in the bathroom, which was incredibly nice as well.

[7rider]

So, for those of you that have redone your kitchens, here's what I'm looking for input on
1. What do you wish you'd put in and didn't for whatever reason
- We should have run an air duct to the back part of the kitchen. The kitchen is the width of the house - but the back half used to be a porch, so there's no heat/a.c. We should have found a way to run a duct under the island to get something to the back half, as it's always cold in the winter, warm in the summer in the kitchen. (New windows will help, but we are waiting to put a deck on the back of the house for those to be replaced. We need to find a money-tree first.

2. What did you put in that seemed like a good idea at the time, but you don't love for whatever reason
- I can't think of anything. Maybe having the flooring put in on a diagonal, instead of straight. The flooring folks recommended it because the walls really aren't true, but we have some angles on the cabinets and counter tops, and the lines don't match. It's a minor thing, but I notice it.

3. Countertops - what do you have, do you love it/hate it/too much maintenance etc
- Granite. Love it. Costly, maybe bad for the environment, but super easy to deal with and looks fab.

4. biggest waste of $$
- appliances with cabinet covering (fridge and dishwasher). I suppose we could have just had a standard face to them, rather than "hidden". Not huge waste of money, but an unnecessary extravagance.

5. best $$ spent
- The whole job. The kitchen works better. I love the second sink we put in, and I love that they are recessed. You can just wipe stuff right into it. No fuss.

[badger]

I re-did my kitchen top to bottom last spring, and there were a couple of things that I really wanted but in retrospect ended up being pains in the butts and expensive.

First and foremost is the cook top. I REALLY wanted a flat cooktop and a built in oven. I had a big, old, ugly slide in and felt those cooktops and built in ovens looked oh-so-lovely. Okay, so they DO look lovely, but the ceramic is a b*tch to keep clean. I had to buy a scraper and a special cleaning solution and it's just a lot of work. The built in oven's nice, but because my kitchen's small I could only put it right below the cooktop, it's so low to the floor that I literally have to kneel down to do anything with it (put things in/out, look in on it). Next time, I hope I can have gas so I'll just get a slide-in gas stove (we're only allowed electric in the condo).

Another thing I'm not terribly keen, and I've been told, is the stainless appliances. That also looks nice out of the box, but not very practical (especially if you have kids. I don't and it's still hard to keep clean).

I went for the quartz countertop, and while I love it, I'm not sure if the colour was the best (I got a speckled white-ish/grey-ish pattern - it's Caesarstone's "Atlantic Salt"). It's beautiful, but I can't see any dirt on it. So, depending on your style of cleanliness, it's either good or bad. I'd hate to think how dirty the countertop really is, I just don't see it so I don't clean it nearly as often as I should.

One thing I regret not putting in is the floor heating. I did in the bathroom and it's probably the single thing I just absolutely love. The bathroom's the best place to be this time of year. So, in retrospect, I wish I had shelled out a bit of cash to heat the kitchen, too. Though my logic was I wear slippers so I wouldn't have needed it heated, but it lets off quite a bit of heat so it would've been cozy.

Another feature that I absolutely love and am so grateful that I did was my kitchen sink. I got it from Costco. It's a double sink, but the divider is only about half the regular height so I can put big pans without the handle sticking out. And I love the faucet where you take out the nozzle. I don't like that it drips water onto the countertop from my hands, but that's a small thing I can live with.

I went with Ikea cupboards and I love them. I got the high-gloss, and it's a great feature in that it's a total breeze to clean.

All in all I'm happy, but I still see a lot of flaws that the contractor didn't do very well (like laying the tiles not flush so you sometimes trip over the lip of the tile).

[Irulan]

- Granite. Love it. Costly, maybe bad for the environment, but super easy to deal with and looks fab.



I also hear that granite stains easily, and requires annual sealing to prevent staining and scratching.Anything that requires extra maintenance if there are other options is not on the hot list.
I'm not sure why one would say that granite bad for the environment...... I'm sure the glue used is full of VOCs but there's no shortage of granite; most of the planet it made of it. (fuel used in transport? I'm really not getting why you might say this)


I re-did my kitchen top to bottom last spring, and there were a couple of things that I really wanted but in retrospect ended up being pains in the butts and expensive.

First and foremost is the cook top. I REALLY wanted a flat cooktop and a built in oven. I had a big, old, ugly slide in and felt those cooktops and built in ovens looked oh-so-lovely. Okay, so they DO look lovely, but the ceramic is a b*tch to keep clean. I had to buy a scraper and a special cleaning solution and it's just a lot of work. The built in oven's nice, but because my kitchen's small I could only put it right below the cooktop, it's so low to the floor that I literally have to kneel down to do anything with it (put things in/out, look in on it). Next time, I hope I can have gas so I'll just get a slide-in gas stove (we're only allowed electric in the condo).

Another thing I'm not terribly keen, and I've been told, is the stainless appliances. That also looks nice out of the box, but not very practical (especially if you have kids. I don't and it's still hard to keep clean).


I've had a ceramic electric cooktop for about 12 years and I don't have any trouble keeping it clean. So that must vary on cooking and cleaning style. We had a gas line run during the addtion, so I will be getting gas and possibly a dual fuel stove.

I don't love stainless either, but anything I can find on "trends" says it's here to stay. That, or white, or matching your cabinet fronts. Black is out, colors are out. So I guess stainless it is.

[SheFly]

The one thing I HATE about my kitchen remodel - buying a sink with a built in soap dispenser. Small, yes, in the grand scheme, but that thing has been a pain in my butt since day 1. It clogs constantly, creates a big mess, and promotes MORE soap use than less. We've given up now, and it just sits there. Since there is a whole for it, I can't just take it out.

We built the counters in our kitchen ourselves (OK, DH did it all - I did nothing). We used 12x12 granite floor tiles that I fell in love with. They were on clearance. Seven years later, and I still like them. The only thing I don't like, necessarily, is the grout - it's starting to chip now, but I think we could just regrout. I have NEVER sealed the granite. It is dark, unstained and doesn't show the dirt.

Oh - and I LOVE my pantry. It's a small walk-in, and it is the most AWESOME. THING. EVER!

We have wood floors since the area is open to my living/dining room (another thing I love). They do mark if you drop something on them, and they are light, so show the dirt, but I wouldn't trade them either. The stainless appliances are a challenge, but you can get some that LOOK stainless, but really aren't (we had a Frigidaire fridge that was like that - loved it!). I have black appliances in my vacation home, and like those better - I don't care if they aren't the trend ;).

I also have a counter height peninsula. This gives me lots of space to spread out on the counter when I am cooking/baking. HAving the counter higher would have divided the space too awkwardly.

Lots of good suggestions here, but ultimately, go with what YOU love. As I said - seven years later, and I am still excited about my kitchen, even with its flaws ;).

SheFly

[ny biker]

I love the second sink we put in, and I love that they are recessed. You can just wipe stuff right into it. No fuss.

Yes, recessed sinks are wonderful.

[Crankin]

I noticed a lot of comments about tile grout. Did you seal it? Our tile guy was quite an artisan and told us that hardly anyone does this, and then they complain. DH sealed ours and it looks fine 7 years later. So does the tile in the 2 baths DH did himself.
I had a ceramic cooktop in my last house. It was a horrible pain to clean.

[Chile Pepper]

I also hear that granite stains easily, and requires annual sealing to prevent staining and scratching.

Marble stains. Granite is harder and does not stain. I've had mine for 11 years and haven't done a thing to it since it was installed--and it was only polished for installation.

[Trek-chick]

We are still in the process of re-doing the kitchen. We knew it would go slow...we decided to buy items and pay off as we go, before we get into a huge debt for the kitchen. We have done all the work ourself except install the granite counter tops.

We saved some money by painting the cabinets we had (White oil based paint__looks great!!) all we have left is, to put in the molding and get some pantry shelving for my new pantry. light for sink area and DH will make a kitchen Island for me.

I love it--old style had pink counters with blue back splash UGH!!! Now, all colors are neutral earth tones and I have colorful dinner ware and accents :)

[7rider]

I'm not sure why one would say that granite bad for the environment...... I'm sure the glue used is full of VOCs but there's no shortage of granite; most of the planet it made of it. (fuel used in transport? I'm really not getting why you might say this)
.

Honestly, I'm not sure why, either. DH and I were watching a show on the local home improvement channel recently ("Love it or List it" I think), where the whiny couple who just absolutely had to be green about everything absolutely did NOT want granite. You would think from the way the woman reacted, she was being poked with a cattle prod. :rolleyes: Anyway, Yeah, the planet is mostly rock - but it is heavy to cut and ship around the globe. Maybe that was her gripe? I dunno.

We went with a dark granite and while it is VERY overdue for a re-sealing - particularly around the sink areas that see a lot of use - after 5 years it's been virtually indestructible. Perhaps my DH and I are not as hard on it as a family of 5 or so, but it's been great.

[ny biker]

Honestly, I'm not sure why, either. DH and I were watching a show on the local home improvement channel recently ("Love it or List it" I think), where the whiny couple who just absolutely had to be green about everything absolutely did NOT want granite. You would think from the way the woman reacted, she was being poked with a cattle prod. :rolleyes: Anyway, Yeah, the planet is mostly rock - but it is heavy to cut and ship around the globe. Maybe that was her gripe? I dunno.

Production process (quarrying) as well as transportation, according to this article:

http://greenhomeguide.com/know-how/article/choose-the-best-countertop-material-for-your-homeand-the-environment

I watched Love it or List it once and wanted to throw things at every person on the show. Never again.

[Thorn]

Interesting thread. My tastes run a little less than most here, but the one thing we did that we both absolutely love is a counter top that is 2" higher than standard. I'm taller and I wanted a slightly higher counter top in one section of the kitchen for food prep. DH is 5'6" and, now, the major chef in the house, and he thinks that counter is the best place for chopping and kneading bread. Were we to do the kitchen again, all the counters would be that height.

[snapdragen]

I miss my double ovens. Now we have a single, which most of the time is fine. But when I making a big dinner for all the family, I'd sure like to have that second oven. We have a corner cabinet with a turntable inside, it's great. (Don't spin it too fast!)

We have tile counters, which I hate, and crown molding above the cabinets, which I also hate. Oh, and the big assed light the contractor talked us into. It will be replaced soon.

[divingbiker]

Love my granite countertop, and wish I'd put it in years ago. I was told it doesn't need re-sealing for 10 years.

Love the quiet dishwasher.

Love the water/ice dispenser in the freezer door.

Love having a convection oven so I can roast two cookie sheets of veggies at the same time.

[missjean]

We did our kitchen many years ago so much would change if/when we remodel, but I will keep the big triple window over the sink. We sacrificed some cabinet space to put it in but it was worth it for all the light.


.

[OakLeaf]

Oh, and if your budget is big, I totally covet a gas range/electric stove. Best of both worlds in terms of temperature control.

I don't think I can overstate the hardness of tile. Yeah, if I drop something glass or even Corning glass, I expect it to break no matter the surface. Plastic, granted the little shards aren't as dangerous as glass shards (and the other thing about tile is, the glass shards will scatter over a much larger area), but that spatula was not the first plastic thing I've shattered by dropping it on our kitchen or bathroom tile. (Yeah, I know I should just hold onto things tighter. :rolleyes:)

[luvmyguys]

Production process (quarrying) as well as transportation, according to this article:

http://greenhomeguide.com/know-how/article/choose-the-best-countertop-material-for-your-homeand-the-environment

I watched Love it or List it once and wanted to throw things at every person on the show. Never again.

We call it the "WHERE DO THEY FIND THESE PEOPLE?????" show.

[Irulan]

re dual fuel stoves, yes, that might be in our budget. We had a gas line run a couple of years ago in anticipation of this someday project.
re going out of your way to use green products. It can be a good choice, but I have a friend who wanted to import ultra green interior paint from Europe for their green remodel. Let's not factor in shipping cost from Europe, shall we? How green is that?

Anyone have any good design resource websites? After sharing my "as-is" photos on another site, I've gottten some great ideas that I never would have thought of.

[emily_in_nc]

Yes on cabinets that go to the ceiling -- no dusty cabinet tops (been there).

Yes on stainless steel appliances -- they do need fingerprint cleaning, but not so bad with just the two of us, and they are pretty. We'd had white for 12 years, so I was ready for a change. I do wish some other options would come out, though...wonder what the next big thing will be. We had black in one house, but I never really liked them as I tend to be a light color gal.

NO NO NO on speckly tan Corian-copy solid-surface countertops. We'd had white Gibraltar (another copycat) and speckly real Corian before, and both barely showed scratches. This stuff, whatever it is (can't recall) shows every scratch and looks bad after just 1.5 years. It was as expensive as granite when we made our choices while building our condo. The only two granite choices were SO ugly, though (black with orange-ish and orange-ish with black) that I just couldn't choose one of them. Now I wish I had -- especially since the potential buyers of our condo are lamenting that it doesn't have granite and are going to to want a concession to replace the countertops. Urg. Next time I'll either choose granite or quartz or silestone or soapstone or concrete -- no more solid-surface.

No on tile floors -- the wide, rough grout catches food and stains. And as everyone has said, it's so hard underfoot. Had hardwood for a decade before this and much prefer it. Cork sounds great too -- will strongly consider it for our next kitchen!

[emily_in_nc]

Yes on cabinets that go to the ceiling -- no dusty cabinet tops (been there).

Yes on stainless steel appliances -- they do need fingerprint cleaning, but not so bad with just the two of us, and they are pretty. We'd had white for 12 years, so I was ready for a change. I do wish some other options would come out, though...wonder what the next big thing will be. We had black in one house, but I never really liked them as I tend to be a light color gal.

NO NO NO on speckly tan Corian-copy solid-surface countertops. We'd had white Gibraltar (another copycat) and speckly real Corian before, and both barely showed scratches. This stuff, whatever it is (can't recall) shows every scratch and looks bad after just 1.5 years. It was as expensive as granite when we made our choices while building our condo. The only two granite choices were SO ugly, though (black with orange-ish and orange-ish with black) that I just couldn't choose one of them. Now I wish I had -- especially since the potential buyers of our condo are lamenting that it doesn't have granite and are going to to want a concession to replace the countertops. Urg. Next time I'll either choose granite or quartz or silestone or soapstone or concrete -- no more solid-surface.

No on tile floors -- the wide, rough grout catches food and stains. And as everyone has said, it's so hard underfoot. Had hardwood for a decade before this and much prefer it. Cork sounds great too -- will strongly consider it for our next kitchen!

[Possegal]

A new kitchen is on my short list right now. I have a nice 'footprint' as they say, but the cabinets look like every rental apartment I've ever lived in. The corner one, I practically have to climb into to get to the back of. They don't go to the ceiling - wasted space. UGH. My appliances were the original ones. Fridge went, so I replaced it. Now dishwasher is going. Stove is hideous so I'm thinking of going ahead and replacing both of them, and then may as well go with the over the stove microwave, to free up more counter space. If I thought my remodel would be totally rearranging the layout, I'd try and hold off. But it won't be.

But one thing I did recently was an Angie's List special where for $99 a local company comes in and helps you design the kitchen. You get a 3-D rendering of the new kitchen - cabinets, floors, counter tops, lighting. And no obligation to use the company to do the remodel. I would like the new kitchen to have some of the newer gadgety things to help me organize. Organized and me, seldom used in the same sentence. :)

So thanks for starting this thread. I'm enjoying the advice and feedback!

[pll]

Anyone have any good design resource websites?

You might be already familiar with this one: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/categories/kitchen
Here's an Italian manufacturer of kitchen cabinetry: http://www.recordcucine.com/eng/

Anyway... I love this forum! It's so much fun.

[Irulan]

Angies LIst? What is the name of the service? I am a member, I might have to go look that up.

[tulip]

Anyone have any good design resource websites? After sharing my "as-is" photos on another site, I've gottten some great ideas that I never would have thought of.

Houzz. And Pinterest, but I've never looked at Pinterest so I can't tell you if it seems useful or not.

[7rider]

re dual fuel stoves, yes, that might be in our budget. We had a gas line run a couple of years ago in anticipation of this someday project.


We put a Jenn-Air dual fuel downdraft range in our island (which I refer to as "a small continent" because it's so big!). I love it. A perk - even if power is out, you can still cook on the stovetop (just need a match to light it). Been there, done that. We went with a downdraft because we didn't want a big hood hanging down from the ceiling in the middle of the kitchen. It keeps the whole space very open.

[Irulan]

Houzz. And Pinterest, but I've never looked at Pinterest so I can't tell you if it seems useful or not.

Pinterest is just ok..... You have to scroll through a lot of stuff to find what you like. It's much better for specific things like "pot racks" than overall design.

I meant, like design as in layout tips and principles, 3d stuff to play with, different looks to play with etc.

[Norse]

We love everything about our kitchen remodel, which took place over 6 years ago. I love to cook and we had a tiny, L-shaped galley style kitchen, and now we have a big kitchen with a large bean-shaped island that opens to the living room. When you are cooking, everyone wants to chat with you and they could not do that in our tiny galley before. This works so much better. They can sit at the island and I can be actively engaged while cooking. Things I love:
- the openess
- 6-burner cooktop set into the island
- double ovens
- quiet dishwasher
- big sink next to a small one
- fridge with freezer on the bottom
- love, love, love our granite counter-tops (overdue for a re-seal, but they seem fine)
- the overall European/French countryside "look" we were able to achieve.

We have hardwood floors in the kitchen, as that continues with the rest of the house. For appliances, we went GE Profile and have no complaints. We had a great contractor. Finding one involved a lot of research, we then picked three to meet with. The company we went with was the middle-range bidder, a family-owned local business that's been around for decades and, in the end, just felt right.

For help with ideas, in the beginning of the process we picked up several kitchen remodel publications at Home Depot, and a few magazines that focused on kitchen projects. We also did what you're doing - ask people! A kitchen remodel IS a painful process, but so worth it in the end. Good luck!

[ny biker]

- fridge with freezer on the bottom

I have read that models with the freezer on the bottom are most energy efficient (due to the whole hot-air-rises thing). Unfortunately I read that just *after* I had bought a new freezer-on-top refrigerator to replace the old one that had died out on me.

[NbyNW]

A bit late to the party, but here's some feedback on our recent kitchen remodel:

1. What do you wish you'd put in and didn't for whatever reason
NanaWall Folding doors that would open out onto our deck. It's a beautiful bi-fold system that would have also given us a nice smooth threshold. Would have essentially turned that entire wall into a window. But prohibitively expensive. We went with traditional wood-framed french doors instead.

2. What did you put in that seemed like a good idea at the time, but you don't love for whatever reason
An additional 3" depth to a built-in bench at our dining area. Makes for a tight squeeze between our dining table and island.

3. Countertops - what do you have, do you love it/hate it/too much maintenance etc
Cambria quarts. Love it.

4. biggest waste of $$
We are actually very pleased with how everything turned out. I think this goes back to communication between DH and me about what we wanted, our designer and contractor doing a great job of setting expectations, and also feeling like they were looking out for us in terms of costs and materials every step of the way. Our contractor and his subs found some good deals for us on finish details, also made recommendations of what they have found to be good value on other projects when it came to some of the electrical and plumbing decisions.

5. best $$ spent
Hiring an interior designer. We hired a colleague of mine that I know through an association that we both volunteer for ... so I knew that she was like-minded to me as far as design philosophy went. The most expensive aspect of our project was new plumbing and electrical, since we ended up changing the layout of our kitchen extensively. The end result, though, is far better than anything we could have imagined on our own.

A few specific points that added some nice touches:
- heated tile floors
- tiled backsplash with glass accent tile is beautiful!
- used epoxy grout -- it's much more durable than regular grout and cleans up much more easily
- special drain traps to catch larger solids before they go into the garbage disposal -- we have an older house and our drain pipes are skinnier than in new construction, so we try not to put too much stuff in the In-Sinkerators.
-storage for cookbooks
- nice mix of accent lighting and task lighting
- 4-plug power strips instead of traditional 2-outlet panels ... the power strips are installed where countertop meets backsplash or under counter, so they don't interfere with tile design
- I'm short, so our designer lowered the cabinet clearance to 14" (18" is standard). This means I can reach the second shelf up in the cabinets! Woohoo!
- soft-close drawers

[Possegal]

Angies LIst? What is the name of the service? I am a member, I might have to go look that up.

it's a local company in the DC area. But maybe they do that in other of the Angie's list areas. It was one of their big deal specials (kind of like a groupon/living social thing I think.

http://my.angieslist.com/thebigdeal/welcome.aspx

[Irulan]

Due to a series of conversations with folks we met on our recent vacation, working with a KBD is no longer discussion. I'm have my first meeting tomorrow! I'm so excited!