Kitchen remodels

[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!