kitchen remodel- opinions

[anne]

I'm remodeling my kitchen, but still in the planning phases. Hope to be ripping everything out in less than 2 months, but i want EVERYTHING decided and purchased/ordered by the time I do demolition.

Anyone have granite counter tops, and dislike them for some reason? Any one have "engineered stone" like Silestone, or Dupont Zodiac? I'm leaning heavily towards one of those last two, so that I'm not ripping out mother nature's beauty just to stick it in my house.....but I love real granite. Reminds me of backpacking and mountain air.

Anyone used Kraftmaid cabinetry?

Anyone have a bamboo kitchen floor?

Anyone have a sink with just one big bowl rather than split in two bowls?

I'll make this hot tub related by stating that I REALLY need the tub to wash away the stress of making all these choices!!!

[Chas]

Well, fwiw, we did our kitchen a few years ago. We bought cabinets at Lowes, and hired a friend to hang them. Crown molding on top, and a light rail on the bottom. He did an excellent job. We had an electrician friend wire the whole thing as soon as we tore out all the old, so we have more circuits and better lighting. We put lights over the counters all the way around, and we paid a little extra to get incandescent light fixtures so we could put them all on dimmers. Very nice.

Our new microwave is way more powerful than the old one, and we would have had a real problem if we hadn't put in a new circuit just for that.

We didn't put any lights up over the cabs, as my wife likes to keep a few odd things up there.

We chose to go with a plastic laminate which looks just like granite. I needed to get things done, and the stone guy let us down. We figured we could just buy the counter tops ready made - ours are just two straight lengths with no fancy turns or islands - and it was a fraction of the cost of stone. In fact, we figured that it cost us less to buy and have our friend install them than just the labor to install stone counter tops. But we figured we would do 'real' counters later, the cost was low enough that we figured we would use these for a year and then redo.

It's been several years, and the counter tops look as good as the day we put them in, and the money is still in the bank.

We put in a dual bowl sink - but one bowl is big and the other is just a small one for the disposer. We sure had a bunch of gunk in the sewer line behind the sink - be sure when you open everything up that your plumber cleans that line out well. Better yet, replace as much of it as you can while things are torn up. That is a real common line to have trouble later.

We went with tile floor. A tile guy owed us a favor...

 8-)

[Campsalot]

When it comes to kitchen cabinets, I have one suggestion only; IKEA!  These guys make some great stuff in cabinetry and it is very, very affordable.  I'm not sure where you live Anne, but checking into where your nearest IKEA is located and then visiting the store would be great start!

[Ruby]

Anne,
We JUST finished my kitchen last week.  I did a ton of research on all of the questions that you just asked and I found a lot of great information at the GardenWeb kitchen forums site: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/  

I ended up going with Formica countertops (figuring I could upgrade later) but I doubt I will because I really like these.

A double sink with a larger one on one side and smaller on the other.  I'm too used to having a dish drainer in the sink and not on the counter.  

Cork floors which I absolutly LOVE!

My rustic maple cabinets were custom made because I wanted too many odd things like toe kick drawers, etc.

If I can manage to do this right, I'll post a link to my before and after



Well, from what I can tell, If you click the photo, it will take you to my album of the rest of the photos.  If it doesn't work, PM me your email and I will send the album to you.  Good Luck!

[Bonibelle]

Anne, You have selected a Masco product, so you are safely within the somewhat hot tub related guidelines!  Kraftmaid cabinets are beautiful and a good choice that is available at Lowes (if that is where you are looking). If you are going to have the cabinets installed, talk to the installer first. I selected Kraftmaid cabinets but when I finally found an installer that I was satisfied with, he only worked with Welborn.  It worked out fine because most cabinet makers have similar styles and stains.  Before you decide on your counter top, select your wood type (maple, oak, cherry) and cabinet style.
Granite is beautiful but it has limitations. For example, (I was told) granite can have fissures that are not visible. If you would put a hot pot on that area, the granite can crack. I love the look of granite in the right setting, but for my kitchen I wanted something that looked a bit warmer. Quite honestly,my kitchen didn't warrant granite.
I ended up selecting natural maple cabinets, a tile floor and Corian counter tops with an integrated sink.  I love my integrated sink because it is so easy to clean. It is a dual sink, a small one on the left and the large one on the right. I like that configuration because you can use the small sink to wash vegetables, (or bird dishes  ) while the large one can be used for other things.  If you are thinking about changing the whole configuration of your kitchen, try putting masking tape on the floor to represent the new design. I added a large island and I had to imagine traffic flow and how the island would change the way that I use my kitchen. The tape helped me to determine where the island would go and how large it would be.
You might also want to think about things like roll out shelves and a slide out trash/recycle container.
My kitchen came out really nice, and I have to say there isn't anything that I would have done differently. My sister and brother-in-law just did their kitchen and I was amazed...they copied my kitchen almost exactly!!!   Have fun, a new kitchen is a very exciting home improvement project!

[Ruby]

Anne, Check your PM

[Chad]

I'd personally pass on putting a wood floor in a kitchen. What happens when you get a leak in one of your appliances or kitchen sink, or when a pet knocks over a water bowl in the middle of the night or pees on the floor or someone drops a gallon milk or ....... you get the idea.

[Chad]

If I can manage to do this right, I'll post a link to my before and after



Well, from what I can tell, If you click the photo, it will take you to my album of the rest of the photos.  If it doesn't work, PM me your email and I will send the album to you.  Good Luck!

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

[Vinny]

I redid our kitchen a few years ago and I can tell you some things we don't and do like ... this is just our opinion.

(-) We bought the Mills Pride cabinets from HD which are also a Masco product, we went with the factory put together version not the DIY put together. They seem OK but we question the sides as they are not wood, they seem to be a low level laminate. My wife questions how long they will last and I have no thoughts on the subject. Probably should have gone with all wood cabinets.

(-) I don't like cabinets without wood face surrounds (I think they call them face frames - think old fashion cabinets). You have a limited door opening range and its really hard to get a tight fit and all old homes are not square, unless you can install them without a soffit or have the ability to use crown molding to hide imperfections, but we are learning from this mistake.

(+/-) We used laminate counter tops and we fancied the edges - 45º bevel. Looks nice but my wife wants a higher end countertop now. SS sink was reused - it's a single bowl and we never had a double bowl. I think any of the higher end counter tops would be nice ... it really depends on what you like. Natural beauty is OK to use as it is something you will admire for a long time. We probably should have upped our budget for a "better" counter top.

(+) We used laminate tile for the flooring - there is also wood grain - we have Wilsonart and think it's great. The floor was just put in last summer. We put the wood look laminate in the family room about 4 years ago and it still looks great.

(+) Lighting is VERY important. We installed recessed lights in out kitchen and they work great. The working area of our kitchen is on the smallish side so we only installed 4 lights. I went around with a plug in version of a recessed light to get the areas where they would shine. We did not install undercounter lighting but they really are a nice touch.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - When you work with the designer go over the plan at least 10x before you make a decision. I was at odds with the designer at HD and he really didn't seem to know what he was doing even though he was a 20 year professional! He designed my kitchen without spaces for doors and drawers to open. Luckily I am a geek and research all that stuff before doing a project and I knew better than what he was telling me.

If you have any more questions, please ask.

[Bonibelle]

Vinny is right about the solid end cabinets. Otherwise, you really don't need the solid cabinets everwhere as they are very expenisve and you will only see the face anyway.

It took me about 2 years to finalize how I wanted my kitchen. If you are thinking about making changes, imagine how your kitchen could be more functional. My best example is the trash bin that I added in my island adjacent to the dishwasher. It simplifies my clean up so much because I just take the dishes from the island, given them a quick wipe with a napkin and they go directly into the dishwasher. Likewise, my storage is located close to the dishwasher so that eveything is within easy reach.

 Vinny is right about lighting.  I did the recessed lights but   I also put in halogen task lighting over my island. Since my shift to energy efficiency, I replaced the flood lights with florescent lights and it makes the kitchen much cooler in the summer. The high hats with incandescent lighting will really make your kitchen hot. My kitchen is not fancy, but it is very functional..

You might also want to try HGTV website
http://  http://www.hgtv.com/

[Bonibelle]

Ruby, your project is awesome!  Beautiful kitchen renovation! Thanks for sharing. I love to look at home improvement pictures

[Ruby]

I'd personally pass on putting a wood floor in a kitchen. What happens when you get a leak in one of your appliances or kitchen sink, or when a pet knocks over a water bowl in the middle of the night or pees on the floor or someone drops a gallon milk or ....... you get the idea.

I was concerned about this too, but after doing reasearch on it, I found that there are 2 kinds of cork floors: floating or glue down tiles.  The downside to the floating is that #1 it sounds hollow and #2 water can get in the seams.  I chose the tiles because after they are put down, they are finished onsite  with 4-5 coats of urethane.  Also. if there is damage, it is easier to take only 1 out to replace it.  I'm also looking into buying some water detectors that I read about.  Still researching though.

[Ruby]

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - When you work with the designer go over the plan at least 10x before you make a decision. I was at odds with the designer at HD and he really didn't seem to know what he was doing even though he was a 20 year professional! He designed my kitchen without spaces for doors and drawers to open. Luckily I am a geek and research all that stuff before doing a project and I knew better than what he was telling me.

If you have any more questions, please ask.

I definatly agree about the 10x !  Go with your gut and think about how YOU use your kitchen.  The people who help you with your design have some great ideas and will tell you what other people like and what works for other people but in the end it's still YOUR kitchen!   There were some things in my kitchen that I wanted and people(my cabinet maker) raised their eyebrows and said they'd never seen or done it  (my rolling peninsula) but in the end they loved the way it turned out, and so do I.  I also had an unexpected surprise when all was said and done.  I ordered 3 breadboards: 1 near my stove to put hot stuff on when it came out of my oven, 1 on the end of the penisula for xtra eating space for an xtra visitor or 2 and another by the sink.   Well, the one by the sink happened to be right above my trash pullout!  I discovered it when I was dicing onions and threw away the peelings.

http://[URL=http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2505973180053772793bgtbpi][IMG]http://thumb13.webshots.net/t/59/559/9/73/18/2505973180053772793bgtbpi_th.jpg[/IMG][/url]

[Ruby]

Thanks Boni.  It was fun to do but I'm so glad it's over!  I General Contracted it myself and my head was swimming with all the decisions that had to be made!  I started the research in November and started demo on Feb 26th.  It only took 1 month from beginning to end.  Now the livingroom looks so outdated that I'm gonna have to redo that too!

[Bonibelle]

Wow Ruby, You are SO lucky!  My kitchen was started in March  and not completed until JULY!  I did have a mudroom added, but it was long done and ready and my kitchen contractor just moved so slowly..I think we probably spent about $1000.00 in take-out because of how long I went without a sink or stove or anything. That is another point Anne, get everything detailed in your contract. You may even want to add time constraints. My contractor started 2 other jobs while he was working on mine. ..so it really was a drawn out affair.  Like Ruby said, listen to all the good ideas, but don't be talked out of something you like...or into something you won't use.  And if you don't want to ...don't follow the NKBA guidelines