Monday, April 27, 2015

5 Biggest Kitchen Reno Questions Answered

Well, to be totally precise, the only kitchen reno questions answered.  Tomayto, tomahto.

From the combox of the reveal post:

1) What is the plan for the flooring eventually? -Kris

Sigh.  Physics is so mean.
My first and best plan was to match the floor to the adjacent living room, which sports the original hardwood, but the floor in the kitchen (and dining room) is so slanted and bowed that we basically decreased the ceiling height by an inch and a half in some places in order to get it level.  If we add on the thickness of hardwood flooring as well, it's going to feel really claustraphobic in here, not to mention the step down from the kitchen to other rooms being even more cumbersome.

Ah, the unswept floor of Monday-ness.  This is how the floor is now, with the kitchen being level and the adjoining dining room being curved still.  Miles to go before we sleep....miles to go before we sleep....

The subfloor is not really designed to hold tile nor does my husband like it for this climate (too cold), so I guess that basically leaves us with laminate as our option.

If you have seen or used a thin but durable waterproof laminate flooring (does such a thing even exist?) please tell me about it.  We are still very much in the decision-making phase here.

2)I am debating about a single sink or a double sink, can you explain why you chose the double sink and if you think it works well for a house with lots of dishes. Also, where do you store your plates? Near the dishwasher? -Rebekah


We did debate this decision for quite a while but eventually we decided to stick with the double basin so that two different things could be happening in the sink at the same time.  For example, something soaking in one half, somebody watering a plant in the other half.  Also, sometimes I'm ready to strain my cooked noodles and there are dishes in the sink (honesty is the best policy, folks).  I can pile them all into one side and set the strainer in the other if I have a double basin, whereas I imagine it would be trickier with a single basin.  Obviously the single basin has its upsides too (you can put really large dishes into it, it can be a miniature bathtub for small children, it looks amazing on Pinterest...) but as you can see in the photos, double won out.

As for plates, they are in a cabinet over the baking station countertop, not because that is the best place but more because that is the only place they would fit.  These old houses and their tricky spaces!

3)Why did you decide to do a separate stove top and oven? I assume you had to reroute gas lines? -Kate


SPEAKING OF TRICKY SPACES.

Gah.

Okay, so the wall with the stove (gas line) on it is too short to accommodate a standard range as well as  useful sizes of base cabinets and countertop space.  In the before photos, you'll see that they just had the stove overlapping the door frame to the mudroom/ laundry room, which was definitely dangerous and terribly claustraphobic.  In order to scootch the cooking surface over to the right, we had to do a cooktop because they take up less space than a range, but we couldn't put the oven right beneath it because the oven door would smash into the handles and pulls on the base cabinets and drawers when you tried to open it.

I couldn' just pick that domino up off the floor before I took this photo, could I?  Anyway- electric oven on the left, gas cooktop straight ahead.  No trim around that doorway still.  Shoes all over the mudroom. 


So we kept the stove where it was but installed a (gas) cooktop instead to save space, and moved the separate oven over to the perpendicular wall that used to house the fridge.  The oven is electric, so no gas lines had to be moved.

4) Faucet height: Does it cause water to splash out of the sink? I love the pull down sprayer and rather industrial height, but it makes me nervous and, a year later, I am still suffering with my old sink and leaky faucet because I can't decide! -Karen


I lurv mah faucet!!!!  Huge kissy face emojis!!!

There is no splash out of which to speak.  We do have a 9" basin on our sink, so maybe that helps to contain the water better, but I think it has more to do with the way the water comes out.  It's such a smooth?  Stream?  I don't know how to explain it.  And the ways ours is designed, it always comes on in the standard manner even if someone turns it off when it is on the spray setting.  It is greatness.

5)What's up with the built ins not matching mo' bettah? - Martha & Torey


This was not a specific question, but there were a few suggestions about it, and I didn't want y'all to think I had basically lost my mind or something.  Overall, the decision to go with white came down to time and money.

If we tried to make them match the cabinets exactly, that would have put us way out of budget, and if we tried to make them match not-exactly, I'm worried that would look cheesy.  It would also take a lot longer to complete the project of "shaker-ing" the doors before staining or painting, and ain't nobody got time fo dat.
Doggy photobomb.  Standing desk in use.  Fridge magnet-fied and calendar-ated.  Paint squares on living room wall (all of that unpainted wooden trim will eventually be white).  You can see the bathroom door over in the far right corner.
I was also looking for ways to make the dining room and kitchen into a more cohesive space.  Things in this house are VERY disjointed with all the various additions being built over the decades.  For example, there is another door on the other side of the kitchen- it's the door to the bathroom and it's white.  And the trim around the windows and baseboards of the dining room have just been painted same white.  And the trim around the door to the mudroom will also eventually be the same shade.  And then the trim throughout every room of the house.

Attached dining area, on its way to matching the kitchen.  I think I can, I think I can...
So in the end I decided to go ahead and treat the built-ins as one enormous piece of trim and be done thinking about them, know what I'm sayin'?  My planning bandwidth was just getting real low by that point.
~*~*~*
How was that?  Helpful?  Fun?  Not horribly dull so as to cause tears to fall from your eyes?  Any more questions- just pop 'em in the combox.

Loves ya!

p.s. If you are one of the people who asked one of the questions and I missed a link to your blog, let me know somehow so I can link your name above by your question.  I'm feeling like an internet newbie not being able to find y'all's links.
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25 comments :

  1. Want something that doesn't take up a quarter of a dishwasher rack/require awkward cleaning, but still strains? http://www.amazon.com/Gadjits-43131-Pasta-Strainer-Server/dp/B002UTX69G

    But shop for a style you like. This is an awesome gadget. The world appears to be divided into people who know what these are, and people who don't. I married into a family that does. :)

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  2. I think your BAKING CENTER is brilliant and was the best thing I saw when looking at the original photos! No apologies, just rebranding. And it is cool to have this prep and cook space here, especially with multiple cooks.

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  3. We put the vinyl plank flooring in our kitchen and dining room. It is waterproof, so i don't have to be super vigilant about muddy paws and leaky sippy cups. Plus it is really easy to install, you can cut it with a utility knife. Oh, and it almost always on sale at Menards, so that's a plus! Your kitchen looks awesome, I am super jelly!

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    1. Don't do it! We put vinyl plank flooring in our living room about six years ago. It is a big room and was the cheapest option at the time and looked much better than the gross green carpet. It was easy to install (another reason I chose it) and my kids and I did it together. It did look great for a while, but it's really looking worn now. I don't thhink it is meant for areas that get a lot of heavy use. Where the planks meet, the printed wood pattern is wearing off or peeling, showing the white vinyl underneath. We can't sand and refinish it of course. I'm thinking of painting it. I wish now that we had just lived with the plywood sub-floor longer and saved up money for real wood. My sister has real linoleum in her kitchen and it looks great. It feels a little funny on bare feet, but maybe that's just me.

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    2. Is it possible that you have laminate flooring as opposed to vinyl, Kate? I'm researching the differences between the two products and things are starting to swirl around all crazy-like in my brain!

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  4. Do a search on "ceramica tile" or "groutable resilient tile". This stuff is awesome. We just finished our front hallway--LOVE it. It looks like stone tile, but it's not cold on yer bare feet. You can choose grout or no-grout. I am in Michigan too, and this stuff is easy to clean, waterproof, warm, and wonderful. Check it out.

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    1. We have used the Ceramica groutable vinyl in 3 rooms of our house now. One is ungrouted, one is grouted and one we caulked the joints with AlexPlus. I like the caulked installation the best. Maybe we are just bad at grouting but I wasn't happy with how it turned out. Time will tell when it comes to durability and waterproof-ness. In general, I love the look and how easy it was to install!

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  5. I second the comment to look at the vinyl plank flooring. We put it in our kitchen just before Christmas and it is the easiest to care for, warm and pretty. With 2 little boys so far and an eye to the future we couldn't find much better.

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  6. Yeah, I never have blogged on that blog and in fact, just took it down. So no need to link to me. ha.

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  7. I can't tell from the photos, but do you have a small table or any other furniture in the area just behind (in front of?) the standing desk? or is that an open traffic area between dining room, kitchen, and living room?

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  8. Your kitchen is looking great, and how wonderful to have a big mudroom for all those shoes!:) Please save yourself a lot of time and frustration and don't go with laminate flooring. It will almost certainly get scratched with lots of kids and dog(s). It's also hard to keep looking good and clean because you can't just wipe up with a wet cloth since it will leave a smear. We already went the laminate route, and recently replaced them with hardwoods, which we should have just saved up for in the first place. Ditto with carpet. Never again will I have carpet or laminate in my house!

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    1. I'm sad that hardwood won't be an option for this room because of the thickness issues. It is definitely my favorite flooring material! Thank you for the advice on the laminate :)

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  9. So I'm wondering how you decided to go with your contractor? Did he order everything? It seemed like a pretty quick reno once you started? Any other advice for first steps?

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    1. The cabinet maker we used lives on our old street and is really experienced and trustworthy. He did could have done a more "full service" project, but since we were pinching pennies (as always), I did the selecting and ordering of almost everything. He got the wood and built the cabinets and also ordered the materials for and built the countertops. The appliances, hardware, sink, faucet, light fixture over the sink etc, etc, etc were all researched and purchased by us. The planning phase and demolition (which we also did ourselves) were definitely the hardest parts. Once everything was in place and the ball got rolling, it was really smooth sailing :)

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  10. You could feax finish the white cupboards to look like the brick or paint them with white board or blackboard paint.

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  12. you could also do chalk board paint on the white cabinets and make a message center

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  13. I see a few others have suggested vinyl plank flooring and I am a fan! We chose that for our basement renovation two years ago and I love it--looks like wood (has actually fooled a few people, amazingly), but I can mop it, it's totally waterproof, DOG PROOF, etc.

    In these photos the floors are dirty from subcontractors' feet, but you can catch the drift:
    http://thejoyfulhouse.blogspot.com/2014/10/dark-basement-before-and-after.html

    I highly recommend!

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  14. We have that same faucet, and I'm in love with it, too!

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  15. Your kitchen flooring answer is fibre-floor. It is sort like linoleum but much nicer and so easy to install the kids could do it. Seriously, just draw the pattern of the floor on the board, cut and lay. It is most economical for a floor the size of your kitchen. We put a grey-slate version in our kitchen a few years ago and we often say that it was the best thing that we ever did for our marriage! The link is canadian, as I am, but it will be at the US Home Depot for sure.
    http://www.homedepot.ca/product/fiberfloor-sheet-vinyl-home-depot-tile/981047#

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    Replies
    1. I'm going to take a look for sure, Elena! Any thin material that is durable is immediately on the short list. Thank you!

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  16. I should add that our floor is three years old (we have six kids with one on the way, four of whom are boys, and one very large golden retriever) and the floor looks exactly as it did when we installed it. We also put it in the bathroom. The product is incredible.

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  17. Flooring suggestion...cork. It's "green," durable, waterproof and warmer than laminate.

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  18. I love the white built ins. I think you should consider stepping down to the kitchen. Was that one of the options? In The Pattern Language, Alexander cites "stepping down into the kitchen" as a pattern that makes a house feel settled, homey, and well built. Bravo in painting the subflooring! We almost did that but did find local pine that was cheap enough. It is soft but whatever. :)

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