Home reno/redecorating support group

[sk8pics]

I think laminate look really fake, and I don't like vinyl either.

It depends on the laminate. I have laminate floors in my house and get a lot of comments from people thinking it’s actually hardwood.

I had my foyer redone last year and got vinyl tile in the foyer. It’s nice but it’s hard to wash because of the rough texture.

When I redid my kitchen countertops, maybe 8 or 9 years ago, I picked granite. I considered Corian, but it annoys me that it’s mostly plastic with a filler, just on general principles.

 

[Aussie Willy]

If we decide to do the cabinets, we were thinking of going with something really neutral like white/cream or a blonde/ash wood. If the buyers want to upgrade or change it, they can pay for that once they move in.

Can you keep the carcasses and just put on new doors? Sometimes even just new handles work well.

 

[MacMadame]

I think most people want a move-in ready house. So whatever is in there has to be at least decent and usable. It sounds like the cabinets are not and so it's probably better to replace them with something bland. The potential owner may still want to change them but would be able to live with them for a while.

 

[overedge]

Can you keep the carcasses and just put on new doors? Sometimes even just new handles work well.

Hmm, I think that is the kind of decision we might have to leave to trained professionals My sense in looking at it is that the carcasses themselves are starting to fall apart too, but I will definitely keep that possibility in mind.

One feature that it has which I'd really like to keep is a sliding cutting board, that comes out and goes back under the countertop on one side. The kitchen is quite small, and I thought this was a really clever way to create an extra work surface without taking up more room.

 

[Kruss]

I have a cheap laminate in my condo and I detest it. First, it's way too dark so it shows everything - and we are very clean. Even when the floor is newly cleaned, we still see the tiniest speck. More importantly, though, is that no matter what type of mop we use (string, Libman strip mop or microfiber), the mop swipe marks appear all over the floor after it dries. Tried using various cleaners made specifically for the floor and even simple plain water, and yet still I see the mop marks. I would love to replace these floors; they're simply awful.

 

[made_in_canada]

When I redid my kitchen countertops, maybe 8 or 9 years ago, I picked granite. I considered Corian, but it annoys me that it’s mostly plastic with a filler, just on general principles.

I think you just pegged my issue with corian. It’s never appealed to me but now that you’ve said that I think it kind of looks plastic-y to me too.

We put in quartz countertops last year and I’m very happy with them. So easy to clean, though to be fair we had tile countertops before which are basically impossible to clean. It’s durable too which I appreciate because my kids like to help cook and if I’m honest I’m also a messy and sometimes clumsy cook.

I think with flooring, you get what you pay for for the most part. We have cheap laminate that’s awful. You basically just look at it and it scratches or chips. We also have much better quality laminate that looks much more realistic and is warm and doesn’t have the same issues as the cheap stuff. Laminate you’re not supposed to mop with water though so if that’s your main reason for looking for options other than hardwood @maatTheViking, I’d avoid it.

 

[antmanb]

@maatTheViking we had a long debate when we redid our lounge about hardwood/engineered wood or laminate for the floor.

I had totally taken laminate off the table but when I spoke to the flooring guy that eventually did it - he pointed out that laminate had moved on a great deal in the 15+ since I owned by first home with cheap laminate throughout. After looking at various samples we went with the laminate. The flooring guy did a full cost of all the options - fully hardwood floors were coming in anything from 5-8 times more expensive than the cheapest option which was laminate. Engineered wood was 2-3 times more than the laminate and he warned that might only get one or two sandings and refinishes out of it.

The laminate we got was a soft oak grey that has a wood grain made into it. Even kneeling on the floor and feeling it with your hands you wouldn't know it's not wood. It's 100% water proof, generally won't shrink or expand, or scratch. We've had ours down for two years and it's immaculate like the first day we had it put down.

We have engineered oak floors in the hallway (they've been down about 6 years) but the finish on them makes them seem more like laminate and they have scratched and chipped and shrunk in some places so there are gaps between them so dirt gets stuck. I'm about to have the lot replaced with the same laminate as we have in the lounge.

Personally in the kitchen I want a floor that I can bleach and mop and laminate is perfect for that.

 

[Kruss]

Laminate you’re not supposed to mop with water though so if that’s your main reason for looking for options other than hardwood @maatTheViking, I’d avoid it.

I've read so many different things about cleaning laminate, and several sources say that just plain water is what should be used. I saw other sources that say to use a solution of mostly water with a tiny bit of soap and a small amount of ispropyl alcohol (the alcohol speeds drying time). I've tried both of those, plus other cleaners for laminate, but on my cheap floors the mop marks show no matter what I do. So I'm convinced it's the cheap laminate that they laid down that is causing this.

The laminate we got was a soft oak grey that has a wood grain made into it. Even kneeling on the floor and feeling it with your hands you wouldn't know it's not wood. It's 100% water proof, generally won't shrink or expand, or scratch. We've had ours down for two years and it's immaculate like the first day we had it put down.
...
Personally in the kitchen I want a floor that I can bleach and mop and laminate is perfect for that.

What do you clean your laminate with?

 

[antmanb]

What do you clean your laminate with?

We have a product (I have no idea what is in it) that is laminate floor cleaner - you add a capful to a bucket of hot water. Otherwise I just use some bleach in hot water. With both methods you can see some mop marks as it dries but once it's dry no marks are left at all.

 

[MacMadame]

We clean our laminate with a special laminate cleaner. But also we mop up pet messes with disinfecting wipes. Well, back when we had some.

 

[pat c]

We have tile in our kitchen, engineered hardwood in the rest of the house. Our other house we had laminate in the kitchen and hardwood other places. I've liked them all, my only observation is don't cheap it. You don't have to go extreme high end, but quality counts and use the products suggested to clean them.

 

[maatTheViking]

I still don't know about floors, but we will probably go with engineered hardwood.
I frankly don't want to deal with buying the floors from a flooring company and the cabinets from lowes, I'd rather have them at the same place so they will be able to coordinate a little.
basically we need to
1 take out the ould kitchen
2 take out the old floors
3,put down new floors
4. put up new kitchen.
So there will be some coordination, if we don't want to be without a kitchen forever.


I'm not switching ideas from corian/solid surface to quartz - it should be less crack resistant, is that true?

Going to talk to Jim at Lowes again today, finishing up the cabinet design I hope. (Jim is an elder white gentleman whose facemask he can't keep over his nose. He does seem to know about kitchen construction though, if not superfancy kitchen design. We will get there)

 

[MacMadame]

We had engineered hardwood in our last house. They were lovely floors. We sanded them before we moved. Maybe they won't last more than 1 or 2 more sandings but that's not our problem.

 

[KCC]

When we replaced the floor tile in our kitchen with hardwood, the boxes of flooring were delivered directly to our house, complete with an attached invoice. The cost of the wood (hickory) was only $20/box wholesale, so most of our re-flooring cost was in the labor.

I love real hardwood and granite -- to me, the unique patterns are nature's art. We had a "lifetime seal" put on our granite and I damp mop (more like a wet jet, not standing puddles of water) my floors all the time and have for decades. We may have our floors sanded in 10 years or so after we no longer have pets. One other advantage with laminates is that they don't fade from sunlight, for example, around area rugs (at least I don't think so). You can tell a slight color variation in the hardwood in front of our windows near the edges of our big rugs.

A few other things I like about my kitchen remodel: I like the soft close cabinets; I like that most of my lower cabinets are drawers instead of doors so that I can more easily reach stuff inside; I got a built-in spice rack on the pantry doors that is especially handy; my trash can opens with a slight bump of my knee so that when my hands are wet or messy, I can open up the trash cabinet without getting yucky stuff on the front; I raised my oven up about 8-10 inches (cooktop and oven are separate) and have a low tray under the oven - this extra height really helps with getting stuff in and out.

Good luck!!

 

[maatTheViking]

Thank you @KCC. We really want the pull out trays in cabinets and soft close doors. We have some size challenges with the cabinets and what can fit. We're locked on the color and door style, and mostly the layout - we have the microwave and stove we already purchased last year, the microwave with a built in fan. I don't love that layout but it makes sense for a smaller kitchen.

 

[KCC]

I assume you are running the cabinets all the way up to the ceiling? Extra storage is always helpful for things you use infrequently or even when you stock up on every day staples. We keep a foldable step stool hidden in the coat closet mainly for those upper areas.

 

[maatTheViking]

We have a soffit above one wall, and I'm tryign to figure out what is inside and if we can knock down some of it.
Our celing is fairly tall so I don't think we'll run all the way up - we also have a cut-out wall so we don't actually have a lot of upper wall space.

I keep going back and forth on doing all sort of OTHER changes but I also want this to actually happen... (the space next to the kitchen is nook area we use a main dining area. Other the other side is the dining area we've repurposed to living room, on the other side is a fireplace on wall and I think its meant to be a family room but its now my office and cat tree and Legos area. SIGH)

 

[made_in_canada]

Might be worth poking a small hole in the soffit to have a peek. Ours was just empty space. I thought there would at least be something for the range hood vent, but no. It vented to nowhere No idea why anyone would purposely use up wall space like that but I feel like the 70s were not about efficient use of space

 

[MacMadame]

Our ceilings are slanted so we can't go all the way up. Unless they make triangular-shaped cabinets.

 

[KCC]

The trim piece on top of our wall cabinets is cut to match the ceiling slant. You can get a general idea of what I mean in this photos on houzz - look right above the refrigerator:

Southeast Boise Kitchen - Traditional - Kitchen - Boise - by 1st Choice Cabinetry Inc. | Houzz

Cy Gilbert Photography

www.houzz.com

 

[maatTheViking]

Since we live in townhomes, we may not have to take a peek. We have a property manager, who I think has plans for all the buildings (built around 2000, which means 20 years and everything feels... dated, without being 'charming'). He is out of town for the weekend, but said he'd look at the plans.

 

[clairecloutier]

So it looks like we may need to have our house re-sided. We currently have cedar shingle siding on the house, but the shingles are old and do not take paint well. We had the whole house repainted 5 years ago, and it's peeling like crazy. We are now contemplating re-siding rather than paying for another paint job.

Anyone have advice? We know very little about siding.

 

[BaileyCatts]

I had wood siding on my house, which was basically rotting and warping off the house. I replaced it with simple vinyl siding so I would not have to worry about painting or warping or rotting wood ever again. I'll look thru my stuff tonight and see if I can find the name of the company it came from as I can't remember it right now.

 

[fan]

Anyone have a cost effective place to replace doorknobs? We need 40 as all of ours have tarnished over 20 years. Prefer a “silver” look. Thanks!

 

[BaileyCatts]

I can't find my folder of stuff but I am pretty sure it was Charter Oak Vinyl Siding if you search on that to see descriptions and such. Mine was installed by a roofing company as I got my roof and covered gutters at the same time, so you could search for the top local roofing companies where you are to see who installs vinyl siding and see what they offer. Biggest sell point for me was no maintenance, no painting, no rotting. Once and done.

 

[clairecloutier]

I can't find my folder of stuff but I am pretty sure it was Charter Oak Vinyl Siding if you search on that to see descriptions and such. Mine was installed by a roofing company as I got my roof and covered gutters at the same time, so you could search for the top local roofing companies where you are to see who installs vinyl siding and see what they offer. Biggest sell point for me was no maintenance, no painting, no rotting. Once and done.

Thanks for the info @BaileyCatts!

 

[Coco]

So glad I found this thread, lots of great ideas

 

[overedge]

Anyone have a cost effective place to replace doorknobs? We need 40 as all of ours have tarnished over 20 years. Prefer a “silver” look. Thanks!

Is there a Habitat for Humanity ReStore near you? Their stock depends on what they've been able to buy or what's been donated to them, but there are great bargains there if they have what you want.

 

[fan]

Is there a Habitat for Humanity ReStore near you? Their stock depends on what they've been able to buy or what's been donated to them, but there are great bargains there if they have what you want.

Great idea, thanks!

 

[Japanfan]

Is there a Habitat for Humanity ReStore near you? Their stock depends on what they've been able to buy or what's been donated to them, but there are great bargains there if they have what you want.

Yes! Mr. Japanfan frequents the Habitat for Humanity store here. He recently got some beautiful tiles for the kitchen at a fraction of the price. The tiles have pink and gray in them, which nicely highlight our gray cat!