I meant to mention that I really love having a hand soap dispenser built into the sink/faucet. I like having the kind of faucet that swivels over both sinks, has a singe lever control, and the head pulls off to be the hand spray.
When we did our kitchen remodel, we tore up the horrible vinyl flooring (…the 1980s…) in the kitchen, put down hardwood, and then sanded all the hardwoods on the first floor. Now that they’ve all been stained to match and sealed it all looks like one big expanse of wood flooring - and I love it.
But you’re right. It is such a PITA.
It’s a HUGE PITA. As bad as moving.
When we did our kitchen, I had an “inspiration kitchen” from a Traditional Home magazine. Of course our layout was totally different, but as far as cabinets and finishes were concerned, I copied a lot of that kitchen.
If you can, try to get the tallest upper cabinets you can. Even if you think you can’t reach those top shelves, those can be the shelves that you keep any holiday or rarely used pieces.
I was happy to learn that going with the tallest upper cabs possible added very little to the cost.
If your kitchen is very large, and you want to do something spectacular, then using a kitchen design firm can make a lot of sense.
The kitchen that I did last summer was in a condo, and is only 11’ X 8’, so not a whole lot of creativity was possible, beyond choosing wood, counters, backsplash, floors, sink, appliances, and faucet. We we only changed about 1/4 of the footprint. However, it was helpful to have someone who is “good with colors and patterns” help guide and advise. When I chose the backsplash, it was more daring than I would typically do, but I love the way it turned out.
BTW…H and I took a “backsplash class” on Saturday at Home Depot. The next time a backsplash is needed, we’re going to do it ourselves!
Thanks for all the great suggestions!
I stopped by Home Depot this evening on the way home and picked up some brochures. I think my next task is to find a designer. Too bad coralbrook is on the wrong coast.
There are two big problems I’m pondering right now.
One is that our family room/breakfast nook is shaped like a very fat L with the kitchen in the empty part. There is a wide, door-less opening between the kitchen and breakfast nook (within sight lines from the living room) so while the kitchen is not open enough to the family room so that one can socialize or watch the TV while cooking, there is no barrier to noise and smells and no way to hide a mess. The worst of all worlds, I think. So I want to either add a door of some sort (maybe a barn door) so it can be closed off, or knock out a wall to make it really open. I have no idea how to tell if the wall is weight-bearing and doing this would require finding another spot for the refrigerator–so probably pretty expensive.
The second problem is that currently the stovetop is on an island in the middle of the kitchen with a vent that is supposed to draw fumes down and out. The fan is currently broken, but I don’t recall the vent ever working all that well. I don’t like the island too much either–it is a little too close to the sink which is very annoying when more than one person is trying to cook.
When I look at photographs, wooden floors appeal to me --like this one:
http://www.houzz.com/photos/36840573/Beach-Style-Kitchen-beach-style-kitchen-other-metro
but are they really practical?
Ha! I rest my case!! :)>- (Just a joke for those who may have noted my obsession with exhaust hoods and my contempt for downdrafts! 
)
Sounds like you want a great room solution. There are many possibilities, but it really calls for working with a designer, IMHO. I suggest continuing on with Houzz to get more ideas.
I think wood floors are practical. Every kind of flooring has plusses and minuses: it’s a matter of what matters to you.
I called the number 1 remodeler in town. They provided design, demolition and construction. Everything happened exactly when they said it would. The designer walked us through all the choices–countertops, cabinets, lighting, paint, etc. I have the kitchen I always dreamed of. It was pricey but perfect. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. I just wish my mother were here to see it (she loved kitchens and remodeling, she would have loved this one.)
Are there other homes in your subdivision that have your floor-plan? If so, have you seen how they’ve remodeled? Are any of those home for sale or recently sold? If so, they may have pics online that you can look to see how your floor-plan and kitchen were changed/updated.
In Tampa we were not restricted to using Home Depot products. Got our tile elsewhere since didn’t like any of the HD or Lowes products. Taking prints of photos (8 x 10’s on regular paper) of your current kitchen to the designer can be useful. In our old place I would have gone to the local cabinet makers but it’s different here. I checked some other contractors but liked the HD one when I interviewed him in our house. Buying cabinets can be independent of the contractor. Custom is not always better quality. I learned the differences in various brands available from various places. H was dragged some places.
To the poster wanting a lot of light- hope you have daylight (cool) LEDs- so much more light than others in any type of bulb- lamp or ceiling fixture.
We have just finished remodeling our kitchen. It’s still a bit of a mess because a pipe under the floor broke in the master bathroom, so we had to undertake a second, unwanted construction project. Some general thoughts.
- Accept up front that there are going to be some things that don't work out exactly like you want them to. Accept that you will spend more money than planned, and budget accordingly.
- Consider getting a kitchen designer, although I must say we had one come and paid him a retainer, but what he really wanted to do was sell us cabinets. He never drew anything up for us, but we paid him $500, and I consider the money somewhat well spent, as he did give us some advice that was worthwhile.
- Save your old cabinets if you have a place to put them. We put some of ours in the utility room, converting it into a kind of butler's pantry. So we are able to keep all our food in the utility room while the kitchen cabinets are used for all our other stuff. We do keep spices and baking goods in the main kitchen. We also put a bunch of our cabinets in the garage, and we are using them to store some rarely used kitchen and household items rather than tools and such. We also decided to keep a sandwich steamer and our large mixer on the counter in the utility room. This leaves our actual kitchen cabinets relatively free of junk.
- BUILD YOUR CABINETS ALL THE WAY TO THE CEILING. Yes, I'm shouting. Don't worry about the fact that you will need a step ladder to reach the top cabinet. You can use them to store the Christmas chine, etc., that you will only use once a year. You might consider keeping a library step stool in the kitchen, so you can just kick it to where you need it (they have wheels on springs) and then use it. Storage is always in short supply, so use the opportunities that you have!
- Consider having a few glass-front cabinets. Obviously these can't be filled with junk, but wine glasses and other nice glassware look really good behind the glass. You will want to replace the wooden shelves in these cabinets with glass shelves.
- Absolutely use under-counter LED strip lighting. These lights can run under the counter and well as behind the face of your -glass front cabinets, and it really looks good. They cost almost nothing, and if they malfunction you can just rip them out and replace them.
- Consider stepping out of the old mold for your flooring. We used a 6x24 mottled tile in a herringbone pattern. It looks great. Avoid just putting down some generic square tile.
- Consider buying some of your appliances off of ebay or Amazon. We saved almost $10,000 by doing this. One of the things we bought was a GE Monogram commercial-style 48" stove with gas on top and electric for the ovens. We like it, and the commercial over is one of the main center points of the kitchen.
- If space permits, don't limit yourself to one refrigerator. We had new, large, very nice fridge, but it stuck out 36" into the room, which was just too much. So we moved it to our utility room and got a counter-depth fridge for our new kitchen. We also have an old fridge in the garage. So we keep stuff we use all the time in the main kitchen fridge, but we load up the others with bulk food purchases, water and drinks, and lots of stuff that overflows from the relatively small counter-depth fridge. Also, the only acceptable refrigerator configuration is to have the freezer on the bottom. Any other style is like wearing white after Labor Day.
- Do not use a slide-in oven unless it is a commercial oven. I realize GE makes the expensive Cafe slide-in, but I would stay away from it. Use a wall oven and either a gas or convection cooktop. Glass tops and electric coils are so yesterday, so stay away from them!
That’s all I can think of for now.
If you are thinking of removing walls and can’t tell if it’s a bearing wall I highly recommend an architect. You want one that does a lot of remodelling work and doesn’t mind small jobs.
Re question in post #25, we went with hardwood floors, replacing previous tile. The rest of the 1st floor of our home is the same hardwood, so there’s a consistency now that I didn’t even know was missing before! I wasn’t sure about the practicality of wood for the kitchen, but talked to several friends who have had it for years and listened to my designer who uses a variety of floorings in his work. No one had experienced the water damage that I feared might easily happen. I’m quite happy with the hardwood floor so far.
It’s amazing to me to see all these posts expressing much of what we experienced. All very good advice!
@motherbear332 - I’ve only had my kitchen wood floors for a few weeks but so far, I love them.
Every floor type has its pluses and minuses, of course. I had tile floors before and hated how cold they were in the winter and how hard they were on my back and legs; however, they were really durable and looked nice. Vinyl - well, there’s nothing good I can say about those old vinyl floors…
Oh, and a slight tangent:
While we were in the midst of the “wish list” phase for the kitchen, I stated that the one thing our house was most missing was a real coat closet, to house the hats and coats and hoodies and backpacks. (2 teens, a tween + 2 teachers.) Our hose is a Cape, built (like much of Long Island) shortly after WWII.
It eventually became a project of its own, with a separate building permit from the kitchen.
It’s a 5x9 foot addition to the front of the house, a small foyer as you walk in. As you face the house, there’s a wall to wall closet on the right, a walkway in front of the door, and a bench with hooks over it on your left. We also got a small round mirror to put above one of the ends of the bench.
It has transformed our entire house!!! No longer is the living room full of shoes and hoodies and backpacks-- it all actually finds its way into that closet! Last year’s twice-weekly snowstorms meant that the bench got LOTS of use. And, as a side benefit, the living room was warmer because the cold stayed in the foyer a bit instead of gusting into the living room every time the door opened.
It was worth every dime!!!
It’s great that you were able to do that, in nearly every house I’ve worked on in this county the houses are built right up to the front setback line. So irritating as it limits what you can do so much. When we moved to current house, number one on my wish list was a driveway (which previous house did not have), but number two was a front hall (also missing from our previous house).
We had to get a variance because we were 6 inches too close to the curb. Fortunately, the neighbors on either side are both closer to the curb than our is, even with the addition, so it wasn’t a big deal.
Plan B was going to be a rear addition mudroom.
6" is definitely a various I’d go for and expect to get granted!
There are two major first steps a lot of people don’t ask themselves, and it saves a lot of grief for you or the designer(s) of the space:
1)Decide how much your budget will be, figure out how much you can spend, and try to stick to that. It is so, so easy to go crazy and want all these things and you can end up paying for it, especially if you change your mind once you have a contractor working on the job (change orders are costly as all get out, believe me).
2)From there, it is a matter of deciding what you want and fitting it in the budget. If you love to cook, for example, you may want to think of a professional stove. One thing my wife wishes we had done was gone with a separate stove top and an in wall oven, bending over to put things in our current stove she has gotten burned more than a few times.
With cabinets, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get decent cabinets, but it takes some research. We redid our kitchen 20 years ago, and the cabinets are Mills Pride that we got from Home Depot, and they have lasted wonderfully, and they weren’t particularly expensive. I don’t know what they are like now, for all I know they have cheapened up and make them in China now (they were made on Long Island when I got them).
Having enough counter space is huge, you can never have enough, and get a material on the counters that will last. I have through formica that has held up really well, and it is not all that expensive (the color goes all the way through, so that if you scratch it you can buff it out, won’t see it). Granite is cool looking, but it is expensive, but they have synthetic alternatives that are not so expensive that look well and wear well.
One thing I highly recommend not doing is getting a tile floor in the kitchen, we had that and we didn’t like it. It is very easy to break the tiles (and these were not cheap), and the floor also tends to be cold, and if you drop stuff, well, you can imagine. The kinds of vinyl tile they have now, or the laminate flooring, look really good, they aren’t that expensive, and they will last, and when you get tired of them, are easy to replace.
In terms of appliances, one thing to keep in mind is that they likely won’t last all that long, my experience with refrigerators these days is that they last about as long as the compressor warranty, and getting them repaired is really, really expensive. We have a built in fridge (a sub zero) that we love, when it finally started showing signs of problems after 20 years, we looked into new fridges. A new sub zero was out of our range, and standard refrigerators in a decent size and quality were well over 2 grand, and I was shocked at how flimsy they were made. We had the guts of the refrigerator replaced and it cost us a lot less then a new fridge, and likely will last another 20 years. One thing I do recommend is getting a higher end dishwasher, like a Bosh or Miele, they are a lot quieter than standard brands and in my experience last a long time.
My other big piece of advice, stay away from Kohler plumbing fixutres, our house was all Kohler and I regret it, they didn’t hold up well, and the parts for them are expensive.
Also know it will likely cost you a lot more and take a lot longer than you thought:)
Check out the August Consumer Report. There is a 21-page planner for a “perfect kitchen for you”.