So, after finishing tearing up the entryway floor, I decided that I was going to rip down the kitchen wall

The idea is the kitchen/dining will be one big room. The dining will retain its existing wood floors (refinished) and the kitchen will be tiled with stone or ceramic or something (tile guy coming to check it out today).

Picked out all new cabinets and appliances, so once the floor is in im going to get them ordered...

 

Good idea.

 

You work fast!

 

amazing progress Adam!

 

Have you thought about going hardwood in the kitchen as well?

 

Don't tiles make alot more sense considering the traffic and dirt/spills that happen in a kitchen?

 

The new prefinished hardwood is extremely durable (Have you been to Vaughan Mills mall? Its all hardwood), and there is a growing trend to put hardwood in the kitchen now. In an open concept, I think it could add to the continuity of the home. But it comes down to personal preferance I guess.

 

yeah, i decided not to for a few reasons. one, it's going to be fairly difficult to get wood to sit at the same level of the existing wood floors, it would be uneven.

two, that kitchen door is the main entryway for us since we'll be coming in through the garage (which leads to that back porch) and wood isn't quite as durable as tile there.

three, the entire house is the same wood floor, it would be a bit silly i think for the kitchen to not match if it were wood.

so rather than trying to match, easier to put down tile.


also, i think having a seperate flooring will help make the kitchen seem like a seperate room while still being open to the dining room. this helps when trying to sell the house later, as it appears to have more rooms visually rather then "just two big rooms downstairs"

 

Yes, I have the pre-finished stuff in my house as well. Has a 25 year warranty but I doubt its as durable as tile. I do agree it looks good in the kitchen though.

Doesn't the one in Vaughn Mills have some sort of a coating on it? Can't remember exactly.

 

ya i thought that might be a problem. I was thinking if you were refinshing the old hardwood it may be possible to get it to match, but that would still probably be tough.

Personally I think I prefer the look of tiles in the kitchen anyways.

 

not sure.

 

Adam, what plans do you have for the new kitchen cabintry and counter top.

I'd go with granite

 

yeah, im sure with time/expense it would be theoretically possible to match the existing wood floor... but were talking alot of time/expense.

the entire base flooring in the kitchen would need to be removed first, then trying to match 80 year old solid hard wood with newer wood is never a quick job.

also, i don't know anyone who does wood flooring so i'd be paying top dollar.

tile, my cousin, and my girlfriends father/brother do stone cutting and tiling for a living... so i've plenty of support there.

i don't feel like im sacrificing by going tile, i think tile can look as good or better than wood. i've spent every minute of the day for the past week scouring through Trends magazine trying to figure exactly what i like. i figure i like tile as much as wood in the kitchens, so if i can save a bit of time/money there... its a win win situation.

plus, like i said, a big motivating factor is visually seperate the rooms while maintaining an open floor plan. this really does ease the job of resale.

 

I picked out some cabinetry from Home Depot, solid maple... flat face modern look. havent decided on finish just yet.


The countertops will be all granite, we had set aside a load of absolute black granite to use. But since colors are kinda up in the air at the moment im not sure what color well end up with in the end.

 

I assume that you confirmed with someone (structural engineer?) that the house will still stand without that wall?

Otherwise, good work

 

Tile is fucking awesome. Especially if you put down a nice pattern in the middle. I should take some pictures of my sister's stone tile kitchen it's mint.

 

doop, the wall is load bearing, so a support beam needs to be built along the ceiling (which is why i left framing up for now.

 

You can saddle that room w/ a nice support along the frame my dad did that in his house.

 

Don't load bearing walls usually have at least a 2x6 or 2x8 layed vertically running across the top? Doesn't look like a load bearing wall

 

Yep. Mom did that in her house too...

No biggie, just gotta go pickup the lumber.

 

In the ceiling.

 

Nothing to get alarmed about ... but you appear to have a ghost in your house.

 

 

yes, the house is haunted. i'm sure of it.

 

These cabinets are going in



Stain color not decided.

 

Seriously, WTF is that?

 

actually maybe not exactly those, but they look damn near identical. the ones i chose have sharp (not rounded) corners.

 

lol, in that pic... it's my stepfather. (slow shutter speed)

but in some other pics, there is this glowing orb. i know its a ghost.

and doors slam occasionally.


the joint is haunted for sure. the previous owners got the place for a ridiculous price 4 years ago, i'm guessing that means the people before them died in the place and their kids sold it off...

haunted for sure...

 

Nice work soopa... The open kitchen will look great. Put the ghost to work - if he is enjoying the place he should play his part. Good to see you got yourself a respirator - not just for the asbestos, but also for the lead paint that is probably everywhere there.

Tile will look good, the only issue with tile is if you spend a lot of time cooking/standing in the kitchen your feet/legs will get really tired. Wood is more comfortable with a bit of give - and vinyl is the softest, but is ugly. I just know because I have assisted a chef with some home catering jobs and spending 5 hours in some of these luxury kitchens leaves you in pain.

 

I don't know that wood has much give either... my feet are killing me from standing on them all day yesterday

 

Looking good Adam...

I think tile in a kitchen kicks ass. Since you've got some family contacts, that should keep the costs down (some of the imported stuff, like italian tile, gets expensive). Only drawback is that it's cold underfoot in the winter time (for some people).

 

Yeah, what is that shit. that's some scary stuff! He's pissed that you took his 1950's cabinets away. find a book on exorcism and do it now.

 

Cousin (mason) came by yesterday and gave me an interesting rule of thumb...

He says, in general, if a wall follows the roof line... it's load bearing.

 

your house appears to be a center plan colonial. Usually, those houses have bearing walls on the exterior - clear enough - and one or the other side of the side hallway, spanning the short distance between the exterior wall and the hall. If you want to confirm, do a little selective demolition (one inch hole with a plaster drill) and peek into the ceiling to see which way the joists run..... In truth, the span you're talking about, if the wall was loadbearing, is not big, and can be easily retrofitted.

 

Went and sifted through acres of stone yesterday...



Picked out "Absolute Black" granite counter tops (ironically they're not absolutely black, they have some dark matte grey fleck in them) and Black #1 (which is actually dark dark grey) slate flooring.

Flooring should be installed Saturday, counter tops once the cabinets come in (6-8 weeks to be made).

 

<-- Wants Granite countertops.

Probly invest in some when I'm in the house I know I'll stay in for good.

 

Why wait? You'll get your money back out of it when you sell. Kitchens are just about the only home improvement that will give you 100-120% return on investment when you sell.

 

I live in 2000 sq-ft house in a fairly new sub divison. I've always heard that you don't make back the money you've spend renovating these types of houses once you sell Not sure if thats fact but it makes some sense. The people buying the house proby won't appreciate the extra's that you've added since their main concern is the bottom line. Their simply not willing to pay extra and would likely buy the house next door thats selling for 20K less.

 

I'm thinking about reovating my kitchen as well. The cabinets aren't bad, but I'd like new ones. The countertop is an ugly green color - I'd like granite or Silstone.

The problem for me is that the kitchen is relatively large (for a townhouse), with big cabinets. I roughly priced out the whole thing and it would run me about $15K.

This is definitely NOT my last house, so I've been debating on whether to do it.

 

Nor sure I agree with this. I'd pay an extra $20,000 on a house with a refinished kitchen (if it had nice cabinets and a granite countertop). $20,000 doesn't make that much difference in the monthly payments and I would probably want to put in those features myself if the house didn't have it already (see previous post).

For me, the kitchen makes a big difference on my overall opinion of the house.