Any of you considering a kitchen remodel might benefit from this: I like that we are functional and we can cook real meals now (instead of convection micro/oven during transition). I regret my new white sink, the stainless steel finish on appliances, and spending extra on "good cabinets". home cooked meals! Its easier to wash large pots and pans... New white sink shows every spot, not pretty for constant coffee drinkers that likes to dump the tepid cup and pour a new hot cup often.... It's oversized too, quite hard to rinse with low water pressure LOL. The new stainless steel appliances look fanstastic after a clean..... We are a real family with pets and a lil one, something is splattered or spilled on them constantly. I had to buy a special stainless cleaner for the finish since we did not buy top of the line stainless (magnets stick to mine ) We bought good quality cabinets that hold more than I thought. I could have stored the same amount in ready-to-assemble cabinets and spent less money. Have a Happy Remodel
ww, all good thoughts. Just a thought of my own on the cabs......quality comes at a price, but so does "cheap". I've had both. When hinge screws start pulling out of oft used cabs, the inexpensive isn't. When the drawers start coming apart, it can get expensive. Little story about mom's smoking habit MANY decades ago. She'd light one up, then go do something else while the cig was in an ashtray. She didn't smoke much of the cig., before needing to light another. My stepdad mentioned it to her one day, and it made her think.......she quit smoking soon after since she wasn't really smoking. Your coffee story reminded me of that. We've got a less than ideal SS sink, a double, that I would guess is "middle of the road", and it takes a lot to make it look clean. It gets cleaned daily. Probably one of the most used items in the house. Our white stove and fridge have slight spots on them all the time, seemingly overnight. How the heck does THAT happen? Even after they get wiped down. Yours, and ours, are working kitchens. They get messy. I wouldn't worry too much.
We are going to remodel our kitchen in the next 2 years. I work part time for a contractor so I can get the cabinets at a discount. For those of you who don't know, most contractors have a cabinet shop they deal with. The contractor will send his customers to the shop to order the cabinets. The cabinet shop will quote a price that is higher than what the contractor will pay and the contractor keeps the difference. The guy I work for got all of his cabinets for free in his new house from the credit he had from the cabinet shop.
Yup, I am emotionally attached to her.. Kamado is so impersonal, i call her " black betty" (like the song)
I'm in the middle of a kitchen redo. Right now it looks like this. A few days ago it looked like this. The only work I'm having done by someone else is having the cabinets and counters installed. One of the reasons I'm having someone else do it is that I couldn't find good quality cabinets to install myself. We're getting rustic hickory with all wood drawers and all ply construction (no mdf board) solid surface counter with integrated solid surface farm sink and it's costing $10k. None of the base cabinets have those slide out drawer things, I'll install those myself next winter. Doing the tear out myself helps with the cost, but finding a local independent contractor helped a lot too. We bought a bottom freezer stainless whirlpool fridge (not french door), frigidaire slide in electric range and a bosch 800 series dishwasher. Total for appliances was $3k, we budgeted for $5k. The range will go where that one legged peninsula counter is in the second pic and I'll install a direct vent hood above it. Can lights above the sink and change out the ceiling lights. Ceramic tile on floor and backsplash. We expect the finished kitchen to come in at between 18k and 20k. I believe in using as high of quality materials as reasonably possible, which I wouldn't be able to do if I didn't do most of the work myself. It sucks having a makeshift kitchen in the dining room and eating out of a microwave and toaster oven, but it's well worth it when I know I'm saving a lot of money.
Plan....plan...then plan again. My wife and I sat in the kitchen forever going over everything...down to which cabinet would hold what stuff. It was painstaking but we have no regrets on anything. Buy the nicest stuff you can afford....thino long term. Most stainless appliances aren't really stainless...just have a stainless appearance. Keep your wife off pinterest...cost and scope will quickly spiral out of control if you don't.
We our going to put a new kitchen in. I like either white or black appliances. The sink will be SS. Single sink. Frigerator double door with ice and water. No glass top stove. Will have gas if I can set it up. Minimal counter top space. Wife will cluter up 6 ft or 26 feet, so going smaller and use pantry cabinets and drawers. Lots of good lighting. Walk in pantry for storing gadgets and larger seldom used items, bulk items. Resilient flooring tolerant of spills and abuse. Appliances will be quality but limited features. Already have a roll around island to use when extra counter space is needed. No dining room but will have a smaller table with 4 padded chairs. Far cry from upstairs, but no longer need that much or willing to take care of so much.
Under cabinet lighting can be pretty expensive. I decided to go with led strip lighting with a dimmer and separate on/off switch. I want to also run led strip lights under the toe kicks and inside the pantry.
Exactly why I'm using them. I've seen some of the led light bars for 40 to 50 bucks, but they're plug and play so there's that.
Wow, thats going to be FANTASTIC! Norky, I'd love to see more as it progresses PS, I went over a year without an oven or kitchen range....
IMHO bottom freezers are easier. We are in the fridge alot more than the freezer, nice to have items at eye level instead of kneeling down like the top freezer units
I'll post pics when it's done. Probably be complete in mid march. I'm no ball o'fire when it comes to remodel projects, or anything for that matter. We got this one. Weren't too keen on the french door kind. When I open the door, I ain't lookin' to see half the fridge. http://www.lowes.com/pd_51877-46-WRB322DMBM_0__?productId=50161485 It was either that one or a kitchenaid. I figured the dishwasher has a lot of moving parts, solenoids and other stuff, better get the best I can. In 32 years, we've never had a dishwasher. One reason we got a single bowl farm sink is that we could never wash big pots in the old sink, we should be able to now.
I wouldn't mind having some of those in other places. I have led night lights in every room and they're great for walking around the house in the middle of the night, but I hate how they use up sockets.
Never seen that one. Where did you find it? I like it. Electric heated floor under tile. Not to expensive to install, not to expensive to run but feels great in the winter.
