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Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 5:10 am
by Joe Malinowski
Starting to gear up to remodel my kitchen, have shoped cabinets and looking at counter tops. Leaning toward granite for the counters but still not sure. What are thoughts on countertops. Cabinets will be all wood construction no particle board. Getting into my busy time at work so most likely a fall project.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 7:46 am
by Rudi
Joe:

Congrats on going for the reno. Am glad to hear that you are not entertaining Particle Board cabinets. They are really low end and have a short life span. All the cabinets I build unless specifically contracted to build out of PB (these were mostly commercial installs where PB was required), were built from Veneer Core sheet goods and solid woods. At the price of new cabinets why pay for cheap stuff.

As far as countertops go .. I dislike molded tops. Am happier with Corian and other cultured tops in that category - there are 3 or 4 really good ones. Granite - well that is upper end and is most home owner's dream top. Ideal for bread making, pizza dough and so many other applications for those who love to cook. Cleanup is simple, bacteria has an extremely difficult time making a home in granite so on the health issue side it is one of the more desirable. If it fits in your budget that is the top I would go for. The bet choice possible to my mind.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 8:41 am
by Jim Becker
We redid our kitchen in the fairly recent past. I think we looked at about every countertop material imagineable. We dismissed granite because of the problem with staining and the need to seal it periodically to avoid stains. We finally settled on Silestone which is one of the "engineered quartz" materials. It is about 95% quartz and 5% space-age plastic. It is very hard, scratch resistant, heat resistant and non-maintenance. As I recall, the cost was close to granite. Been very happy with the choice.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:08 am
by CKCowboy
Joe
Glad to see I'm not the only one who's wife has them busy.
My daughter used granite counter tops and like Jim said they do stain and have
to be sealed often.
Being a woodworker, I am with Rudi. Good choice not going with particle board, you won't regret it.
I just finished the Laundry room, Kitchen is the next on the list for SWMBO
Good luck with your reno.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 11:49 am
by Steve K. CALIF
Hello, we did a complete kitchen remodel about 5 years ago. Knocked out walls, expanded area, high end appliances,the whole enchilada. My wife and I did almost the entire thing with little outside help. We did have a local cabinet maker do the cabinets in Cherry. I am sure glad we bit the bullet on that, they are so much nicer than the lower end choices. As for counter tops, we went crazy with all the choices and finally settled on Soap Stone. No one out here in the West much knew of soapstone or stocked it for that manner. We ended up driving to Southern California (about 12 hour round trip) to purchase the material. It is user friendly and we installed it ourselves. It is quieter than granite, a little less expensive, too. Takes some upkeep such as periodic oiling. We love it and are very happy with this choice.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 12:41 pm
by Rudi
Steve:

You know, I have seen soapstone all my life but have never conceived it as being used for a counter top. Art/sculpture yes.. countertops... nah. But I bet it is awesome. Another material that we discovered from our rockhounding experiences is Labradorite. Apparently it is being quarried commercially and the primary purpose is counter tops.

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image courtesy Pietrafina

This is something that I really like.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:01 pm
by Steve K. CALIF
Rudi, that Labradorite is impressive. Glade I didn't see it when trying to make our decision on the tops. Just a footnote to the soapstone material, we found it is used big time back east, up east or whatever. So much so, that the quarries are running out. Most soapstone these days is being brought in from other countries!
Thanks, Steve K.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 7:15 pm
by Buzzard Wing
I am a poor guy, very happy with Formica! Heck, it's even white.... I used 'Sunco' cabinets when I did my kitchen(s). Not top end by any stretch, but they are solid oak fronts and plywood veneer sides. Decent quality for the money. They are out of Easton Ma, turns out they are the building that made the news with the roof collapse this winter. http://www.suncocabinets.com/about_us/news.html Pretty sure the cabinets I have are made in China. Probably from US wood??

Depending on how much you need, I have some stone stacked up next to my garage. You are welcome to any or all of it :D Probably not enough matching for a full kitchen, but the price is right.

Personally I love the look of stone, but nothing fragile bounces off it. And I have 'house blindness', means once I notice something I pay little (no) attention to it.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 7:24 pm
by Joe Malinowski
Thanks for the input, I am a carpenter by trade and custom cabinets was our first choice, decided to price them out and not build them myself. Without counters we were at better than 30k, ouch. Had a kitchen design guy do the layout we had using high end cabinets, much happier with that price. We can do granite for as low as $58 a Square ft but we are open to some of the man made stuff out there too.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:03 pm
by Rudi
Joe:

Have you looked the Labradorite tops? tres cool a mundo 8) 8) 8) Once polished I think they are pretty much impervious to most stuff.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 1:35 pm
by daddydip
Joe how is the remodel coming along, I took our kitchen apart to the studs. I am going with the granite I just like it. My friend Bill is finishing up his kitchen and the one change I might have been willing to make, If i had not already invested in the tile , would have been to go with some of the cork product on the floor. It feels really good under the foot and if you were to drop glass on it there would be a lot less chance of shattering. Just an Idea. We are going with a little 30" viking professional series gas range with matching hood and for the rest, simple country fair she wants a dishwasher and plenty of open space. Maybe I'll take a picture when I get to it. :D

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 1:58 am
by gitractorman
Joe,
I re-did our kitchen back in 2008. We chose a solid surface material (Corian, but ours is some other brand name) counter top, mostly because my wife wanted a molded in sink. I'm pretty happy with it, however it does scratch easy, and she actually melted a section of it just to the right of the stove with a Crock Pot. The counter top actually sagged and I was able to heat it back up with a heat gun, and push it back up, let it cool, and you can't even tell that it ever happened. I guess that's one benefit of the SSM tops, that you can sand, polish, mold, etc. them really easily if you do have a problem. I also made a butcher block top out of maple and cherry for the island, just to have something different. Here are some pictures of my project,
Bill

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Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 5:02 am
by Joe Malinowski
Wow Bill that looks great, quite a transformation. We looked at corian and the university I work for has experimented using it in student kithens. At this point we are leaning toward granite but who knows.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:21 am
by Joe Malinowski
Update, well we are still in a holding pattern waiting for delivery of the new cabinets. We will be installing a new laminate floor similar to what we have in the rest of the house. The cabinets are oak fronts and solid wood construction, no particle board anywhere all shelves are wood as well. The counter top came down to the final choice of granite, it is what my wife wanted so it will be. I have several friends with granite and they are all very happy with it. So in about a week the major demo will start I have a electrician lined up as well as a plumber so now it is just a matter of me along with a couple friends who work in the trade getting our motivation in gear. I am actually pretty excited about this project and hope to have it completed by Thanksgiving. We go to a relatives for the day so I have no deadline pressure except my own.

Re: Kitchen Remodel

Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2011 6:59 pm
by Joe Malinowski
Well I got a call that the cabinets will be in on Tuesday. My wife was away for the weekend so let the demo begin. All that is left for cabinets is a sink base and lazy susan. Cut the walls open for the electrician, and managed to get it all cleaned up and functionable for now. Hope to do some storm clean up in the morning at my daughters house. Managed a quick walk in my woods, we have enough wood to cut for a long time. Many red oak trees with snapped off tops. Lots of dangerous branches hung up too. My sister and her husband picked a great year to buy a splitter. Hard to believe the damage from this storm.