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Our Dream Kitchen

post #1 of 8
8/18/11 at 11:35am
Thread Starter 

My wife and I recently upgraded our modest 3br house.  In particular our kitchen is now as good as it gets for its size.

 

I always have been some what of a handy man so with my wife’s help did the labor.  After we finished I wondered why we waited 20 years since the kitchen is now a real joy when it comes too preparing and cooking.  I was never was much at cooking, but now I spend several hours a week experimenting and it is fun.

 

So what did we do?

 

  1. We ripped up vinyl flooring and replace with ceramic tile. A water proof floor makes cleaning up much much easier since water cannot seep under vinyl or behind the counters.  $1300

 

  1. Replaced old counter tops with granite.  Niceeee… $1500

 

 

  1. Put in 1 hp quiet disposal. No more jams. $300

 

  1. Bought all new appliances including a Meile dishwasher #1500, an over cook top microwave $600, and a cabinet depth Kitchen Aid French door refrigerator $2800.  Now food does not get lost in back and then thrown out 3 months later…

 

 

  1. We replaced an old four burner cooktop with a new Viking 6 burner pro series $1700.  What a fantastic difference.  Cooking time cut in half.

 

  1. And the my favorite was we took out our double gas wall oven and replaced with a new BlueStar wall oven $2300.  As it turns out a single BlueStar has almost the same capacity as a two standard ovens.  And what is also amazing is it weighs over 300 lbs!!  What a wonderful beast…and its temperature is spot on…!!!   And best of all no more bending down to look at stuff and put things in or out.  The racks are at exactly counter height and eye level!!! How do feel about that when your bending over your range??

 

  1.  I also built in several roller/slide out drawers under oven to store pots and pans etc..$80
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post #2 of 8
8/18/11 at 5:55pm

Wow!

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post #3 of 8
8/18/11 at 6:10pm

Tile is not waterproof in the way you describe. That's why they have a welded copper basin under tile shower stalls.

 

I'd have stuck with vinyl flooring personally. No grout, softer and easier on the body for prolonged standing.  Not as pretty or good for resale value, I'll give you that.

 

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post #4 of 8
8/18/11 at 10:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by phatch View Post

Tile is not waterproof in the way you describe. That's why they have a welded copper basin under tile shower stalls.

That is not necessarily correct, the tile floor in the restaurant I closed last year had a waterproof tile floor, in fact, in California, vinyl only works if it is seamless. The grout must be an epoxy based grout to be waterproof, however.

 

Personally, I prefer the tile, it is less slippery, it cannot be dented, scratched, or deformed, and it is definitely waterproof.
 

Ooops, the comment about vinyl was in reference to commercial applications, not residential, sorry about that.

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post #5 of 8
8/25/11 at 12:10am
Thread Starter 

CERAMIC PORECLAIN TLE WITH NEWER EXPOXY GROUT IS AS WATER  PROOF AS A GLASS OF WATER. 

 

Ceramic tile over wood sub-floor will maintain the warmth of the wood sub-floor, unlike tile over concrete.  It is a joy to walk barefoot on this type of flooring.

 

Vinyl floor will stretch over time and the seams will open up. Water will seep between the vinyl and floor and root the wood.  In some places termites will follow.

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post #6 of 8
8/25/11 at 5:35am

On the other hand, tile breaks. In the twelve years I've had tile rin my kitchen, I've boken ten of the tiles. Cracks, chips. pulling away from the grout.

 

pPretty much a wash with the vinyl.

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post #7 of 8
8/25/11 at 9:13am
Thread Starter 

To have a tile floor that will have the qualities make us happy depends on three elements:

  1.       Quality of materials: a) Tile b) Grout c) sub flooring
  2.       Sub flooring rigidity (I have 1 inch oak with ½ inch backer board and grout)
  3.       The Technique of laying the tale

 

I have dropped heavy steel pots as well as moved 300 pound appliances over tile with no cracks or separation.

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post #8 of 8
8/25/11 at 10:00am

Yep, got that too.  I'm just good at breaking things.

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