Reno

[talktooloose]

We spent a lot of the weekend planning the spring reno. Most of the energy is going into planning the kitchen which is the most technically complex and expensive part of the plan.

Friday night, two hours in Home Depot. Saturday, Rona, two kitchen stores, two appliance stores.

Things are starting to come together. We have a pile of ridiculous kitchen design books from the library which are almost entirely about the latest in finishes and not about the core of practical design. One book goes on at length about how to place your TWO OVENS so they look right. This same book has larger and larger kitchen plans as it goes on, the last being 32' X 32'. Good god! You'd need a monorail to go from point to point of the "kitchen triangle". Our kitchen, for the record, is 14.5' (the width of our house) by 9.5'.

Sunday saw a bit of a breakthrough as we finally decided to do away with the kitchen table (as the dining room table will be right outside and, in fact, on the other side of an open "window" between the two rooms). We also finally figured out how we can use our old kitchen cabinets in conjunction with the new ones. That decision alone saved thousands of dollars.

One question we can't find a good answer to: is a hardwood flooring a good or bad idea in a kitchen? It sure would make life easier to just lay the same flooring across the whole main floor. We're thinking bamboo, as it is durable and taken from sustainable sources, however we have yet to figure out how to work with the colour choices in bamboo. Raw is so pale and IKEA. Carbonized is a kind of dead-looking caramel, and the stained choices don't appeal or are overpriced.

Comments

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

My experience with the bamboo laminate is that it looks great and resists actual scratching and abrasion, but picks up scuffmarks and dirt very easily.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'm talk solid bamboo here, not engineered, but I imagine the same would apply. Maybe the dark stained bamboo would be a good option then. Of course, that shows off dust and corgi hair well.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

that's probably a different product from what we have here then - this is laminated stuff that comes in 4 ft lengths and you lay it like traditional tongue n groove flooring.

[ultramundanecom.livejournal.com]

Totally (http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/asktoh/question/0,,645067,00.html); keeping one kind of flooring across the whole level is great from a design perspective, and hardwood in a kitchen is certainly fine, especially if you consider a urethane/polyurethane finish on it. The kitchen people and contractors we've been talking to even recommended extending our softwood refinished floor into the kitchen. We asked, wouldn't that be a problem for drops and spills and such? No, they said, just as long as you clean it up immediately and don't let puddles sit around.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Look at you! Are you awesome!

When's your reno happening? How extensive is it?

[spizzy.livejournal.com]

What on earth would a regular person need two ovens for? Is that for billionaires with multiple private chefs?

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

We're trying to figure out how to do with no oven now. We're getting a counter top gas range for the stove part, which we use more than anything (along with our microwave). We use our toaster oven for a lot baking now, and if it was a bit bigger, we'd be laughing. There are also combo microwaves/convection ovens. All of these are half the size or less than a conventional oven. Big ovens are from a time when you made a roast plus your veggies and potatoes all at once in an oven.

My boss told me she has a double oven which is full-sized oven plus a half-sized one. She uses the half-sized one most of the time, thus saving energy.

The doubles in the kitchen books are all about pretension. It's about yuppies who want to be "ready" for that day when they will have all those big dinner parties and NEED two full ovens.

One hilarious quote from an expert was "Most of the time four burners on your range are enough, but how many times have you just wished for that fifth or sixth or seventh burner?" NEVER!! NEVER!! FUCK, DUDES!

[snowmit.livejournal.com]

Only at brunch. But that's because I host more than a dozen people, weekly and there is bacon and sausages and pancakes and eggs all going at once)

The solution: one of those plug in griddle things.

Bill hosts large dinner parties all the time and he's never wanted more than one oven.

Also, now that I think of it, I don't need more burners, I need more space BEWTEEN burners so that I can have all these frying pans.

Also warming drawers.

[lux-apollo.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Warming drawers.

[briseur.livejournal.com]

Hey, don't knock roasting meat with aromatics. There's nothing like the taste of it.

[briseur.livejournal.com]

If you're throwing a dinner party, it frees you up to do things at seperate temparatures

[painglass.livejournal.com]

I've lived in several places with hardwood floors in the kitchens and I have to say- LOVE them! Easy to clean, easy to maintain, and they look nice. If you're worried about cold feet, put some throw rugs out where you're likely to stand for the longest periods of time. My kitchen has a small rug in front of the stove, the sink, and Pig's cage (to catch anything stuck to his feet when he hops back out). I found carpet collects stuff and gets dirty ultra fast and the texture of linoleum tends to suck in dirt and stains. Never lived in a place with tile, so I don't have any info on that. As for Bamboo floors...can you order the blond blah stuff and stain it yourself? That's be a cheap option that'd allow you to stain it however you like.