little kitchen "refresh" project in the works

[Greenman]

You are doing it right. Do your kitchen the way you want if and enjoy.
People get waaaaaay too hung up on resale value and that is close to irrelevant. You will never predict what a buyer wants, never.
Upgrade or repair as you see fit and what works for you.
Also don’t do all this stuff immediately before selling, do stuff so you can enjoy it.
Only stuff you should do for selling is fix anything that is broken and definitely something that is unsafe (steps, railings, your broken deck board) and price accordingly. Fixing or upgrading stuff in your home before sale is almost always a loss, unless you are like @Greenman and can replace stuff at cost.

And I've replaced a lot of stuff. All the basics, fences, retaining walls, patio cover and landscaping. Then the wear out stuff, roof and all new windows. Totally remodeled the kitchen, cabinets, tops, back splash and appliances. Corrected a couple of flaws in the original design. Did both baths as well. All new interior doors and trim, granite entry floor and bamboo everywhere else, scraped all of that miserable popcorn off of all the ceilings and skimmed them smooth. Obviously complete interior and exterior paint. Also built an entertainment center across the end of my family room, maybe fifteen feet wide. Cabinets, shelving, and a space that fits the TV without a single wire showing. Even did a little niche for the sound bar below the tv. Came out really good. Replaced the heat and AC, put drywall in the garage and epoxied the floor. Made the living room into an awesome home office. Twenty feet of granite counter, cabinets, floating shelves with LED strip lighting, and recessed ceiling lights.
I think that's all the big stuff. Might have missed some odds and ends. I have no idea how many weekends I've spent working on this place.

 

[Homerboy]

And I've replaced a lot of stuff. All the basics, fences, retaining walls, patio cover and landscaping. Then the wear out stuff, roof and all new windows. Totally remodeled the kitchen, cabinets, tops, back splash and appliances. Corrected a couple of flaws in the original design. Did both baths as well. All new interior doors and trim, granite entry floor and bamboo everywhere else, scraped all of that miserable popcorn off of all the ceilings and skimmed them smooth. Obviously complete interior and exterior paint. Also built an entertainment center across the end of my family room, maybe fifteen feet wide. Cabinets, shelving, and a space that fits the TV without a single wire showing. Even did a little niche for the sound bar below the tv. Came out really good. Replaced the heat and AC, put drywall in the garage and epoxied the floor. Made the living room into an awesome home office. Twenty feet of granite counter, cabinets, floating shelves with LED strip lighting, and recessed ceiling lights.
I think that's all the big stuff. Might have missed some odds and ends. I have no idea how many weekends I've spent working on this place.

that's part of the "joy" of home ownership... right? Relaxing weekends enjoying your castle

 

[Homerboy]

Shiplap installed this weekend (not painting though, that's the wife's job). Went much quicker than I thought. Of course I was 2 boards shy so had to do another run to Home Depot.



I'm completely paralyzed on how to do this sidewall still. I just went to the door molding and left it. I held some pieces going down to the baseboard and it looked ok, but then the rest of the room looked dumb without it and I think there would be an issue opening that little side door with it there. I tried stopping it at the edge of the counter and it was just too thick of an abrupt stop in the middle of the wall there. At this point I know I will never be happy with it, so I give up.

 

[Greenman]

that's part of the "joy" of home ownership... right? Relaxing weekends enjoying your castle

Yeah, relaxing.
Even simple things get expensive. Planted an Oak tree in the front yard twenty years ago, it was a stick about four feet tall. Now it costs a thousand bucks every other year to have it pruned and topped.

 

[Homerboy]

Yeah, relaxing.
Even simple things get expensive. Planted an Oak tree in the front yard twenty years ago, it was a stick about four feet tall. Now it costs a thousand bucks every other year to have it pruned and topped.

Yeap! All I do is walk through my house/yard thinking "That needs to be fixed/replaced. That needs to be fixed/replaced...." all the while adding it all up in my head.
I installed a hammock last summer in the yard. I've used it 4 times.

 

[Homerboy]

Spammer that bumped this thread earlier (post since been deleted) reminded me I never followed back on this.
These are the only two pictures I have handy on me. - missing one angle with the stove etc.

Turned out nice I think. We've tidied up the junk on the shelves and TRY to keep the counter decluttered, but it's a busy house.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Wow great work

 

[Homerboy]

Wow great work

We're not ENTIRELY in love with the countertop design, but they hide dirt etc so damned well. Solid color would just show every little spec.

 

[herm0016]

looks good. I like the Reed glass doors.

the counter looks good and it will still look good in years. the white countertops that are popular now look great when they are clean, but i have seen them stain and get scratched, they will look terrible in 10 years of heavy use. even the ones that say they will never scratch or stain will eventually.

honestly, i'm kind of over the stone countertops. our place has Formica and its durable, cheap, cleans up well, looks fine. we have been moving more towards function over form. i would consider Trespa, the black phenolic resin laminate stuff you find in science labs for a kitchen.

 

[Homerboy]

looks good. I like the Reed glass doors.

the counter looks good and it will still look good in years. the white countertops that are popular now look great when they are clean, but i have seen them stain and get scratched, they will look terrible in 10 years of heavy use. even the ones that say they will never scratch or stain will eventually.

honestly, i'm kind of over the stone countertops. our place has Formica and its durable, cheap, cleans up well, looks fine. we have been moving more towards function over form. i would consider Trespa, the black phenolic resin laminate stuff you find in science labs for a kitchen.

Thanks. Those doors were there already (from remodel 20 years ago) and we've always liked them. And yeah, the solid color countertops look nice, but the functionality is just crappy. Impossible to keep clean. Even the installers of our countertops (2 young guys) were like "these are going to be nice... nothing will show" They explained that after the install they have to leave everything clean and show-room ready and with solid/near solid colors (black especially) they spend more time cleaning than installing and it NEVER looks good. They joked and said "we're not even going to wipe yours down.. you won't even know".

Same idea with the black sink. We used to have white and anytime you'd have to do ANYTHING, it'd look filthy. With this black, we give it a little basic scrub down once in a while and you can't even tell.

Wainscoting (source of debate) has held up well too thus far. But we painted and sealed that carefully.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I generally don’t like colored sinks, I am a stainless guy in your case the dark sink looks great with the counter and gives some nifty contrast.

 

[Homerboy]

I generally don’t like colored sinks, I am a stainless guy in your case the dark sink looks great with the counter and gives some nifty contrast.

Thanks! We love the way it turned out.

In all honesty, we went in 100% thinking stainless, then saw the black and sorta fell in love with it. The trick was finding a 30" single basin undermount in black. There aren't a lot that are under $1,000. Ended up finding one and we love it... the only complaint is the bottom has no bevel to it to angle water towards the drain. It's not the end of the world but a little "bummer"

 

[Paperdoc]

Tiny idea we used when re-doing our kitchen years ago, since we were going right down to walls and, in some places, studs. A standard microwave is deeper front-to-back than cupboards and so it sticks out on its shelf. We had our builders increase the stud thickness in that wall to 6". Then exactly where the microwave would sit, we had them build a small ( about 4") depression into the wall with a 2" thick sheet of styrofoam insulation behind. When the wall was finished, it looked like a 4" deep pocket in the wall right where the shelf for the microwave is mounted. I installed a standard electrical outlet in a box at the back of that for the unit. The standard microwave shelf included with the cupboard set was designed to stick out about 4"at the bottom, so we had the cabinet installers cut that back to be flush with cupboard faces and refinish the edge with matching laminate strip. So now our microwave does NOT stick out from the surrounding cupboards.

 

[RearAdmiral]

I generally don’t like colored sinks, I am a stainless guy in your case the dark sink looks great with the counter and gives some nifty contrast.

We put a red sink in our kitchen remodel lol

 

[Homerboy]

Tiny idea we used when re-doing our kitchen years ago, since we were going right down to walls and, in some places, studs. A standard microwave is deeper front-to-back than cupboards and so it sticks out on its shelf. We had our builders increase the stud thickness in that wall to 6". Then exactly where the microwave would sit, we had them build a small ( about 4") depression into the wall with a 2" thick sheet of styrofoam insulation behind. When the wall was finished, it looked like a 4" deep pocket in the wall right where the shelf for the microwave is mounted. I installed a standard electrical outlet in a box at the back of that for the unit. The standard microwave shelf included with the cupboard set was designed to stick out about 4"at the bottom, so we had the cabinet installers cut that back to be flush with cupboard faces and refinish the edge with matching laminate strip. So now our microwave does NOT stick out from the surrounding cupboards.

Many microwaves have a top vent though that you don't want to cover up with cabinets. So, you have to be mindful of that.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

We put a red sink in our kitchen remodel lol

That's cool it is your kitchen.

 

[Homerboy]

We put a red sink in our kitchen remodel lol

Oh man we would have done that in a heartbeat I think

 

[RearAdmiral]

Oh man we would have done that in a heartbeat I think

Here's a pic from shortly after we did the kitchen a few years ago, messy but there she is hah

 

[Homerboy]

Here's a pic from shortly after we did the kitchen a few years ago, messy but there she is hah

View attachment 53070

NICE!

 

[RearAdmiral]

Is your sink a quartz composite or something similar? My inlaws have a blackish granite composite and my red one is quartz. It cleans up incredibly well. As was mentioned in the thread before about resale, I don't really subscribe to doing stuff just for resale either. I got the nice leathered granite counter I wanted and a red sink which my wife and I both laughed at initially. If they don't like the sink its like 500 bucks to replace. We did just get white cabinets which don't look bad or anything but we might do something more brave in the next house. Your space is looking great though! Well done.

 

[Homerboy]

Is your sink a quartz composite or something similar? My inlaws have a blackish granite composite and my red one is quartz. It cleans up incredibly well. As was mentioned in the thread before about resale, I don't really subscribe to doing stuff just for resale either. I got the nice leathered granite counter I wanted and a red sink which my wife and I both laughed at initially. If they don't like the sink its like 500 bucks to replace. We did just get white cabinets which don't look bad or anything but we might do something more brave in the next house. Your space is looking great though! Well done.

https://www.amazon.com/Kraus-KGUW2-30MBL-Workstation-Undermount-Composite/dp/B08GG79T6Q

Yeap. Totally agree with the cleanup too. It's hard to actually SEE issues in the black, but it is still super easy to scrub down.
I don't think we'd ever do anything but granite/composite now. We replaced a white enamel Kohler cast iron sink that we put in 18 years ago and cost us like $1,200. You'd get a glass of water and that thing would be filthy afterwards. In fact that sink is still rolling around my van as I can't find anywhere to dump the damned thing.