johnatemp, ty so much for the tips. I'm going to copy this and save for DH. He'll need all the help he can get when coming time to paint :) kmc, I really do love the antique what. I just wonder what it'd look like with my bright white trim. rose, I'd love if lowes or someone here would offer making us a template, but I asked. They said they'd only do that if THEY were installing. I even offered to pay them to come double check measurements, and they said nope. I did find a local company yesterday. They claim the starting price for their laminate WITH install is $8.50. Goes up to $9 something, depending on the edge. And just $6.50, if I wanted them to just slap some new laminate on my existing counter tops. I actually talked to two smaller companys, both were about the same. Sooo..we'll see what kind of estimate I get. Both are coming out next wk. I just know I don't want to pay the $1400 for laminate that Lowes priced us at. And I know painting the cabs may be a turn off for some. But, I can't live with them any more. I really can't, lol. I've consulted my realtor, as well. She knows the area, the neighborhood, the block, my house AND my cabs, lol. And she says go for it. She thinks if I can pull it off, it'll only help set ourselves apart from the rest of cookie cutter land :)

Thanks for the bump. I've been dealing with some other issues with a family member that sort of put this all in perspective (but definitely don't make them any less annoying)! OK this is long: By way of background, GC did the installation himself (my kitchen was a relatively minor reno - floor, counter, minor "bar" construction, backsplash and appliances). I spoke with him on Wed. He said he thought there was an issue with the tile itself, he hoped tile store would cooperate, and he thought we'd have to rip it all up and redo it. He said he'd talk to tile store earlier in the day and that they were calling their corporate office. He then discloses that the first time he installed travertine on a floor was, you guessed it, my kitchen. I said I thought he'd worked with travertine before - turns out he'd only installed travertine on a wall before, not a floor. I think to myself, "this does not bode well." I should also mention there were earlier issues with the floor post-installation. There were two tiles that developed holes a couple of months ago. One was when I was wearing heels and I saw/felt it happen - the heel just sunk into the tile. The other one just appeared out of nowhere. That, to me, seemed more like a product issue. The cracking - when coupled with GC's admission that he hadn't installed travertine before and his statement that "if it required a different installation, the tile store should have told me" -- seriously?? -- seemed like it was his issue. (I didn't mention this when we spoke the first time, I just listened). He said he would re-do it for me, that he needed to make it right, without charging me for the time, and that he'd let me know what tile store said. So, he talked to the tile store yesterday. Not surprisingly, they blame him. I don't know how much they got into what installation technique he used versus what was appropriate. As to the "holes" issue, he had notified them about that a couple of weeks ago (and had called to tell me they would be coming out to inspect the tiles). Now, they're saying they don't remember the call GC made on the hole issue. On the issue of "how are we moving forward," he now proposes just replacing the several cracked tiles. (When he installed the tiles, he went under the cabinets, removed old baseboard ceramic heaters - I guess he thinks it would be too much trouble to redo all of that). I plan to call the tile store myself and understand what their position is (reminding them of the $$ I spent there on not only the floor tile, but also the marble subway backsplash, and also the hole issue. GC is coming out next week to inspect the tiles himself. I'm skeptical that simply replacing the cracked tiles is the right move (I also noticed cracks in a couple other tiles since last posting - mentioned that to GC and he admitted it must be an installation issue). I'm frustrated, but should also disclose that I really like my GC. He's been very professional, a good guy, pretty responsive and proactive. I think he just didn't know what he was getting into with this travertine. That's where we are, unfortunately.

I'm in the early stages of a full gut job, so I only have a few things to say. My GC is really good about telling me what he needs and when, but I did run into a little time crunch with the flooring because it needs to sit for at least a week to acclimate and I couldn't make up my mind. He is great about answering my questions and helping me decide things if I'm confused - like we just went over light switches and there was a discussion on whether the under cabinet lighting should be on one switch or two. I would say the GC should definitely help with how much floor to order. I didn't have a KD, so I'm doing that. For me that's the biggest stressor - making all the decisions and stressing about them. So from that perspective, I would say get your stuff picked out and/or ordered early so you don't add to your stress about choosing and getting it on time. Also, that way you won't find that a light you like takes 2 months to be delivered. It's funny because I read here about other people saying something similar and I thought - eh, I won't pick something that will take that long to deliver, I'm not that fussy, I don't have that big of a budget, etc. And then I found that there is no rhyme or reason to how long things take to get. I picked a $50 light that had a fairly common look, but it was a little cheaper than the others, and the delivery estimate was 2 months, so I had to get one of the $70 ones that looked similar. Not a huge deal, but just an example. I don't know how much we are over budget right now. Originally I was hoping for a $30k remodel, but I had to expand that to $50k, and I think we may go over that by a little. Things like extra outlets and switches are going to add up. He did a great job putting up plastic to keep the dust out. Unfortunately it made it so we pretty much could only use half of our house - kitchen, dining room and downstairs bathroom is behind the plastic. The main problem we have there is that we have a dog and his dog door was in the kitchen, but we are dealing. We have baby gate up on the one side and we just have to walk him more. Our dining room is the 'staging area' where we have our new fridge (which we are using), and all the other stuff that I have bought and they haven't put in yet - other appliances, sink, faucet, flooring, etc. We have a little temporary kitchen set up in the office. I have a pretty small house, so it is tight, and it wasn't possible to put the fridge in there with everything else. We are using a toaster oven, crock pot, microwave and sous vide. We are only finishing up week 2, but so far it hasn't been too bad. I make one big meal in the crock pot - stew, casserole type one pot meal - and eat that every day for lunch and two dinners. Then we make something else one night - last week it was london broil in the sous vide, this week it's meatloaf in the toaster oven. Then we go to family every Friday anyway. We go out once or twice and so far have gone to friends or family another day. Ok I guess I had a lot to say after all.. Here are some pictures just for fun. because I'm dying to share with someone but didn't have a good reason to start a thread about it. Before: kitchen - yes it's horrible, just horrible. I see some of these before pictures and I think, man wait until you see mine! We painted the cabinets red when we moved in because they were a really dark stained wood and the stain wasn't even in the best condition. I thought the red would be fun and funky since we were planning to renovate anyway.... then it waited 10 years. I was going for a french bistro kinda look. dining room looking into kitchen now: kitchen - they found that the electric was so bad they decided to take down all the plaster, then they found that there were no studs or insulation, so they are adding that. (one of the things that is going to push us over the revised budget) As of this afternoon or tomorrow there will be no back wall there because we are taking out that window and door and putting in french doors. - that's one of the things that made the original budget get revised. in the dining room looking into the kitchen - taking that load bearing wall with all it's duct work and electric is another thing that made the original estimate go up. (the board in the middle hanging down there is literally just holding the light switch.) Oh also, I think the work phase of ours is going to be about 6 weeks. I've been planning for 3 months. My GC is on site almost every day. I let the guys use our downstairs half bath. We have just pretty much not been using it. The floor is dirty, but other than that they seem to be being pretty good about respecting our stuff, but it's really only my GC and one other guy, and my GC is I would say pretty invested in making me happy. I swear he must get half of his business from my mother-in-law. He's always like, 'oh I saw your mother-in-law last week when I was working on so and so's house' and my husband's uncle called us to ask the GC to give his spare key back. So our relationship is different than just any GC. He also worked the rough supplies into the estimate. I was responsible for picking out appliances, counters, cabinets, tile, etc. In the end he got the cabinets for me because he got a better price wholesale, so he WOULD do that stuff, but I like to comparison shop.

Hi - Thanks for the feedback so far! benjesbride - Do you mean open the wall between kitchen and family room like in the last three plans mamagoose did? mamagoose - I was thinking along the lines of the first plan, but also wanted to move the door to the laundry over a bit to get another cabinet along the fridge wall. And extra cabinets and hopefully sink in the laundry area. My fridge is counter depth, but yes, I do plan to open that doorway up a bit next to the fridge. Although a bit hard to visualize, the more I look at it, the more I really like the 3rd plan - very open to the LR and with counter seating. I know I wouldn't have to move plumbing and electric very far, but I am concerned it would be too much $$ to flip flop the kitchen and dining area. Since I'm on a slab it wouldn't be inexpensive to move the plumbing, then once you consider venting, electric, changing out the window (so siding work), etc. it will add up so quickly. My siding is original (early 80s) aluminum siding. It needs to be painted, but otherwise is in really good shape. I don't think you can get it anymore and it's hard to work with. Any exterior changes I am concerned would morph into re-siding the whole house. If it was my forever home or if I would be here for many years, then I wouldn't hesitate, but I just don't know if it's worth it financially. I don't see myself being here more than 5 years and then it will likely be a rental. I love Martin Moore kitchens with the architechtural cabinets. He shows a lot of these shorter uppers with open shelving below it (see link). I think that might work well for me, but I don't see a lot of that done. Thank you for your ideas so far! :)