Hi Jenny,

The trend in the new homes going up in my area is lots of different flooring and finishes throughout the house. My mom is replacing her carpet areas with wood but will keep the tile that is in good shape. She will end up with three different types. After we went looking at models homes, she isn't worried about it at all. As long as you keep the basic theme, in your case, contemporary, it will look great!

Hi houseful!

Thanks for the advice. That is good to hear. How is your swimming pool coming along? I have now moved to also including the kitchen in the remodel. I am hoping to put in brookehaven cabinets, keep the corian countertop and keep the tile floor. I think I will use dark tile in the baths.

It's probably a good idea to do the kitchen while you do everything else.

I am having my own tile dilemma. I cannot decide on a tile or design for the pool. Fencing goes up next week and then all we have left is the tile and plaster and we can fill it.

Sounds okay to me. What's the brand and style name of the dark tile? It sounds like what I'm looking for.

Good luck with the tile in the pool houseful. Did you see my kitchen pics? Do you think I should replace the cabs.? I will be here for at least 3 more years.

clg, I dont know yet. I have seen it in a lot of mags in contemporary baths. I will be searching this weekend to find it and will post if I find it. This is somewhat close to what I want, but I want something darker:

http://www.annsacks.com/onlinecatalog/program.jsp?cat=268004&coll=268604&prg=275204

jenny

Oh, I didn't even see the link. But, I must say, yes -- I think you should replace the cabinets. In fact you, you should post over in the kitchen forum and get input on the layout.

I really don't see you losing money. I know you say you got a good deal and I know your location is great. Without getting too personal, how much below market value did you get this place? Percentage-wise, how much are willing to put in to it?

Sometimes it's the finishing touches that really add up. I'm talking about things like faucets, light fixtures, knobs, towel bars...

I mentioned B&B Appliance in your other thread, but also check Construction Lots downtown. They have everything.

Have fun and I can't wait to see this come together.

Hi houseful, I dont mind saying what I paid...239k for 2200 sq. ft. off 20th street and camelback in the biltmore area. One sold for 500K recently and another is on the market for 525k. Mine is actually a nicer unit than those two. But it has the original cabs. throughout the house.

With the cost of remodeling 3 baths, budget is becoming an issue. I was considering brookhaven cabs. at 12k installed, and maybe reusing the corian top that is on the current cabs (was new when I moved in) and keeping the flooring for now (which was also new when I moved in). Then, slowly updating the appliances. I was also thinking I should post on the kitchen forum the layout, as you suggested.

I had a handyman over yesterday who looked at the kitchen. He pointed out something I never noticed! They are not real cabinets, but shelves attached to the wall with the cab. built around them and no backing. The shelves extend the length of the wall.

I will check out B and B and construction lots as well.

Thanks,

jenny

Since the bathroom near the kitchen is a half bath, have you considered just continuing the wood floor into that room? It would provide continuity, and shouldn't pose any maintainence problems. Modern floor finishes are very durable.

I have wood floors in all of my bathrooms. It's never given me any trouble, even in the bathrooms with showers and tubs.

Great deal! Are you at all handy? Have any friends who are handy? That helps keeps costs down too. Not major stuff, but things like intalling sinks, faucets, and even tile backsplashes are pretty easy.

Not sure how to say this tactfully, but....

that fireplace and "hearth" going all the way across looks quite dated. There, I said it! LOL!

Jenny, you should look and see if there's a Lea Ceramiche dealer near you. They have some nice modern tile, but I haven't seen them in person yet. I thought I found what I needed at Dal Tile, but when I got the samples, they has a bevels! I really want a 1/16 inch grout line.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lea Ceramiche

James - Thanks, I think I will do just that and extend the wood into the half bath, providing I can find a good match.

Clg - That is just what I am looking for, but the dealer is located in NC. I am going to have to search this weekend.

houseful - I know the mantle is outdated and really makes it hard to arrange furniture in that room. It is kind of nice in that it is travertine. If I stay longer, I will look at redoing the living room.

What do you think of European cabinets, or is that too crazy ? NYLoft (nyloft.net) is trying to design something in my budget. The other option is brookehaven, like I am putting in the 3 bathrooms. At least that way it will all tie in together. I actually have an affordable source of labor for installing the wood floors upstairs and gutting the baths. My stepmo's. brother is coming down to stay with me for 3 weeks and is going to gut the baths and install the hardwood for a good price. I just found a reliable handyman to help him at a reasonable price. They will not be available for the kitchen, however. I can hire the handyman back at $30/hour, which isnt so bad for the kitchen (more than he is charging for the baths, as he will only be a "helper" to my uncle then). What do you think?

jenny

I thought Brookhaven is on the expensive side, but I really don't know. What are European cabinets?

$30/hour seems reasonable for someone who knows what they are doing. You may want to find cheaper labor for the demolition.

Actually, I like you fireplace wall. It's actually quite nice from what I can tell. I was only referring to the thing that goes all the way across.

Hi houseful, check out the link: nyloft.net for european cabs. I fretted about whether to do the cabs. until I found this link to a townhouse a few doors down that just went on the market. Check out the virtual tour.:

http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=46&locallnk=yes&frm=byzip&mnbed=0amp;mnbath=2&mnprice=350000&mxprice=800000&js=off&pgnum=5&fid=so&stype=&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=85016&poe=realtor&zp=85016&sbint=&vtsort=&sorttype=&typ=2&x=49&y=18&sid=0808BD74E46FC&snumxlid=1075495592

It is not as nice a unit as mine, but look what they did to it! I dont think I have a choice but to upgrade my kitchen from the 1963 cabs in order to compete. My place will be less ornamental and more modern and sleek. I hope that will end up okay. I am now convinced I need to replace the leaking windows, leaking bathrooms, the 1963 kitchen cabs., etc.

The mantle is too long. You are right. I cant put anything against the wall, like an entertainment center, tv, etc.

jenny

jennye, before you take out that long seat in front of the fireplace (is that what you're talking about? With the wood in front) you really might want to take a long hard look at books like "25 houses under 3000 feet" and such and see what people are putting in now into houses with an idiom such as yours, deliberately. Basically, they're putting in things like that. Houseful, you know I love you :), but in terms of looking dated, I think it looks like it's modernism, which isn't "faux craftsman" or "Pottery Barn/Restoration Hardware" or whatever is being built new now, but it is its own style and as such completely valid. It's a great example of it, actually, IMO. You can see how they work with it--I think you can do a bit better than it is so far (no offense, but the scale of the accessories is way off). It's gorgeous, simple, majestic, and restful for the eye. Yours is done so well, and it fits with the rest of the house (well, the best of it). You could put some echoing shelves on the wall, while keeping the paneling, maybe...but the long seat has spoken to me ever since I saw your pics the first time.

So I put in a vote for keeping that delicious expanse.

Hi Flyleft,

I have no plans to remove the mantle...it is something like 20ft long! It would be nice to put in an entertainment center, though. I have to agree that it is part of the house, plus it is travertine and matches the fireplace and the travertine on the walls outside the house (they built the first units, which includes mine, with concrete floors and roof, and travertine on the exterior. The builder went bankrupt after only a few were built. A new builder took over and finished the project in 1963. Those townhouses are not built to the same specs as these. They look nothing like mine. No sunken firelaces or travertine or concrete floors. The two for sale for 525k and 495k are the second builder's condos.)
No offense taken! I know the accessories dont fit! Nor does the old furniture, which was my grandmothers. I wanted to save my money to put into the house. But things are looking up a little. I bought a new contemporary table for the kitchen (Copenhagen is holding it for me until I finish remodeling) and today a new terra cotta modern leather recliner chair! It was marked down at Copenhagen by $300 so I bought it. It was a spur of the moment decision. Unfortunately, while trying to bring it into the house with the manager of Copenhagen (who lives in my complex), we scuffed the leather ! I was sick to see it. We tried to rinse it off, but couldnt get it all off. I will post a pic of it tomorrow. I am getting rid of the dining table and chairs and removing all the light fixtures in the living room, which were added by someone recently.

do you have any ideas about cabs. and countertops for my kitchen? I am thinking of maple frameless brookehaven (to match the adjacent bath) and a few frameless red ultracraft mixed in and the concrete cesarstone. What would you do? I am on a budget of 20k. I will have to wait on appliances. Any thoughts on concrete floors?

I always appreciate your remodeling advice flyleft and houseful.

jenny

Phew! :) It's so beautiful. And the paneling is so beautiful. Really, I would suggest getting the book I mentioned, if you haven't seen it already, and taking it all in.

When you say "entertainment center", what elements specifically are you aiming to include? You can still use the walls on the sides of the fireplace, judiciously of course...

UGH about the scrape on the chair--I guess you can look at it as a birthmark, as it entered into its real life with you :). Look forward to the pics of it and the dining table.

Matching cabinets across rooms is a great idea; one major element of modernist design is keeping similar materials throughout the house (which is what attracted me to your subject line in the first place). I'm trying desperately to re-coordinate the 70s tract house I'm in--it's got good bones but it was colonialized by the PO, and every bathroom was different, the kitchen was different, etc. Throughcomposition is so pleasing to me (not identical, but similar materials/designs). The choices for the kitchen sound cool--Can you post a pic of the red? And for the counter, the cement caesarstone sounds good--is that the color that you'd say matches the tone of the concrete floors the best? I saw "rosemary" on the caesarstone site--is it really green? Because some concrete is greenish and that might be a nice echo. Or the cinder? I don't know what your concrete tone is, but coordinating with another material in the house is always good.

Hi flyleft,

Good luck with your 70s house. I am sure it is a great challenge, but that is half the fun, dont you think? Some of the 70's houses have incredible style, lots of windows, open floorplans.

I'm not sure yet if I am going to do concrete floors, as I am trying to save money, although the quote was not too high. Throwing in the kitchen cabinets and new counter has increased the budget. I had originally planned to do only the baths, but it wouldnt flow right in the house w/the old kitchen. SHOULD I do concrete floors? I guess part of me didnt feel right about the concrete guy, as he is not listed as being licesnsed. However, I can call around. The house would certainly flow better with concrete floors in kitchen and baths, and wood everywhere else.

I managed to get into the tile store before they closed and the tile girls and I raced around trying to find tile. I went home with a handful of possibilities. On the photobucket site, I posted pics. Do you like any of them? They tried to find concrete tiles. The darker one (option 1) matches the pic I am kind of modeling the master bath after. It appears darker in the pic. than in reality. The white tile is marble. They thought those looked good together. The white would be for the shower.

http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o87/jeschbacher/

Tomorrow the kitchen designer is coming to my house and bringing samples. I will take pics of what I ordered for the baths and what we are considering for the kitchen. I dont know if I want only one color of cabinet door. I will be getting a carmel stained maple to match the downstairs bath. Here is the red in ultracraft, although I am thinking it will be too much red.

http://www.ultracraft.com/browser.asp?ACTION=ShowCollection&COLLECTION_ID=3&TYPE=p

What do you think of this website? I LOVE the glass. What a great backsplash!

http://www.glasskoteusa.com/pictures.html?g=2#

Here is the link for concrete ceasarstone:

http://www.caesarstoneus.com/catalog/product.cfm?ProductID=59

Thanks so much for all of your opinions and advice! I dont know what I would do without this website!

jenny

Okay, okay! I am just not a big fan of retro, LOL! So far, I think you have good taste and you know what you are doing. It will be great, I'm sure. I really like the dark tile with the multicolor mosaic :)

Just curious - what kind of doctor do you want to be?

LOL houseful! Are you kidding? I have NO taste! Nothing I buy seems to match! Trust me, the chair looks better in person. MAybe I am more eclectic than modern? Everything looks so nice in Copenhagen, and when I get it home it doesnt quite look so nice.

Thanks for the input on the tiles. I like those as well.

I will be a neuropathologist. I will work with the brain surgeons in diagnosing tumors and other brain disorders. They remove it and I tell them what it is. I will also do a lot of research on brain tumors. I am particularly interested in adult stem cells as the origin of brain tumors, especially gliomas. Is that tmi?

jenny

I think I have decided on dark concrete floors in baths and kitchen. I posted a link of the cabs. I chose for the half bath and spare bath and hopefully for the kitchen against the color of a potential concrete floor. Now I have to decided on bath/shower tile and kitchen countertop.

jenny

jenny, sorry to be AWOL...so who's going to do the concrete floors--did you find someone you feel comfortable with? Not licensed would make me nervous, to be honest.

And the chair? It's *beautiful*! I thought, honestly, it was going to be one of those "Stressless" chairs at our local Swedish store...nothing says 70s redux like those, even though they're really comfortable--I really really like the one you got. The lines are great. That little cushion looks very supportive of the lumbar region, my current criterion for comfort in a chair :) I love the geometric lines of it. I also really like the table. Is it veneer or solid? Nice combination of materials. What chairs will you use with it?

If you've got the kitchen floor and cabinet color, considering that the floor is so close to the cabinet color in the master, might you want to consider floor tiles that echo the *cabinet* color in the other places? I'm always looking for connection :). At least the floor color looked close to the master cabinet sample--couldn't really tell all that well from the pics. Are they at all related?

And I see which caesarstone you're talking about. You could always do floors that color in the bath. There's a Refin Avant-Garde in a grey that might echo it nicely. (I'm still so curious about the water spots on the darker a-g that someone posted about in the baths forum).

You're doing well, btw :) Books are such a useful thing to have to refer to if you're concerned, I'll just put in one more plug for research/inspiration pics.

Re your medical path--sounds like there's some research interest in there too, in addition to practice? What interesting, potentially great times for brain research.

I like the dark floors with the cabinet color. Where will you use the mosaics?

What prompted your interest in that field? I found out fairly recently that my husband's grandmother died from a brain tumor. She was only 47! :(

Thanks flyleft and houseful,

houseful, I am sorry about your grandmother. 47 is too young. For most brain tumors, the prognosis is dismal, which is partly why I am interested in investigating them from a research standpoint. I have also always been interested in studying the brain. I just think there is so little we know about it.

I love the refin tiles, flyleft. They are listed as being sold here in phx. at AZtile where I got my current tiles in the pics, but I didnt see them there. I will call and check this weekend.

I had a licensed concrete floor contractor come by today. He also owns a business in CA and says concrete floors are very popular there, but not yet so much in phx. He quoted me $3k for the 400 sq. foot kitchen and 300 sq. feet of bathrooms, including removing the tiles. He does a technique called microtop, whatever that means. It comes with a 5 yr. warranty. If I go with it, I was thinking of a pewter gray, like in this pic.:

http://www.lowcostplumbing.com/store3/bath-c-25.html

He can even do lines in the concrete like the pic shows. What do you think? I know it would go with the dark cherry cabs., but not sure about the caramel maple cabs. It might look good, however with a dark cement or concrete caesarstone countertop (on sale 25% at great indoors btw).

So these are my choices with wood everywhere else:

1. concrete floor in baths and kitchen 2500-3000
2. concrete floor in kitchen, tile in baths 3600
3. leave kitchen as is, concrete in baths 1200
4. leave kitchen as is, tile in baths 1800-2000 (for tile)

The ultimate choice would be wood in kitchen (4000) and tile or concrete in baths (1800) = 5800+, but that is too much $$$.

I posted a pic on the photobucket of cabinets from a mag. I modeled the master after. They may even be the exact cabs (Brookstone) in the exact color that I bought, according to the kd. I will have the same knobs and same faucet. I would put a cream concrete counter on them. flyleft, this is what I was trying to model the master after:

http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o87/jeschbacher/

I know you gave me the name before, but what is a good book to get again on remodeling? I will go to borders this weekend and get it.

LOL on the chair flyleft! I know what you are talking about! I am sure those chairs are extremely comfortable, but they are not for me. Copenhagen is a high end contemporary furniture store in the south west.

http://www.copenhagenimports.com/

Thanks for the compliment on the chair. It looks much better in person.

Thanks so much for your help guys. Lynn has also been great and even came over and looked at the place!

jenny

I forgot to add that I could instead use a cream colored concrete instead.

jenny