I am in planning stages for redoing my 2nd floor laundry area, so I've been looking into some of the same issues. Regarding floor drains, I don't think it matters whether you have access to an outside wall, as the floor drain can tie into the same drain line as the washer drain. If you want the floor drain to protect the entire room, the floor should be sloped to the drain, which means you need a mortar bed (aka "mud job") over the plywood subfloor, and then a waterproof membrane over the mortar. This adds cost and also would raise the floor by at least an inch. A less expensive alternative is to put the washer in a pan and attach a floor drain to the pan. This would handle most leaks -- for example overflows -- but not anything where water was spraying out from the washer and would thus miss the pan. The Mustee "Durapan" model looks like a good choice for a pan, as it has a removable threshold in front so you can slide the washer forward without having to lift it out of the pan. The Durapan is attached to the subfloor and then tiled around, so the tile and the pan bottom (with the threshold removed) end up at the same level. Regarding the floor strength: whether the existing joists are sufficient needs to be calculated based on joist size, spacing, and length. If additional strength is needed, the joists can be doubled up ("sistered"). However, the strongest and stiffest floor can still transmit some amount of vibration from the washer to the rest of the house. Anti-vibration pads (I am using "shake-away" pads) help, but some amount of vibration may be unavoidable. Note that a "mud job" under the tile -- for the floor drain -- should also dampen vibrations somewhat, as the inertia of the floor (resistance to movement) increases as the mass of the floor increases.

Rafter and collar ties are often confused for each other. They are not intended to provide the same structural benefit although there is a point where they come close so the difference in definition must be arbitrary. "Collar ties" are located in the upper third of the rafter height in order to prevent the rafter tops from separating from the ridge although they do add some strength to the rafters in bending when uniformly loaded by snow. They are not intended to prevent walls from spreading because they are too high to serve this puppose effectively. In fact, for them to be effective the rafters would have to be much larger and nails would not be sufficient to provide the necessary tie connections. This is possible but would require the services of a structrual engineer. Ties that are placed in the lower 2/3 of the rafter height are intended to prevent the wall top plates from spreading and are called "rafter ties". When they are placed at the wall top plates they are called ceiling joists or attic floor joists rather than ties. The IRC provides rafter span modification formulas for designing rafters with "rafter ties" above the top plates and below the 2/3 rafter height level. The requirement for "collar ties" in the upper 1/3 of the rafter height gets added and removed from codes from time to time. It is absent from the 2003 IRC but is back in the 2006 edition.

Only a structural engineer can make determinations (that would hold up contractually or in court) as to the cause or the solutions. If you are determined to fix it permanently, the remedy could be very far ranging and costly. We had to delve very deep into the structure of an 1815 house to fix the 7" of sag (over 11 feet!) that was the result of bad original design and made far worse by a 1920 remodeling, that removed bearing walls from an already-underbuilt floor. The solution included gutting two floors, eight footers in the basement, a new first floor system, 5 steel columns and even one steel Ibeam in the attic floor. But the structure was saved. And the new owners are very happy with the results. And, as the preservation carpenter on site, I was very happy to be implementing an engineer's plan that I had been involved in and could stand behind. The idea of "winging it" without a very detailed plan to do structural remediation of that scale is to me unthinkable. If it only involved replacing a few members that had degraded and failed, that's one thing, but you usually don't realize the scale of a job until you tear into it. A picture, mid-job: Casey

Thanks again everyone! I was sort of underwhelmed finishing this one; partly because the "thrill" of remodeling isn't as great the 2nd time around, and partly because it didn't feel like a "new" kitchen because the cabinets and floors were basically the same. You all are helping remind me that it is a new space. And don't get me wrong, it's not that I think the kitchen doesn't look fancy, as but that's only b/c I put a few "bling" items in to make it look fancier than it is. The sparkly chandeliers, sink, and wood hood and backsplash (hopefully) draw the eye away from the older cabinets and older floors. Igloo, I think you could still pull off a farm sink. You'd LOVE it! Celticmoon, I thought the same thing about the FKB! What do you do when you have 2 kitchens listed under your name? (Aside from getting a therapist, that is.) Chiefneil, I can see where it looks like the stacked crown is thicker over the sink, but it's the way the carpenter made the hood. It's constructed as sort of a box, then the box indents down to the arched part. The way the crown is sitting on the upper part of the box makes it look like it's really thick crown. And the hutch height was designed solely as the "clutter zone". I learned a good lesson from the last kitchen; the busiest corner in the kitchen will quickly become the "drop zone" for daily mail, keys, cell phones, etc. I raised the height so that there would be no chance of that corner meshing with the cooking part of the kitchen. Socalthreems, I LOVE the actual stone. DH was super nervous about using dark counters, as we had light granite in the last house, and it never looked dirty. He was afraid it would show everything. But there's so much white, gold, etc, that it doesn't show any dirt at all. I don't see fingerprints or smudges either. I really really like the stone. Nellie820, I'd LOVE to see your plans! Now that I'm done here, I need to find something else to channel my energies into! amck, I hope you like the range as much as I do. I LOVE it! muscat, the floors are so weird. I really like them, but a lot of people don't. I wanted the kitchen to be a "refined rustic with a nod to the traditional". I just don't think any other flooring would give me the same look. rmlanza, I found the sink at a local builder's supply warehouse. Since I'd wanted a copper farm sink, and knew their price tag, I was shocked to see the prices they had on their granite farm sinks! I normally hem and haw about such purchases, but I bought it on the spot. It ended up being the star of the kitchen! caminnc, I think all together it was around 2-3 months. We started before we lived here, and were trying to get it all done before we moved out of the old house. That didn't happen, but we at least got the major stuff done. We were simultaneously selling our other house, and had LOADS of projects we were finishing over there as well. For about a 2 month period, we were working non-stop. Ugh. Don't EVER want to do that again. And thanks all, for the kind words about the backsplash. I'm surprised at the responses about it, and I was surprised that I picked such a simple color/design (esp. after my last backsplash!) I only recently realized why I kept gravitating toward plain white. The upper cabinets are *so* close to the countertop. My tile guy said the normal height b/w counters and upper cabs is around 18". My height is only 14.25 inches. My coffee pot barely fits! Somehow I think that I kept wanting white to help visually extend the cabinetry, so that it didn't look choppy. Claybabe, I loved my last house, until my kids started getting bigger. We really outgrew it. And I mean it when I say I *hated* cooking toward the last year we lived there. 'Course I'll probably say the same thing here, when the kids start leaving home in a few years! LOL!