latest plumbing disaster inspired renovation
kathleen MK
last year
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kathleen MK
last yearRelated Discussions
Claire de Luna's Vintage Inspired Bathroom
Comments (41)Mommielady, I'm in Love with the curbless shower, even a year later! Not only does it have the appearance of making the room seem more open, with no curb to step (or trip) over on the way in/out, it's easy access. My Dad had problems with his hips in his old age, my mom has problems with her knees, and I have at times been physically handicapped enough to know that a shower you can simply walk into is much easier than one you step into. With aging and genetics being what they are, I was going to make it as easy on myself as I could. (If I'm ripping out the rest of the bathroom, well then why not?) Also, water does sometimes go beyond the opening, and a curb would make it seem more of a problem than if I expected it to stay within certain boundaries, especially since there's no door on the shower. I don't plan on being in a wheelchair, but I know how easy my shower is to access for anyone (even to bathe the dog). I would do it again in a HEARTBEAT. Is the end result of going curbless worth the headache of removing pre-existing concrete? It was for me, absolutely. If your contractor doesn't have experience with this however, I would find someone who does. Removing the concrete seems less problematic to me than getting the right slope on your mudbed so the drain will handle the water in the shower. You absolutely need someone with experience at this, so pick your tile guy carefully. Yes, the drain is off-center. Being centered, especially with two straight and a bowed wall didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. What matters is the slope of the floor which allows the water to drain. The only way to get that is to build it from scratch. No, it wasn't hard for my tile guy to get the slope, although he had experience. They did have to tear out to the sub-floor so there'd be enough room to run the heated floor into the shower. I particularly love this because it dries the shower floor and I've never had an issue or mold or mildew. Again, setting a heated floor mat into your mud bed can be tricky so you really want someone who is experienced and will assume some liability with the company who manufactures the floor mat (I used Sun Touch). That way if there are problems, you have someone who knows where the problems can arise, and which path to take. What I saved on keeping the shower doorless (by not purchasing a frame-less glass door) allowed me to use the savings on the heated floor. I'm sorry, I couldn't back up enough in my small bathroom to get a picture of the entrance with my camera! It's very small, which is why I love so much having the feeling of even a little more open space. I hope this helps you....See MoreHow do people decide budget and pay for kitchen renovations?
Comments (28)Hi, this is my first time posting, and if it is too long, I apologize. This is about our odyssey in creating our kitchen on very limited funds. We wanted top quality while having little extra cash to put away. We ended up purchasing one piece at a time, while looking at Craigslist/Boston Globe online/etc. I researched which were the high quality cabinet brands (here, thank you all!), and bought a set someone was removing. We found it online in the Boston Globe. Very high quality, lots of pullouts, and if you are at all creative, this can give you a good opportunity to think outside the box. Our Quakermaid cabinets have lots and lots of features (pull outs, 4 drawer stack, dividers, lazy susans, etc.), we made sure that the set we purchased had more than we could use of lots of different sizes, (which has been very helpful in fitting as well as in creating a recycle center elsewhere in our home.) We paid $2,500 for 19 of them, with extra fillers included. We have installed a plate rack, created a baking center (by cutting down a cabinet which had strange side cut outs - we leveled the top and have a lower surface to roll out dough,) and are creating a kick drawer under one of the cabinets, per instructions on Ikea Hacker. I check CraigsList every morning and evening for about 20 minutes. I was the second caller on some gorgeous Oceanside Glass Tile (Veil blend with white, iridescent white, iridescent clear and frosted tiles.) It was left over from a job, and the first person to see it didn't know what she was looking at due to the tile's clear tiles appearing brown on the backing paper) and I paid the outrageous price of $5 a square foot. I still cannot believe that. It was a good thing I checked that morning, as the seller said that he had many, many others call about the tile. Last Saturday I drove 3 hours to pick up just the sink I wanted. I paid $500 for a 60" long Kohler Pro TaskCenter (with cutting board, rack, strainer included - it acts as its own countertop, and has a built in stainless drainboard.) It retails for over $3000. It is about 2 years old, and stunning. It was advertised (I check multiple CraigsList locations) including the faucets, which I did not really want. I was planning on removing them. However, when I had a chance to really look at them back at our home, I fell in love with them. They are very high quality - Vinnata Faucet, matching Wellspring filtered water faucet, and matching soap pump, all in Vibrant Stainless. The faucet may not work well - I don't know. Based on what I was told, however, it works fine - they had bought and gutted the home, and were totally renovating. I at first thought that the styling was too traditional for our kitchen, but believe that the Vibrant Stainless finish will work well with our knobs/pulls and really pull things together. A new Vinnata in Vibrant Stainless costs more than I spent on it all. We ended up looking for this type of sink because we could not afford the soapstone we really, really wanted. We purchased butcherblock from Ikea - gorgeous and affordable. We finished the baking area with beeswax/mineral oil, and will be treating the counter on both sides of the sink. We may use the Ikea product, or wait for good weather and use Waterlox. We installed a stainless hood I found half off on ebay, which was through a local retailer, which saved on shipping. I purchased cabinet knobs a while ago when a local store was closing - I purchased a few more than I needed, just in case our plans changed a bit - we still saved quite a bit. We installed the cabinets ourselves. Two years ago our local big box store had an insane sale on overstocked appliances, and we picked up our Frigidaire Professional with Convection Range for $299 (true story) and our Maytag french door for the same. The unexpected sale ended in three hours, so we lucked out. While I keep checking Craigslist, the only things we anticipate paying full price for will be the flooring (we want Forbo Click Tiles) and the electric installation. I have tiled our entryway, and will practice before installing our glass tile backsplash, but feel confident that I will be able to master a good tile install. I did an estimate the other day, and believe that when all is said and done, we will have spent under $6,000 and our kitchen will have an added value of close to $50,000. Finding the time to work on it is challenging, but we continue to make progress. From dark, gloomy early 70's to light and bright modern, we can see it coming together. This type of doing the work only works if you don't move your main supply lines, are willing to spend the time moving around your floorplan (google sketchup is helpful, but I finally made a 3D scale plan to help me visualize the space). Lots of time, but believe it or not, my DH and I are closer because of working on this common goal together. I think having strangers traipsing through the house for months would be much more stressful. Doing it this way takes patience, luck, flexibility and knowing what you are willing to settle for. I will post photos when we are done, but just wanted to say you can pay for it in cash and have a kitchen that you are truly happy with....See MoreL Shaped Layout - Need some inspiration
Comments (64)I have followed your plans a bit, and have read through quickly, but have a couple problems with the newest plan. I feel strongly about these things on your behalf, so I hope I don't come off as rude or only negative, because I know you've worked and come a long way here. I really am only trying to help you avoid regrets. 1) The biggest problem is that the refrigerator is completely out of the work area, and through the cleanup zone from the stove and prep areas. The stove, prep sink/prep work, and fridge should form the age-old work triangle. The idea of zones is to share things like the fridge, but not cross through and create traffic problems between workers and things like open dw doors. I've said it before, I think the cook takes priority in having access to the fridge, because he/she often needs something QUICKly, and doesn't have time to traipse through the kitchen and around everyone and everything to add something to what's cooking on the stove. 2) The island size seems, sorry to be blunt, but ridiculous to me. Based on the aisle measurements, it seems to be about 8 ft by 9 ft. This is almost the size of some rooms in our house! How will you clean it? What will you use as a countertop? I love expansive islands, but I am afraid this one will be so big, and not look nice, as Laurameh expressed above. I prefer one-level islands, though, and don't think varying heights would solve the problem here. 3) I hope you're not planning to hem in your cooktop with structures that divide the counter? There are ways to achieve the hearth appearance without the towers shown in magazines that come down to the counter and all the way to the front edge. They would block movement, reduce flexibility in your work area, and block the light from the windows. Comments to other discussions that have gone on before: Aisles: I have 4 ft aisles behind my sink and baking areas, but only 3 ft aisle between rangetop and island. It is as Bmore explained...Dishwashers, fridges, and oven doors take room and people need to get safely around them...Maybe even work on the opposite counter. But in the cooking area, I want to prep, turn to the stove, turn back to retrieve prepped items, etc. I don't want to run back and forth, just turn. Also, the tighter aisle, hopefully, discourages traffic from going through and routes them to the wider ones. As a matter of fact, I've shown a photo of our 36" aisle before, because it's much roomier than I expected, and 2 cooks, or cooks and our 2 dogs fit there pretty well! :-) 30" counter between 2 tall elements: I think you've moved past that, but just in case...I could agree with Bmore's and Lisa's comments about the hazard of that becoming a junk area only and not having room to work, in some cases. However, if the area has a specific purpose, it can work great. We have a 30" counter between a wall and a fridge. It is our 'breakfast/snack center.' We have our toaster oven there and keep things like cereals, crackers, chips, and bread in the cabinets there. I could also see such a spot as a place for the coffee maker and supplies, etc. If it has a purpose, a limited area like that can serve you well....See MoreWhere to start? How to plan an unexpected kitchen renovation?
Comments (11)1) First up, don't install the hardwoods yet. Three reasons: a) Find out from the manufacturer of the intended hardwoods if cabinets can be installed on top of them or if the floor should be installed around the cabinets. We're installing a floating hardwood floor, and we were told in no uncertain terms not to install the kitchen on top of the floor because it would cause a "pinch point" where the floor could not expand/contract naturally because it was pinned in place by the weight of the cabinet/counter/sink-full-of-water. That apparently can cause terrible buckling in the floor. If you should not be installing cabinets over your floors, you'd need to know the final cabinet layout before these floors go in. b) Since you are redoing your kitchen, you may end up wanting to widen doorways or open a wall or whatever. You want to lay the floor AFTER these changes are made, or you'll have weird-looking floor patches where the moved walls were. c) You want as much work done as possible before the floors go in because every workman, every tool, every job is one more opportunity for your floors to be damaged. You can protect the floors after they go in, but it's still better to have your framing, electrical, plumbing, insulation, and drywall done before the floors go in. 2) This is related to number one, but don't do ANY expensive work until you have a complete plan for what is going in your kitchen. Down to which lights and where, which size cabinets are going where, etc. What trim, etc. A kitchen remodel is like dominoes -- if one of the first tiles is not placed correctly, the rest can't fall the way you want them to. It is very costly -- in time and money -- to fix an early domino that was placed rashly, and anything you feel like you're gaining by just getting SOMETHING done now will be lost a hundredfold several weeks from now when you have to undo it after a lot of stuff has been installed over it. I really can't stress this enough: No plan? NO work. I know it's really difficult, but try not to let your urgency to restore order dictate what you actually do. You will thank yourself later. 2) As everybody else is saying, argue with your insurance for more money. 3) Start googling and pinteresting and find some inspiration pictures of kitchens you love. Get at least five, but more is better. Then sit down and figure out what are the common threads running through the pictures and how those might be put into your new kitchen. Gardenweb can help you brainstorm about this if you post your inspiration pictures. As you pull pictures, make sure you are going in a direction that fits with the architecture/style of the rest of your house. It doesn't need to be a perfect match to the rest of the house, but it should be compatible. (For example, our place is rustic Spanish-style. I like more clean, simple, and modern places. So for my kitchen, I went with more of the Spanish-revival art deco inspiration pictures -- not incongruous with our building, but also not incongruous with what I like.) 4) Concurrently with fighting your insurance company and looking for inspiration pictures you like, get gardenweb started working on a layout for your space. Post: a) a floor plan of the entire floor of your house where the kitchen is (not just a floor plan of the kitchen -- we need to consider traffic flow, so we need to see where the kitchen is in relation to other rooms in the house) b) pictures of the space (this helps with visualizing things that aren't clear on the floor plan) c) the details of who uses this kitchen and how and what features you like in a kitchen Make sure to include measurements of everything on the floor plan and preferably have the floor plan on graph paper with a 1 sq foot = 1 square scale. 5) Set up a functional kitchenette space in another room so you don't go bonkers in the meantime and you minimize the impulse to make rash, expensive decisions out of frustration. My husband had an old Ikea dresser, and Ikea sells glass tops for their dressers for $30. I put dishes in the dresser drawers, and we use the glass top as a counter top. I bought a $50 hot plate to go on our "counter," and we already had a mini fridge and a microwave. It's not perfect, but we can still eat sort of normally, and it works....See More
Lorraine Leroux
last yearkandrewspa
last yearJake The Wonderdog
last yearkathleen MK
last yearkathleen MK
last yearlast modified: last year
cpartist
last yearkathleen MK
last year- PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year kathleen MK
last yearYes Patricia I have a Lot of bigger issues that would be boring to air here and dealing with them took priority over posting pictures. Here is what I have:
Notice old faucet, it was exactly the same size opening as my nice kitchen Pulldown. So it could have worked to have one here except hubby had tight fit working through access panel in his closet. Our son had to chisel off old corroded handles and you can see the lovely original chocolate cultured marble where the new escutcheons are smaller. we can't afford a new tub so I will repair my tub refinishing.
We have been graffitting our intials in our home projects for 40 years. This is the third one in this old house. I can't wait to change the cover from a carpet remanent to new tile. we can fix the mistakes of the 3 previous owners.
These are some inspiration photos of what i want:
As an architect and artist, we are obsessed with things lining up. That top shelf should line up with the pencil tile but we aren't adding that kind of border. We do like the cantilevered shelves.
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Ice storm delayed everything by a week but we have paid for the large format Forum ivory porcelain tile for floors and shower walls with matching bullnose. It has matte texture and very subtle stone pattern. We got white porcelain penny size hex tiles for floor and may add them to back of the niche. They also come in a matching tiny herringbone, but I wonder if we should stay with the same pattern shape or add some color or sparkle there. I fell in love with some mother of pearl hex tiles that are totally out of budget. We are working on what sort of white stone for shower curb that would be repeated in niche shelves and framing door opening for new door. All of those issues depend on the measurements after our tile guy rebuilds shower pan and wall wall proofing.So yes I am dealing with a lot of bigger issues of plumbing and construction, while planning the aesthetics. And then there are those darn financial issue......
Lyn Nielson
last yearkathleen MK
last yearkathleen MK
last yearThose who have nothing useful to comment can stop commenting here. ( It's not good advertising for a PRO.)
The professionals we have been working with are awesome. We are professional enough to know when we can save money with our DIY expertise and when it pays to hire a professional who guarantees his work. It is even better when we have those who go above and beyond.
Tearing the shower down to the studs, our tile contractor found old termite damage and replaced that stud which looks like previous owner's repairs had not. ( It had an extra stud reinforcing the damaged one. We had treated house so there were no active bugs.) That was just doing quality work to make the stall sturdy but our guys from Grace Tile Remodeling have added a few extra touches.They noticed my husband is very tall so they extended the pipe for the shower head yesterday. Today I discovered they added one of those cute little toe niches for leg shaving in addition to the one we had in the bid. I may not know all the details on how they rebuild that shower pan but I can tell they have an eye for detail.
Dealing with the in house architect ( the guy who needs the taller shower) can be more complicated but we have settled on the simplicity of repeating the hex tile in the niches with white quartz shelves. The question for tomorrow is should the exterior framing around the door opening be the same white quartz as curb and shelves or this travertine I found for 10 cents a piece. (Can I find 94 good pieces in that dust bin?)
The long bullnose tile on the bottom is the tile for the shower walls and bathroom floors.
kathleen MK
last year
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Patricia Colwell Consulting