Kitchen Remodel take 456

I knew when we bought our house that I'd want to re-do the kitchen.  The tile, while cute, was NASTY.  It was cracked, the grout was creepy, and tile on a countertop just didn't make sense to me.  Plus, it was really shallow.  The owners had done a crappy, quick, and thoughtless "update" before we moved in and laid sheet linoleum, sprayed the cabinets (in and out - with the contact paper still in and with shitty paint).



When we had the wall of tile removed, a giant two inch gap was left between the wall and the linoleum.  That was in 2011.  Two years later, I decided to do something about it.  We knew that there was a plywood subfloor under the linoleum since we could see this:

 

I was going CRAZY with the ugly linoleum.  I thought  painting the floor a cool color might be a great solution...

So one Saturday afternoon when the baby was asleep, I started ripping.  And steaming.  And ripping.



Only to find...ASPESTOS TILE!!


Ah, what luck.  So now we have an aspestos, paper, linoleum tile.  The greatest thing was when we ripped up the lino and was steaming the aspestos tile, the smell of 50 year old cigarette smoke and burned food wafted through the entire house - it was dreamy.

Now, my $60 project has just gotten much more expensive.  We could have had the aspestos removed for approx $500 (we just had it done at the riverhouse, so I knew approx. pricing) OR we could just put something on top of it so as not to disturb it.

I had ordered some samples from ifloor for the river house and liked an imitation slate vinyl plank.  I placed the order and waiting for the shipping confirmation...

Meanwhile, my kids were dropping food - a lot of food on this nasty paper/aspestos floor.  The black beans were getting smushed into the paper, broken glasses were getting lost in the layers, etc.

Growing up, my parents removed the carpet in our house looking for hardwood underneath.  What they found was full of nails, holes, and paint.  But, since they didn't have the money to replace it, we lived with it like that for what seemed like years (though it could have been weeks, really).  It was not cute.

Anyway, TWO FRICKEN WEEKS LATER, my flooring arrived.

And, while the children were asleep...this happened.



It took a whole 4 hour period to figure out what we were doing.  But on day two during naptime, we finished.

This was our kitchen after our mini remodel two years ago...after running out of money for the floors and table...
 

Here it is today (well, bad in the dark picture with all the dusty stuff piled next to the sink).


And our stove...
 

Today!  I think it looks particularly awesome next to the chalkboard!


Bubbs cut our table a few weeks ago when I had just had it with the nasty original tabletop.  I painted the base last week, but I have to put a coat of voc free poly on it when the kids are out soon.  The poster above the bench is getting repaired b/c our ikea frame just fell off the wall and broke the other day.



Bubbs also created this genius pot/pan closet a few years ago and I always meant to paint the shelves and clean it up. 
 

Two years later I finally got around to it :)


We're going to have to finish the trim next weekend, but for now, I'm so happy with the results.

Flooring Update

We went to Home Depot this weekend to look at flooring there (see what they had) and while most of their flooring was HORRIFYING, they did have one porcelain tile sample I liked.



The thinking is that we would do a checkerboard pattern of the dark grey and white. We discussed installation costs with them and they quoted us around $700. This is still A LOT, but tile would be permanent solution and in between the $1500 for hardwood and $300 for temporary vinyl.

Here's what I'm nervous about:

1) My kid is a KLUTZ. He runs through the house with socks on and slips ALL THE TIME. If we have porcelain on the floor he might kill himself if he bangs his head on it.

2) I had a tile floor in my studio apartment - it was IMPOSSIBLE to clean. I know the grey would be okay, but the white...is it totally porous? Does sealing it help? One thing I love about our current floor is that a quick sweep makes it look good as new (same with our hardwood) - will this require a mopping or even worse, a scrubbing to look clean?

3) Home Depot doesn't have the greatest reputation for their installation services. I can't find any details from our local HD, but am super nervous about what people say about the system. Plus, they charge for EVERYTHING. Bringing the tiles to the house, moving the stove, pulling up the floor, etc.

So.

With all that in mind.

I'm torn.

$300 for us to put in cool modern temporary vinyl tiles

or

do we install the tile ourselves? Is this insanely stupid?

I'm pretty proud of my backsplash, but it is FAR from perfect. FAR.

I did learn some valuable lessons, so maybe armed with knowledge we could do it?

Vinyl Tiles, Running in the street, and green organic food

Totally related - all of it.

I'm ready to fix the kitchen floors. The quotes we got to put in hardwood were double what we anticipated (what else is new). The "per square foot" quotes were WAY higher than the going rate because our kitchen is so small two companies required a minimum charge.

We could pay for it, but I really don't want to dig through our savings (taxes are due and we have two vacations coming up - and yes, vacations are WAY more important than hardwood floors).

So we're stuck with our yucky linoleum for now:

Source: twobedroomsandababy.com via Mama on Pinterest

A few things I'm thinking:

Modularity Tiles - SUPER cool modern looking tiles - self install doesn't look too hard. BUT, the shipping for the tiles will be about half of the total cost (200 for tiles, 100 for shipping). It KILLS me to pay for shipping. This is also 1/4 of the cost for hardwood.

Grey and white striped floors - tiles from Modularity Tiles (in slate and white).

Source: google.com via Mama on Pinterest

Grey and white checked floors - tiles from Modularity Tiles (in slate and white).

Source: paloma81.blogspot.com via Mama on Pinterest

Black and White checked floors - tiles from Modularity Tiles.

Source: luxecoutureinteriors.blogspot.com via Stacey on Pinterest

Another color? If we're going nuts, go all the way nuts...?

Source: cocokelley.blogspot.com via Gena on Pinterest

I love this - but there are so many ways I could screw it up:

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Mama on Pinterest

Or - something simple that won't offend future buyers (if we ever sell):

Source: homedepot.com via Mama on Pinterest

The primary questions are:

do we leave the floor as is (with an inch gap between the linoleum and the wall and non matching) until we can afford hardwood?

do we do a temporary boring fix that might not offend potential future buyers and is a tiny bit of money?

or do we do a temporary fix (a little more expensive) that we will love and is super cool but may need to re-do before selling to appeal to a broader audience? Again - we're not planning on selling anytime soon...
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Delightful pizza.



Our new magical pizza tricks?

Cook it on parchment paper (NO STICKING).

Cook it on 500 (or as high as your oven will go).

This was TJ whole wheat crust, organic grass fed mozzarella, spinach, olives, and tomato sauce.

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Turner picked out some chow mein noodles the other day at the store (picked up the package and licked it - so I had to buy it) and while I was busy chopping the labor intensive salad (to put the noodles in) - he pretended the noodles were a dragon. Chinese New Year in San Francisco was the most thrilling time of his life.

"Dagoo - LOUD" is is favorite new phrase (translation: dragons are loud).





This salad was:
sugar snap peas
baby corn
wilted swiss chard
chow mein noodles
crispy tofu squares
chopped bell pepper and roasted sesame seeds
Tossed with an organic (low sugar and real ingredient) ginger sauce from the grocery store.




We ate it for three days straight and it was delightful.

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My kid ran in the street today. Twice. When I yelled at him (which I NEVER do) he laughed in my face. It might have worked after that when I did my "look me in the eye" trick and told him I was sad - but I am really fearful of this happening again. He's only ever done it once before, but I was so scared - we live on a super busy street. What works for you?

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So folks - what to do in the kitchen?

Help!

Hardwood Floors schmardwood floors

Now that my kitchen is magically beautiful, there are a few things that need to be done.

The beige-y formica retro table is cool, but doesn't go with the white/grey new kitchen.

The beige-y vinyl floor is 1) ugly 2) in bad shape 3) has huge gaps in places because of the removal of "wallotile."



See? They just don't go.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the table, but we know we want to extend the hardwood that is throughout the house into the kitchen.

Our "contractor" (in quotes because he is super lame) said his guy would do it for $8 per square foot. So for 80 square feet, it would be around $600 bucks. Which is AWESOME.

I had the neighborhood guy come by today while I waited for a call back from "contractor's" friend.

His quote was $1300 (plus $200 for demo). I asked him what that was per square foot. He told me he couldn't get me a quote for that because the job was so small he just charged the minimum.

For $16/sf I want SOLID GOLD floors.

Pishaw.

Hopefully the contractor's recommendation comes through.

Banquette Done!

Why is it that everytime I think I'm done, I realize just how much more I have to do?!

When we finished MOST of the kitchen, we still had to do the bench.


I ordered this fabric, but it was way too busy for my pretty calm kitchen.


So I found something better...

Source: babybedding.com via Mama on Pinterest

(off a baby bedding website, mind you).

It arrived, I stapled my little heart out for two days (first with the fabric then with the old lady plastic covers).


I love it.



My new mugs came too. Big, beautiful, glass mugs. Made in the US too!


(you are probably wondering, why are her glasses right side up? Doesn't she realize that they will collect dust?)

Um, yes. They will, but its better than the poison off-gassing that the shelves are doing from the WaterLox we used to seal them and make them match the countertops. The can and website claim that the Waterlox is no longer poison after 30 days. We haven't hit that mark yet and if we turn the glasses upside down they STINK when you drink out of them. Hopefully it will stop off-gassing soon. Would have gone with straight Tung Oil if we had to do it again.



Oh - our floating fish?


We bought them algae pellets like the pet store told us (they also told us that they were destined to early death if they had "swim bladder").

One of them is now floating forever in fishy heaven.

So, looking at my pretty kitchen I am aching to do the floors now. And, re-do the table.

Anyone know HOW to redo the table? We bought butcherblock for it, but I'm concerned about having that much wood in the kitchen...

House-aversary

We've lived here for one year today!


































































Cheers, to many more!