Countertops
 

DH and I have a long list of upgrades we'd like to do to our house. We have an old 1916-ish farmhouse that was moved and totally redone in 1997. The floors, doors, and doorways are all original and have a lot of character. The kitchen and bathroom cabinets all match, and they are white. The countertop is currently forest green/teal dotted laminate in the kitchen, and white with tiny blue/green specks in the bathrooms. They are very 90's lol. I definitely want to update the kitchen counters and I might as well do the bathrooms at the same time.

The cabinets look very classic... I'm not sure how to describe them and I can't find a picture online. They are kind of shaker style with a border, but the inside panel is grooved to look like individual vertical boards. Anyways, all of the cupboards and drawers look like that, except for two sets of cupboards with frosted glass in the middle.

I want to have a darker countertop because I like how it looks with white cupboards, and we are also switching out appliances to stainless steel hopefully when we do the counters (we are hoping to install a new gas cooktop to replace our white electric one).

What do you guys suggest for a countertop??? Granite? Another type of stone? Corian? I actually would have no problem even doing laminate again because I have never had a kitchen without laminate lol... but the issue is we have one u-shaped section and the long middle piece is too long and the seams are VERY noticeable at the ends of the section and right in the middle where the sink is! In fact, the whole counter is starting to swell around the sink from moisture beacuse of the seam. Heat resistance isn't a big deal - I have never put anything hot on my counters and I probably wouldn't if I could, just because of habit!

So what do you have, and what do you like or not like about it?

Oh and we don't have a budget right now but would like to save money wherever possible! I just really want to decide what I want first. I have googled over and over and I just want some more opinions!

I have heard good things about the poured concrete counters. They can be done in just about any color and are all one piece!

Concrete Countertops - Photos and Information for Cement Counter Tops - The Concrete Network Great site. I am thinking of doing these when we have money to redo our yucky kitchen:D

I found some pictures I put on Photobucket at Christmas a couple of years ago :)

So here it is... we are taking out the little bar sink behind the desk area and the extra sink beside the double-bowl sink in front of the window because WHO NEEDS 4 SINKS IN ONE KITCHEN??? Lol. We also want to build up a higher level for eating at the island.

So give me some suggestions please!

We have tossed around the idea of concrete too! DH and I both have training in concrete mix design and it is something we could probably do ourselves if we just built the forms to match the dimensions in the kitchen.

We have an old house too (1912 bungalow) and also have 90's laminate counters. We however have the original kitchen cupboards (which I LOVE!) and hope to eventually get butcher block counters. I love the look of the wood with white cabinets, and butcher block is very inexpensive compared to the other options out there. I also think a subway tile backsplash would be fun, but I guess we will see!

Here are my beautiful :p laminate countertops!

I LOVE your cupbords!!! We have the original "kitchen" upstairs in a bedroom and I have no idea how we will get it out of there. It's a huge wood structure with cupboards and a flour bin and cutting board and drawers. We want to move it eventually but it will not fit down the stairway so we might need to try to disassemble it!

I had thought also about doing some sort of stone for the regular countertops and butcher block for the island. I just can't make up my mind!

At least you were lucky enough to have your laminate in a neutral color lol! I swear our whole house is white and forest green. Our decks have all been painted dark green, our shingles are dark green (white siding) our countertops are dark green, and the tile around our bathtub has some aztek-style green designs on it.

Yeah, I love our cupboards too! The problem with light countertops... they STAIN like crazy!

I think granite and butcher block would look nice. I wish we were at that stage in our renovation :p Jealous!

We are not quite there yet!!! Right now we are ripping out the indoor hot tub that came with the house (you can see it behind the breakfast nook in one of the pictures) and building a laundry room there instead. DH just started chipping off the tiles last night! We are thinking years down the line for all of our renovations but I want to get a good idea and a budget to work towards! Last night we came up with a tentative (overestimating) budget for everything we want to do and we're figuring about $50,000 :eek::eek::eek: so it will take a while lol! That includes finishing our basement from scratch, building the laundry room, upgrading the kitchen and bathrooms, putting up a fence around the yard and other landscaping, and rebuilding the deck. Perhaps when our mortgage is paid off in 20 years, we can have the house we always dreamed of haha.

Hah. We have put at least 40k into our house already and it is FAR from done... It's crazy how much stuff costs!

Oh I know! We try to DIY whenever possible and watch for sales. We sort of "flipped" my condo for $6000 because we just bought stuff when it was on sale. We found flooring on clearance and bought enough for the whole place, even though it just sat in stacks in the kitchen for months lol! We got new-to-us second hand appliances and lighting, and new kitchen cabinets and countertops on sale. But it looked so good when it was done, and I sold it for 25k more than I bought it for, just 6 months later!

But when you need something NOW, you kind of have to pay whatever they're asking for it! I think we just got really lucky with the condo to find so many good deals at the same time!

I definitely know what you mean! We always get a ton of quotes for everything we do... But the bigger things add up as you go along.

-8K for a new high efficiency furnace and A/C unit
-2.5K for a new 6' cedar privacy fence (that we built ourselves... This was a must have for safety for the pups)
-1K for the front picket fence
-2K for new Craftsman style doors

It adds up quickly! We are working on the bathroom now... Taking things slowly because it's expensive!

Ohhh I am not looking forward to the fence. Well, I am looking forward to having it, not paying for it lol. We currently have a 4' chainlink fence around the back yard with "privacy slats" which means nothing when the fence is only 4' high and the neighbors are very chatty lol. I like them as neighbors but I don't feel like I can be outside and be silly with the dogs or just do my own thing without being watched lol. I really want to put up a 6' wooden fence but when DH brought it up to the neighbor, he said he didn't want anything he'll have to take care of on his side. He likes the chain link because it's no-maintenance. So our other option would be a vinyl fence (we currently have a vinyl privacy fence around our back deck) but I think that's even more expensive than wood!

We are also on a corner lot and we have quite a large front and side yard that we would like to fence in, just for more room for our dogs to run around and more area that actually feels like useable yard I guess. All the big dogs on the street come and poop on our front lawn too and I'd like to stop that.

We are on a corner lot too, and on a pretty busy street... so it was really important to have the privacy fence out back. The fence we share with our neighbor is a picket fence, but she's never outside... so we have a lot of privacy. We plan on adding to the privacy fence on her side if she moves out. I really like that even though there is a sidewalk on the other side of our fence, no one can see in to know we have yorkies.

Our front yard wasn't fenced when we moved in and I was always worried about the pups running out or other dogs pooping in our yard. That fence was great... Now they have 1/3 of an acre, all fenced in to run around in :D They love it!

Oh I'm sure they love that!!!! Our back yard is cut off by our driveway, and DH has a hunk of metal sitting against the fence (his late grandfather's old vintage farm truck he is "fixing up") so nobody from the street can really see in. But of course, it cuts off a lot of the yard too. I'm sure we have way more space in our front and side yards than we do in our back yard! It will be nice to have that extra room for our kids to play too when we have a family.

With white cupboards, I think a soft/mid gray soapstone would be incredible - I love the look of soapstone. I've always been in love w/ concrete countertops too...just really research it if you go that way bc if they're not sealed correctly, it's a nightmare.