Making the kitchen better

The kitchen in my home is still not my dream kitchen. Oh don't worry, I have plans. But I also have a lack of funds, so the motivation of my initial kitchen clean up was to make the kitchen a space I didn't totally hate to cook in (because I love to cook, so that would make me crazy) without spending too much money so that I can save up for a few years and eventually do it for real.

So the idea was "better for now." I'm already pretty glad I took this tact because A. I could be in more debt right now, and that would be...not fun.  and B. As I live with the kitchen laid out as it is, I start to notice what does not work for me- If I had gone right in to replacing the counter tops and back splashes, and replaced the floors with higher end tile, I probably would have put them in the exact layout they were in previously. And then when I came to hate how you can't even access the stuff in that one cabinet, etc, I would feel stuck with it all, since I already put the big bucks into the fix-up. Does that make sense?

It's actually the same type of thing I didn't have the luxury of with the electrical and heatingupdates- If I had already lived in the house a while. I would know not to put that new outlet right where that one piece of furniture wants to go- or I may have decided while the vent work was all being replaced to add a heat vent into our turns-out-to-be totally freezing kitchen, or to move that one vent in the livingroom right that is right near the front door where the heat just escapes instantly. But we had NO heat and NO electricity. I couldn't live with the first set up and then pay to have someone make the updates work better for me, I had to get someone in asap, so that I could turn on a light in my home.  I never got a chance to be in the house with heat or lights on to realize that those would be issues. I just had to act fast. So I guess little things like that have me feeling grateful for the projects I can do in stages.

So back to the kitchen... My kitchen when I moved in looked like this:

All original cabinetry, in a pretty wood tone, some parts in pretty good shape, some not. Peeling wallpaper, generally dark and closed off feeling, not a single appliance (not even a kitchen sink), ugly overhead florescent, peeling original linoleum floors with extensive damage and wear in many areas.

I outlined my initial priorities:

1. Get rid of or cover the linoleum-  It was damaged enough that it could not get clean, and walking on it in socks was no-go. Your socks would probably get caught on the sharp pieces that had peeled upwards from damage!

2. Buy some appliances- you know, a fridge and an oven may be nice? Maybe a sink? These items came with additional steps of course, including plumb the sink, and get code appropriate power sources for the fridge and stove installed.

3. Lighten up- which really came down to cleaning the walls (and removing that pesky paper) painting the walls and ceiling and maybe painting the cabinets. I toyed with leaving the cabinets their wood tone, but overall the room just felt so dark. After about a month of living with it, I knew they needed to be painted in order for the room to feel airy instead of just cramped and dark.

Okay, so first up: The flooring. I was really lucky to have my Dad in town the week I got started on this kitchen update, he has laid many a linoleum tile floor. My parents own a multi-family home, and over the course of my lifetime, my dad has made updates and improvements to each of the units they rent out (the improvements to their own apartment always come last, sadly). I have many fond memories of laying linoleum tile floors with my dad- and when I talked to him about what we should do as a "good for a couple of years, won't hate to have to remove it down the line" type of inexpensive floor update, laminate tiles seemed like the most obvious answer.

I knew what I wanted: in my little 1950s kitchen, why not a classic black and white checkerboard floor? I imaged the solid color 9" black and white tiles I have seen in charming older homes. I searched the whole internet. And...nada.

It turns out that those 9 inch tiles were made of asbestos, and you can't buy them anymore. They make 12 inch laminate tiles, but after hitting all the usual places (home depot, lowes, assorted online stores) I couldn't find any solid black and white tiles in my price range. The only ones I seemed to find readily had a faux-stone look that was not what I was hunting for.

Remember that a big part of my reasoning for this floor choice is to pick something inexpensive, so I was really hoping to find something that cost no more than $1-2/sq ft. I went into two local flooring stores, and after striking out, was finally able to special order a tile style that would work.

They were 12"squares, and instead of linoleum, they were hard vinyl.This detail turned out to be a bit more important than I realized, but I will get to that. They came in black and white solid tones for far more expensive, but if I didn't mind black tiles with white flecks, and white tiles with black flecks, I could get some for just over a dollar per square foot. I had to special order them, and couldn't even see the colors in person before making my order. The whole prospect stressed me out, but they were cheap enough I went for it.

Here are some progress photos. My dad and I got a pretty good rhythm down, where he cut the tiles where needed (many of those that sat against the counters needed a trim to fit the space perfectly), and I spread the tile adhesive (which is the stickiest grossest stuff to work with!) and secured the tiles as carefully as possible to eliminate any cracks or mistakes in the pattern.

Ok, so my impressions of working with vinyl tile- in case you were wondering:

Unlike newer laminate tiles, these tiles were thick and brittle, they broke easily while working with them, which was definitely a pain. Their brittleness meant that we had to more thoroughly resurface the floor underneath to lay them down- any unevenness would cause them to break. Definitely not as easy to work with as flexible tiles like the peel and stick ones. That was pretty annoying considering this floor is really only intended to be in place for 3 years or so. Ultimately we probably should have ripped out the old flooring down to the subfloor, and attached a backer board just like you do with porcelain tile. But the whole point...was to be something easier and less permanent. Ugh. My dad put in a lot of prep time before we put in the tile sanding the rough areas and laying down self-leveling compound to create flat surfaces wherever there was damage. The dark gray areas in the pictures above is the leveling compound, by the way.

Another tricky thing about the tiles is that they are porous and can stain and scratch easily if you don't seal them with wax or a similar product, while most newer laminate tiles come already coated with a protective layer that makes them easy to clean. I held off on sealing them right away, as when you seal them, any dirt or dust can get locked in forever - ie, if they aren't in a perfectly clean environment at the time of sealing- they will never look clean again. We were working on multiple renovations at the time, and the house was dust city. So I decided to wait on that part. In the short amount of time we used the kitchen without the floors being sealed, they got dirty more easily than any floor I have seen, and any stain or scratch was hard to get up.

I did, however, finally get around to sealing them recently. First I scrubbed every square inch of floor with bleach, and wiped everything down with rubbing alcohol to get it perfectly clean. The process took all day. Oh and I got a chemical burn on my hand from exposing it to bleach for too long. Don't be like me: wear rubber gloves. Once it was clean, I applied Zep brand hardwood and laminate floor refinisher, which was marketed as a restoring product more than an initial sealing product, but after reading the reviews online I decided to try it. I used a washcloth attached to my swiffer broom to just spread the liquid out on my fresh and clean floor, let dry for an hour, and then went in for another coat. I ended up using 3 thick coats to get to the level of shine and protection I was hoping for.  

You guys. My kitchen floor is so easy to clean now! for several days after I would just go look at the kitchen floor excitedly. Or sweep again and see how nicely everything came up instead of getting lodged in the cracks and dings in the tile. So, so nice. Let's look at it again, huh?

This seems like enough of an information dump for today, huh? I'll be back soon to talk about the other steps of my just for now kitchen update, and to share some more pretty sort-of-after photos.