[Belleaphant]

So DH and I finally got our house and we are starting the remodeling process (this house looks like it was used in "That 70's show"!) . We are planning it to be a 2 yr flip project and are doing the kitchen first since the current cabinets are gross and we can't look at the orange linoleum any longer. Since the floor will need to be torn up to fix the floor joists we are thinking of going new instead of resurfacing the current wood (4" wide pine planks covered in tar from 3 layers of linoleum). The rest of the house is 2 1/2" oak that we will be resurfacing.
Now the only definite we have is we're doing white cabinets (love the look of the 5th photo with the dark floors). We both like the clean look of them. Now, in our cabinet searching- we noticed that 80% of kitchens with white cabinets have wood floors vs. tile. I guess it's the trend to have wood with painted cabinets. We were thinking of doing tile originally, but now we are torn. Another issue we are comming across is since its an older house there is a slight bounce to the flooring. Even with redoing the floor joists there will still be a bounce, so we worry about tile cracking. There are some great laminate/limestone mix tiles that look like real tile with the benefit of flexibility that we are considering ($$$). My only worry about the wood is that I have my heart set on dark chocolate colored 5" or so planks and it will not match the rest of the house (even if the 2 1/2" oak is stained to match). So, would you resurface (or get new) wood ... or do some form of tile. Is it okay not to match the kitchen floors to the rest of the house? What would you do(with reale in mind)?

[ChocoMare]

I wouldn't do wood floor in a kitchen... one leak and it's all over.

I prefer the vinyl strips that look like wood and install easily: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...3+90013+500335

[Belair]

I have white cabinets with tile floor. While white cabinets are definitely not my favorite, they look great with the tile http://www.homedepot.com/Flooring-Fl...&storeId=10051 and wall color I chose http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...&storeId=10051.

[saddleup]

I have wood floors in my kitchen and love them. Had them in my last house, too. Mine are light colored, and while I love the look of a dark stained floor, friends who have them have told me that they show every crumb, every speck of dust, every piece of lint. Are you up for that kind of maintenance?

Just a thought....

[RacetrackReject]

You can do wood in a kitchen, but I would suggest a real hardwood that could be refinished and not an engineered type wood floor. I have dark handscraped hickory in my kitchen, dining, and living areas and love it.
I work for a design-build firm and while most of our customers want tile in their kitchens, we have had several who put wood in as well and we haven't had any issues. One lady's refrigerator leaked water all over the floor, but it was solid wood and after proper drying, it was fine. The issue with engineered wood is that it is made sort of like plywood, in layers, and has a finished veneer on it. When it gets wet, you have multiple layers expanding and buckling and doing things that cause really big issues. Real wood can be refinished, but engineered wood, not so much.

As saddle up mentioned, dark wood floors do show every ounce of dust or pet hair (coming from someone who 2 dogs in the house), but a swiffer dry mop thingie is simple enough to use to pick up the lint/hair/dust.

[jetsmom]

As a Realtor, my suggestion is, that if you are looking at selling, stay away from white cabinets. It's a deal killer in most situations, or people will offer less money so they can redo the cabinets.

Large tile is an easier option than wood in the kitchen for ease of cleanup/no water damage. But wood can be fine, if you can closely match the rest of the house.

[findeight]

If you are specifically going to market this in 2 years? Resurface what you have...and brand new white cabinets are not going to appeal to everybody, particulaly familes-kids are dirty and always in cabinents and appliances. No way around that. Don't narrow your buyer pool with that kind of room dominating, very individual preference.

I'd go with the with the durable products that look like tile but are lighter if you are worried about the sub floor and joists and don't want to blow the budget and any possible sale profit on foundation work. Also keeps the price down.

If you are going to live in it 10 years, do what you want but for a 2 year resale anticipating a profit? Please the majority of buyers. Not really a flip here, flips are 3-6 months max to maximize profit.

Keep an eye on your neighborhood comps to avoid overspending.

[Schune]

So DH and I finally got our house and we are starting the remodeling process (this house looks like it was used in "That 70's show"!) . We are planning it to be a 2 yr flip project and are doing the kitchen first since the current cabinets are gross and we can't look at the orange linoleum any longer. Since the floor will need to be torn up to fix the floor joists we are thinking of going new instead of resurfacing the current wood (4" wide pine planks covered in tar from 3 layers of linoleum). The rest of the house is 2 1/2" oak that we will be resurfacing.
Now the only definite we have is we're doing white cabinets (love the look of the 5th photo with the dark floors). We both like the clean look of them. Now, in our cabinet searching- we noticed that 80% of kitchens with white cabinets have wood floors vs. tile. I guess it's the trend to have wood with painted cabinets. We were thinking of doing tile originally, but now we are torn. Another issue we are comming across is since its an older house there is a slight bounce to the flooring. Even with redoing the floor joists there will still be a bounce, so we worry about tile cracking. There are some great laminate/limestone mix tiles that look like real tile with the benefit of flexibility that we are considering ($$$). My only worry about the wood is that I have my heart set on dark chocolate colored 5" or so planks and it will not match the rest of the house (even if the 2 1/2" oak is stained to match). So, would you resurface (or get new) wood ... or do some form of tile. Is it okay not to match the kitchen floors to the rest of the house? What would you do(with reale in mind)?

Here is my $0.02:

First, I'm with you on the dark flooring. I love the look of wide planks in a dark color, and the contrast of that and the white cabinets gives a great rustic/modern mix.

How much square feet on the first floor are we talking about? If you think it's doable and you are willing to do a lot of the work yourself (learn about the prep work, nailing vs. gluing, making the cuts, and finally staining), then it might be worth it to do a new floor in the whole first level, if you can swing the cost. Or get some bids from contractors to see how much just an install would cost, if you can do the finish work.

This is something buyers do notice, especially if the contrast between two different floorings is extreme. 2" vs 5" boards in different colors might be a stretch. If the house is open concept, having different types of flooring really negates that feeling and you could take a ding when it comes to reselling.

Wood floors are becoming a bigger trend in kitchen remodels these days, as people think they look warmer than tile and feel warmer as well (even without radiant heat systems). But ChocoMare has a point with the durability of wood. Are you in an area that is prone to high humidity and moisture? That can cause boards to warp over time and could present an issue.

[Synrgystyk]

If you're going to have to take up the floors anyway, can you do it carefully enough that you can reuse the original boards? Yes, the "tops" of the boards are nasty with tar and residue. But you could flip them over and have a "new" surface.

I don't know how old your house is, but our "pine" floors are actually clear, antique heart pine -- $$$$ nowadays. DH works for a company that re-mills old lumber into flooring and he said our floors would cost $20 -$30/sq ft minimum if we wanted to put them in today.

Yes, taking up the old floor carefully enough to allow reuse will be a real PITA, but if it's otherwise sound it's an option worth considering.

Lorree

[Belleaphant]

Thanks everyone! It seems everyone is against white, what is the preferable color? Cherry? Dark? Light oak (ew)? We looked at a bunch of houses here and it looks like the trend is a lot of white. If we did stick with the white we would do a painted wood vs the laminate stuff that looks horible after a few uses (We just priced out those cabinets in the link).

Belair- I love the color of the tile/wall color you chose. Reminds me of what we have currently in our apt. I'm a big fan of neutrals.

We're going to be picing out the flooring options soon so we will see about doing solid hardwood floors vs the tile. As I said the current floor is wide pine. I worry about it being to soft and showing every scratch. Does anyone have experience with bamboo?

I know the feeling about dark floors and dog hair/dust. We probably won't go too dark if we go that route (I have a white dog and white cat!). I do have to say, we're neat freaks and have an obession with dusting/sweeping.

findeight-The laminate tiles we are looking at are 3-4x the cost of the regular tile. But it would also have less materials in the backing/labor side of it. We will have to factor in all the costs, maybe it will break evenin the end. Thanks!

Jetsmom- Thanks for the input. Have you seen people use the high-end laminate/tile? How does it work for resale vs. real tile? Also- For countertops, I see alot of houses with wood (I'm not a fan) would you say granite is still the best countertop option for resale? Or is the trend going towards quartz?

One more question. We're putting in an island in the center. I see alot of catalogs showing an accent color that maybe is carried over to one set of cabinets. Anyone have this? Or will the fad pass? http://woodmarkcabinetry.com/sites/p...lehazelnut.jpg

I talk it over with DH tonight and see what he has to say. Thanks again everyone!

[IntegritySporthorses]

I wouldn't do wood floor in a kitchen... one leak and it's all over.

I prefer the vinyl strips that look like wood and install easily: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...3+90013+500335

NOOOOOOO! I loved these when I was installing them in the bedroom and bathroom. I loved them for about a month.

Then I noticed my dog's nails scratched the crap out of them.

I am so disappointed.

[SmartAlex]

One thing I've learned is that extremes in color are always a problem. Very dark shows light dirt. White shows dark dirt. Plan accordingly. Your kitchen and bath should be some variation on the color of your most common dirt.

I have two tile floors. Earthtones in the kitchen and white in the bath (lesson learned). If you do go with tile, get the darkest grout color you can live with. Black would be perfect. I would be worried about the flexy floor though.

I would not hestitate to put wood floors in the kitchen. I love my wood floors and they are easy to maintain. The biggest problem is you don't want to drop heavy objects on them as they will dent, but you sure as heck don't want to drop something that heavy on a tile floor either.

[Belleaphant]

Schune- Yay finally someone who likes the white/dark flooring

Synrgystyk- Would you notice/care if the flooring went from 2-5" if the colors matched? Our first plan was to redo the whole house ($5k). But after having so many people tell us to redo the old wood we are starting to change our minds.

DH is experienced in house remodel/flooring/tile (and a perfectionist! eek) so we will be doing the work ourselves. It is the clear pine in the kitchen. We will try and take it up easy either way to resell/reuse. One of the upstairs bedrooms is crappy pine that has to be redone anyway, the others are the 2 1/2 oak (as well as the stairs). We really despise the oak, just looks so dated but to save 3k it might be worth it.

I forgot to mention- the house is an old crafstman/mission style house if that makes any difference. Nice mission accents that are just in need of some refinishing. The house will have an open floor plan with mission colums (on load bearing walls)that will match the stair railing. We won't be moving in until March 1st so we have a month to get as much done as possible.
Theres only 1 1/2 acres so not enough for horses... but check out the barns.. i'm in love! Our family isn't as excited (not so farm-y), but oh well. I think that's the best part about the house!

[2DogsFarm]

I've done 2 kitchens with Pergo flooring.
Love.It.

Looks like hardwood, cleans with water/Swiffer, wears like iron (dog nails cannot penetrate).

I did a whitewash wide plank in #1, then a narrower plank to match the existing hardwood floors (open floor plan) in #2.

If you are going to flip this place why spend $$$ on real hardwood?
Ditto on granite counters unless you have a greatly discounted deal.

I had fairly high-end white laminate cabinets in #1 and they still looked good 10yrs later, but in a kid-free kitchen {shrugs}.
For my tenants I did maple Kraftmaid from Home Depot and they still looked really nice 5 years & 2 sets of tenants later.

[RacetrackReject]

We typically do the island a different color than the cabinets, but we aren't crazy about the one section of cabinets to match. The kitchen in the photo you linked to looks awful to me. It would be fine with just the stained island and painted cabinets or vice versa, but the range hood especially looks totally out of left field in that design.

Not sure if this photo link will work, but here is a kitchen we did for a client who wanted white cabinets and wood flooring with contrasting island. Disregard the tile behind the stove..lol. The tile installer broke a liner and we were waiting for replacement pieces to show up so he could complete the outline..lol.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...520kitchen.jpg

Just wanted to add that those are painted wood cabinets. They are maple wood and we make them ourselves. There is a brown faux sort of finish in the creases at the homeowner's request.

[Belleaphant]

2dogs- I'll check into it. Hows it cost compared to other products? Thanks

I just had an idea. Has anyone done a mix of sizes in the flooring? Like 2 1/2, 4, 6" planks all varied throughout the floor? I've seen it in other houses, but not sure what others think. It might be a way to tie it into the rest of the house.

Racetrack- I love the style of cabinets, and the layout is almost the same as ours! I think I might do a darker island to match the trim of the rest of the house. Thanks for sharing it!

[clint]

We finished redoing our kitchen last fall. Although I liked the look of white cabinets, my husband didn't and we went with a warm off white color, and I'm glad we did. For the floor, we used engineered hardwood planking, in a dark color. I absolutely love the color, and I love how the floor holds up. It shows no ill effects for a major aquarium leak, which I consider to be a major test. What I don't love is that it shows every speck of anything on it, as mentioned. However, the contrast of colors is so nice I don't think I would trade it for a lighter color; I just spend quite a bit of time sweeping and using my little vacuum for floors.

[Synrgystyk]

Ok, keep in mind that I love old houses *because* they're old houses....

I'd rather see the mix of flooring than "we installed all new floors so they'd match." Also, you just bought a Craftsman? Bungalow? Keep in mind that this style of house is very distinctive -- and it's very easy to ruin. "Updating" -- like the currently fashionable open floor plans -- won't necessarily add value. If the current floor plan flows well then you might be further ahead to spend your money elsewhere.

Also, it looks like your cabinets really are pretty dated, but are they well-made? Sturdy? Still useful? Would it make sense to refurbish or paint them? Also, when it comes to countertops, have you looked at soapstone? Soapstone is very "period" for old houses but is also a very nice material -- it's what they used to use for laboratory bench tops because it's virtually indestructible.

Before you refinish the woodwork, have you determined the nature of the original finish? You need to know what's already there before you start -- so you don't wind up with a bigger project than you'd intended.

From your OP and the photo, it looks like you've got a nice older home that hasn't been ravaged by thoughtless updating and remuddling. (Not implying anything about your plans, just making an observation.) You might want to check out some old house websites and forums (This one is pretty good and very informative.) for ideas. It might save you some time and money, as well as increase your resale potential.

Lorree

[findeight]

By mission style do you mean arts and crafts bungalow style or spanish/southwest?

Anyway, Bamboo? You can't afford it. Oh you could do self installation and all that but...it's still way up there.

Granite can be a PITA to install and maintain. You can get Corian and many, many similar products that have the same look and much better durability...not to mention being less pricey. You can't tell some of this stuff from real granite. Just make sure you don't overpower the room with what you pick-people like open and bright kitchens. They sell houses.

You need to be sure to match your neighboorhood, not overbuild for it. If you are located in an upscale area high grade finishes make sense in a mid to upper market resale (depends on area but maybe 300k up on an average home). If you are more of an average, stay in the middle with high quality items that are timeless in appeal, not trendy.

I dunno, you can put better appliances in there like a great refrigerator, built in microwave/convection oven and oversized sink (if the counter is big enough) and really nice faucet sets that will sell it easier then upscale countertops and floors. Cost less too.

[mercedespony]

We have the original hardwood in our kitchen (18th century), it is striped cherry/pine. I love hardwood in the kitchen.

But if I was to remodel and had a choice, I would go with cork flooring. My SIL redid her kitchen with all cork, and I love it, the feel, the warmth, the color.