Kitchen

[PurpleBunny]

What kills ME is when they go into a kitchen BETTER than mine, a kitchen I'd KILL to have, and they scowl and frown in disgust and declare it's a total tear down. It's ridiculous!!

[Kachina624]

That about sums it up, Housecat. You did forget the hardwood floors though.

[house_cat]

On 5/22/2014 kachina624 said: That about sums it up, Housecat. You did forget the hardwood floors though.

You're right. How could I forget those?!

[mistriTsquirrel]

Well, here's a fun story...

When my parents and I were looking at houses, we looked at one that--according to our realtor--had been "redone" by another realtor.

It was...odd.

One bedroom had floor tile that looked an awful lot like the tile you see in classrooms.

I don't know what the old closet doors looked like, but they had been replaced with--and, no, I'm not kidding--this cheap vinyl stuff that was accordion-folded. I walked into one of the bedrooms, saw the "closet door," and when I turned around my mother and our realtor saw the look on my face and started laughing.

The kitchen was "re-done" cheaply...there were shims under the outer wall of the pantry. It was really sad-looking.

The icing on the cake was the basement. Overall, it was a decent basement. However, when I saw the dryer, I couldn't help but wonder where its mate was.

Apparently this house's washer and dryer were no longer on speaking terms, because one machine resided in one corner of the basement, while the other stood (pouting?) in the opposite corner.

I found myself feeling a little bit disoriented as I contemplated this house from the twilight zone, and I began looking around for hidden cameras. I was just positive we were being punk'd or something...but Ashton Kutcher never arrived to tell us it was some sort of joke.

I wonder if anyone bought that weird house...and if the washer and dryer were ever able to get back together and work through their differences...

[Anais]

Those shows really make me laugh and shake my head when I see young couples looking at homes and lamenting the lack of stainless steel or granite counter tops, etc. I almost feel out of touch because i just replaced all my appliances. The dishwasher was broke and my electric stove almost blew up on me causing the fire dept to come. The appliances were in this house when I bought it nine years ago. I decided to replace all my kitchen appliances and I did spend quite a chunk of change but as far as I'm concerned, I hope they last the rest of my life!

What I feel out of sync about is that I like white and I wanted white, not stainless steel. I did put in a gas stove as it was not expensive to put a gas line in. I love the way it all looks. I love my gas stove. I don't want to be married to any appliances because I have to constantly wipe off hand prints. I am also out of sync in that I don't care for granite counter tops. It seems that most of the time, the things that most people want have less appeal to me. Someday I will change my counter tops and I will get what I want then, too. To each his/her own.

I never cease to be truly amazed at the young couples who expect top of the line everything and for the life of me, I don't know how they can afford to look into homes that are so expensive to begin with and on top of that, saying they have to gut a kitchen or bathroom. I am happy with what I have; it is comfortable and pretty. I realize that if I go to sell, some buyers might be turned off by not having what is on the HGTV must have checklist!

[jubilant]

We are having some kitchen remodeling done. I have the Honey Oak cabinets from the 80's. We decided to paint them instead of getting new ones as they still have a lot of life left in them. It allowed us to afford a granite countertop. New cabinets were going to cost $7000. Yikes! Honestly, I would have been happy with Formica but DH loves granite. Our kitchen is small but I was shocked at how much granite costs. We may have to sell our home in the next few years so we are thinking about resale value. Our appliances were all old and we bought stainless hoping it would attract young buyers. I am not so sure I believe in that theory. The way things are going these days....stainless will be outdated in 5 yrs.

[sarpy]

It amazes me when young couples need granite, open concept, master bathrooms in the bedroom. When we moved into our first house in 1965 we didn't even have AC. Vinyl countertops, floors and no master bathroom, and no carpet. Yet we raised two daughters in that house. We slowly added carpet, AC. Sold it for 3X what we bought it for.

[sarpy]

And whats with all these couples that spend half a million and are still not satisfied with the house. How many people have that kind of money to spend on a house. Not anyone I know. Why don't they show people that are buying a $150,000 or a $200,000 house. If this sounds low to you, we live in Nebraska where the cost of living is low and we didn't get hurt too much during the recent recession.

[violann]

My kitchen is 1950s knotty pine. We are planning a bump out addition which will be- 1950s KNOTTY PINE. I also have upscale Wilsonart (formica style) counters and I LOVE THEM TOO!

[house_cat]

On 5/23/2014 sarpy said:

And whats with all these couples that spend half a million and are still not satisfied with the house. How many people have that kind of money to spend on a house. Not anyone I know. Why don't they show people that are buying a $150,000 or a $200,000 house. If this sounds low to you, we live in Nebraska where the cost of living is low and we didn't get hurt too much during the recent recession.

I agree with you. I'd love to see more variety. You don't have to be rich, though, to buy a house that's 500,000 or more. I live in a 1300 sq. foot town home in the suburbs of a big city and it cost that much. In some areas of the country, you don't have a choice.. that's what homes cost. I'd love to see Nebraska, or Idaho, or anywhere else different from where I live.