Tell me about your countertops! What do you love and hate about them?

We've lived with an absolute disaster of a kitchen for the last 8 years. We were hoping that there was a way to make it bigger without putting an addition on the house. There isn't.

Just recently we've decided that we're okay with an okay sized kitchen. A tiny kitchen (in a fairly large house) will really affect the resale value of our house but since we're not planning on moving we're just going to plow ahead.

Can you find the food?

No, but the ants can!

Tiny kitchens are a 'thing' in some areas - maybe it'll come to your area

You definitely want a usable kitchen - disastrous doesn't sound usable. When I moved in, the big kitchen project was modifying the bottom cabinets so that the backdoor could actually be opened I finally told the guy to just rip out the end cabinet. Less storage space but that's good - right?

Our kitchen is so tiny that you can't even fit a refrigerator in it.

Designing it in a way that allows cabinets and the ability to open the oven door is problematic.

Plus, everything has two work around two doorways that serve as a main passageway through the house.

Then there is this mysterious partial wall that hangs down from the ceiling that divides the kitchen into thirds. We still haven't figured out what that thing is all about....

I have a tiny kitchen in a tiny house.
But as I live alone it suits me.

What doesn't suit me is white cabinets and white appliances.
Never ending cleaning

Sounds like most of the bungalows in this part of town. One person in the kitchen at a time and you don't open the oven unless every cabinet door is shut. Forget about opening a dishwasher (if you managed to find a space for a dishwasher in the kitchen) and staying in the kitchen. My ex has a house like that - you close all the drawers/cabinets, then step outside the kitchen to open the dishwasher. It's one of the reasons he bbqs so much - the deck is easy to work on.

I think the whole notion of "kitchen" has changed dramatically in the last 100 years. I don't think these kitchens were designed as being social areas, which kitchens definitely are now.

80 years from now I wonder what people will make of those enormous open kitchen/great room designs that were the rage in the 80s and 90s. My friend from the Philippines once commented that growing up her entire family of 12 lived in a house smaller than her kitchen.

I think that's a regional/style/culture thing. It comes up regularly in food discussion groups.

Lots of heat on both sides of the argument. Kind of like whether or not people take their shoes off when they enter a house.

We remodeled our kitchen about 15 years ago, an I had corian countertops installed. It's true it appears seamless, but my countertops occasionally lift at the seams and that's irritating. However, they can be pushed down so I haven't called anyone in to fix it. Another thing is they do get scratched and you need a professional to get the scratch repaired. The thing I really like is the sink doesn't have ridges like one that is dropped in, it's a seamless transition to white. The white sink has been amazingly easy to keep clean. It hasn't absorbed stains, but possibly others have had a different experience.

Marble is beautiful, but it requires tender loving care. Personally, I don't want to work so hard.

I should add that I don't know if the installers did a great job putting the countertops in. It's a very long counter and when you run your hand over it I can feel unevenness in the surface. It's not something you can tell by just looking, so I'm not inclined to do anything right now.

the induction cooktops need a special way of thinking about cooking
1You must have ONLY iron cookware that is magnetic (stainless is not mgnetic if its good stuff).

SO you wind up using very expensive cookware or cast iron.

2It takes a higher amp outlet otherwise it takes forever to boil water. (QWe tried using em with the camper and jut to cook soup took over an hour.
With house amps its great.(30 A circuits)

3 The pans all need square sides.

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Your discussion about old kitchens. Our house was built in the 1700's an the "kitchen "was just a big walk in fireplace with a bake oven in the back) and one shelf(nothing else). We wound up with this huige room that was a kitchen and a dining area /tavern and also a post office (go figure) > SO we had bones to work with.

Yep. I'm vague on when my bungalows were built, the Venice one said 1906 on the real estate brochure, the northern cal one the late teens, found a newspaper in the attic from v. early twenties, some what different in some aspects, more sophisticated re ceilings and wood and whatnot. That was the one with hex tiles. The bathroom floor also had them so maybe there were some left over from the bathroom floor supply. If I remember right, a plumber either built the house or was highly involved in it. The kitchen counter, a wrap, didn't have much square footage. I used an old table of my parents in the middle of the room for a lot of mixing, stirring, rolling dough, et al.

My kitchen here is the kitchen from purgatory, and I don't have the present means to fix it. I'm used to it now, though, eight years and counting. It's so bad I almost like it. I knew it needed new or purchased used cabinets when I bought the place, but other stuff was more important to fix. This isn't an old place, just one with a crappy developer. My neighbors have dealt with the same beeswax over the years.

Anyway, I took off the doors to most of the existing cabinets. With my vision thing, I kept nearly knocking my eye out with the doors. I saved them in the garage for the next lucky person. I added a wall about ten feet long that cut off one of the accesses to the living room (who needs two?) and that gave me space to put the olden hutchlike cabinet I brought from California (cost me $50.00 after the fire sale next to our studio there, after fireworks from the bay caught that building, ay yi yi). So that's one good thing, I've my old hutch/cabinet. The lighting isn't bad - the kitchen backdoor has one big glass lite, and the side window lets in a lot of light too. Girl likes natural light. Recent good news: I fixed my garbage disposal, long story involving artichoke leaves. I know better, so stupid!

When we moved into our home, most everything had to be redone. Since money was not in abundance, I finally decided to use ceramic tile on my counter tops. I tiled them myself, then applied a sealer to them, and I love them. Setting hot pans on them, cleaning/disinfecting them, spilling staining liquid, etc. is not ever a problem. Even coffee, tea, and Kool-Aid "stains" just wipe right up. I reapplied sealer to them after the first year and they are still doing great.

Mr. B wants everything seamless so he's leaning towards corian and the like. Maybe I need to rethink my sink choice.

Do you think it lifts because it is so long?

I know it takes different pans and that some of mine won't work so they'd have to be replaced. I've had them all for a really long time so it wouldn't be too much of a burden to buy new. It seems like a reasonable trade off for opening up all that counter space.

Your kitchen sounds divine! You should post some pictures...

The light in my kitchen is terrible! Terrible, I tell you! We have one large window that is strangely positioned high on a north facing wall. I'd be able to see out of it is I was about 6'5". Then there's the crazy pony wall thing that hangs from the ceiling which blocks all light to the stove area.

The price of new cabinets makes me want to cry.

Our current counters are ceramic tile and one thing (the only thing) I do like about them is that they're pretty indestructible. You never have to worry about where to set a hot pan.