Ceiling Height Upgrade

[summerwood]

Originally Posted by LakesideB

The day we took possession ... my wife took pics of the kitchen and posted it online right away. We got a couple of guys who were interested. One of them told us that removing it all and hauling it is all was his responsibility. We were 'all in' on this idea and sold it to him. Removing granite from cabinets was a pain but the guy and his wife meticulously went about the whole process.

The kitchen came with builder grade granite .. so 5K included cabinets plus crappy granite.

I can pm you the contractor details if you would like. The amount i spent I would rather not disclose ... as we got other stuff done .. so its difficult to just say how much was for kitchen etc.

The hardwood is Vintage Solid Sawn 7" Fumed Oak.

http://www.vintageflooring.com/

We wanted 7" walnut .. but got to know how ridiculously soft walnut is and that it would get damaged easily.

Fumed Oak, which is very different from regular oak, is the closest thing to walnut while still retaining the strength of the oak floor. Also Vintage is one of the best manufacturers. Period. Their product is milled locally in Etobicoke and not somewhere in china. Their solid sawn product is just phenomenal. We had the whole house done in this.

The appliances are :
dishwasher: bosch
Built-in cooktop, microwave, oven : Jennair
42" builtin fridge : Jennair

Hopefully this helps.

The kitchen is missing lighting features, which we will come around to installing soon.

Can i ask you what material are these kitchen cabinets made of, (maple??)

Thanks

[waikiki]

Neither upgrade.

Instead I would upgrade the size/number of windows in the basement. I think that light coming in the basement makes a bigger difference than the height. We currently have 8'4" in the basement as std with upgraded larger windows. I don't think that 6" would have made a big difference for us. I would invest in good quality- larger basement windows. And make sure that they can install them. We had lots of issues with our install that had to be re-done multiple times.

As per the second floor, I would not upgrade it unless you are planning to spend a large proportion of your time on that floor.

[rdx]

I agree. 6" is not going to make much difference. I thought they usually upgrade to 9' in the basement

Originally Posted by waikiki

Neither upgrade.

Instead I would upgrade the size/number of windows in the basement. I think that light coming in the basement makes a bigger difference than the height. We currently have 8'4" in the basement as std with upgraded larger windows. I don't think that 6" would have made a big difference for us. I would invest in good quality- larger basement windows. And make sure that they can install them. We had lots of issues with our install that had to be re-done multiple times.

As per the second floor, I would not upgrade it unless you are planning to spend a large proportion of your time on that floor.

[summerwood]

We decided not to upgrade the ceiling. The standard ceiling for basement will be 7'10" which is low but even if we upgraded they make it 8'2" so the difference is 4" only and the price for that is 9200$. We might regret that we are not upgrading the second floor ceiling since that will make the house in general higher but it costs 8800$ and not just that since if we upgrade the ceiling height we will have to upgrade windows also and there are too many windows in second floor.

[rdx]

Agree. $9200 for 4". Forget it. Just curious, they can't make it taller?

I wonder what is the actual height for the 9' basement upgrade.

Originally Posted by summerwood

We decided not to upgrade the ceiling. The standard ceiling for basement will be 7'10" which is low but even if we upgraded they make it 8'2" so the difference is 4" only and the price for that is 9200$. We might regret that we are not upgrading the second floor ceiling since that will make the house in general higher but it costs 8800$ and not just that since if we upgrade the ceiling height we will have to upgrade windows also and there are too many windows in second floor.

[summerwood]

Originally Posted by rdx

Agree. $9200 for 4". Forget it. Just curious, they can't make it taller?

I wonder what is the actual height for the 9' basement upgrade.

I have not asked why they dont make it taller but if they did, the cost would be way more expensive

[LakesideB]

For us the contract stipulated a full 12" higher than the builder's standard length. I took my measuring tape inside the house that didn't do the upgrade (neighbour) and one inside my own and made sure I did indeed get the benefit of full 12". And let me tell you it makes a huge difference.

Additionally, we also got extra windows put in as it was a walkout and got the existing ones to become bigger.

Builders never put an exact height for basements in the contract as its all uneven due to hvac, pipes, etc.

[LakesideB]

Originally Posted by summerwood

Can i ask you what material are these kitchen cabinets made of, (maple??)

Thanks

Maple on the main .. .as its stained. MDF for the white cabinets as they are painted. Applying paint on maple is not a good idea as the wood expands and contracts ruining the paint job on the seams.

Price wise .. maple and mdf were the same.

[summerwood]

Originally Posted by LakesideB

Maple on the main .. .as its stained. MDF for the white cabinets as they are painted. Applying paint on maple is not a good idea as the wood expands and contracts ruining the paint job on the seams.

Price wise .. maple and mdf were the same.

Thanks a lot. Your kitchen is amazing and i would never think that a MDF kitchen can be that beautiful. I was told at the decor center that if we wanted white cabinets they make them with MDF and i was kind of not happy with that since I thought MDF is too cheap and actually they told me that my idea about MDF was so wrong. I also visited a kitchen maker in the area where i live and i saw a beatiful white kitchen there, and i thought that is made with some expensive wood, but when i asked the sales person there, she said its all MDF, and i again started arguing with her regarding the Quality of MDF. Now that i see your kitchen, all my doubts about MDF are gone and thank you for that

[LakesideB]

no worries. I was coming from the same thought process.

It took a while for me to get convinced as well.