Alright, switch gears from politics. I am slowly getting everything updated in my house as I plan on selling it a year from now. Kitchen counter tops are next. I know some of you may have had some experience that can help me out.

Because I am selling in a year, I am not looking at spending top dollar. One consideration is the wow factor to a seller. Granite is out, too expensive for the time I have left here. I am looking at Corian, but also considering Laminate. I save about $1000 over Corian by going with laminate. Perhaps that answers my question, but I am willing to spend the extra money if it is a fairly superior product over Laminate and would help to sell the place faster. I have laminate now, and it has held up well over the last 18 years, but it needs updating. What should I do, what's best for value, given my circumstances?


Home Depot has a pretty good sale going on now. Granite, Sandstone, or Corian is marked $300 off, plus another 10 percent through tomorrow. Laminate, no sale.

Thanks for the help.

Mike

If your appraiser thinks using Corian will raise the selling price enough to cover the installation, go for it. I would personally rather have Corian in the house if I were the buyer.

Stainless Steel and Butcher Block.

Cheap, lasts forever, and looks great, especially with stainless appliances.

That's the route I'm going when finish my kitchen remodel.

Had the gasline for the stove & range installed today. (really!)

Next is the hood exhaust, then I get to take a sledge hammer to the early 90's formica cabinets.

If you're planning work done, now's the time. Contractors are really hard up since the housing market shat.

Installing laminate is pretty easy. Replace the old countertop with some high density fiber board (HDF), lay down some contact cement on the HDF and on the laminate to be installed. DON'T SKIMP ON THE CEMENT, USE ENOUGH! Take some 1" wide strips of 1/4 inch plywood and lay them down on the HDF after it is tacky. Lay down the laminate, the start removing the strip from the center (preferred by me) and work your way out to both sides, or start on one end and work towards the other. Roll vigorously with a J-roller. Trim with a router/roto-zip with a laminate bit and add an appropriate wood trim bullnose. Avrage kitchen should take 4 hours or less if you are handy. 2 hours or less including demo if you are good.

You selling a $500,000 house, or a $150-200,000 house? It matters. Towards the lower end, go laminate. Middle to upper end, go corian.

I always buy the tool needed to do the job, because the guy I would have to hire to install it would have "the tool". That way I can do the same job later for a friend, or god forbid, do it for myself on another project...

Have you thought of Granite tile intsead of slab? Much cheaper and adds value to your appraisal.

Mike,

Andy's point regarding the value of your house matters most. Laminate won't promote the sale if it's an upper or high end home, but won't detract value from a lower to mid-range. The value and type of countertops should correlate with the relative value of your home. I'm currently building a mid-range house and planning to use a Corian type product. Frankly I don't care for the appearance of granite as a counter, regardless of price. Of course the person I share the kitchen with has other ideas and thinks marble is really cool. It must have been that trip to Italy.

Sg

One of my cousins is remodeling a home and is putting in cast in place concrete counter tops. I've seen a few in person, and they are neat. The total material cost is like $150, but they can easily go in high-end homes. That's where I have seen them. To have them installed is a lot of labor, so you don't save anything unless you do it yourself.

SALMO, marble is the last thing you want in your kitchen. With all the food and oils and wines that are used in the kitchen, within a year your marble will look like a staind mess. Mantence is high with marble. You have to reseal marble once every 6 months or so with an impregnator which is not cheap. . Plus marble is nowhere as strong or structual as granite and is typicaly more expensive then your granite slabs or tiles. Kitchen counters take abuse like no other surface in your home. If you want something to last and stay shinning a high water polish on a granite slab will give you years and years of delight. imo 10 years stone mason

word for the day...impregnator

yeah I'm an "impregnator which is not cheap"

Thanks for the advice. Marsha, I checked out the site, so I will look into it some more. I got kind of in a rush because of the Home Depot sale, but there will always be sales. I am going to wait and check out all of the options.

It's a mid range priced house, but I have to compete with some higher price ones across the street. I may go granite, just for selling, because that is the competition. My goal is to sell fast and not to necessarily recover the money from upgrades. The kitchen is a big seling point. I have kept up with the house so I shouldn't have to spend a lot of money elsewhere, except maybe some tile work on the shower in the master bedroom.

I got just a little over a half acre, with a shop, so that will have it's own appeal, especially when it is a house a first time buyer with good credit can get into.

Thanks again.

Mike

Sounds like a nice place.

Mike...pm sent