Ah, the irony....

I can only imagine what those buyers would think of my mid-priced home with linoleum floors and laminate countertops and a master bedroom smaller than some of the walk-in closets you see on those shows. We just bought in December '07.  But we ARE able to afford to have a lot custom hand-made and beautiful furnishings.

I know lots of people who buy homes as a status symbol, then can't afford to furnish them nicely or own a car. So they live in these expensive mansions with big upgrades but their cars break down on the way home from work with 250,000 miles on a 12-year-old engine.

I just don't get it. But man am I hooked on those real estate TV shows!!!

Obsessed,

I love linoleum and vinyl, so I'm happy to find another person happy with it. I know that this is a heretic comment on a sellers' board - and goodness knows the buyers would chase me off their forum with torches and pitchforks if I dared make the confession.

When we moved into this home, we had no choice except to replace vinyl in kitchen and adjoining family room with new top-of-the line cushioned fiber-floor type vinyl (long story as to why - involves wheelchair issues). No one oohs and ahhs over our new butternut hardwood floors with mahogany border in living room, hall and bedroom. They go nuts over the vinyl and ask me who did my stonework, since this is low sheen in large squares with dimensional look. It fooled a professor and her husband, a contractor, also a friend with a design degree, several neighbors.

My feet are not cold. No need for radiated (sp?) floors, which aren't so great in humid and hot climates when they aren't needed so often.The dogs are comfortable snoozing on the floor. I drop glasses. Nothing breaks - except in bathrooms where we have tile. Kid sits on floor with her friends and plays board games. Everything mops in minutes.

I see buyers turning their noses up at the large light tiles that were so popular in Florida 10 years ago, just as they do old vinyl patterns from the 90s. They want to rip out the tiles for travertine or other stone, at a cost that would much higher than if my vinyl goes out of style, and a lot more messiness.

Besides, even real travertine looks fake and cheap with a treadmill on top of it in the family room and one dinky sofa in a corner. Like you, I have some antiques and other nice furnishings that make the room look expensive even if the vinyl floor is fake.

Yeah Lucy! Vinyl floors rock!!

(Ducking from the objects being thrown at me from the buyers board, LOL!)

I once saw a letter to the editor to a home magazine - House Beautiful or one of those, can't remember.

The writer said the magazine concentrated too heavily on hard-surface design options that are not good for retirees as they age. That a stone or tile floor in a retiree's home might be well and good at 65, but at 75, could turn a fall into a tragedy of two broken hips and legs that would force an independent person into a nursing home where he or she would spend days with dementia and other patients - a sad life for a active elderly person unable to walk unassisted or lift things.

My mother cannot walk or sit in a chair because of a fall. That writer was spot-on.  If mom had sons instead of a daughter who can help her with bathroom issues, then mom would still be miserable in the nursing home where she had to stay two months because of recovery, upset every day, crying every day, and eating food such as green beans that looked as if the kitchen staff dumped out of cans without heating.

We were forced into the choice of this vinyl because of wheelchair issues and the height of the floor as it met hardwood hallways and such.  The idea of vinyl made me unhappy, but in design and function (not to mention price) it turned out to be the best decision we made during the updating of this home.

lucy that is horrible! (your mama being hurt, not the vinyl floors!!) 

I'm glad she has you to take care of her, Lucy. And I agree about people buying just for status. Personally, I love my small, older home.

Oh my goodness, that is so awful about your mother! My mother has been in a nursing home for the past year since she had a stroke - it is awful. I know what you mean about the green beans.

I think the vinyl flooring options they have these days make it very attractive! Ours looks just like tile flooring....only MUCH easier to maintain.

I have ceramic tile which looks great but I have already fallen out of love with it because it is too cold in the winter, it's too slippery when wet (d*mn ice machine), and too unforgiving when you drop something.  It terrifies me when the kids start running around because I'm picturing fractured skulls.

I recommended linoleum to a fried just today because some brands can look so much like wood or stone but cost so much less.  Won't bust your budget or your butt (if you fall).

So you've got vinyl and linoleum instead of granite and travertine.  Who gives a crap!?  All those upgrades are just in style at the moment and are tomorrow's shag carpet and wood panneling.  I'd rather spend my money traveling than making sure I can see my reflection in my countertops.  Good for you that those floors work for your family situation.  Functionality is what really matters day to day.

''Besides, even real travertine looks fake and cheap with a treadmill on top of it in the family room and one dinky sofa in a corner'

You know. The people I know with the fancy upgrades, are the ones I know with the smallest homes. Real wood floors, travertine, marble columns and stainless steel on an 1100 sq ft,. home. Armani scarf on a pig.

By the way, the vinyl floor industry isn't paying me!

I have to admit though, that the expensive refrigerator was worth every dime. :) Having the freezer on the bottom is great. I don't have to bend far to get the mustard or lettuce. I SHOULDN'T be going after the ice cream on the bottom freezer, instead of the yogurt in the 'fridge part on top, so I should have to work for it and dig deep.

Callista, as soon as we are able to travel again one day, we're taking our daughter to see the state where she was born. On our tour, we will go your way, call, and take you to dinner! Unless you're traveling to Borneo or Bora Bora someplace!

I have to admit wanting to find an excuse not to get laminate countertops. Usually, the excuse used is that they don't last long. The secret for those of us who have had them, is that they hold up to anything except setting one's microwave on fire and exploding it, which is what mom did. Even that only left a scortch mark of about two inches. The laminate countertops we had in our last home looked new 10 years later, and it's not that I'm a careful cook, or good at keeping the cat off top of it. She has her claws, and those countertops lasted under that abuse when she would jump from sofa, across the room, and land on the counter.

Truthfully, laminate countertops are an excellent buy. They clean with one swipe. I'm so accustomed to not putting hot pots directly onto a countertop that even with granite or quartz, I wouldn't be able to allow myself to do it.

Mother's hideous ones held up from the Kennedy administration until last year, when even that explosion wouldn't kill them.

Thank you for the comments about mom. She is elderly and is in good spirits most of the time, except when she's cranky. :)

After having granite and corian and now in a rental with laminate countertops.....I can say that laminate rocks!   Nothing breaks on it like granite, always looks clean.....granite was so hard to keep clean (the reflection shows everything) and corian did scratch and the claims that it was easy to buff out were so not true!!  

I think I would like to have cork floors, do ya think they are soft underfoot?

This thread makes sense considering we are going into a time where most of our population will be retirement age and their safety at home will become paramount......how about companies that specialize in retrofitting homes for elderly safety and tons of grantie and tile being tossed out!!!

I'm glad someone else loves their laminate countertops! I love mine too. They come in great colors and stand up to anything. Granite reminds me of tombs. Maybe when these companies retrofit homes for elderly safety, they can recycle the granite countertops into their future burial sites, or make headstones out of them! (Sorry - can you tell I really dislike granite!!)

I laugh when I see someone walk away from a house because "I don't like the colors the walls are painted" or "the bathroom is too small" when it's a 15' x 20' bathroom...and this will be on a 5 year old colonial on a half acre of land with 2,000 sq/ft GLA for $230k. I wish they'd ship these people to Boston for a weekend and see what similar houses sell for up here. In a good town, typically $550k + at the bubble peak. Thankfully, those houses have shed about $90k off their peak prices and continue to freefall, which is good news.

Laminate's second benefit is that when styles change and colors every decade or so, it's affordable to change the countertops to keep a home looking less dated. Maybe laminate isn't the top choice of materials. But when earth-tones and black countertops are out and something new comes in that's entirely different - French blues, glass countertops, translucents, bronzes  or whatever comes in -  laminate owners can switch over to more updated colors to sell a home.

After the 1970s, chocolate browns, golds and oranges weren't so out they weren't seen until the next century began. If history repeats, then a few years from now, some types of granite will be outdated.

I wish they'd ship these people to Boston for a weekend and see what similar houses sell for up here.

My wife and just looked at one of those houses, complete with quartz countertops.  The opening for the stove looked like it was made with a hammer and screwdriver!  It was so jagged (thing 1 to 2 inch "jags") it almost looked intentional.

We currently rent and love our laminate countertops, which are a fairly dark color and always look clean!

I love, love, love, Granite!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Callista, as soon as we are able to travel again one day, we're taking our daughter to see the state where she was born."

Don't forget to go to some of the Redwood forests you can only find them here and they are quite a treasure.

I like how granite looks. The problem is that for our kitchen, the installation would cost a half-year's college tuition for our daughter. We aren't rich.  We make liberal-arts money (meaning, among the educated poor).  She's in high school, with college years speeding toward us at the same time that our retirement years are crashing near.

We are baby boomers who had our own baby in our late 30s.

Y'all are spot on when it comes to the bit about stuff going out of style; esp. the whole granite / stainless thing.  When I go through the "dueling digs" pictures on Zillow, half the kitchens look the same.... booo-rrring! 

Everything goes out of style and then back in again.  That's why you should put in your home what you like.  I love granite and stainless, so I have it.  When we priced out Granite it was cheaper than Corian, which I dislike anyway.  Granite, if taken care of properly, will not burn, scratch(unless you use a diamond) stain or seperate at the seams.  It's worth the money to me.

I love granite too.  Being married to a geo, natural stone will always beat out anything synthetic in his mind.  There are so many beautiful colors and patterns, I don't think anything neutral will ever go out of style.  I do have to say though, some of those new laminates are really pretty.

Granite can and does chip.......near our sink we had several nicks, couldn't see them too much due to their location, but if they had been on the island it would have looked bad with the light reflection.  Plus the kids heads hurt like a mother when they slammed into it.   

I will admit though that I bought the house with granite based soley on the kitchen......wasn't until we had to use the kids bathroom upstairs and go in it and discovered it was a broom closet size that perhaps I had been blinded by the granite.

Granite can and does chip

Only in cases of sever abuse with a hammer or impact tool. A chip can be filled with a granite dust and epoxy mixture. If a chip occurs on your countertop, do not throw out the chipped pieces. They can be used to fix the countertop, so that no one will be able to tell it was ever chipped.

If granite becomes standard, then what will the snobs do next? Will certain types of granite be "in" and others out, with a price differential to denote the difference? Or will the rich go to custom-island creations made of sculptured glass or hand-made art pieces? Remember, granite was the third choice back in the 80s and 90s. Marble was THE thing to have. Then tile. At first, the idea of granite creeped out homebuyers because they equated it to tombstones. Then we became more aware of the patterns and colors beyond the granite used for building foundations and graveyard headstones.

Will the rich do a reverse trend and go back to the days when the rich thought it low-class for a kitchen to be seen at all? Remove family life from the kitchen, again, in favor of media-room family rooms minus kitchens? In the olden days, the rich had kitchens in separate houses out back, or had them far back in the house to hide the unpleasant domestic details of life. Maybe the snob-appeal is that a family is wealthy enough to hire a cook, and mom doesn't need a family-room attached to kitchen in order to feel less isolated.

It's weird that Americans see bathrooms  as showplaces these days, show guests around in the places we go to the toilet  as if it's an art gallery.  I'm thinking my ancestors with outhouses would have considered us insane. What next? Travertine/granite/marbel in laundry rooms that are as large as a master suites with bay windows?

About 10 years ago I remember walking into a model home of a new community near an apartment I was renting. I was in my mid 20's and ended up talking to the REA who couldnt have been much older than me. After she informed me of the price range she started asking me "qualifying " questions to see if she was wasting her time. After assuming I could marginally afford to purchase the home she tells me that she could squeeze the numbers and probably get me in to a home. ( at about 50% debt to income). I questioned her as to why I or anyone else for that matter would want to push them into a home they couldn’t afford to furnish. She responds to me with a tone of arrogance " I just moved in to my home. My husband and I decided to buy and grow into the house. This way we will guarantee the price. As our incomes grow we will be able to better furnish the house"


The houses were selling at around 250k then and as of 05 the resales were selling around 260k.

Looks like she cornered that market.. I wonder if she finally bought a couch and a TV at least.

I like my kitchen to be seperate from the rest of the house.  I really do not like people hanging around the kitchen while I'm cooking.  I love when I serve my guests and they are surprised at what comes out of the kitchen.

I also don't like people helping in the kitchen. I back into them and step on toes. Or they seem to stand at the sink when I'm trying to pour pasta into the collander.  Mosts guests aren't helping, I've learned. They're nosey and are there to check out the china pattern, if I have dishwasher spots on glasses (yes, I forget that rinse stuff), and are seeing if I've cleaned my silverware drawers lately (yes) and the can opener (yes).

Wow Tater! Just 10k in equity in 10 years in 05, which was top of the market? What did they do, run a highway through the subdivision or change the school district to Thug High School?