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ireori cards for the 16th eoz anniversary

this song fr changed my life.... like most things do....

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Best Flooring for Kitchens in 2021

Your kitchen is a rallying point for activities. So it should come as no surprise that when choosing flooring for the kitchen, you’ll want something durable. Waterproof options are also a good idea to prevent floor failures from splashes and spills. These are the Top Flooring Options, built to last in your kitchen this year.

You're reading: Best Flooring for Kitchens in 2021

Picture this: It’s the holiday season. You’re having a bunch of friends and family over to celebrate and spread some merriment. The place is packed. There’s food, drinks, and everyone is having a grand ole time. 

Now picture this: Where is everyone standing and hanging out together?

If you’ve ever had your own place or been to a gathering, you probably pictured that good time happening in the kitchen. Let’s be honest – the kitchen is the central hub of the home and the place where everyone tends to congregate. It’s a high-traffic area, that is frequently exposed to spills, dirt, and moisture. Kitchens need to have durable, water-friendly flooring , but what is the best flooring for kitchens?

Everyone circle around the island, pull up a stool and grab a seasonal beverage, as we review the options for kitchen flooring. We’ll focus on what’s hot for 2021 in kitchen flooring, different types of flooring, which kitchen flooring is best, cheap flooring options and more. But first . . .

Special Considerations Underfoot

Unlike other rooms in the home, the kitchen gets used daily – either for food storage and preparation, group or family dining, or just as a rallying point for activities. Kitchens take a beating unlike any other room – save maybe the bathroom. It’s no coincidence that both are regularly exposed to moisture. From washing dishes, sinks, cooking, ice makers/refrigerators, to regular foot traffic, moisture is a real consideration that affects every surface in the kitchen, especially the floor. When choosing flooring for the kitchen, waterproof is key.

Due to the number of kid, adult, and pet feet meandering through the kitchen each day, a durable floor is also critical. Many kitchens double as a “mudroom” with an exterior entrance and all the fun, dirt, debris, and moisture one could track from the outside to beat up your floor.

Additionally, like in a bathroom, all that moisture on a hard surface can be an accident waiting to happen. Many waterproof flooring options get extremely slippery when moisture is applied to them. Non-slip options should be a consideration for any flooring installed in a kitchen. 

Remember, working with a flooring and remodeling professional , like your partners at The Good Guys, can help you identify considerations like these and put you on the path toward making the right flooring choice for your project. 

Recommended Flooring for Kitchens

Factoring in those aforementioned special considerations, and others such as price (who doesn’t love cheap flooring?!), let’s take a look at some of the types of flooring that work best in kitchens. 

Hardwood

Used for centuries in homes, hardwood floors continue to be a luxurious and popular choice for many homeowners. Solid hardwood floors are durable, warm, stylish and water-resistant. Yes. You read that right. Hardwood floors are not waterproof. Solid hardwoods, when combined with the proper finish are water-resistant, but long-term exposure to moisture will damage them. Spills should be cleaned as soon as possible; however, they can take more exposure than a laminate or engineered hardwood floor with composite or non-water-resistant cores can handle. 

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Despite this “weakness,” hardwoods are a great kitchen floor. They can also add a variety of looks over the years of their life through refinishing either to match flooring throughout the home or to give the kitchen some standalone pizazz. Depending on the finish, hardwood floors can be slippery, however, design variables such as hand-scraped or distressed finishes or plank width/length can provide extra surface area for traction. 

Trends to watch for with hardwoods in 2021: lighter finishes and variety. While the deep walnut and cherry finishes are somewhat traditional and timeless, hardwood flooring for 2021 will feature lighter, more “natural” wood colors. Look for terms like “blonde” and “honey” to be big players, along with grays and whitewashes. Color variety is another continuing trend for 2021 – dark wood mixed with light and medium-tone woods provide an eye-catching floor. 

Much like lay patterns for tile , hardwood flooring can be laid in patterns for added interest. Your flooring pros at The Good Guys can also help you with pattern installation that is going to be on-trend for 2021 but timeless for the future. Herringbone, diagonal and other install patterns will continue to be popular choices, but wide plank and mixing plank widths are also coming back strong. 

Look for reclaimed, recycled, and environmentally sustainable choices to be popular varieties for hardwood flooring. 

Laminate

Generally speaking, like hardwood floors, laminate floors are a warm, water-resistant choice for the kitchen. As they are not waterproof, homeowners should remember to factor this in when selecting laminate. Laminates have long been a less-expensive way to get the look of traditional hardwood. 

HOWEVER – many flooring manufacturers are now offering “waterproof laminate” which features a rigid core made of waterproof material that adds strength and stability. These do away with the perceived weakness to moisture.

These new laminates still have the advantages of traditional laminates – including the flexibility of installation. Most laminate floors can be clicked together and either permanently installed (glued down) or floated, allowing for installation over uneven subfloors. 

Much the same as hardwood, lighter finishes will be the trend for 2021. Gray washes, light woods, and mixed colors will lead the style parade. Also look for longer plank lengths, even up to 36” and 48”, combined with wider planks (as wide as 8”!) to be a trend for all wood and wood-look laminates. 

Mimicking solid hardwood flooring’s distinctive colors and patterns remains a primary selling feature of laminate floors. Hand-scraped, distressed, rustic, and “reclaimed” looks will all continue to be popular for 2021, as homeowners continue to want unique, realistic looks for their floors. Pattern installs like chevron or herringbone remain popular and assist with achieving those looks. 

Tile

A classic and durable look, tile flooring has long been the go-to option for wet areas. If installed, grouted and sealed properly, tile can last a lifetime and sometimes longer. Tile is, anecdotally-speaking, the number one most popular option for kitchen flooring. A wide variety of kitchen floor tiles are available, so it’s helpful to understand the differences and narrow it down to a few options you prefer. 

Remember – your advisor at The Good Guys can help select the best kitchen floor tile option for your project and you should take them up on this offer!

Here’s a look at the most popular varieties of tile for kitchen floors.

Ceramic or Porcelain

One of the most durable, and most popular tile for kitchen floors or walls. Ceramic tiles are man-made from natural materials – in this case, clay – and baked to a finish. They are available in a wide variety of styles, shapes, colors, and patterns.  

Ceramic tiles can handle spills, splatters, and messes dished out in most kitchens. While they won’t damage the tile, these messes can stain grout, so where possible they should be cleaned up as soon as possible. 

Among the most popular style of ceramic tiles, porcelain tiles are 100% waterproof and can handle just about any stain. They are harder than standard ceramics due to a higher temperature baking process which strengthens the tile for durability. That durability can make them slippery in some finishes, so be on the lookout for slip-resistant tiles or tiles with non-slip features like patterns or texture. These are found commonly on ceramic and porcelain tiles meant to look like wood or natural stone, which can be difficult to install, so give your professional partners at The Good Guys a call . 

Natural Stone

Another great tile option for kitchens is made of natural stone. On the higher end of the price scale, stone tiles (think marble, granite, etc.), like ceramic, are offered in a variety of colors and patterns, however, the most popular options tend to feature colors or patterns that occur naturally, rather than man-made. 

Natural stone tile does require a bit more care than porcelain or ceramic. Typically, they need to be sealed following install and re-sealed at regular intervals as time progresses. But with proper care, they are a beautiful and tough surface for your kitchen. 

Read more: Maggot Control: How to Get Rid of Maggots

For 2021, tiles continue to be popular as kitchen flooring. Especially those that mimic traditional hardwood floors, with planks and “grain” finish details. Larger tile sizes remain popular, as they have in previous years. Plank tile 8” wide by 48” long is a big hit, as are 12” x 24” ceramic tiles.  Despite these trends, subway tiles will continue to be popular, along with decorative mosaic tiles .  Traditional square tiles were trending down in recent years, but in larger formats, they are making a comeback in popularity! 

Mixing tile sizes and patterned installations will be popular again in 2021. Installing a room entirely diagonal, or even using a herringbone or chevron install to spice up a more traditional tile, are just a few of the options. 

Vinyl

Perhaps the most popular flooring option in recent years, and for 2021 shows no signs of slowing down. But many people looking for kitchen flooring don’t know anything about modern vinyl flooring. This is not the sheet vinyl your parents used to have; this ain’t mom’s linoleum!

Vinyl flooring today, which was formerly a purely commercial product, is most popularly offered in tiles and planks, and popular varieties of vinyl will be referred to as LVT or LVP. These stand for “Luxury Vinyl Tile” and “Luxury Vinyl Plank”. Basically – you’re getting good vinyl either in a tile or plank.  Most importantly in the vinyl acronym world is the reference to vinyl as WPC or SPC: Wood Plastic Composite or Stone Plastic Composite.  

WPC and SPC refer to the core of the vinyl flooring. WPC uses wood and polymers in the core for stability and strength; SPC vinyl has a stone/plastic composite core, made largely of stone dust, stabilizers, and PVC to strengthen the tile. Both feature a foam or cork backing to soften the floor underfoot and deaden sound. The vinyl layer from where the floor gets its name is the prominent feature of these floors, showing the near-infinite colors and patterns, and they’re topped with a wear layer for added protection from scrapes and spills.

Both vinyl types are fully waterproof and can be installed “floating” above the subfloor. They’re a great option for kitchens and even bathrooms, they can even be installed in basements — if you have a kitchen in the basement. And let’s be honest, if you do, that’s awesome!

While vinyl flooring is a bit softer than some other options (looking at you, ceramic tiles!), it’s still a tough, durable flooring solution. Popular trends for 2021 include the most popular variant of the vinyl: wood look. Vinyl designed to mimic solid hardwoods is responsible for driving the vinyl market, offering customers the look of wood, with a softer underfoot yet extremely durable product.

Vinyl flooring will also continue to move toward lighter colors and finishes for 2021. Look for the whitewash and “blonde” coloring on wood look and gray on stone look vinyl.  Interesting “finish” patterns are also becoming more popular like wire, and vinyl is offered in a near-infinite array of colors and patterns. The same install patterns that are popular for hardwood will also be for your vinyl think chevron, herringbone or diagonal and look to install in a pattern or patterns to tailor the unique look to your home. 

Stained Concrete

Perhaps the most basic and most durable kitchen flooring option is stained concrete. Offering a sleek look that can be tailored to be modern or traditional, concrete is extremely durable and can be sealed to completely waterproof, which is necessary as concrete typically absorbs most fluids… Frankly, most homes have concrete sub-flooring in them today. However, you’ll need to work with a professional like your pals at The Good Guys to properly prepare the surface for staining. 

Concrete floors can be stained to look like wood, or stone, even some tiles. It can be slippery once finished, however, there are options to make the flooring less slick. So mats in the kitchen probably are a good idea wherever excessive moisture may occur – think in front of a sink. 

Look for lighter finishes, as we saw with the other flooring products. As there are no tiles to specifically install and arrange, the unique looks come from the finish, including the color and patterns.  

Stained concrete is one of the best cheap flooring options for 2021  as well, so it can be a great economical option for your kitchen floors. Want it to look like marble? No problem! Want hardwood or traditional ceramic tile looks? No problem!  

As you can see, 2021 is going to be an exciting year for flooring. If you’re interested in bringing some of that excitement home to your kitchen, contact your flooring pro partners at The Good Guys for help on choosing the best type of flooring for your job.

Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Kitchen

source https://livingcorner.com.au/best-flooring-for-kitchens-in-2021/

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FPJ Blog post: “Transition”

 You feel as though you are swimming through the heat as you load the last few items into the U-Haul trailer attached to your truck. A lamp from the nightstand, a pair of flip-flops that failed to make it into the suitcase, the metal toolbox with a dent next to the handle. These are just small fragments of the last three years. The big stuff is already loaded. You grab the leather notebook holder sitting on the stairs and open it. The most important parts were cluttered inside in the forms of the final poems you had written and the medallion awarded to you for completing your Honors Thesis. You open the passenger side door on the truck and set it on the seat before rolling down the window and closing the door.

You explore the desolate apartment in search of any lost treasure that you might have missed. Kitchen cabinets fly open to reveal only dark crannies robbed of all value, purposeless voids of cheap woodgrain laminate. You walk down the hall and can almost see the ghostly reflections of friends drinking beer on the couch in the polished living room floor. Walking up the stairs to the bedroom, you see the claw marks left on the door by your dog during a particularly rough fight with an old girlfriend. You push open the door and see the pee stains he left on the carpet. Two hours of hard scrubbing still could not remove his stains from your life.

The heat rises in your cheeks, so you walk back down the stairs. Since your roommate will be around another day, you hang the key up next to the door and walk out to the truck. You roll down the window, and take a deep breath as you start the truck. The pickup crushes the dried pine needles on the curb as it pulls away and into the street. Intentionally driving the long way through town, you pass the Potato Shack.

It is still too early for the patio to be filled with old friends drinking themselves into a stupor, and you have already said your goodbyes in a spectacular liquor-filled fashion. You raised your glass of cold Shiner Bock one last time before reading your well-loved potato poem to a group collected in the corner. Fellow vets, writers, and drinking buddies all stopped by for one last send-off. You reminisced, debated, and even planned a US Senate run for the old drunk at the end of the bar. This is where you learned to relax and take a break from the grueling pressure of your new life.

You follow the curve around Sam Houston State, waving to the Evans Complex. Professors there helped you develop new levels of anxiety while you worked to rid yourself of the old ones. On your first day of class, you explained how your choice of seat location directly resulted from the physiological reactions of post-traumatic stress. In fact, every first class period for three years revolved around that same discussion. But this is also where you learned to write, learned how to make friends, learned to analyze literature, learned how to hate the constructed values of your former life. Here, the soldier intersected with the scholar.

You follow the road through the downtown construction and take a left on 11th Street. The little shops and restaurants all fade into one another. Your favorite Salvadoran restaurant passes out of your peripheral as the Popeye’s comes into view. The Golden Corral becomes a gas station, then a post office. You pass the laundromat where you once wrote a six-page paper on Hemingway while sharing Skittles with a girlfriend writing for the same class. The sweetness of the candy mixed with the smell of warm lint created an illusion of domestic bliss. As you continue down the road, you pass the theater with $5 movie tickets and the mall with two stores and offices for prison administrators that mark the boundaries of Huntsville.

The true trademark of East Texas overtakes the scenery as pine trees line the highway. You are tempted to pull over and take one last look at Huntsville. Instead, you settle for the memories that waft with the heat from the road up towards the sky.

You remember the first few months, working at McCoy’s while living in a rundown trailer with your sister and her three-hundred-pound homebody of a fiancée. A month into your first semester, he tried to fight you over the use of a truck he never drove, so you stayed on the couch of a six-foot-ten coworker named Sam before finding a nice apartment. You still owe Sam a few beers.

You think back to the time you met your first non-work friends, a former Army officer-turned-bearded hippy named Charlie and a solid-but-shy park ranger/musician named Jay. The drunken antics of that night led to a karaoke bar next to the prison where all the executions happen. This seemed to occur quite often in the ensuing years.

You think back to the tailgates that defined the Saturdays each fall. Last year, you and your fellow vets in the Collegiate Veterans Association managed to team up with the IT guys and win third place for the best set up. They had oriented the campus wi-fi towards your spot and set up a television under the pop-up canopies. You remember the literary readings in 100-year-old buildings and how, at every one, you ended up standing in line with your college’s dean. You think back to the arguments with the two girlfriends you dated and wonder if you will ever learn how to build a healthy relationship. Then, there was the puppy. He was a sweet dog, picked up from the shelter. Unfortunately, his separation and need for attention turned out not to be conducive to apartment life with a college student. You held on as long as you could, but the financial costs associated with the damage he caused daily and the knowledge that he needed more space led to finding him a new home with a big backyard at a friend’s house. You did the right thing, but that does not remove the guilt of letting him go.

You drive through College Station almost an hour later. Your hometown seems much larger than you remember. It has grown over the years, hot concrete replacing the trees and fields. You remember the cows that roamed in the pastures around town, wondering what happened to them. Did they find their way to the slaughterhouse or move to another ranch? Maybe they escaped as construction crews arrived and tore down the barbed wire fences. Probably not, but the cows planning a jailbreak could be a fun story if it hasn’t already been done.

As you drive through town, you see your favorite restaurant, Wings-N-More. You brought friends and girlfriends here to prove that you knew where the best wings in the world were. Everyone seemed to agree, though they probably just did not want to hurt your feelings. You continue past the signs for Texas A&M and shudder at the thought that you were once part of its cult.

You stop for lunch with your sister and nephew at an old hamburger place inside an ancient wooden shack. The SHSU baseball team mounts a losing effort against Florida State on the television screen. Your sister complains about your stepmother’s refusal to babysit her son in emergencies and little Hunter sits on your lap, rubbing your ear. You will miss being close to them, but you wish you had connected more. The last three years seemed like a failure in attempts to reconcile with the father who largely ignored you through most of your life. You need to keep moving, so you hug the two goodbye and hop back into your truck.

The clean concrete of College Station softens into the shabby neighborhoods of Bryan before you find trees again. You remember a shortcut from Hearne to Temple and chug along the open farmland of Central Texas. You grow frustrated as the trailer fishtails every time you hit sixty-seven miles per hour. You stop at a four-way intersection halfway down the farm road, happy to see stop signs. You once stumbled on an accident here after an eighteen-wheeler smashed into a woman’s Prius. You and a former Army medic opened the door to an unconscious face half-way covered in blood and dangling tissue. A cross marks the intersection now. Once in Temple, you weave through the I-35 construction and head towards Killeen.

Half an hour later, Fort Hood appears on the right side. You hate this place. The two years you spent here before leaving the Army were the worst of your life. You were promoted, but lost your family and your sanity.

A few more minutes of driving takes you through Copperas Cove. You lived here once upon a time. When you were not in the field, you would go home each afternoon and play with your son before bathing him and putting him to bed. He once pooped on the fireplace before you could place his diaper back on him. The fights grew worse and she began to accuse you of cheating if you worked out at the gym on the way home from work on the nights when the platoon got off at a decent hour. One day, she took little Linus from your arms and left. Now, you understand that much of it was your fault, but you still refuse to forgive her. That event served as the catalyst for quicksand that choked you to death over the next year. You attempted suicide four times and tried to drink yourself to death before leaving the military. After your exit, you continued downhill, freed from the constraints of a soldier’s life. You left the Army, but never your problems.

But, you also remember that this journey to redemption began here. The smoke from your cigar swirled from the ash tray on your coffee table up to your nostrils as you took another sip of Shiner and turned the page. The thirteenth chapter of your favorite book spoke to you differently that night. Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises was your go-to as a young infantry private and a source of comfort on long slow nights when the howitzers boomed a few hundred meters away. Something about Hemingway’s work always helped you to understand that you were not alone in feeling the pain of patrol after patrol down the streets of Baghdad or in the sands of Kandahar.

You began to understand what Jake Barnes meant when he said that a bullfighting aficionado could be forgiven for anything. A man with passion for something could transcend his mistakes and exist beyond his wartime experience. Hemingway gave you the secret to moving on with your life. You understood that eight years as a soldier did not define you. That evening, Hemingway saved your life.

You focus back on the road and drive up and down a few hills to Lampasas. After stopping at every red light in the small town, you pull out your phone and type in the address on the Google Maps. You do not know the way from here. Midland is still a long drive ahead.

The roads widen. The tall oaks turn into short mesquite. The land flattens into a wide open field. Five hours of driving through sparsely populated farmland turns your brain to mush. You turn the radio knob, cycling through static, but you cannot find many stations. After San Angelo, you realize that you are getting close. Oil derricks and giant windmills punctuate the oranges and reds of the setting sun. You drive two hours through oil fields before arriving at your mother’s apartment under pitch black sky. You park the truck and trailer next to a fence and walk inside.

Your mother greets you and gives you a blanket and pillow for the couch. Your back aches at the thought of sleeping on it for two months, but you are grateful for having somewhere to stay during the transition. You know that you are ready for Texas State University and San Marcos, but the waiting drives you insane. This is your first break from school in three years, and you feel that all momentum and purpose is lost. You begin freelance work, writing blog articles for strangers over the internet. The writing does not feel the same. Instead of writing the truths that life has delivered, you write about fish oil supplements and social security entitlements. Instead of an essay on Chaucer, you are focused on a 300-word article on John McCain for an Arizona news agency. You are ready to move on and get back to writing what matters.

New memories wait on an empty road. New professors prepare to give you a map in order to traverse the strange path ahead. The time grows closer for the next step to begin. Potato Shack will blur into Zelick’s, becoming an updated version of the same memory. New friends and fellow writers will take the place of old ones, but, right now, you are just bored. You are in a mesquite-studded oil field with no one around to grow with and no one to learn from. You yearn for the classroom and all that surrounds it. You are all set up, ready to move, ready to work, but you still wonder if you will survive the wait.

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Clayton Bradshaw served eight years as an infantryman in the US Army. He earned his BA in English from Sam Houston State University and is entering the Texas State University MFA in Creative Writing. His work can be found in The Deadly Writers Patrol, the Second Hand Stories podcast, War, Literature, and the Arts, and O-Dark-Thirty.

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FPJ is proud to bring you original blog posts from our MFA students right here at Texas State. Stay tuned for our next contributor’s post on the theme of change and movement.