The Snowball Effect

For the past two years, I have sat at my desk, in full view of my kitchen floor. A kitchen floor that's always top of mind and the to-do list -- always in need of washing and waxing. When it was installed 11 years ago, the hunter green and white checkerboard effect was stunning, and being linoleum tile, it was less expensive than ceramics, and gentler underfoot.

Now, however, it's cracking in spots, and breaking off at a few corners. It can still look good if stripped and re-waxed -- an arduous hands and knees job.

But it needs to be replaced. And there's the rub. Is it worth replacing the floor now, if I'm going to change the cupboards in a couple of years? They're 11 years old and some of them are getting shabby. And if I replace the cupboards, I might as well knock out the wall between the dining room and kitchen that I've wanted to do for a long time now. And if I do that, I might as well enlarge the opening between the dining room and the little den/TV room that's now my office, in full view of the kitchen floor. But if I do that, I'll need to replace the hardwood flooring throughout the main floor, because there's no way to match 80-year-old flooring with new bits and pieces. So if I'm going to go that far, perhaps it would be best to do an addition on the back of the house, enlarging the kitchen to make it big enough to eat in and entertain in. And while we're at it, we might as well go up and add on to the second floor.

Which is why I'm back to doing nothing with my kitchen floor because it's going to end up costing me $80,000.