Cabinet and countertop choices

For the cabinets it was easy when I saw the new IKEA collection. Abstrakt creme glossy one with glass upper cabinet in black Rubrik. The countertop was a bit more complicated, but our family decided on Hanstone Bavaria to remain in warm colors. I also liked Silestone in Sienna Ridge, but it was a special order and was 1.5k more expensive. My husband loved English Toffee very much, but it was a more uniform color and we didn't want to see the joints. It was difficult to get a really nice picture of the quartz, but here they are: I then brought samples home and all including our son selected Bavaria by Hanstone.

Floor

I went to specialized stores, but finally, we found the perfect for us floor at HomeDepot. Our choice was Trafficmaster Ceramica in Pearl Grey which looked fantastic installed with grout. These are peel and stick groutable LVT luxury vinyl Tiles. As a grout I used SimpleGrout from HD in sandstone color. We had a sheet linoleum floor with particle board underlayment. So we decided to rip it off. Since we were doing the renovations during winter months, we sprayed with water as much as possible to prevent any dust in the air. Finally it wasn't bad at all and we didn't have much dust. Under the linoleum there were a thin plywood and under that the particle board and under under several layers of linoleum. But it broke when we removed so we could see many generations of linoleum floor in horrible colors. My husband has taken a week off to remove all an lay down the new plywood. The new plywood was repaired with plastic wood patch and we used Armstrong primer product to prepare the floor for the tile. This is a recommended underlayment for these tiles. As for the tile laying, the longest was to place tiles to create a pattern, although tiles were placed in a certain order. After that I sat on the floor and using 1/8" spacers peeled and stuck tiles one by one. We kept them inside of our house for some time where they were stored. The glue was good and gripped to the prepared plywood. After 24 hours, I grouted the tiles with SimpleGrout premixed in sandstone color. This grout dries very quickly, so I did a few tiles at the time and ensured to wash with a sponge, then a cloth and then the tiles themselves with scotttowell paper, so the tiles remained clean. I finished the half of out kitchen on same morning. Here are some pictures of my work progress: The final result looks gorgeous. In fact everyone thinks it is a ceramic tile. At the store they thought it was really heavy and were cautious not to break it before I told them it was lvt. I also used Aquamix grout sealer to protect the grout and it takes very little sealer to protect this grout. I used a small bottle with brush purchased for about 3$ with Aquamix sealer. It was easy to apply and sealed well the grout after 1 application.