We bought our house 5 years ago now, and have replaced all the terrible floor surfaces except the kitchen. This was largely due to lack of options, and also the fact that we didn’t like the idea of cold, hard, tile. I personally think hardwood in the kitchen is a bad idea (dings, divits, water damage, etc), and carpet is obviously right out. When, about 3 months ago, my wife found modern “luxury” peel and stick, grout-able, tile (Lowes page) she suddenly got very interested in replacing the flooring. The current floor was an “orange” rock looking sheet vinyl from the late 70′s, and had since become impossible to clean.
But one thing that’s always been a problem is that there’s no good way to shutoff the supply to the refrigerator ice maker/water dispenser. Rather than being normal, and attaching the supply line under the sink, they ran it under the house, and the needle valve is down there, but after trying twice to shut it off, it refused to work. So, I did something that should be standard anyway: installed a valve on the fridge side of the supply line. I found a 1/4″ ball valve, and 2 compression to NTP nipples that screwed into each side of the ball valve. Simply placed the valve between the fridge and the water supply (after shutting off the whole house water main), and I have a simple way to shutoff the water supply, unhook the fridge, and wheel it out. Also means if the fridge starts leaking (or the water line to it), I can shut it off quickly.
I don’t know why they can’t charge an extra $10-20 when you buy water supply kits for refrigerators and include a valve on the refrigerator side. Needle valves suck, and are not going to work reliably for long periods to shut off a water supply.
