Wood counter tops - Anyone have them?

[bezark]

What do you love/hate about them? Are they difficult to keep clean?

The kitchen in the house we're buying is.. yuck. We have big plans to completely remodel and expand it in the future, but we're looking for a cheap, quick fix for the short term.
There's no getting around the need for new counter tops, but we don't want to spend a ton of money for something we're going to rip out in a 1-3 years. However, we also don't want something we can't live with if it ends up taking us longer to get to the kitchen remodel.

For reference, this is what we're working with. There is a horribly outdated kitchen beneath all of that junk, I promise.
The (fake) tile and wallpaper will be removed as soon as my grandmother's stuff is out of there, and I plan to paint the brown/green cabinets white. We may put in some new inexpensive linoleum for the time being.

[lucyem]

Do you really need to change what is there? If you will do an overhaul within 1-3 years I cannot see putting any money into it unless the countertop was totally not useable.

Our last house we built and we ended up using just plywood on top of our nice cabinets for almost 2 years until we got around to getting in the finished countertop. Not the best solution and impossible to clean but it worked. Presently I have hunter green laminate countertops. Came with the house and the matching hunter green wallpaper. (Its a bit much) I am very much looking forward to the day we replace it all, but until then it works.

[bezark]

Unfortunately, we really do need to make it look presentable. We run a business out of our home that depends, in part, on the appearance of the house. You can see the kitchen from the front door. We'll be able to get away with it for as long as the house is visibly under construction, but not much beyond that.

The current counter tops are peeling and just look awful.

[bigteamug]

I have to say, I actually wish I had that kitchen - it has some great, old-fashioned bones to it with a lot of period charm - much better than the icky, cheap remodel someone did to our 1930's house - and those cabinets are probably real wood, and better than most of the the stuff you can buy today - if it were me, I'd use what there is, unless it is truly worn out. I'd paint the cabinets (strip them if needed), get rid of the wallpaper, refloor(remember to test the floor and mastic for asbestos first since they are old, or floor right over them...) and only replace what needs it, skipping the big remodel. But that is me, and I can't see how worn things are.....

If you're remodeling anyways, can I have your cabinets when you're done with them?

ETAh - I see your post - wood counters are historically pretty good, but I know they don't do well with tons of water. Then do paint and do the counters and remember that historic is ok, too. Maybe contemplate the floor, though if there is asbestos abatement involved, that can get $$$.

[bezark]

Don't get me wrong, I do love the cabinets (there's even a neat built-in ironing board that you can kind of see next to the door here), but the layout of them is not ideal. The stove is in front of a set of cabinets because when the house was built, there was a wood stove where the bathroom now sits. When the kitchen was updated, I guess that was (and still is) the only place the stove would fit.

When we're finally able to do the real remodel, we'll be expanding into the dining room so that we have more options for the layout.

[dbsam]

We're thinking of doing the same thing. I've been living with ugly pink laminate counters for seventeen years! The house was new when we bought it and it seemed wasteful to rip out the kitchen. We've replaced two of our bathrooms' cabinets and added granite but cannot afford a complete kitchen remodel at the time and cannot justify putting expensive counters on cabinets and flooring we do not like. We've had to replace most appliances, are removing wallpaper, painting, and considering IKEA wood counter tops.

[artemis33]

Our kitchen, which was remodeled before we bought our home, has a light honey colored wood (pine I believe) for most of the counters. The area around the sink is a beautiful stone, but the other counters and the whole island - where the stove is - are this wood. It looks really warm and pretty, but there are some caveats.

First, it is not butcher block, it is a rather soft wood. Already in the 8 months we've lived here we've done some serious damage! Unintentionally of course It dents very easily and it STAINS like crazy! I am baffled that someone would choose something that is so easily damaged for the area where you are cooking.

I wouldn't say 'don't get wood', but definitely consider something very hard and sturdy and do good research into sealers.

My husband wants to pull this out and replace it with something, but I think we should just sand it down and find a better way to seal it (cheaper and easier). If that doesn't do the trick, we can always replace it later

[DariusMom]

we have cherry counter tops. They're beautiful, but I wouldn't do it again. Despite the finish and the fact that cherry is a relatively hard wood, there are lots of stains on the wood. Around the sink it is basically a bit black and yucky. In fact, we're hoping to redo our kitchen and we'll definitely put in a different kind of counter top (and hope to find a good use for the old cherry wood)

[CrunchyChristianMama]

We are currently renting and have butcher block counters. They are sealed with a few layers of poly so that water and stains aren't a problem. To me they are no more difficult to take care of than the laminate ones I've had in the past.