Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Kitchen Cabinets

When we moved into our condo, the kitchen was in really poor shape. We kind of upgraded it a bit by putting laminate flooring, repainting it, and new appliances. Just those minor things really made a huge difference.

Despite the upgrades, our cabinets were still hurting pretty bad. They are water damaged, and many of drawers and doors are broken. A few months back I was opening a door and it came off in my hand. Around the same time I began to notice that some of the cabinets were coming off the frame and you can see the bevels holding them together. I don't know why I didn't see all these problems during our inspection, yet another lesson learned after the fact.

Anyways, we have finally managed to save enough cash to change out the cabinets. We have gone to Ikea and looked a various kitchens that my wife and I liked. Ikea is great DIY, but when you are missing the handyman gene, it can be a bit of a pain. First, the nearest Ikea is about 20 miles away, so its rare when we have time to go. Second, their setup is designed for you to do all the measuring and layout design, and third the nearest Ikea approved contractor for demolition and installation is another 15 miles away. Now some of you may be reading this, and saying "what a wus, measuring is easy, and so is the installation." Well, I just don't trust myself with those tasks, and the last thing I want to do is have to incur another cost for a miscalculation.
The other draw back to Ikea cabinets, is that while they are affordable, they basically particle board, which is what we currently have (not the best).

So on Sunday as we were coming home, we saw a local cabinet store was having a sale, for a 10X10 kitchen with granite counter top and free sink for $2600. Wow, what a deal! So I called the next day and scheduled a free estimate. Yesterday I met the kitchen designer in the afternoon and she took measurements and priced it out with demolition and installation, at $5900. Wow, still not bad and the cabinets are real wood and granite counter tops. The lady told me that it would take about 2 weeks to get the materials and 3 days to install. I think that is pretty amazing, considering that I have heard stories of it taking about 2 weeks to install. So, my next question is, are these peeps legit? Fortunately the cabinets lady informed me that my next door neighbor, just had some work done by them. I guess I will ask my neighbor about her experience.

Now, we have one dilemma, my wife wants white cabinets (more expensive). More on that later.

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