What was I thinking?

The plan is to add an island to the kitchen. We moved in a year ago, and the woman who sold us the house had the kitchen and bathrooms "renovated", and we wish she hadn't. I won't even start to go into the workmanship, like PVC window moulding in the bathrooms nailed right into the window frames such that they wouldn't open, poorly tiled floors that don't even cover to old tile in some spots, and three, count 'em, three layers of flooring in the livingroom, complete with a step up from the surrounding rooms. Great house, piss poor renos. Anyway, as we're not ready to plan our ultimate kitchen, I figured I'd take the easy way out and buy a pair of cabinets from HD, make my own doors and back and sides, and Bob's your uncle. Yeah, I could build much better cabinets, but I just didn't feel like fussing with all the drawers and hardware before we decided on the long-term plan. So I brung home a pair of Millspride cabinets, and started putting one together. Oh mama, what a total piece of crapola! Three of the little knockdown connectors (you know, those little slotted spool and pin combos) wouldn't engage because the holes for the pins were too deep, and when the frame was finally assembled, well, it would have been more solid if it were made out of Kleenex. I cursed and yelled Homer Simpson style, and then proceeded to tear it down again and try to stuff it back into the box. They're going back tonight. Millspride? Mr. Mill doesn't have very high standards if he's proud of this.

Can't wait to start cutting wood tonight....

Reply to
bob
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Another story which shows the easy way is always to do it yourself :)

Reply to
bf

or as my Dad says "If your want it done right, do it yourself"

regards John

Reply to
John B

Which is exactly what I'm doing now. I returned said crappy units to HD, and headed off to buy wood. I spent the weekend buried in the shop with the plans I'd drawn up. I built the cabinets out of 3/4 cherry plywood and birch framing members, with solid cherry trim, toekicks and banding, and even without a back or bottom, the sides and frame are dead solid. I cut and routed the drawer frames out of cherry planks and cut the inset panels from 1/4 cherry ply. (Do you see a cherry theme developing?) Lee Valley has some very nice steel side panels/slides for kitchen cabinets, so I'm just waiting on those now, as well as the stainless drawer pulls. The drawer panels are 1/2 Baltic birch. So for two days of intensive work, and about 1/3 the price, we're going to have one helluva beautiful kitchen island. So.....coutertop.....slate? Fake granite? Ceramic? Formica?

Not only is it easier to do it yourself (it was quite out of character to actually buy cabinetry...blame it on a mental lapse), but the quality is always orders of magnitude better.

Reply to
bob

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