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....
--
Bob
Travel and Astronomy Photos
http://www3.sympatico.ca/bomo
bf wrote:
> bob wrote:
>
>
>> 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,
>
>
> Another story which shows the easy way is always to do it yourself :)
>
or as my Dad says "If your want it done right, do it yourself"
regards
John
"bf" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> bob wrote:
>
> > 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,
>
> Another story which shows the easy way is always to do it yourself :)
>
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.
--
Bob
Travel and Astronomy Photos
http://www3.sympatico.ca/bomo