Sunday, September 30, 2012

No turning back now!

YIKES!!!   Leading up to today it has been weeks of cleaning out, packing up, throwing away, donating and schlepping stuff upstairs or downstairs!  Our family room has been taken over with multiple pieces of furniture and our new kitchen is now in the basement.
We were so fortunate to find a nice family who wanted to purchase our entire kitchen.  Cabinets and appliances!  This made the entire process so much easier.  The thought of numerous people in my house buying one appliance at a time was not ideal.  Not only did we luck out with one family buying everything they also knew carpenters who would take apart our kitchen, leaving everything in tact!  Had Terry and I had to disassemble our kitchen it would have taken us days and surely one of us would have been seriously wounded (more-than-likely by the other!) by the time it was emptied!  
experienced carpenters doing their thang...




Fargo doesn't know what to think!
Four hours later and it's cleaned out and ready for demo Tuesday!  Giddy up!

*Dinner Menu:  Left over Chicken Noodle Soup w/ Dumplings heated via microwave!  


Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Road Trip...

"Things" are starting to happen!   So let me back track a bit to when we first started this whole process. When we started to talk cabinets we had two choices.... pre-made cabinets  or custom made cabinets.  I have always assumed custom cabinets were more expensive than pre-made cabinets.   With that being said we started out by looking through several pre-made manufacture catalogs and were pretty much set to go that route.  The cost of the cabinets were adding up!  Way more than we were willing to pay.  So after several months of reworking plans, adding this & that we had to figure out a way to lower the cost.  Our time line was flexible so our contractor (ICON) suggested going with a custom cabinet maker.  Terry & I both were a bit skeptical.  Wondering how we could get custom cabinets for a lower price than pre-made.   I guess there are several factors that help lower the cost, one of them being, they cut out the middle man.   It's also a small owned business (well, not really small as they do business all over the world) but they make products to order.  So there is no need for a huge warehouse to store pre-made cabinets etc... Long story, short....we landed on custom cabinets!    

So yesterday we took a little road trip into Bedford Park, to a place called "Specialty Woodworking Inc"   

We met with Dave & Jack.  Dave is the Architect & Jack is the cabinet guy.  And then there was a mystery guy behind a computer!  I'll get to him in a minute.  So, we get there and I instantly know this is where we need to be!  It wasn't a fancy-shmancy place, the front room was somewhat small and tons of books and wood turnings tucked in every corner.... Let's just say, you could tell it was a "male" run operation!  No fluff-n-stuff!  Although, they did have a wall that displayed framed pictures of all of their work.  From kitchens, bathrooms, office spaces & even retail spaces!   
So, they wasted no time....we started talkin' plans.  (their also no nonsense!)  Making changes to where we saw fit.  They made suggestions and gave us ideas!   It was easy!  Now to the mystery guy....I would give him a name but I don't recall being introduced.  He was on the computer the whole time...working on whatever he was working on.  Looking over at us constantly....it was kind of starting to wig me out a bit.  Come to find out later Terry was thinking the same thing.  :)   Well, turns out "mystery man" was adjusting our plans the whole time.  Reworking the plans, listening to everything we needed or wanted changed.   Amazing!   They wasted NO time!  We had new plans printed out in a matter of seconds.  We were impressed!   It was literally such an easy, painless process!   No cheesy  sales guy making a pitch, trying to add on this or that!  
Once we had the plans all hammered out Dave asked if we wanted to see where the cabinets are made?  I got goose bumps!  This is the part I really came to see!  Big saw blades, piles of wood & saw dust, oh my!  I was in heaven.  Growing up my Dad was always working with wood.  Making gun stocks or furniture....it's in my blood!  :)  Being picture happy I had to ask if I could snap some photos.  I wonder if they thought I was a little odd but being as I'm taking all of you on our journey I would need some photos for affect!   
so this is the door / drawer style we are going with.  love the simplicity of it!!!

we haven't nailed down all of our finishes yet.  but the main cabinets will be the creamy white. we're tossing around the
idea of doing the island and butlers pantry in a darker wood.  and then i like this granite but with a honed finish. ?


can't miss Terry in his Humpy's shirt! (from our Alaska days!)  this is the shop! LOVE IT!

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another project they were working on.  but i liked the simplicity of the molding. 

a spray booth!  yes please!!!

Terry & I both love this finish color.  We would love it for the floors. 

more molding we really liked.  very detailed yet simple.

made by hand!   so pretty

so it's just some wood.  


the store/shop front.

I can't tell you how glad I was that we made the trip down to Specialty Woodworking Inc.  Dave took us through the entire shop, showed us the wood they use,  the process they go through to make the cabinets,  how their constructed, explained the type of hardware they use and how each project is done by one guy.  He will make all of the cabinets and when it is time to install them, he is there to install them.  (I'm sure he has a team of men to install but the guy who built them is there on site as well)  If you're in the market to do any sort of remodel or even just an office bookcase or bathroom this is the way to go!  Hands down!  
Thanks for letting me share!  
 Can't wait for demo!