| Author |
Message |
    
Spanky
Citizen
Username: Spanky
Post Number: 20
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 3:09 pm: |     |
We are planning to give our kitchen a facelift. I don't know where to begin, and thought we should a consulate a kitchen designer to help us plan our space. This is going to be a modest job (i.e. stock cabinets). Does anyone have an idea where we should start with this project? Will Home Depot have the resources we need to plan the space? Thanks! |
Richard O'Connor
Citizen
Username: Roconn
Post Number: 115
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 3:29 pm: | |
Spanky....I used home depot and am very happy ...
Richard (ROC)
--Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic.--
--AIM: ROConn |
millie amoresano
Citizen
Username: Millieamoresano
Post Number: 26
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 3:43 pm: | |
Richard-Home depot will custom design your kitchen and make floor plan for you.It is best to call and make an appointment with a kitchen specialist first. Home depot has a stock line called Mills Pride or you can special oder other brands (Thomasville and Kraft Maid) which are higher priced.Most of the kitchen designers that my husband deals with will make a floor plan for you and charge about 500.00 for the plan and then it is applied when you place your order.Also most designers will ot give you a copy of the plan until you have a signed contract and have given them a deposit. |
millie amoresano
Citizen
Username: Millieamoresano
Post Number: 27
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 3:44 pm: | |
Sorry Richard that post was for Spanky |
Sylad
Citizen
Username: Sylad
Post Number: 147
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 3:57 pm: | |
We redid our kitchen last spring. Our project included a complete gut and removal of a few walls. We used Custom Craft they did a great job we are very pleased. They did it all except for appliances, we got all of our appliances from Karls in Orange. PL me for more info or call Tom at Custom Craft, (973) 839-4286. One of the best things about working with them is how the schedule the work, they were in and out of our house in 4 weeks. They work with a few different cabinets makers and a offer a number of options for counter tops so they have something for every budget. Their electrical and plumbing work is top notch. |
Spanky
Citizen
Username: Spanky
Post Number: 21
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 10:35 pm: | |
Millie, does your husband do work for Home Depot?
Sylad thanks for the info. Do you think Custom Craft was friendly when dealing with smaller budgets? |
millie amoresano
Citizen
Username: Millieamoresano
Post Number: 28
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 11:29 pm: | |
Spanky,my husband is not an installer for home depot.He is an installer for Ace Kitchens and Baths in East Hanover. |
Sylad
Citizen
Username: Sylad
Post Number: 156
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, January 17, 2004 - 6:11 am: | |
Spanky--Give them a call, they do stuff of all sizes. They are open on Saturday. Their showroom is in Riverdale, about 40 minutes from here. The only do kitchen and bathrooms. If your job requires an addition, you need to get someone else, they only work with existing space. |
Richard O'Connor
Citizen
Username: Roconn
Post Number: 118
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, January 17, 2004 - 9:25 am: | |
A little more on kitchens .... (I was unusually short on this previously) 
My kitchen was designed by me and home depot (union, next to expo) and installed by a HD installer (but a friend who works out of a more south jersey store).
A couple of things I got from friends in the know (one who was a HD kitchen/bath design person)
Foremost: Have an idea of what you can comfortably spend and KNOW that you are going to go over that number by about 10% ... adjust accordingly ... IE if you really can't do 15 but 12 is workable .. your starting budget is 10.
1) Do not get the 'mills pride' stock cabinets. I was told that over the 'long haul' they don't hold up well and the friend installing actually said he wouldn't install those. Since I was doing my kitchen for the long haul, I skipped them and although spent more ... not HOWEVER dramatically more.
2) Have a good idea what you do and don't like about the kitchen you have now in terms of work-ability ... it makes making decisions about things like fridges and stoves easier.
3) Unless its a 'new kitchen to sell' don't be cheap where lots of people get cheap. Basically this came down to the whole...there is going to be nothing in the way, if you want outlets, under cabinet light, disposals, etc. make sure you have them in the plan from the beginning. As my installer said, its easy to put in a new outlet when the bottom 2' of the wall don't show and you can easily run wires, etc. Additionally this is the time to add the 'frou frou' like crown mouldings, toe kick veneer (if its needed) and little 'finishing bits'. I am still missing some moldings because I didn't do them in the first place (scribe moldings where cabinets meet walls.)
Now....the quick lesson I learned about cabinets.
1) The 'default' pricing at HD generally includes plywood cabinet sides. EXCEPTING the end cabinet in a run (IE exposed sides) this is an extra $5 per cabinet that you can save. My brother in law (an engineer) said if it can't get wet, then particle board is equally strong (sometimes stronger) and will work just as well. Dump the plywood ... save some money (although only about 200 bucks in my case that's still worthwile money.)
2) Try to get a guy at the HD who knows something (not always easy, my guy's name was Kevin I recall) .. there are options that newer guys aren't going to know about. For instance, I got a basic 'American Woodmark' Maple cabinet and in looking at my plans and measurements (done by HD) Kevin (I think that's right) noticed that we could use a custom depth cabinet in a couple of places where I figured I'd just have to do fill because of structural things. This was a happy surprise, someone else had said that custom depth didn't exist at the pricepoint I had chosen.
3) Those couple of custom depth cabinets were not dramatically more expensive than regular cabinets.
4) Blind corners. If you can avoid them do, you create a place in your kitchen, that you can reach, that you can't reach. Almost every cabinet company has an "easy reach" corner base cabinet ... all you need is a 30" wide door to get it through (My installer said I couldn't get it in my kitchen, I actually had every intention of ripping all the trims off a door to get it in if I had to .... I didn't ... it was a bit of a geometry problem, but I got it in fine.)
5) Don't price your kitchen out of your neighborhood. Everything I read said kitchens pay you back almost 1 for 1 on resale. Well, although I wasn't re-selling or planning that, it was good to know. I got a little wake up on this though when I realized that there was going to be a 'cap' on what my neighborhood would bear. Yes, that 50K kitchen would have been lovely, but as my real-estate agent said...wonderful or not, it can't increase your home's value that much...neighborhood is a factor. This boils down to Viking Ranges and Granite counters don't don't really belong in little cape cods.
6) The only thing under a sink is cleaning stuff and a diposer ... you can actually get away with the narrowest sink base that holds your sink.
7) If you don't have a dishwasher, double sinks are a necessity ... if you have one (or in my case 2) then you probably don't need it ... (Unless you do a LOT of hand washing.)
So as a point of reference here's a link to pictures of the completed kitchen:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/roconn/construction/90percent/index.htm
(it was also the completion of the rebuild)
The cabinets are American Woodmark
The counter tops are Solid Surface Veneer (which I am told they no longer do, don't know why, it seems great still 2 years later.)
The sinks are integral to the counters, which only works with SSV and Corian
The Appliances are GE or Maytag
The Faucets are American Standard
The filtered Water Faucets are Culligan
The Ceiling fan is HD brand (Hampton bay)
The Floor is Armstrong
The whole kitchen (including new appliances, DW,Fridge, Microwave) was just over 15K.
There were reasons on almost every choice (for instance I only do faucets with ceramic disc valving) (and think maytag makes the best dishwasher) so if you want to know more on that email me....
Since a friend installed figure another 5-7K for installation.
If you want to see it up close privateline me and I'd be happy to show it to you ...
Richard (ROC)
--Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic.--
--AIM: ROConn |
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