Update on installing kitchen cabinets from China
pc
We have installed our kitchen cabinets. But, we are awaiting a few
doors that are back ordered. They look amazing.
Our kitchen is roughly 12 X 12. And the raised panel maple cabinets and
granite counters came in well under 6K.
Yes, it was a lot of money. But, it would have been triple that, at
least, if we went with a contractor.
The cabinets and granite are all from China. But, I heard about this
company and saw their granite products in many houses.
We installed the cabinets ourselves. And, I would not recommend this
for the easily distressed. There were a lot of discrepancies.
A sixteenth of an inch off here, an eighth of in an off there. We had
to do a lot of shimming to get everything to look level [above and
beyond normal shimming for floor level]. The back panel grain went
vertical on some and horizontal on others. I didn't care. But, others
might.
The granite install was perfect [the granite was from China too!]. It
looks lovely. They even did full backsplashes. That came in at $23 a
square foot installed.
Would I recommend cheap China cabinets? Sure. If you install them
yourself. Or if you have a contractor who is used to installing them.
Otherwise, you're going to pay through the nose for the 'pissed off'
factor that there is a little smidgen of problem with each unit. And
that adds time and aggravation.
..PC
clams casino
>
>
> The cabinets and granite are all from China.
While looking for some oak stair treads at Home Depot today, I was
amused to see they were all imported from China.
Chris Hill
If you put anything in them, do they fall off the wall? I'd build
shelves in the kitchen before I'd buy imported cabbinets each of which
had some little problem or other with them. Sounds like false
economy, typical of many consumers these days.
Rick
Take a look at how many of their kitchen and bath cabinets and bath
fixtures are "hecho en Mexico" too.
Rick
hchi...@hotmail.com
Hey PC, (waves) dint know you were getting cabinets. Alabama has
more cabinet shops than you can shake a tape measure at. I've haven't
done any detailed looking, but I think they are pretty good quality.
Granite sounds good. What color is it?
Our home will have the cabinets and counter pre-installed, but we've
been appliance shopping and spent the full discretionary limit on good
appliances. Snagged a SS Jenn-air five burner gas cooktop/electric
double oven with convection on a closeout for $500 less than regular
price. That puppy has got to weigh 300 lbs. Got a 25' top
refrigerator bottom freezer from Lowes with a 10% discount plus the 1%
cashback on the credit card. I'm tired of side-by-sides where you can
use half the space or see what is in the back. Our previous
side-by-side had roll-out shelves, but even that was next to useless.
The new refrigerator and a new 20' freezer will use less than $100
worth of power combined. :-) That'll make the garden a little more
cost effective.
I'm now in the process of fabricating the parts for the 24' x 32'
greenhouse that I've drawn out. Hopefully, the design will work. If
it does, it is pretty neat, if I do say so myself. I have to redeem
myself in Mrs. Chickpea's eyes, after the fantastic potting bench Gary
Heston made for her.
rick++
The cabinets must be awfully heavy :-)
Dennis
>Our home will have the cabinets and counter pre-installed, but we've
>been appliance shopping and spent the full discretionary limit on good
>appliances. Snagged a SS Jenn-air five burner gas cooktop/electric
>double oven with convection on a closeout for $500 less than regular
>price. That puppy has got to weigh 300 lbs.
Sounds similar to what we have. We have separate Jenn-air gas cooktop
on an island and wall-mounted double electric oven. I like the five
burner setup because it gives enough spacing on the burners to have
four large pots going at the same time and still allow top-mounted
controls. All the other residential-level four burner cooktops that
we looked at had the burners squeezed too closely together. And of
course, the commercial-level units are a big step up in price.
One of the ovens had a short in an element right out of the box (kept
tripping the breaker), but the retailer took care of it and we haven't
had any other problems in 9 years of use.
We run our cooktop on propane. The burners on our unit have a less
robust range of flame than I would prefer. However, there is an
adjustment on each burner control (under the knob). So I setup one
burner to allow a very low flame to use for gentle simmering (but a
smaller flame on the High setting), with the others set to allow a
larger flame at full open. With five burners, it hasn't been a
problem.
>I'm now in the process of fabricating the parts for the 24' x 32'
>greenhouse that I've drawn out. Hopefully, the design will work. If
>it does, it is pretty neat, if I do say so myself. I have to redeem
>myself in Mrs. Chickpea's eyes, after the fantastic potting bench Gary
>Heston made for her.
Amen, brother. I could use a little redemption in my own Mrs.
(evil)'s eyes, since, to my embarassment, her spiffy greenhouse kit
still sits unassembled in the box it was delivered in last spring. So
many projects, so little time...
Dennis (evil)
--
I'm a hands-on, footloose, knee-jerk head case. -George Carlin
pc
> Hey PC, (waves) dint know you were getting cabinets. Alabama has
> more cabinet shops than you can shake a tape measure at. I've haven't
> done any detailed looking, but I think they are pretty good quality.
>
> Granite sounds good. What color is it?
>
> Our home will have the cabinets and counter pre-installed, but we've
> been appliance shopping and spent the full discretionary limit on good
> appliances. Snagged a SS Jenn-air five burner gas cooktop/electric
> double oven with convection on a closeout for $500 less than regular
> price. That puppy has got to weigh 300 lbs. Got a 25' top
> refrigerator bottom freezer from Lowes with a 10% discount plus the 1%
> cashback on the credit card. I'm tired of side-by-sides where you can
> use half the space or see what is in the back. Our previous
> side-by-side had roll-out shelves, but even that was next to useless.
> The new refrigerator and a new 20' freezer will use less than $100
> worth of power combined. :-) That'll make the garden a little more
> cost effective.
>
> I'm now in the process of fabricating the parts for the 24' x 32'
> greenhouse that I've drawn out. Hopefully, the design will work. If
> it does, it is pretty neat, if I do say so myself. I have to redeem
> myself in Mrs. Chickpea's eyes, after the fantastic potting bench Gary
> Heston made for her.
>
Hi Chickpea..waves back to you and Mrs. Chickpea!
Because my transfer didn't transpire..and with the market the way it is
now, we decided to stay put for a while and enjoy it. Thank goodness we
didn't put a deposit on the other house!
We got both the cabs and countertops from a company out of Pompano.
Because I see so many houses on a daily basis, I've spent a few years
picking people's brains. And many of them got the counters from these
folks. They've recently started importing cabs as well.
The granite came in at $23 a square foot installed. Which was great.
And the cabinets are well constructed, though perhaps not minutely
detailed..as I said in my previous post.
I've installed cabinets before. Even 'perfect' ones need tweaking.
Imperfect ones need a bit more. This does not add up to some lack of
strength or durability as a previous poster alluded to. It just took
some extra attention on our part.
Woohoo on your appliances Chickpea!
No gas here. Alas. If I were in my 'homeforever' I'd put in propane.
That damned electric company can't be trusted when storms come through.;-)
Side by sides are awful. But, we bought a counter depth one a couple of
years ago..because it was such a great deal. A few months ago the water
and ice through the door stopped working. Lowes gave us our money back.
For a free fridge I can deal with the inconvenience of plucking out
the ice myself. And we've installed a purifier at the tap. Maybe some
day we can repair the glitch ourselves.
Did you get the pantry doors on top?
Those are 'to die for'!
I envy your gardens Chickpea.
I need to do something here.
Some seeds from Mr. Joiner have been struggling along in a pot. And
Mrs. Chickpea's spider plant is doing well. But, other than that, it's
just a disgrace. LOL
..PC
hchi...@hotmail.com
>
>Hi Chickpea..waves back to you and Mrs. Chickpea!
>
>Because my transfer didn't transpire..and with the market the way it is
>now, we decided to stay put for a while and enjoy it. Thank goodness we
>didn't put a deposit on the other house!
We had the right price and the right buyer, which is good, since we
bought the land before selling. We were blessed so many different
ways that it was uncanny.
>We got both the cabs and countertops from a company out of Pompano.
>Because I see so many houses on a daily basis, I've spent a few years
>picking people's brains. And many of them got the counters from these
>folks. They've recently started importing cabs as well.
I wonder if that was one of my old neighbors? Did he drive a yellow
hummer? He had a reputation arround the neighborhood for good
pricing.
>The granite came in at $23 a square foot installed. Which was great.
>And the cabinets are well constructed, though perhaps not minutely
>detailed..as I said in my previous post.
>
>I've installed cabinets before. Even 'perfect' ones need tweaking.
>Imperfect ones need a bit more. This does not add up to some lack of
>strength or durability as a previous poster alluded to. It just took
>some extra attention on our part.
I'm bad about not following exacting dimensions. I wouldn't have the
patience to tweak like you do, even though I would appreciate the
results.
>Woohoo on your appliances Chickpea!
Yeah, we did some serious looking. The washer, dryer, and dishwasher
will come from a different source and save us even more money.
>No gas here. Alas. If I were in my 'homeforever' I'd put in propane.
>That damned electric company can't be trusted when storms come through.;-)
Yeah, you know me and my generators/batteries/etc. We are getting a
good deal on the propane, I think. Free 250 gal tank for a year and
$1.59/gal to fill it. Later on, we'll put in our own underground
tank, but I have too many irons in the fire for right now.
>Side by sides are awful. But, we bought a counter depth one a couple of
>years ago..because it was such a great deal. A few months ago the water
>and ice through the door stopped working. Lowes gave us our money back.
> For a free fridge I can deal with the inconvenience of plucking out
>the ice myself. And we've installed a purifier at the tap. Maybe some
>day we can repair the glitch ourselves.
Free is good. :-) I finally found a filter that I like. The Berkey
water filter doesn't need to have the elements constantly replaced,
and can purify just about any water. So Fl water is SO bad with
organics that my distiller was always getting a cooked seaweed type of
residue. Up here, all it gets is lime buildup.
>Did you get the pantry doors on top?
>Those are 'to die for'!
Looked at them, looked at a few seriously, but couldn't justify the
added cost. BTW, we'll be making a new custom pantry based on
improvements of our old one in Margate. Gotta start on the design for
that soon.
>I envy your gardens Chickpea.
>I need to do something here.
>Some seeds from Mr. Joiner have been struggling along in a pot. And
>Mrs. Chickpea's spider plant is doing well. But, other than that, it's
>just a disgrace. LOL
The mightiest oak starts from the actions of a demented squirrel. :-)
The bananas are still doing fine, we've been eating okra, squash,
watermelon, green beans, collards, tomatoes and Malabar spinach. And
this has just been an experimental year for Mrs. Chickpea! Next year,
I hope we can grow a full gardenload to freeze and can. I picked up a
pressure canner for $30 at the local flea market.
hchi...@hotmail.com
>
>We run our cooktop on propane. The burners on our unit have a less
>robust range of flame than I would prefer. However, there is an
>adjustment on each burner control (under the knob). So I setup one
>burner to allow a very low flame to use for gentle simmering (but a
>smaller flame on the High setting), with the others set to allow a
>larger flame at full open. With five burners, it hasn't been a
>problem.
The burners on ours are various sizes to start with. The big front
ones have a lot of jets, and a couple are much smaller simmer burners.
You are right that it is a bit crowded on the cooktop compared to your
separate unit, but we use an electric teakettle anyway, which spreads
the cooking out.
I'm thinking of other ways I might use the propane. A gas log
fireplace in the bedroom might be nice, and a combo of electric and
instant gas hot water might be best of both worlds. We went with
another heat pump for the primary heat source, since electric is
relatively inexpensive here.
> I could use a little redemption in my own Mrs.
>(evil)'s eyes, since, to my embarassment, her spiffy greenhouse kit
>still sits unassembled in the box it was delivered in last spring. So
>many projects, so little time...
Oh my, an (evil) asking for redemption? What is the world coming to?
Will Rod Speed become Miss Manners?
Dawn
>
>The mightiest oak starts from the actions of a demented squirrel. :-)
>
>The bananas are still doing fine, we've been eating okra, squash,
>watermelon, green beans, collards, tomatoes and Malabar spinach. And
>this has just been an experimental year for Mrs. Chickpea! Next year,
>I hope we can grow a full gardenload to freeze and can. I picked up a
>pressure canner for $30 at the local flea market.
>
Our garden yielded pretty good this year. We don't can, just eat.
We ate lots of summer squash, beans, corn, berries galore and
tomatoes. We have winter squash to eat and onions hanging in the
garage. Shared quite a bit with our neighbors.
Dawn, who just ordered seed garlic to be planted at the end of the
month.
pc
> On Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:41:51 -0400, pc <p...@somewhere.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Hi Chickpea..waves back to you and Mrs. Chickpea!
>>
>> Because my transfer didn't transpire..and with the market the way it is
>> now, we decided to stay put for a while and enjoy it. Thank goodness we
>> didn't put a deposit on the other house!
>
> We had the right price and the right buyer, which is good, since we
> bought the land before selling. We were blessed so many different
> ways that it was uncanny.
We actually had a buyer...and a house we wanted in central FL. But,
there were office politics with my transfer. And, I like my job [and
cover all our health benefits and retirement plans]. So, we felt it was
unwise to just up and move right now.
>
>> We got both the cabs and countertops from a company out of Pompano.
> I wonder if that was one of my old neighbors? Did he drive a yellow
> hummer? He had a reputation arround the neighborhood for good
> pricing.
Ace kitchen and granite.
>
>
>> Woohoo on your appliances Chickpea!
>
>> No gas here. Alas. If I were in my 'homeforever' I'd put in propane.
>> That damned electric company can't be trusted when storms come through.;-)
>
> Yeah, you know me and my generators/batteries/etc. We are getting a
> good deal on the propane, I think. Free 250 gal tank for a year and
> $1.59/gal to fill it. Later on, we'll put in our own underground
> tank, but I have too many irons in the fire for right now.
Wow, I paid much more than that 3 years ago in NH. Will you have a lot
of heating needs where you are now?
>
>
> Free is good. :-) I finally found a filter that I like. The Berkey
> water filter doesn't need to have the elements constantly replaced,
> and can purify just about any water. So Fl water is SO bad with
> organics that my distiller was always getting a cooked seaweed type of
> residue. Up here, all it gets is lime buildup.
We just did a double cartridge filter. The RO took up too much space.
The freezer ice goes through a cartridge in the fridge. So far we are
alive and healthy. Water is increasingly a BIG issue. I miss my cold
clear northern well water. The whole city of West Palm has been on a
boil order. They even had the FBI in to investigate. But, they think
now it was a backflow issue from an illegal well. Hmm..
>
>
> Looked at them, looked at a few seriously, but couldn't justify the
> added cost. BTW, we'll be making a new custom pantry based on
> improvements of our old one in Margate. Gotta start on the design for
> that soon.
An IKEA is opening in Sunrise next week. I've never been to Sunrise,
but I will go now. I've never seen an IKEA but have gotten their
catalogues for years and I love some of their storage solutions and want
to buy a pullout pantry system. My little pantry has wire shelves and
is basically useless.
>
> The mightiest oak starts from the actions of a demented squirrel. :-)
>
> The bananas are still doing fine, we've been eating okra, squash,
> watermelon, green beans, collards, tomatoes and Malabar spinach. And
> this has just been an experimental year for Mrs. Chickpea! Next year,
> I hope we can grow a full gardenload to freeze and can. I picked up a
> pressure canner for $30 at the local flea market.
>
>
First I finish my kitchen. Then I finish my office. Then I do my
garden. I want some sort of raised bed system, but I haven't worked it
all out yet. I have to do a diagram for DH, in advance. Otherwise
he'll just think I'm a crazy lady.
Regards..
..PC
pc
Gardening is so damned upside down and backwards for me..a Northerner
transplanted to SoFL. I am definitely seasonally challenged here. The
planting season is starting now. And, I'm still waiting for Winter! LOL.
I've a friend from Guatemala who said she would help me set up my
garden. I think I am going to take her up on it. She's used to the
climate and will help me from making major errors.
..PC
Don K
>> Free is good. :-) I finally found a filter that I like. The Berkey
>> water filter doesn't need to have the elements constantly replaced,
>> and can purify just about any water. So Fl water is SO bad with
>> organics that my distiller was always getting a cooked seaweed type of
>> residue. Up here, all it gets is lime buildup.
>
> We just did a double cartridge filter. The RO took up too much space. The freezer ice
> goes through a cartridge in the fridge. So far we are alive and healthy. Water is
> increasingly a BIG issue. I miss my cold clear northern well water. The whole city of
> West Palm has been on a boil order. They even had the FBI in to investigate. But, they
> think now it was a backflow issue from an illegal well. Hmm..
We did a timeshare tour in West Palm Beach a few years ago.
It struck me that the water down there has a strong taste of diesel fuel
or something similar.
Don
pc
Well, I'm further south of West Palm. Thank goodness.
The water here is nasty compared to VT and NH. But, so far, it's
drinkable with filtering.
..PC
hchi...@hotmail.com
You can do your own test for basics. Silver Lake Research makes a
home water test kit that is available for about $20. It'll be a
couple days before the bacteria test is finished, but our current well
measures
7.0 Nitrates
.15 Nitrites
6.2 pH
0 Chlorine
.5 ppm Hardness
negative on lead
negative on common pesticides
Dawn
But think of all the wonderful produce you will be eating while the
rest of us up north have to make due with canned and frozen.
Dawn, waving at PC.