Maybe We Are Fancy After All.

In approximately 3-4 weeks we will have our kitchen cabinets. Yes, you read me correctly, we have purchased our cabinets. The story of the cabinets is a sweet love story between a two new homeowners and Home Depot kitchen design center.

It all began on Saturday August 27, 2011 in a far, far away land….eh, I’m so not entering sappy territory here – I’m a straight up kinda gal.

Anyway, it did all start last Saturday when Ed and I went into Home Depot to check out their in-stock line of cabinets and priced the whole kit(chen) and kaboodle out. The reason we were going the in-stock-buy-it-off-the-shelf route was because Home Depot was offering 20% off said kit(chen) and kaboodle and they were readily available and in our budget range (which wasn’t very big mind you!). So, with 20% off, we were already saving around $500. Score! Until … we went and saw said cabinets in person and winced at their cheap quality, ill fitting doors, and lack of cabinet sizes and accessories. This was definitely a case of quantity over quality. So, what to do now?! We kind of felt defeated, actually. So, with our heads hanging low, we were on our way out the door when we saw our cabinet maven miracle worker, Pierre. Pierre and I go way back and when we stopped to say hello we figured we would ask him his opinions on the in-stock cabinets we were ho-hum about. He said they were ‘ok’ and usually used for apartment type set-ups and laundry/basement/garage applications the most. He asked our budget and suggested we sit down and write up an in-stock vs. custom kitchen cabinet plan. Um, a custom kitchen? Doesn’t custom mean mas dinero? I know he heard our budget range and I know custom can’t possibly fit in the no mas dinero budget that Ed and I gave him.

Enter left stage: cabinet superhero, Pierre. We sat down and after 3 hours and multiple phone calls to my dad (who was our stationed soldier at RHN, armed with a measuring tape) we were set on measurements and we plugged away at designing our custom kitchen (I feel so fancy every time I say it - even though we're not). As Pierre plugged away at adding cabinets in a really cool 3D cad program, I kept getting more and more nervous. I was getting nervous because he was spitting out terms like crown moulding and cushion-close drawers and for the sake of beating an already dead horse, we were on a budget for pete's sake! Then the magic began to flow, the skies opened, a rainbow formed, and unicorns began galloping happily about while leprechauns giggled. Pierre uttered our favorite words in the english language: free, discount, free, and free all while speaking enthusiastically about custom (we're fancy!) kit(chen) and kaboodle cabinets for our naked room. The deal we got was incredible. Wanna hear? Of course you do! Let me mesmerize you with our unicorn and rainbow filled results...


Discount: 

• $500 right off the top due to a Labor Day promotion the cabinet company already had running - spend $xxxx.xx get $xxx.xx off bringing our linear square foot price down $25 per linear square foot.

Freebees:

• Free upgrade to a premium finish. This saved us from buying cabinets in a finish we didn't like and having to spend a lot extra on a finish we did like. Savings: an extra $20 linear sq ft.
• Free hardware - door/drawer knobs and pulls. With 28 knobs and 9 pulls, this saved us $210.
• Free sink base cabinet 36". Savings $200.
• Free garbage/recycle pull out cabinet. Savings $900.
• Free fancy pants 2-tier in drawer cutlery divider. Savings $85
• Free cushion-close drawers and cabinet doors. You can't slam these babies. Savings: $?. 

So, as you can see, for custom fancy kitchen cabinets, we made out like freakin' bandits. Seriously, I kind of feel like we should have been wearing masks and carrying a big bag that could be filled with goodies much like thieves do. However, I have to point out that this endeavor, while fun, was still expensive despite all our discounts and freebees, and we still went about $800 over our original intended budget. (I know everyone is rolling their eyes saying, well duh, idiot. It's a kitchen. Of course it's expensive. Well, we are still newbies and still greatly play into sticker shock. Give us a break, here.) Now we have to get a sink and a new window and then figure out how to build our countertops and then, my dear Watson, we will have a spankin' new complete kitchen.