$25,000 for cabinets..? Really?

[Trooperdan]

So the wife wants to over-haul the kitchen, no problem sez I, when the wife is happy, I'm happy. I figure I can get outta this for $30 large easy, right? So she goes to Lowes, to The Kitchen Designer. Spends three hours and comes out with an estimate for $25,000 KEWL sez I, under my budget.

"You don't understand", sez she. This is just for the cabinets! Really? In a 10 bt 10 kitchen..? No countertops, no appliances, I don't think that is even installed... no, that has to be installed right?

But $25 K in a 10 x 10 kitchen?

I have a kid I sent to community college for two years to be a cabinet maker.. never seen him carve so much as a toothpick. Now he is an instrumentation tech, bitching about low pay.. Boy, did he take the wrong path!

 

[Gray Rider]

You need to rein in your wife a bit; check out other suppliers, local or regional lumber yards will have their own kitchen designers and line of cabinets. Also, if you know reputable contractors see who they recommend, the best kitchen designer I know owns a single lumber yard and offers the best customer service I've ever seen.

Lowe's contracts with contractors for their installs and I was led to understand that they expect their contractors to go to the job the day they(Lowe's) schedule the work to be done. I would be leery of using someone who doesn't have enough work that he has schedule a few weeks in advance or one who would walk away from one uncompleted job to go to another. I'm a general contractor and didn't sign on to do installs for Lowes because of this.

 

[JayCeeNC]

Dan, see if you can find a local cabinet designer in your area.
I've been thru the same thing, and was able to get a superior product at a better price and with more customization than thru the Big Box stores.

 

[PlaytheAces]

Depending on what you currently have, another option is having them refinished. I'm going through that right now. Our old cabinets (as in eight years old ) were oak, and the wife decided she can just no longer abide oak.

I found a refinisher who's re-staining everything, adding new end panels and building a new row of cabinets to fit on top of the existing cabinets. He's charging me a third of your Lowe's estimate.

We decided the existing oak grain with a completely different stain looked great. But we also could have had the existing cabinets re-skined and new doors installed, which is what I did in our master bath. That still would have run me less than half of your estimate.

I think you need to get some more estimates, and look at some additonal options.

 

[Trooperdan]

Gray Rider, what do you think of Ikea cabinets? Just a bit of research shows them about half the Lowes price. She has a contractor in mind, he referred her to Lowes.. but he is the same guy that has taken four months to do our bathroom remodel!

 

[arjay]

Your wife has good taste! Cabinets can get very expensive in a hurry.I had a whole house restoration a few years ago where the 8 kitchen cabinets came in at just under $30k.

 

[BrianE]

Are they in bad shape or can they be refaced? That's like 1/4 of the cost I think...

 

[Fishinfool]

25K for kitchen cabinets? Maybe I am behind the times, but that's insane... For that kind of $$, I would buy the necessary tools and equipment, and learn how to make my own...

Larry

 

[old bear]

I've had Lowe's install carpet, hardwood flooring, and storm doors for me. I have been very pleased with the quality of the products and the installers who did the work.

 

[DeadAye]

We got our kitchen cabinets for $30,000 and they threw in a house....

 

[oldillini]

We have a rather small kitchen ourselves, probably no larger than yours. About 5 years ago we updated. New cabinets, tops and sinks from Lowe's. We did not get the top of the line, but definitely not the cheapest either. Cost us little over $10K. That included installation of the counter top. (With help of friend I installed cabinets.)

Like others have suggested, I would look elsewhere. Although the kitchen turned out well, I did have bad experience with Lowe's and installation of carpet. They used an installer that I was ready to choke. We had paid for their highest quality pad. Came home to see him putting down carpet over pad that was not the same color as all of the rooms before. When I questioned him, he said that they did not give him enough and he was using a lesser quality pad he had available. If it had been in a closet I may not have been upset, but it was over nearly half of our living room.

 

[Bekeart]

She has a contractor in mind, he referred her to Lowes.. but he is the same guy that has taken four months to do our bathroom remodel!

FOUR MONTHS !!!!

Sounds like your job was not very high on his list of priorities.

Hope you had a second bathroom. Betting that you don't have a second kitchen.

 

[Bkreutz]

How many of you have built a cabinet? My great grandfather was an old world trained cabinetmaker and I spent a number of summers with him as an apprentice. (give you an idea, the shop was powered by a water wheel and to turn on a piece of machinery you had to take a stick and push the belt over onto the live pulley). The time it takes to make a quality cabinet is more than most of you would think. I don't make many cabinets (or furniture) because most won't pay my price, that's OK, I'm retired from another field (mainly because cabinetmakers are grossly underpaid). Problem is, everyone wants Chippendale quality on a Peking(or Ikea) budget. I know, I sound like a grumpy old man, well to prove it, here's a pic of me in a hammock in the back yard.

 

[4011]

Look around for a local cabinet shop! That's unreal. As said before if your base cabinets are good just replace the doors and drawer fronts. While your there do buy the good drawer glides. You'll loose just a dab of width in the drawer. If you go painted cabinets you buy paint grade popular and paint it yourself. Few years back I did a kitchen and two baths for just under 4 k. I did the paint.

 

[arjay]

I've built many custom cabinets over the years.Most people think they should cost the same as production work ;-)

 

[feralmerril]

Good golly miss molley! I remember my dad buying our house on 2 1/2 acres with a old barn and workshop for $2,000s !!!! Thats two thousand dollars! Course it was 1952.

 

[venomballistics]

25K for kitchen cabinets? Maybe I am behind the times, but that's insane... For that kind of $$, I would buy the necessary tools and equipment, and learn how to make my own...

Larry

and therein lies the answer

 

[Smithsrevenge]

I say drop the $25k on a new ford taurus, then just show her how many canned goods you can fit in there :-D

I just redid my entire kitchen, counters, sinks, appliances cabinets etc for $6k.

You're wife has the excessive needs syndrome lol

 

[Wee Hooker]

I just built a house. Here are a couple of things learned that might help.

First, if you can design in a nice walk in Pantry, it's is not only 300% more functional and flexible but it is 900% cheaper than it's equivalent in cabinetry. Doors can usually be ordered o match the cother doors/faces if desired.

Check with Home Depot and Lowes. I noted your a veteran and they usually extend 10% off for military. Catch a sale (which they run regularly) add that 10% and you can cut a full 1/3 off your costs. ( I saved nearly 60% off their closest competitor on my rain forest counter tops.)

Shop online for faucets, sinks, knobs, accessories. Prices are sometime near 1/2 off local lumber yards.

Don't get too hung up on name brands. Shop quality and features. MR sinks for instance makes an outstanding product at 1/2 the cost of the big names pushed by designers.

hth

 

[feralmerril]

Until the woman factor, I used to get by nicely with orange crates and maybe some plastic table cloth material.