(no subject)

[sexy_romulan]

So y'know how I said the kitchen budget was contingent on a couple of conditions? One of them has officially kicked it.

Well, cock.

Scaling back to Ikea may yet be doable, though. I was reluctant to go this route after our real estate agent tsked at a "cheap" kitchen we saw in our house-hunting, but roaming the internets, I hear nothing but positive feedback about the quality of Ikea cabinets, although the reviews of their installation and delivery time are much more mixed. And they seem to have a nice not-too-hyper-modern shakeresque door available in light wood.

I did some messing around with their handy design tool to generate a cabinets-only quote. The verdict? One-third to one-half of what other places have estimated. Hmmmmm! So now I need to pester some trustworthy renovation companies and see what they would charge to get rid of walls, fix plumbing/electrical, install undercabinet lighting, etc. in addition to hanging the cabinets. (I'll tackle the demolition of the old kitchen and assembly of flat-boxed new cabinets, but the quality of the finished result relies so heavily on quality of installation that I'm reluctant to take that on myself.) And also find a supplier of countertops, because I've heard that getting the stuff from Ikea is a big fat pain in the ass at best.



BEFORE (aka now)

Pardon the mess.






AFTER (with any luck)

For reference, the door in this picture is the door on the right-hand side of the picture above.



View from back by the stove, looking towards the dining room.

Comments

[reyl.livejournal.com]

FYI, J&M are redoing their kitchen right now, and are using Ikea cabinets. They live in the neighbourhood if you want to take a look and/or chat about the process.

[ami-b.livejournal.com]

That sounds like it could be really helpful, actually!

[arndis.livejournal.com]

One thing I heard from our detailing teacher was that last she knew, IKEA used thinner (=weaker) stock for the cabinet boxes, which is a pretty important difference, but one you might not notice until things start sagging. Standard cabinet box stock is 3/4" thick or the metric equivalent. So: how heavily are you going to load those shelves, and how often do you climb on the counters?

[ami-b.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! I just poked around to look into this - their website says the boxes are 3/4", and my current slightly thinner (but possibly not MDF) shelves don't seem to have any problems. So I theeeeeeenk we should be OK on this front.

[arndis.livejournal.com]

Check the material too, whether it is plywood or MDF/particleboard/similar. Plywood is better. I advise this regardless of brand -- look at the construction specs. I can loan you my copy of IGS until I need it again so you can check out the cabinet details. ;)

[ami-b.livejournal.com]

Plywood is also damn hell expensive, unfortunately :P to the tune of at least $15K just for the cabinets.