Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[s219]

I have always been impressed with IKEA cabinets -- very good quality for the money. Most builders poo-poo the thought though.

We went with Decora cabinets in our Kitchen, but used Marsh for the bathrooms and laundry room to save money. There is a noticeable reduction in the grade of the materials comparing Marsh to Decora, but the quality, construction, and finish on the Marsh units are fine -- mainly just lighter weight door and drawer materials (we upgraded hardware to the same as Decora). Our cabinet guys did remarkable install work -- they were from the actual cabinet shop, where we also worked with a sales guy to design and plan everything out over about 4 months and 8-10 meetings. As a result, there were no surprises and they thought of a bunch of details and design factors that I would have missed completely. I would not be surprised if their install tolerance was 1/32" -- it seems that good to me. They enlarged a drawer opening for our drawer microwave, and the cutout measurements were spot on, so now the microwave sits perfectly centered.

Contrast that with our old house, where we had decent quality IXL cabinets, but installed by the builder. They did such a lousy job with the install, there's not enough space on the page for me to explain. About 8 years after we moved in, I did a kitchen remodel and fixed everything, also adding crown and base molding, real wood side veneers, and we ran the cork floor up to the toe kick area to replace the cheap toe kicks they used. When I pulled some of the old cabinets off to do the work, I saw evidence that these clowns did not use a stud sensor, instead poking zillions of holes in the wall (there was literally a woodpecker-like row of holes). And they apparently had dull saw blades and lousy saw skills. On top of that, it looks like they mounted at least one cabinet a three different heights before figuring out the right spot.

I think you have decent cabinets, but lousy install and rough handling of the cabinets that resulted in dings. In addition, it looks like they are not using a sharp saw blade or even thinking through their cuts to minimize the effect of blowing out the grain. All of that adds up.

I guess you do need to move the outlets down, but to me the top cabinets look 3-4" too low, which may be the real problem. I absolutely hate kitchens where the cabinets are in your face and you can't see down to the countertop from a reasonable distance (I'm 6'1", so it may be a height issue). I made sure that wasn't an issue in our new house (there is about 21" of space from counter to cabinets). The only place where code trumped me was the height of the range hood, but at 69" at least it's above my eye height.

 

[Mike_Kanzer]

All can say is - wow

You would have been better off with a builder doing the shell of the house and you doing or contracting out the finish work yourself . if Norm Abrahm or Tommy Silva from This Old House saw this they both would have strokes.

 

[FairfaxStu]

I guess you do need to move the outlets down, but to me the top cabinets look 3-4" too low, which may be the real problem. I absolutely hate kitchens where the cabinets are in your face and you can't see down to the countertop from a reasonable distance (I'm 6'1", so it may be a height issue). I made sure that wasn't an issue in our new house (there is about 21" of space from counter to cabinets). The only place where code trumped me was the height of the range hood, but at 69" at least it's above my eye height.

Well said sir. I agree. The space between the uppers and lowers seems too tight. Mine is 19" and your's are 21" so somewhere around 20 is probably the sweet spot. I wonder if the addition of the soffit has something to do with it. I am sure Peter will take and post some measurements soon.
-Stu

 

[woodlandfarms]

Back on the issue of smoke alarms, while it is you mothers house your daughter might have a sleepover... This is a bit unknown research, maybe something for obed

Comparison of a Personalized Parent Voice Smoke Alarm With a Conventional Residential Tone Smoke Alarm for Awakening Children

 

[pacerron]

Well said sir. I agree. The space between the uppers and lowers seems too tight. Mine is 19" and your's are 21" so somewhere around 20 is probably the sweet spot. I wonder if the addition of the soffit has something to do with it. I am sure Peter will take and post some measurements soon.
-Stu

Stu,
Anywhere from 18"-21" is fine.
I have two custom kitchens, made by two different local Mennonite cabinetmaker shops. The primary kitchen has wall cabinets that go all the way to the 8' ceiling with crown molding around the top. I have always considered the soffit boxes to be a gross waste of good space.

In the west wing the wall cabinets are the shorter type but no box above them, just accent lighting. The only reasoning was because I built a complete apartment over there for my mother after she had her first heart attack at age 83 and could no longer live alone and maintain her house. She was short, and I knew if I put in full height wall cabinets she would be trying to climb up there on a step stool.
My wife has used that kitchen for her extensive summer canning since my mother passed.
I just measured the clearance between the countertops and the wall cabinets and they are 18" in both kitchens. The center of the duplex receptacles are 8" above the countertops, making them totally visible and accessible.
Ron

 

[pclausen]

So the height before counter tops between lower and upper cabinets is 14". The granite counter top will likely reduce that to 13" or less.

Base cabinets stand 34.5" tall before counter tops. Upper cabinets start at 48.5".

Total height below soffit is 84.5".

Interestingly enough, that happens to be the exact height of the full height cabinet that the wall oven is going into, which is the measurement shown below.

So I'm not sure what went wrong where. Base cabinets being about 36" tall with the counter top in place seems about right. A total height of 84.5" seems about right judging from the full height wall oven cabinet. I guess maybe the upper cabinets should have only been 30" tall instead of 36"?

That would have made the distance between the counter top and upper cabinets 19" instead of the 13" mom is going to end up with unless the uppers are all changed...

 

[hr3]

I'm sure some of the builders will chime in but I'd say your right.. I have 30" uppers with 11.5" soffit.. Not sure a coffee pot will fit under your uppers when the counter tops are put on,,

We're all feeling your pain right about now,,, :banghead:

 

[ustmd]

I have always been impressed with IKEA cabinets -- very good quality for the money.

:thumbsup:

I ma not a builder or remodeler, so I can only speak about my experiences. We put in IKEA when we built our house in 2001. The wife and I have very strong modern/contemporary tastes. The cabinets have held up very well and still look good. When I have done kitchen work for friends and family, I believe our cabinets compare very favorably.

I cannot remember what we paid, but it was $2-$3K for 16 ft of uppers and lowers + 12 feet of lowers only. We did the installation ourselves. I can say, after 12 years our installation job looks better than this one.

 

[pacerron]

30" uppers is what you need. Must have been the same guy that ordered the floor tile that measured for the cabinets.

Marsh probably has 30" in stock. Maybe check the paper trail. They might have sent the wrong size by mistake.

In any case they need changed.
Maybe you can get uppers that match and fit the space better next to the window on each side.

Did the hole sizes check out for the appliances?

Is there a microwave somewhere?

What is the 2 door spare cabinet sitting on the floor in the dining room for?

While they are adding the 45 deg corner maybe you can convince them to cut that out of balance overhang of the soffit above the refrigerator off.

Since the PB guys are do back anyway to smooth the wall joints before the painters get back it should be no big deal to fix it right.
Ron

 

[J F]

Standard install height for kitchen cabinets is 18" above the 36" finished height of the base cabinets, i.e. 54". Someone really made a boo-boo (polite term) on this cabinet order and/or install.

Sorry to see this Pete, hope your builder steps up.