I’m back from a bit of hiatus to catch you up on what’s been going on around here for the last month. Despite all odds, the Hoarder House is still standing… We had a bit of a hiccup in early November. Jake was doing a small remodel job for a friend and ended up cutting his thumb pretty bad with a utility knife. 🙁
I’ll spare you pics and gory details, but suffice to say that Jake was out for the count for several weeks while his thumb healed. So basically that means that almost nothing got done on our house during that time. Because, let’s be honest, he does all the work around here. 😉
We were able to usher out the fall season in style though. This property is littered with fallen brush and tree limbs. In an effort to try to clean up the grounds a bit, we had many bonfires and were able to clear a lot out. Aren’t bonfires the coziest??
While Jake was healing, we decided to go on a little trip to the Smokey Mountains. It was nice to get away from the house for a while. Living in renovation gets old…..
But before we left we made sure to place our order for the kitchen cabinets. We did end up going with the Cabinet Spot based on the sample we got. We worked with their kitchen designers to get everything just how we wanted (I will have to share more of the layout details in another post).
There were several reasons we ended up going with the Cabinet Spot. First, they are a ready-to-assemble (RTA) cabinet provider which means they ship flat-packed—just like IKEA—and you have to assemble them yourselves. Usually RTA cabinets are sold at a big discount over pre-assembled cabinets.
Secondly, it’s like my wildest dream to have inset cabinets. I know it’s kind of ridiculous.. and if you don’t know what that means check it out here. But, because of the precision required for inset cabinetry they tend to be very pricey and I thought they would forever be out of my budget. In this search for cabinets I had come across one or two inset cabinet lines from RTA cabinet companies, but they were only offered in one color that I wasn’t interested in.
The Cabinet spot offers THREE different colors of their inset cabinetry and… the total order ended up costing less than my IKEA cabinets would have cost!!!! Can you even believe that?! No one beats IKEA, I thought! And beyond that, IKEA cabinets are made out of mdf and while they are fine quality, our cabinets are made out of plywood which is just generally considered to be of much higher quality.
Anyways, super happy with the price and offering of the cabinets we got at the Cabinet Spot. I will say that it seems like they are more set up to work with contractors than DIY-ers or home-owners. For instance, the cabinets come with no instructions. You can download some standard instructions online, but they are not super descriptive and aren’t unique to each cabinet. Another reason why they were a bit more difficult than IKEA: the inset cabinets we ordered were not pre-drilled for the hinges. So that was tricky to figure out exactly where each one had to be installed.
Overall, I would say that the quality and beauty of the cabinets for the stellar price seems to far outweigh the difficulty of assembly. And now our living room is filled with kitchen cabinets…
Pretty soon after the cabinets came in, we decided to hire out the electric for the kitchen. It was the right call because the scope of work was keeping Jake up at night. We had 8 cans installed, 2 pendants, 4 outlets, 2 3-way switches and some dedicated lines for the appliances. So, it was no small job! And now we have light 🙂
Next up, lots and lots of drywall and a bit of shiplap…. So stay tuned over the next few weeks to see the progress on that. And pretty soon it will be time to pick out countertops. *oh the excitement!!*
We went to look at some countertops a few weeks ago… and I’m pretty set on a quartzite. They are just EVERYTHING. The look of marble, but more durable than granite, and they have that real stone beauty that you just can’t get in quartz. The only thing they don’t have is a good price. These were the three we saw and liked at MS International:
Oh my, this one hits me hard… the beauty of this stone is so moving!!!! I want a whole house clad in this. But, I did worry that it was maybe too gray for our cabinets. I was thinking a lighter tone for more contrast and to blend better with the white shiplap on the walls.
I think this one was my favorite… Just barely grey enough, yet still light over all. And the movement of the veining is stunning.
This one is really pretty, but it’s perhaps a bit too cream toned for our gray cabinets, so not necessarily my favorite one of the bunch. I can’t say I wouldn’t still be a happy girl to have this in my kitchen.
Sadly, when we priced these three quartzites out they were WAY out of our budget. So we will be looking at some more options this week and hopefully make a decision soon. Because I want a kitchen again!!!
So that’s pretty much what’s been going one, I also went Cyber Monday crazy and bought a bunch of things for the kitchen. Can’t wait to share them with you. 😉