Category: Deals, Steals, & Thrifting

We do.  Big, hard wood.  Lots of it.  (Sorry, Ben’s 15-year-old boy humor has rubbed off on me).  After a week and a half of waiting.  Ben got a call Monday afternoon, but missed it because he was working out.  Yesterday we looked at the slabs and loved what we saw.

That dark spot is water, but it kind of shows what it will look like when oiled.

While paying for the boards, Ben talked to the clerk about the cabinet shop to do the finishing work.  I guess they refer customers to two shops often, so they delivered the slabs to the shop, free of charge.

Yesterday afternoon Ben went to the shop to help sand everything down to get them ready for install.  He and the shop foreman sanded both sides of the slabs, cut the backs square, squared up the pieces for the bar top and glued them together (more on that in a minute) in about an hour and a half.  The price?  $125, because they did more than we initially agreed on, Ben paid him $160.  And here’s what the Bubinga looks like now.

There is a lot of variation in each board.

I can’t wait to see the grain pop once we get oil on it.

One problem though.  We were told each slab would be three feet wide and 11 feet long.  They’re only 27 inches wide, but 13 feet long.  In a way it’s good because we’ll have less waste.  To get cabinet depth counters, we’ll cut two inches off each piece.

The reason the narrower pieces are a problem?  We planned to use the one foot or so wide remnants for the bar top.  Although our counters are only 34 square feet and these pieces have 52 square feet total, the remaining 18 feet are in one large 7 foot by two foot chunk.  And we need a piece twenty inches deep and ten feet long for the bar.  So we also bought two boards of Sappelle (African Walnut).  Each is about ten inches wide and nearly eleven feet long.  Hence the reason the cabinet shop joined the pieces together.  They’re still drying at the shop.  Most likely Ben will pick it up tonight.  Countertop cutting can start soon.

After stopping to check out the wood, the boys and I headed over to Hobby Lobby to look for knobs for the upper cabinets.  Luckily, all hardware is 50% off!  And there’s a lot to choose from.  My mental list of requirements: has to have silver to coördinate with the drawer pulls, glass or metal, not ceramic, must look chic, not cheesy.  Here’s what made the cut.

Faceted glass knobs are always pretty.

But I think they’re a little safe.  I want something fun to add some personality to the neutral space.

Diamond clear glass pulls.  Again, too boring.

These square ones are pretty, but they only come in clear glass.  Boo.

I looooved these pale pink bubble knobs.  Too bad there wasn’t a blue or green or something.

Then, I saw these.

The color is fantastic, the small bubbles and decorative plate add personality.  With 50% off, each knob is $2.50; we need six.  I think they’re perfect for the kitchen, but we’ll have to see what Ben thinks.

Are you on board with the wood counters?  (Pun intended)  Have a favorite door knob?  Often make jokes a teenage boy would?

P.S.  We’re Fresh Faces and today we’re sharing a recap of kitchen progress.

Our kitchen is officially back to a fully functioning condition.  All because we installed the dishwasher that arrived yesterday.  After plenty of online research and in-store visits, we decided on the KitchenAid Classic Series dishwasher in stainless.

We like that it has the stainless tub interior, hidden controls, some adjustable tines, and an adjustable upper rack which they claim can hold full-sized plates.  That would be cool, but we haven’t tried.  After all, we just installed it.  Originally, we thought we’d end up with a LG, but Ben didn’t want to pay their higher price.  The normal price of this KitchenAid is $799.99, but thanks to a Columbus Day sale we got it for a mere 513.89 bucks.  Also known as 36% off, which is actually better than our smokin’ good deal on our range.  Thank you Columbus for discovering America.

Ben picked the dishwasher up from Sears yesterday afternoon and installed it after work.  Installation was easy.  Add a hose, an electrical cord, plug-in this, clamp that.  But we do have another problem.  Do you see it?

Ahh, we built the cabinets 1 1/4 inches too tall.  Gah.  I guess we were in a hurry to get the kitchen started and forgot to measure our old cabinets.  Apparently 36 inches is the standard height including a counter top.

Oh well.  We gained another inch of cabinet space.  And it’s nothing a piece of trim can’t fix.  It just makes it easier to see the hidden buttons right now.

I’ve never had a dishwasher with hidden controls, but I’m nerdy excited about it.  Now I just have to re-learn how to load this reconfigured dishwasher.  Ha.

Now you’re 100% up to date on the kitchen status.  Hopefully I won’t be able to say that come Monday.  Have you ever made a silly rookie mistake?  How’d it work out in the end?  Maybe this is for the better because the trim will be a better match to the drawer stack on the other side of the sink…

Well, the first step of our kitchen remodel is done.  We’ve ordered a custom apron front sink and it is fantastic.  First, let’s discuss our options and why we chose a custom sink.  After a look on Ebay, we realized we liked two options.  One, a 30 inch flat front stainless apron sink, like this:

Pros: 30 inch width, flat front, single basin, great price.  Cons: This sink, like most apron front sinks, is between 18 inches and 21 inches from front to back.   Which means, we would have a four to seven-inch piece of granite at the back of our sink.  That’s okay, but we don’t like the look of a seam at the back.

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Option two is a full depth apron front sink, like this.

Pros: This sink is counter depth, so we could avoid a piece of granite behind the sink.  Cons: This sink costs nearly two thousand dollars.  Um, heck no am I paying that much for a sink.

So, we took a chance and talked to a custom metal shop in town, just to get a quote on the price of a custom-made-to-our-specifications sink.  A few days later, we got a call.  The price?  Only 650 bucks for our design made of 14 gauge stainless steel.  Most other sinks are 18 or 16 gauge, so ours would be more heavy-duty.  Just because we’re paranoid perfectionists, we took another trip to the shop with pictures, to place our order.  Neither Ben or I have ever had something custom-made without one of us doing the work.  It is accurate to say we were apprehensive.  Then, we waited.  Ben received a call only nine days after confirming the order that our sink was done and ready to pick up.  Whoa, that was quick.

We decided it would be best for Ben to drill a hole for the faucet, just to be safe.  Our sink is 30 inches wide, 25 inches from front to back and nine inches deep, exactly.

Completely perfect.  Well, nearly.  The weld and bend marks are slightly more visible than Ben would like, but he should be able to sand it down.

Actually, he has already started.  But, he made a mistake by using a random orbital sander.

Rather than the ‘grain’ of the steel showing, you see the circluar pattern from the sander.  But, Ben bought a different sander, so we’ll share an update once things get further.

Now, allow me to explain why we opted for a custom, $650 sink over a store-bought $320 sink.  First, we got exactly what we wanted.  Seriously, I had my doubts that the sink would live up to our expectations, but it exceeded everything I had imagined.  Secondly, our granite company charges $400 to cut and polish a hole for a sink.  Essentially, our sink total for the store-bought version would come in at 720 dollars.  Our custom-made sink eliminates the sink cutting charge, which means we’re actually saving 70 bucks for our custom sink.

868 dollars spent on the kitchen so far, several thousand more to go.  One project down, roughly 786 left.

Have you had something custom made?  Did it make you happy?  Or was it nothing like you hoped for?