Some of the best advice from the braintrust on this forum

13 years ago

I was googling gardenweb and advice last night and came across a great thread that is no longer open but that had been bumped up a few times since it was started by justadncr in 2007 by asking everyone to share the best advice they'd picked up on this forum.

There are a bunch of gems I hadn't run across and wouldn't have even thought to ask or google (...you don't know what you don't know). Plumgold? Never MT? All news to me from reading the thread. I consolidated the info so that I could print it (it would have been a breathtaking 41 pages had I tried to print it straight...) and thought I'd share for other newbies and to maybe get any other additions...

The biggest tip I learned and did as a result was that lumberyards sometimes carry mainstream cabinet lines for less. The place I ordered for carries Dynasty Omega, Shiloh and Meridian and the bulk of their business goes to contractors which helped with the pricing in my case vs. going with a custom cabinet maker--I got a variety of quotes.

With thanks to the OP and everyone who shared, here is their wisdom (please pardon the formatting...my bullets are reading as diamonds with question marks. Oh well.):

Best advice I got from this forum:

Ã¯Â¿Â½ lay the kitchen out on the ground outside with all the measurements and walk around it to see if it felt right. I took my measurements and scraps of wood and laid them out in the various plans I had come up with.

Ã¯Â¿Â½ check out the sound of the fan in the new ovens. I would have been pretty steamed to spend a bunch on a new range and have that sound come blaring out each time I used the oven.

Ã¯Â¿Â½ putting Blumotion on the cabinet doors. This is my favorite feature in our kitchen and the cost was cheap to add these on after the cab install.

Ã¯Â¿Â½ "zones" on this forum, and designed my kitchen around them, with a tremendous amount of help from my forum friends. In my old kitchen, the dishwasher opened across from the island (right into the backs of my legs). Now, the cleanup zone is on the peninsula, the prep area is between the fridge and sink, etc. It's really wonderful.

Ã¯Â¿Â½ No air gap -- most modern dishwashers don't need them, so you don't have to have that extra unattractive "thing" on your countertop. Easy way around that if you need to pass code inspection is to drill the hole for air gap... pop it on for inspection and when they've gone take off the air gap and pop on your soap dispenser. Then put the loop in the hose at the back of your dishwasher...

Ã¯Â¿Â½ Advantium

Ã¯Â¿Â½ Miele dishwasher

Ã¯Â¿Â½ Test tube rack for spice storage

Ã¯Â¿Â½ Lay it out with tape to double check

Ã¯Â¿Â½ advice for setting up a temp kitchen

Ã¯Â¿Â½ Measure from 3 points wall to wall. Had I known this when we remodeled the entire house in 1990, I would now have the room to put in a pro-style range. As it is, I am exactly....1/4" short. Talk about frustrating! Our cabs are...

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Comments (8)

Adrienne2011
13 years ago
This is a good list. Thank you!
0
ellaf
13 years ago
I got a lot of good info from your list. Thanks!
0
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Money is no object? Easy--solid wood custom cabinets. We were fortunate enough to have them in our last house & when I say solid wood, I mean they took a slab of clear maple and routed the design out of it and put in on hinges & attached it to the solid maple frame. Then they used solid wood slabs for the shelves inside. Those cabinets will likely outlast the rest of the house. Unfortunately, I don't know where that cabinet maker has gone--that was 12 years ago. Now we're in your boat with our new build and the cabinet confusion. Features I would want: painted cabinets with rubbed edges & a glaze, wall cabinets height to the ceiling, accent glass cabinets with lights, custom hood, giant island, slide out shelves in the cabinets, full height pullout trash cabinet, soft close drawers & doors, dove tail drawers, ornamental pulls, ornate corbels, organizers in the drawers, plug mold, pull out hampers in the laundry, cubbies with doors for kid's coats, bookbags, etc. As far as the cabinet maker doing the install--if the cabinet maker will do the install, I'd go that route. Some cabinet places call themselves custom, when they're really not--they sometimes do a semi-custom job or they consider sitting down with you & planning your layout with you to be the 'custom' part and the cabinets are standard sizes made in a factory somewhere else owned by someone other than the cabinet guy you're dealing with. If you find yourself with the semi-custom guy, I'd probably still use him. If they're made in a factory and the design was the custom part then I wouldn't think it would matter. I will point out that some cabinet dealers give you a break on the materials price if they install. I would definitely check out all my options in this respect. Think about the rooms the cabinets are going in. Do you need fancy cabinetry that matches the kitchen cabinetry in the laundry room or will a similar looking MDF cabinet do? How fancy do the kids' bath cabinets need to be? Because cost almost always plays a factor, I would spend the money in the areas that you live in the most. Check out the link below to another GW posting on the best advice someone had collected from the site. There are many references to cabinetry. Hope this helps! :-) Here is a link that might be useful: Some of the best advice from the braintrust on this forum
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Oh...one other thing to add..."The Talk". This is something I also picked up over time on this Forum. There will most likely come a time during your remodel when you will have to have a talk with your KD and/or GC/Contractor to remind them just whose kitchen this is. I had to have it with both of them. "The Talk" goes something like this... This is my kitchen, not yours. I am the one who has to live with it when you're gone. You will work here, finish up, leave, and never see it again...you will not have to live with & work in it day-to-day. I appreciate your opinions and points of view, but I must stand firm on this point. I designed the kitchen in great detail and things were placed where they were for a reason. Changes in the design or work will not be done w/o my approval. If there are issues encountered, we will discuss them, but I want to be part of the discussions. I'm willing to see various options, but I also want to know the impact of each option and the cost and I will make the final decision as to which option to implement to resolve the issue. I had a couple of instances where I was told point-blank (no discussion) that "it's impossible" and "it can't be done". But, my response was always, "I don't accept that, let's talk about it and see what we can come up with." In each and every case, we did indeed come up with a solution/way to do something! (I hope I "stretched" their thinking for later jobs!) Sometimes I agreed with their preferred resolution, but not always. My design had been detailed and signed off on, so there were no surprises from that standpoint...they just had to read it and not try to jury-rig mistakes they made and hope I wouldn't notice! Key point: document as much as possible and have it part of the design...right down to where the HVAC register goes! You may or may not have to add something like this as well: I am the one paying you to design (or build) this kitchen for me, so it must satisfy me. Don't use this last bit unless you absolutely have to...I finally had to with our Contractor, but not our KD. Our KD got the point immediately w/the first talk, but it took the Contractor quite a bit longer. (I got really tired of him telling me he had been doing this for over 20 years and this is how it's always done... Well it wasn't how it was going to be done in my kitchen!) Don't be confrontational or hostile, but be firm and try to project the feeling/attitude that you will not allow yourself to be dissuaded. Oh, and don't do it in front of workers, subs, etc.; go somewhere private where you can talk w/o causing embarrassment or management issues for your KD or GC/Contractor.
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gsmama
Original Author
13 years ago
If anyone has a suggestion for how to fix the formatting so it's easier on the eyes, I'll repost it. I just cut and past it here.
0
Buehl
13 years ago
I don't know if you've read the "Read Me" thread, but the "Best Advice" and other, similar, threads are linked in it. They're located in the "Miscellaneous Information"-->"Helpful Threads" topic.

Here's your list, reformatted for ease of reading (see "Curious about text in messages (adding bold, italics, etc.)", also in the "Miscellaneous Information"-->"Helpful Threads" topic.)

++++++++++++
- lay the kitchen out on the ground outside with all the measurements and walk around it to see if it felt right. I took my measurements and scraps of wood and laid them out in the various plans I had come up with.
- check out the sound of the fan in the new ovens. I would have been pretty steamed to spend a bunch on a new range and have that sound come blaring out each time I used the oven.
- putting Blumotion on the cabinet doors. This is my favorite feature in our kitchen and the cost was cheap to add these on after the cab install.
- "zones" on this forum, and designed my kitchen around them, with a tremendous amount of help from my forum friends. In my old kitchen, the dishwasher opened across from the island (right into the backs of my legs). Now, the cleanup zone is on the peninsula, the prep area is between the fridge and sink, etc. It's really wonderful.
- No air gap -- most modern dishwashers don't need them, so you don't have to have that extra unattractive "thing" on your countertop. Easy way around that if you need to pass code inspection is to drill the hole for air gap... pop it on for inspection and when they've gone take off the air gap and pop on your soap dispenser. Then put the loop in the hose at the back of your dishwasher...
- Advantium
- Miele dishwasher
- Test tube rack for spice storage
- Lay it out with tape to double check
- advice for setting up a temp kitchen
- Measure from 3 points wall to wall. Had I known this when we remodeled the entire house in 1990, I would now have the room to put in a pro-style range. As it is, I am exactly....1/4" short. Talk about frustrating! Our cabs are in great shape and I love them, but I'm stuck with the 29-7/8" width on the range.
- I really like this that I stole from Dmlove--- I love not having all those cords on my desk/countertop! So best advice from this forum... details make the difference! for now my phone sits over the hole
- pull down (rather than pull out or side spray) faucet
- Bluestar, after asking about the best 30 inch slide-in range
- batch-feed garbage disposals
- adding outlets
- Galaxy Tool Supply for our sink
- Never MT
- Plugmold
- Wide/shallow cabinet for William Sonoma ultra-thin step stool.
- Airswitch on disposal. Never minded the wall switch, but now that I have a nice backsplash and an island
- Floodstop on icemaker and washing machine.
- I put power into the back of 4 drawers, so each family member has a place to charge the cell phone (or camcorder or whatever) out of sight.
- I also have a false panel behind a niche so that the power / wallwarts / phone wire / wireless...
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gsmama
Original Author
13 years ago
Many thanks, buehl, I'll have a close read. I had wanted to be able to print the best advice list out and thought I'd share the shortened list. Wasn't meaning to duplicate.
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Katie S
13 years ago
Beautiful!!!!!! Thanks so much for posting this!
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boxerpups
13 years ago
gsmama,
Great thread. Thanks for posting.
~boxer
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Sherri Stein
13 years ago
Thank you so very much for this list! I have been designing my kitchen for a year now. I had to give up my project because I've been very sick. But, I'm starting to feel better now and can't wait to begin. But, due to both being sick and this fabulous website - a lot has changed in the year. My kitchen has to be ADA compliant - an interesting challenge. But, you have given me tons of information to hand over to my KD.

Many thanks!
0

Some of the best advice from the braintrust on this forum

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Some of the best advice from the braintrust on this forum

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Adrienne2011

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