Look at it this way, it sounds like you will get a better quality cabinet from the Mennonites. When you compare that to lesser quality cabinets, you'd be saving more than 10K. But this isn't about savings, it's about getting the best cabinets with your dollars. The Mennonites don't have a high over head, so they pass those saving on to you. They probably don't lease a space, don't have many on their payroll, etc so those things don't get passed on to their customers. But the savings does.

Is 10K worth paying extra for a "limited lifetime warranty?" You can fix an awful lot of problems with 10K dollars! You probably will not have any/many problems with the Mennonite made cabinets after installation. Any problems would occur/be seen after installation, which they would repair.

Ask you GC how long he has used them. Are there other kitchens nearby you can see? Any under construction in their shop at the moment?

Ask if they can provide a sample of a painted door. The glaze is probably the problem - and you're not going to use glazing. So this question would be answered easily with a painted door sample.

We have a mennonite cabinet maker. We won't have a "warranty" per se either, nor did/do we really have any kind of formal contract or anything. I think that's just the way things are done, sort of a less formal approach to doing business based on honesty and producing quality products from the start. At least that is my hope. And I'd rather gamble on cabinets that are built right and are true furniture/heirloom quality from the start, then a "limited" lifetime warranty on cabinets that might not use the same quality of materials.

If you can, go see your cabinet maker, see if he can show you more of what he's done so you can see more finishes. Not only did we see many different things at the "showroom" in different finishes but he also took us on a tour of where everything is actually built and made and we saw people applying the finishes, the wood being cut, cabinets being assembled, etc. etc.

I am very, very content with my choice thus far. I feel that I am getting much, much, much more customization this way and for much less than I would have paid otherwise. While our kitchen isn't done, everything I've seen so far and my experience working w/ my cabinet maker has convinced me that I'd never consider going with stock cabinets for any area of my house ever. But, of course not all cabinet makers are created equal, and needs and the quality of your cabinet maker might be different than mine.

These things take on a life of their own. A kitchen cabinet is a box with shelves and a door, or it's drawers in a box. It's storage. It's not *furniture*. (You can't take it with you when you move.)

Good enough is...good enough, despite the hard sell.

allison and beagles - Thanks for the input about your personal experiences. It's nice to hear a little positive about going with the custom guy.

Honestly, my mom and dad built custom cabinets for years when I was small and it would feel like a nice tribute to them to go with a small business in that respect.

chisue - well, as far as taking them with us, I don't think this is an issue. My hubby retired from the military and I don't see another move in our future. My kids would hate it if we uprooted them again. So, yes, for us it's far more permanent than furniture and I want to be sure we get it right for the $$$ we're spending.

I have just heard some people tell me that the finish is not going to be as tough or nice as manufactured. I've never had white cabinets before and I'm a little concerned about them being tough to keep up with.

I will definitely ask for samples of the door. I don't know why I hadn't considered that I'll have that option. That way, I'll know exactly what it should look like.

You're welcome. As far as what people are telling you - our custom kitchen cabinets look much better than the bathrooms and laundry, and they certainly get more use.

Ask them if they brush paint or spray.

Thanks, Allison, I will.

This may seem like a silly question, but I want to be sure... I want him to spray, correct? I have read several times that some people request that the last coat be hand-brushed so that the finish is easier to touch up if necessary.

I would strongly recommend you make sure he can spray a conversion varnish finish. The other finishes do not hold up long term in kitchen applications

We are very pleased with our custom cabinets--very sturdy and we got some features that weren't available in catalogs. On the other hand, we weren't as clear as we should have been on some of the things that were going to happen and so there were a couple surprises, which better communication might have fixed. Communication with a small shop is really important but personalities can get in the way. Much easier to go to a big company to howl, but not sure if you'll get any better satisfaction.

Saving a bunch of money is really important in my world. Twenty years from now will you say "don't you love my XYZ Company cabs?" or will you say "thanks for the compliment; this kitchen has served us well for twenty years."

Our cabinets will have a spray on finish, at least I know they do for the painted ones, not sure how they are going to do our stained ones. We actually went to the finishing room and watched them finish some- it was cool! The other great thing about getting custom is that we got to fine tune our colors exactly, sitting in the showroom as they tried different stain samples and getting to say "just a hint more yellow" until we had the perfect color.

However, communication is key, like forantha said. Because it is custom, so much more is left up to you to ask for whatever it is you want. Plus, "custom" can't automatically be equated to good either, so its a matter of making sure the particular custom cabinet maker you are being sent to is good.

Ayerg, I had a similar experience getting a very high quote from a KD for manufactured cabinets (his quote was twice what I had told him our budget was). A friend recommended her cabinet maker, and she completely sold me when she told me this story...

About five years after he installed her cabinets, she had some concerns about the finish on the top of the doors on the sink cab. She said she and her husband had not been as careful as they should have, and there had been frequent splashing and dripping at the sink that left water sitting on the tops of the doors. They would wipe down the door front, but they would not always wipe off the water that accumulated on the top of the door. The finish there was puckering a bit and she called the cabinet maker to ask what she might be able to do about it. She was expecting a recommendation for a particular grit of sandpaper and a brand of varnish to buy for them to fix it themselves (she certainly didn't think he was responsible for the problem!). Instead, he said he wanted to come out to her house to see the problem himself.

When he got there and saw it, he said he wasn't happy with how the finish had held up, despite her insistence that the problem was her fault for not cleaning up spills better. He said he wanted to refinish those doors, but because she had light maple cabinets, the natural slight yellowing of the finish over five years would mean that the refinished doors wouldn't match. He decided that he needed to remove all her cabinet doors and drawer fronts and refinish them all! He insisted and would not let her pay for it.

Clearly, this story sold me! He has no explicit warranty, but he was a true craftsman who stood behind his work. Of course I chose him to make my cabinets.

I could not have been happier with the quality of my own cabinets, and he cost me HALF what the manufactured cabinets would have. I loved being able to be very precise with measurements I wanted and not have to worry about fitting everything into the three-inch increments a manufacturer uses. This means I have no fillers and no wasted space. Everything is exactly what I wanted, with no compromises. AND I feel confident that I would get better help with problems than what any warranty from a manufacturer might have covered.

You have to realize that independent cabinet makers rely on word of mouth, so they have a very good reason to (a) do a high quality job and (b) stand behind their work. At least five other people have since used this same cabinet maker after having seen my cabinets. I recommend him any chance I get (Gene Quimby at Interlachen Cabinets for anyone in north Florida!). If your cabinets from a local custom cabinet maker aren't of high quality, word will get out and affect his future potential customer base. If your cabinets don't turn out great from a manufacturer, someone in some other city will likely never know about it, so unless they have consistently crappy quality, they will still make money.

Of course, anyone considering a custom cabinet maker should ensure that they one they pick knows what he's doing. Craftsmanship can vary dramatically from one to the next. The fact that your GC highly recommends this guy and the fact that the work you saw was of high quality is really all you need to know.

I think that if they prepare the surface well and coat with a non-yellowing poly, it will last regardless of painting via brush or sprayer. Even if the finish doesn't hold up as well as those from a big manufacturer, how many times could they be professionally repainted before you spend your $10k in savings? I'd be willing to bet that you'd want to change your cabinet color before then anyway!

holligator - it's nice to hear about such a positive account. I thought you were actually talking about my builder for a split second as he told me a story of a family that asked for wood to be around their countertop (around the sink). He tried to convince them not to, but they insisted. Then they called him awhile later to say that the finish wasn't holding up.

He wasn't QUITE as nice as yours, he said that he told the homeowner that he didn't feel it was a problem with craftsmanship, but the lack of keeping the area dry. But, he still did fix it. Once.

In my opinion, that's still going above and beyond because he warned them, but not nearly as great as your builder. Good for you for finding someone you trust so much!

anenemity - nice point. I had thought about that with the wood floors, of course I'll want to refinish them in 10-15 years. Hadn't thought about that with the cabs. Better to spend the $$$ on good craftsmanship and solid wood so that I can just refinish.