Yeah, obviously I'd rather find out now than down the road. And, this may sound naive, but I only want to work with people who want to work with us and for the experience to be positive and mutually beneficial to the fullest possible extent. Still, though. I don't get it on so many levels. And, it is a red flag for others so I posted. Anyone know what the problem is with veneer doors? I thought they had more stability than solid wood?

I wouldn't take it too personally. I think the conflict that was going on at Semihandmade was being telegraphed to you over the phone. They were probably trying to find out who gave you your information so they could be reprimanded or fired, because they were after all, essentially giving you possibilities that went against their own published policy.

I don't see it as a red flag. They have a policy and they are sticking to it, and the person who made promises to you that apparently went against the written policy on their website is the red flag.

Why they have this policy I don't know, but I what I can see is an issue with their legal department. They don't ship to Alaska, so some salesperson is telling you that somehow people get around the issue by buying the doors and then getting them to Alaska under their own steam somehow? And they know about it, wink wink, so no big deal?

What would happen if you ordered the doors, had them shipped to your friend in Washington State, and went and picked them up? What if there was a problem with the doors? Would a typical buyer say "Oh well, Semihandmade told me they don't ship to Alaska, so the onus is on me, here's $5000 in doors down the crapper and a good lesson learned :)"

I doubt it. Most people would hold Semihandmade responsible for something that is essentially against their policies.

As unpleasant as it may have been for you, I think they were trying to stick to their own policies for whatever reason they have them and to not invite trouble.

I'd buy that, palimpsest, except the "policy" changed like 3 times and directly contradicted itself more than once. First, it was "we'll be glad to sell to you if you arrange shipping - order your sample box, just be clear in the comment section". Then it was "we'll be glad to ship to you as long as you understand that the cabinets are not as durable in Alaska due to vague reasons and we've been holding off sending you the sample box for weeks at the owner's request until we are sure you are cool with that". Then it was "we don't ship to Alaska - period. No sample box for you! Order cancelled."

And, at all 3 points in the process, I was expressly told that the owner was aware, involved and/or consulted on the message.

And maybe they were and maybe they weren't.

If it was the same person feeding you the line that Semihandmade went against it's own policies all the time, maybe they weren't. Maybe they were saying this so they could make a sale.

I was involved in purchase of some durable goods with my first house and was told X, Y, Z by a salesperson and a couple weeks later I got a phone call to return in person where my order was reviewed by some higher up, and essentially reprocessed in its entirety and given some vague explanation that the salesperson was no longer in their employ and all the orders that this person had placed were "under review". When I expressed that I didn't think there was anything the matter with the transaction, I got an answer to the extent that I might not have thought so but that customers had been told or promised things that were against store policy, there were mistakes in some orders and everything this person had touched over the past number of months was under review.

In any case I would be hesitant to buy something that technically was not for sale where I lived (for whatever bizarre reason it might be) because what repercussions would you have if there was a problem? I think it's asking for trouble. I would think it could be like if you buy an appliance or fixture from an unauthorized reseller, you could be on your own.

Is that a risk you were willing to take?

What you do if Semihandmade emailed you back and said:

Dear Steph2000:

We will sell you all the doors you want. Just sign this waiver that says you release Semihandmade from any indemnity, since we do not sell to Alaska, and enclose this legal release from responsibility with your $5000 check. Thanks and good luck!

It wasn't the same person at all points, though. It was the receptionists, the sales representative and the shipping person - all saying they were talking to the owner. Not to beat a dead horse or whatever, but this story was evolving at all points of the narrative.

And, when you live in Alaska, you are used to things like ordering with the risk of being stuck with something. It wasn't until just a few years ago that we could even get items from anywhere without it going through Seattle as some kind of lingering artifact of times Alaska was a territory and trying to become a state. It was highly unusual to get even catalogue companies to ship up here. When they did, obviously the return policies were, um, null and void. It's gotten a lot better but the selection up here still doesn't compare with that in the Lower 48 in a lot of respects and IF I had chosen to take that gamble, I would have taken it knowing the risk. We have friends down there that could have inspected before shipping it off. Besides which, we use third party shippers up here all the time. The shipping company would then have had liability from CA to AK. And, if the doors failed - for some reason I still don't understand - I would have eaten it. Instead, I wasted weeks and can't even get a straight answer about what the problems actually are with these doors. Which I still don't understand. How, for example, are the doors at more risk once in place than in the Upper Peninsula or Minnesota or whatever?

"What you do if Semihandmade emailed you back and said:

Dear Steph2000:

We will sell you all the doors you want. Just sign this waiver that says you release Semihandmade from any indemnity, since we do not sell to Alaska, and enclose this legal release from responsibility with your $5000 check. Thanks and good luck!"

Firstly, that's pretty much what they DID say at some point in this de-evolving conversation (except the initial message was "we don't SHIP to Alaska", followed by "we don't INSURE to Alaska" followed by "we don't SELL to Alaska no matter what and don't want to answer your questions"). To which I kept saying what I am saying now: "What exactly is this risk? Are doors failing up here? If so, may I ask how, please?" At which point I would have been in some kind of reasonable position to filter the information and determine if that was a risk I was prepared to take to get the doors I wanted... or a reason to rule out veneer doors from any sellers anywhere for some reason I am still failing to understand.

Except, then they changed the message again and took it all back, eliminating the possibility while still withholding the information as to why this was a problem in the first place.

I would find all that very depressing.

I am not trying to give you a hard time or guess at all why they have such a policy, but maybe they hired a new Legal Counsel during this time.

The state I live in allows people who have certain training in medical and dental offices to do certain things under the supervision of the physician or dentist. When I first started out the current legal counsel had one interpretation of what "supervision" meant. A new legal counsel came on board and had a stricter definition for "supervision" an even later one was making noises that "supervision" meant that the physician or dentist was in the operatory actually watching the person at work. This was so restrictive that I think they released that legal counsel and now we are back under an interpretation of "general supervision".

The laws have not changed or been re written with regards to this. Just the interpretation.

So maybe for a while they were lax and had some problems and now the legal department is cracking down. Maybe the owner was letting this slide before, but the owner is probably not an attorney.

You are annoyed right now that you were led down the garden path for awhile, and rightly so, but I think you dodged a potential bullet-- because I would not want to make a purchase of that magnitude where there was absolutely no remedy for any problems.

The one time we experienced real hostility from a company was when that company (unknown to us) was going into receivership. I had been calling about a custom made couch we had purchased (foolishly paid in full . . . We were young and it was our first furniture purchase) and was constantly being put off by the rep with a new delivery date. After almost a month of this, the last time I called I spoke to the manager/owner who tersely told me that their company no longer wanted to do business with us and that a refund for the couch ($1000 and that was 30 years ago) was in the mail. Two days later the company was in receivership. We never did receive our refund.

From my limited experience, I'd say your experience is indeed a red flag. I hope you get your refund.

I have no idea what is true and false at this point. At one point, I too wondered if they had worked with architects and designers up here and run into trouble - but the last person I spoke to was adamant that this had never happened and I had been misinformed. I don't think it's too much to receive actual information and a courteous attitude from a business that has wasted weeks of my time, though.

Semihandmande gets a lot of good publicity, but I've never really understood the appeal of it.

I've seen people go through all the trouble of buying Shaker style cabinet doors from Semihandmande that look like the same Shaker doors Ikea already sells.

I just don't get it.

That's just really weird. They should have apologized for the miscommunication and let you go nicely!

Fact. Semihademade does not make shaker doors. They buy them from a company and resell them to you at double the price. And they won't paint them. These type of doors can be bought from dozens of companies across the country. I believe Scheers actually makes theirs and they sell them for less.

I went to their showroom with my dad to see their doors in person, and we were distinctly underwhelmed. There was a woman who was already helping someone who sounded like she was on top of things, but the other guy who was working in the front was nice enough but didn't seem very knowledgeable or interested in selling their product. Or maybe not interested in anyone who didn't walk in waving a CAD drawing and a checkbook? They also had hardly any full size cabinets on display, (although what they did have did look nice) and the only examples they had of most of their finishes were tiny sample doors. They didn't even have that for some. If you hadn't looked at their website you wouldn't have a clue about half the doors they offer.

I think Semihandmade might just be utterly overwhelmed with orders due to the new cabinet line and Ikea's sale. Not only did Ikea change over to the long awaited Sektion, but on top of that, held a 20%off sale right away. Many people had put off their kitchen purchase for a year or more, in anticipation of the arrival of Ikea's new system. I hear Ikea is severely back ordered, so I imagine that would translate to Semihandmade being inundated with orders as well. Orders they might not be able to fulfill in a timely fashion, which is a very stressful situation for a small business to be in. That might partially explain this strange behavior on the part of Semihandmade.

Just my two cents...

Sorry, but there is really no excuse for treating a client that way. They either ship to Alaska or they don't and it behooves the company to inform their sales staff what the policy is so they are all on the same page. I agree with buehl at the top of this thread that it's a red flag. There are other companies that make doors for Ikea cabinets - you should consider taking your business to one of them.

jerzeegirl:

You're right, of course it's a red flag. My post above was not meant as an excuse for Semihandmade, just a possible (and likely) explanation into a small company's growing pains. All these after market Ikea door suppliers are tiny compared to Ikea, but inexorably linked to the giant. Every Ikea hiccup translates to an earthquake for them.

Anyone ready to order such doors at Semihandmade's or their competitors (who very likely also experience a similar rush on their products) might want to ask questions in regards to unusually high order numbers and their capacity to fulfill them without rushing and resulting loss of quality.

All good points. Impossible to know, really, what is ultimately going on with them and why this happened, but these are all valid theories. In fact, it seems anyone wanting IKEA cabinets should also be asking IKEA what the odds are of even getting all the parts and pieces they need to construct their kitchen.

This befuddling encounter happened to come immediately on top of several frustrations in the search for a contractor, which amped up my angst. Friday was one of those Sisyphus kind of days...hope this week proves more productive on the kitchen front!

Well, it sounds like there are two different issues:
1. Shipping, with the emphasis on GETTING the doors to Alaska. OK, fine....
2. USING the doors in Alaska.
I'd still be interested in finding out what's so special about the climate in Alaska that (a) you can't use their doors there, but (b) apparently can use them everywhere else in the continental US.

Do they ship to Canada?

The woman on the phone told me that they do ship to Canada but not Alaska or Hawaii, nosoccermom. However, at this point, who knows? I'm not up to going back to their site...

I have the same lingering question re: veneer doors in Alaska. Is there a known problem with veneer doors in 4-season climates? If so, why is it taboo in Anchorage but not Minneapolis or Chicago or Milwaukee or Maine or...

I can't figure out if they were resistant to telling me because they were making it up - or because they didn't want to broadcast their problems even to a lone woman in supposedly remote Alaska who was attempting to be their customer.

What horrible customer service! I've read so many good things about them, this surprises me. As someone mentioned, there are a lot of companies doing after-market Ikea doors. It might be fun to check them out although all might have a long lead time right now.

I, too, would really like to know what it is about Alaska that makes their doors not work for folks there. I mean, really, is Alaska different than the Yukon or northern BC? Is there some strange Alaskan phenomena that quits once one crosses the border into Canada? Really odd.

I know this is not the issue in this thread, but I want to echo was fishcow said - I also went into the Semihandmade store and was not impressed either by the display or by the quality.

I find that so interesting, sjhockeyfan and fishcow. They look so high end in the pics, but the internet can be deceiving. That's one of many reasons why I wanted a first person glance with those samples, at least.

Maybe my angst can do someone else some good. I'd like that, as I would feel less like I wasted a bunch of my time for people who weren't willing to spend any on me.

steph, so weird. I'm glad you didn't get in too deep with them before the red flags went up.

I admire your grit and determination through this and wanting to pass along the difficulty you had. Sometimes we have bad experiences for which there is no real recourse but to let others know about it so they don't make the same mistake. I appreciate you taking the high road.

I was fairly underwhelmed by the samples I received. I liked the Scherr's door I ordered a lot more, for what it's worth. I also have a Barker cabinet on order with a walnut slab door. If we like that, we'll probably go with Barker, period.

I'm not sure if Scherr's or Barker ship to Alaska, but those are possibilities.

But wait a minute.

I am sympathetic to steph, but let's remember something here.

She was never really a customer of Semihandmade, she was a potential customer, and Semihandmade blew it.

She was given incorrect information in a friendly enough fashion and then given the correct in a rather abrupt fashion that became a bit more overtly rude when she continued to pursue the matter after being told it was a non-starter.

How many of us have been smilingly polite to the bitter end when someone persists with us about some matter when we already said "no". It's immaterial really what Semihandmade thinks happens to their cabinets if they are installed in Alaska, because as far as they are concerned you are not go to do so, if they can help it.

This isn't like some of the situations we read in here where someone got $13K worth of cabinets and there are flaws all over the place and the company refuses to do anything about it.

Steph was spoken to rudely on the phone when she asked questions about an existing policy that they did not want to answer. Period. I think it's time to move on. It has nothing to do with their quality or their capabilities to do business in the lower 48 unless we hear further stories. I know nothing at all about Semihandmade's quality and I doubt I will ever use them so I am not defending them in any way. But you can't force them to let you be a customer.

No, but you can certainly complain about rude exchanges.

Yes, alerievay. Thanks for the recommendations. We, too, have Barkers on our short list and I have a few sample doors and samples from them. They don't have bamboo, though, and I was thinking I might have to go lighter than walnut in my small house. I also liked the horizontal and continuous look of the veneers. I'm totally back to the drawing board, though, and Barkers is still in the running.

I'm also going to just suck it up and look at the local dealers here in frameless again. This time at a higher price point (Durasupreme, Showplace and maybe Brookhaven) as I wasn't crazy about the other brands I had looked at, other than Belmont 1900. I had ruled them out as too expensive, but they offer bamboo veneer offerings and all of this out of state nonsense is starting to make me bonkers. So, maybe it's time to get more quotes. Ugh.

Oh, I forgot you were looking at Bamboo! That really does make it more challenging.

"How many of us have been smilingly polite to the bitter end when someone persists with us about some matter when we already said "no"."

Um, that's not what happened. Please don't misrepresent the series of conversations - or me. It wasn't until the last (very brief) conversation that they said "no", they would not sell to me. At that point, I stopped asking what the concerns actually existed. In part because I was shocked, granted. Bottom line: I did not "persist in the face of no". Not once. Not one iota.

And, even before that "no", I was not pestering or pushy. Believe me, I know when I am those things. In a friendly and genuinely curious tone, on a I-need-to-know-this-so-I-can-decide basis, I repeatedly asked what the problems were so I could make a decision as to whether to bypass a guarantee and arrange for out of state shipping - or at least move forward with the sample doors and see. They kept repeating "weather and distance" but wouldn't specify what that means.

"It has nothing to do with their quality or their capabilities to do business in the lower 48 unless we hear further stories."

It doesn't have anything to do with their quality or capacity to do business elsewhere UNLESS there is actually something substantial about their actual repeated statement that they would not elaborate on that they will not insure the product here due to "weather". If you have "weather" anything like Alaska's climate, you might want to get more information before you decide - and make sure the warranties apply to you in your "weather".

Of course, I'm in no position to tell you if that is a valid concern based on cabinets that actually exist and failed or not.

" It's immaterial really what Semihandmade thinks happens to their cabinets if they are installed in Alaska,"

Well, I wonder what the concern is 'cause it makes me think what happens if you have the cabinets in another state with a comparable climate --- unlike there's something uniquely Alaskan about their weather (or maybe how they treat their furniture?????

Steph - OT - I have Bellmont 1900 cabinets, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Actually she was a customer. She had ordered and paid for samples which were never delivered. She had to inquire to find out what was going on. And the business failed to communicate clearly about why they were not going to fill the order for samples they had previously accepted. For me, if I were considering ordering from this company, I would take this experience into consideration. Poor communication at any stage of the process is a concern.

And if there is a reason that their doors aren't suitable for Alaska it would be good to know that so as to avoid using the same kind of doors from another maker or to avoid using their doors if you have similar circumstances (climate one guesses though who could tell for sure). While they may not be obligated to provide that explanation, it is reasonable to ask for it.

OK, here's a shot in the dark - could it be that the problem is totally the shipping and has to do with The Jones Act which regulates maritime and air commerce? It requires goods shipped between US ports to be carried on US flagships and airlines, constructed in the US, owned by US citizens and crewed by US citizens. It's possible that these companies can't guarantee that this will happen when they ship to places like Alaska and Hawaii.

I know nothing about The Jones Act but it seems like they could have just stated that was the problem and not brought climate into it then.

The climate thing bothers me. I live in the PNW on the coast. I have relatives who used to live here that moved to Sitka. Except for colder temps in the middle of winter, they tell me the climate isn't all that much different. So if climate really is an issue in Alaska, it seems like it would be an issue here, too.

I don't want to threadjack but then how do other things get shipped to Hawaii and Alaska without breaking the rules of this act? Wouldn't anything shipped to those states have the possibility of being then shipped overseas by the owners? And they have shipped new cars purchased here in Washington state and other big ticket items to Sitka without any problems.

Expatriates who move overseas take all sorts of goods, including cars, with them. Are they then in violation of this act or does the act only apply to the original source? As long as the are citizens, are they OK? But what happens if they drop their US citizenship?

jerzeegirl, I realize you may not be able to answer all those questions and I'm not expecting you to. It just seems ridiculous and unenforceable.

funkycamper, I believe the Jones act only applies to maritime and air shipments within the US (this includes all 50 states), it does not regulate any shipments to any foreign country. The citizenship of the sender or receiver doesn't matter at all.

I went with my husband to the Semihandmade store in Burbank right when the new line came out at Ikea down the street. We drove an hour to check out their shop in person which they tout on their website. We walked in to crickets and one lady finally came to the front area to greet us and said she can't give us pricing and we will have to email our design, even though we had it in hand. I had to ask to see samples of materials and she was just very aloof and didn't seem to care that a live customer was in the store ready to buy the doors!

It made me so angry that we drove that whole way to be there on a Saturday when they opened and got zero customer service. I almost wrote a yelp review but my husband talked me out of it. End of the day i submitted my design to the email she gave me and got a quote a week later. For the fronts, unfinished "DIY shaker" the price was OUTRAGEOUS! After the experience and the price I knew there was absolutely no way I would work with them.

We ended up sending our same design to two other companies one being our of Oregon, super high price and borderline sketchy website and Scherrs. Scherrs has been a dream to work with! We just received our fronts via freight shipping painted a custom Sherwin Williams paint this past Friday. They are getting installed today and already look SPECTACULAR! I cannot wait to see the whole room put together. Best part of Scherrs, the cost! I was able to get all the same fronts, panels, fillers, etc with a custom paint color and shipping for a little bit more than Semihandmade!! I just don't know how SHM is even competitive with Scherrs?! (Interesting fact- SHM doesn't include shipping in the quote, make sure to ask! even if you're local you have to pay like $500 to pick up something, I forgot the exact number)

I would go to Scherrs again in a heart beat and I didn't have to find a local painter to DIY paint my cabinet fronts! Just a note to those who consider doing DIY shaker and painting yourself, we got 5 quotes in Los Angeles area and it was around $4,000-4,500 for painting and we don't have that many cabinets!!!! I think painters know there is a huge market in cabinet refacing/repainting and have jacked up their prices. Make sure to consider that in the cost of the doors too. I read a ton of blogs and thought it would be cheap to get them painted ($1,000) and maybe we could do ourselves, I'm super glad I got it done because there is no way I would be able to get the finish my fronts have right now.

As for your case with SHM, demand a refund.

Firstly, the shipping thing used to be a major problem for us in Alaska. If I wasn't clear, it isn't really so much the case any more. Most catalogue/on-line companies will now deliver to us, though not all and without the 'free shipping' you folks enjoy in the Lower 48. It's gotten a ton better, thankfully, though I still get temporarily sad when that's not the case (I want new shoes delivered monthly, please? I'll pay for it. lol). And, certainly other cabinet/cabinet door companies will gladly ship to us, including Barkers and Scherrs and IKEA. In fact, we've ordered doors from some for other projects in the past. Plus, if I wasn't clear, my partner works with shipping things up for business all the time and has personal relationships now with those folks. I have no idea how the Jones Act plays into all of that.

From what I understand, and I might be wrong, when Alaska wanted to become a state, Seattle was freaking out because they were basically the hub of all things headed up to the Alaskan Territory. There was a considerable amount of money in it for them to keep the status quo. When we became a state, there was some provision that all of our goods would continue to move through them. (I read allusions to this same issue in James Mitchner's book on Alaska, interestingly enough) It seems that whatever law was on the books to support that racket disappeared in the past 20 years, but again maybe I'm wrong. I just know we get a lot more stuff up there, though, than in the pioneer days of my early years here (ha). Many shippers probably still stop to fuel up in Seattle before heading further north. And, no doubt, we get a lot more up here these days that comes via plane and truck - maybe even rail.

Funkycamper, the "weather" thing is bothering me, too. Mostly because I don't know if this means I should be concerned with veneer doors here period or if that was thrown out as a red herring or a real issue specific to SHM's product but not the other cabinet makers? I'm going to add it to my list of things to ask about, obviously, but I kind of expected that if it was a known problem, it would show up on this thread somewhere as a valid issue.

Dianem87, they say they are refunding me so I am going to check out my credit card to verify that. I'm glad you are so happy with your Scherrs! What color did you go with? It's interesting to hear these less than positive experiences at the SHM shop, given I've wished more than once I could go down and check it all out for myself. I haven't really looked into Scherrs much, but maybe I should.

This thread is funny and goes in unexpected places... I am now having an absurd urge to research Alaska, Washington and national shipping and port laws, which is SO not what I am supposed to be doing right now! LOL

What bothers me is when they, SHM, get written up either by themselves or by others as "look at the beautiful shaker kitchen we did." What it really should say is "we didn't actually have much to do with the lovely kitchen you see in the photo." As they didn't design it, paint it, install it nor have anything to do with any other part of it except to supply the unfinished doors (which again, they don't make themselves just take your measurements to another company and charge you a considerable mark-up for). There is nothing wrong with this except the taking all the credit part bothers me. They do cut and band their own wood veneer doors which are made from off-the-shelf veneered plywood that they purchase already laid up. This too is something that any decent cabinet person anywhere can do as routine.

As far as the veneered doors having issues in colder climates. I won't comment on that in case there is something I'm not aware of but I would think it would apply to all cold climates if there is. I'm assuming people in Alaska have heat in their homes and don't all live in an Igloo. I think it has more to do with not wanting the hassle of shipping over the water and the extra protection or other issues that might be involved.

You would have been soooo mad if you made a detour on a trip to visit their "showroom"
I live about an hour away and we were like "we drove to THE VALLEY in the middle of a heat wave for THAT?" And then we figured we'd go to the Burbank Ikea since we were already there, and I got annoyed again because they had a Rasdal (ash slab door with a white stain) door on the wall, so I got really excited that maybe the US would be getting that style after all, but then the salesperson said it was on display by mistake and they hadn't gotten around to taking it down :(.
I got a door quote from Scherr's and they were nothing but helpful and responsive by email. They even told me they had a big backlog on ikea quotes because of Sektion launching and it might take up to 5 business days to get it done, but then they sent the quote less than 3 days later on a Sunday. Didn't end up using them but the prices seemed reasonable.

Fishcow, you are right. I'd have NOT been loving it if I wasted vacation for that. It is somehow reassuring to know that others have renovation days from hell, where best intentions to mobilize are thwarted. It feels, somehow, that I get more of those days than others, though. Not that it is a competition! lol (PS - I like the Rasdal door, too. At least how it looks in pics. I'm not sure why IKEA isn't giving the USA their best doors...)

jdesign - thanks for your thoughts about the cold climate weather issue. I just made myself go to the SHM website, and they DO ship to Canada. So, yeah, I remain bewildered and a tad skeptical about the whole "weather" rationale. I'll let the group know if the designers here locally have concerns about veneered doors up here.

Steph, I went with Grayish by Sherwin Williams and everything turned out great! Here are some pictures of the fronts before install. Our installers were working hard today and should be finished tomorrow. Ill try and post completed pics. I have to say I am absolutely in love with the color and quality.

Dianem87, thanks so much for sharing pics! I am utterly green with envy - I wish I was at that stage in this mess of a project!! The doors look awesome - and your chevron rug is right up my alley, too. It seems like those doors arrived pretty much flawless, didn't they? At least in the pics, it looks like everything is perfection!

Did they wrap them up well for shipping?

I gotta say, people really have great things to say about Sherrs lately. It's giving me pause...

I want to chime in on dianem87's info on the cost of painting cabinets. I live in the SF Bay Area and three years ago I paid approx. $4300 to have my 10x10 kitchen cabinets professionally painted. The new doors were done in their shop and the old boxes done on-site. They did a beautiful job with my selected color and it has held up well. Still, if you can get the manufacturer to do it as well as diane's, that's the way to go.

Steph, it has been 3 months to get to this stage haha. I can't wait to have the countertop temples made this Friday! We are doing a Luna di Luce Quartzite so it should really pull out the grey of the cabinets. Yes! The doors arrived in amazing condition! It came on two pallets and everything was wrapped individually or in small groupings. We had one cabinet that had a small dent, it was the very bottom front that was on the pallet and Sherrs is remaking it as we speak and shipping out next week :]

I did SOOOO much research, paralysis by analysis really, on the cabinet fronts and wouldn't go back from my decision with Sherrs! It really turned out amazing. Looking at the finish on the fronts really was worth having Sherrs paint them in the factory with the varnish method. It's a matte varnish and i can tell it will wipe up stains easily and isn't a soft finish that would scratch. Linelle brought up a great point, if the factory messes up the paint job, they are responsible and along with all the other pro's that really sold us on having Sherrs do it.

I'll post come updates tonight when the cabinet work is all done. We hired a special designer locally who specializes in making Ikea look custom and "hacking" cabinets to make them work for what we wanted.

OMG, you are doing my favorite stone EVER. I wish I could use it, but it just seems too rich for this tiny place. I'm going to die of envy before your kitchen is even done, diane!

I absolutely agree with you both about the factory finish on painted cabinets. We updated the oak cabinets that were in the house when we moved in by painting them white. We hired some bozo to do it. He spray painted a spider into one of the drawer fronts, amongst other highlights. And, while it held up great for several years, it did start to get really worn over time. I've been pretty much dedicated to only doing painted if they were from the factory this time around. That experience is also a large part of why I would like to get stained doors on the bottoms, as the vast majority of wear occurred there and the sink cabinet doors bubbled up and cracked due to moisture.

Yea! I'm so living vicariously through your project - and your excitement, dianem.! The cabinets look great! Love your pulls, too! And your floor...and rug...and choice in crown and the shaker doors. Your stone is going to look so great with these cabinets, right? Even the dog is excited - and cute as heck. I'd have never imagined these were RTA's...

I too has some issue with SemiHandmade. I ordered 4 fronts for a bathroom vanity. 1st off it took over 2 months just to receive them. Then when they did arrive two of them didn't fit. I called and at first they were going to make me pay to ship them back. After complaining enough they finally agreed to pay for shipping since it obviously wasn't my mistake. Then I come to find out I'll have to wait another 2 - 4 weeks for them to redo them. I mean really? Are you kidding me? So I have to wait almost 3 months to get 4 simple panels for my vanity. In addition to that I did feel like some of my interactions with them during the process was kurt. The panels are nice and all, but the customer service and lead time is pretty bad.

I'm also having an issue with semihandmade that I hope will turn out to be nothing but a miscommunication. I was told by the person I'm dealing with there about a week and a half ago that he would get me a bid that night, but didn't get one. I gave it a week, and he said he was waiting for some information from me (which I don't think he was, as he promised numbers that same day). Has anyone else had an experience like that? Maybe the same-day bid was unrealistic, but it's hard for me to tell. We'd already been in touch for a while, and he had my plan.