Final Cabinet Decision: Fabuwood vs Conestoga. Please Weigh In.
cece673
8 years ago
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PROSombreuil
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Final decisions, floor plan help pls (Bevangel, Summerfield, etc!
Comments (45)Hey Kirkhall, glad to see you're still moving forward! But, I thought there was a vent stack just about exactly where the hinges on the door into the NW bedroom are shown. Have you decided to go ahead and move that vent stack or am I just misremembering exactly where it was? Could you show exactly where the vent stack will be on the drawing above? I don't want to spend too much time playing with your sketch only to find out that that danged vent stack is in the way of every idea. But, I do agree that the sketch your GC's designer provided looks awkward. I'm comfortable with angled walls but they do need to look PLANNED! Where two walls meet at 135 degrees (90 + 45) they usually look planned. And, if you have two matching sets of angled walls that meet at 120 degrees (90 + 30) or at 150 degrees (90 + 60) they also usually look planned. But,where (as here) walls meet at some other odd angle, they often look like a mistake was made in the building process and the angled wall was just stuck in willy-nilly to make all the walls connect up. I'm wondering if something like this would work. (Probably depends on where that danged vent stack is!) The hallway to your bedroom would be made about a bit wider and the laundry closet a bit shallower than on your GC's design...but the laundry closet still should be plenty wide for the washer and dryer to sit at the ends as shown on the GC's design. The dotted red line is just to show how I envision the wall beside the NW bedroom would line up with the outer wall of the laundry closet. The only angled walls would be one at the top of the stairs and one in your bedroom and both would meet other walls at 135 degrees instead of some odd angle. If you put a small triangular table or some nick-knack shelves in the corner across from the hallway angled wall, you would create an angled hallway effect that would look planned rather than haphazard. I know one issue you're dealing with with the girls bedroom closets is that you have a kneewall at one side which is making it hard to figure out how to fit in a full sized door. But I think you could do their closets like this using 24" wide regular doors set where you have a full height ceilings. (Yes, I know 24" wide doors aren't exactly "optimal" but where space is tight, they will work FINE as closet doors, particularly for a child's closet!) Both closets would then be shallow walk-in closets (3.5 ft deep x about 6.5 ft wide) with hanging rods to the left and right of the door and a narrow aisle down the middle. Since you wouldn't have to walk very far into the closet, it wouldn't matter that the aisleway was narrow. Obviously, on the side with the low ceiling, you would not have any storage above the hanging rod but I had a similar closet in one of the secondary bedrooms of our old house that was built under a stairway and it was actually pretty functional. With kid's closets, you often want to put set the hanging rod pretty low anyway....See MoreBrookhaven cabinets vs. local custom cabinets - can't decide!
Comments (14)I cannot address how Brookhaven compares with custom, but I have a Kitchen with Woodmode (stain finish) and Butler's Pantry (stain finish) and Laundry (painted) with Brookhaven. The Woodmode is inset, and Brookhaven is overlay. We had a number of issues with the dealer and his installer. Our project was a nightmare as a result. Do not assume that because a dealer carries a great product like Woodmode/Brookhaven, that they will be good at what they are supposed to do. And Woodmode's lead-time for replacement parts can be a real schedule-breaker. I am in the process of planning for another kitchen remodel (the Woodmode/Brookhaven is in our second home), and will be going with custom cabinets this time. The main reasons for deciding not to use Woodmode/Brookhaven this time around are cost and lead-time for replacement parts. I have to say, that even though Woodmode/Brookhaven cabinets are very, very nice cabinets, I do not think they are worth what they cost. The cost is staggering! My kitchen is very high-end. We spend a fortune on many custom items, such as a custom-carved french limestone range hood, custom hand-made forged lighting fixtures etc. No expense was spared. I have to say, that for all these items, I feel as if I got good value for the price. Not so for the cabinets. Don't get me wrong, they are great cabinets--just that they stand-out in a kitchen where everything is "over-the-top" as having a cost that is ridiculously out of line. I recently decided to add an smallish amoire-type cabinet in my laundry room to store brooms. This little Brookhaven gem--despite the fact that they were having a "sale," cost about $2,300. To store brooms. In my laundry room. Galling, no? But I chose Brookhaven, so if I want it to match... I have several friends who have done kitchens recently, and what I spent on cabinets easily is four times or more what any of them spent. Some of those friends used custom cabinets that seem as nice, if not nicer (especially when considering the ability to custom fit, or do any door style) than Brookhaven. Perhaps some are not as nice, but not significantly so, and the cost difference is huge. One thing to consider in terms of the durability of finish is how long you will be in the house--or how long until the next remodel. If it is a long time, a factory finish is almost always more durable than a custom. But the custom might be easier to retouch too. Funny, when I was ordering my Brookhaven, the dealer had a display that was finished by a local finishing specialist, because the finish they wanted was not available from Brookhaven! Not sure where you are located, but in the Pacific Northwest there is a company called Morgans Fine Finishes, and they specialize in cabinet finishing. They actually finish cabinets in their shop, and then you install, so you get some of the benefits of a factory finish, but the ability to customize. Guess it all depends on your priorities. There are some nice custom cabinets out there, but if Brookhaven offers the color and door style you want, they are great cabinets, just very, very expensive!...See MoreSchuler vs Kraftmaid cabinets
Comments (43)@Lisa Binder I'm so sorry to hear of your problems. It's almost a relief to me personally to hear stories like yours since I was so close to wanting to go with Schuler. I had read a few reviews similar to yours concerning delivery or product issues that scared me away, but to be honest, all of the lower-priced cabinetry lines have similar reviews. It's very, very common to see defective products delivered that customers have difficulty getting warranty service on. Keep at it, and hopefully someday soon you will get recourse. You might even consider filing a claim legally against the company if it comes to that. You have to go up into very high-cost cabinetry like Plato Woodworking, William Ohs, or Jay Rambo before you see 100% satisfaction guaranteed in both quality and longevity. You probably got a lot of linear footage of cabinetry for $50K from Schuler, and that same amount of cabinetry would have been more than double and possibly triple or quadruple in most of those lines I mentioned above....See MoreCabinet Stress - Import Ply vs. USA Made Boxes, is there a difference?
Comments (38)At my last job, I was setting up a showroom. I had the opportunity to carry any brand of cabinet that I wanted. We needed an entry level line. I had many distributors courting me, bringing samples etc. So, I had several of the Chinese cabinets sitting around for a while. A few stank so badly right out of the box that they went in the trash immediately. Most of the door samples had poor joinery, poor sanding, and an even worse paint finish. From 3' out they looked average. Closer, or touching them, yech. Fabuwood was the best of the lot. Damning with faint praise. Their Chinese knockoff Blum hardware wasnt installed with the greatest precision, so it got slightly bound up when you pulled the drawers in and out. The joinery was much improved over their brethren, but when I pulled the "plywood" shelf out that looked so good on the surface, it had skips and voids in the ply internally. Those had been filled in any of the exposed plywood edges of the boxes, but not the shelves. And when I cut it apart, the story was the same. The fake Blum hardware on the doors was actually pretty good. I had no problems with it over the almost 3 years that I left the sample sitting in my showroom---to sell against I went with Aristokraft for my entry level line. It was actually cheaper. And made in Indiana. Yes, Chinese hardware on it too, but at least not the fake Gucci purse type. No name fakery attempted. I never sold their plywood version, as it is a completely unnecessary marketing hype upgrade to get a good quality cabinet. The furniture board construction was a fine cabinet for the money at a decent price point. Realky, if you are looking at Chinese sourced anything because of budget, you need to wait and save more. A kitchen project will quickly get you in over your head on the budget front. Permanently installed cabinets is NOT where you need to save pennies....See Morecece673
8 years agocece673
8 years agocece673
8 years agocece673
8 years agosomething like this? i know the counter cabinet is probably still problematic though....
cece673
8 years agoOk, please bear with me. lol. Here's another option. So, we currently only do have 1 window in the kitchen. I initially decided to widen it but then thought it looked nicer with two windows (more balanced). However, 2 windows made planning the layout quite a bit harder. So here's an option where we're back to 1 window but quite a bit more space between the range and sink. What do you think? Does it look weird with just one big window....or could it work?
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