Unfinished Vs Waypoint Vs Ikea Small budget help please?
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KitchenAid vs. Frigidaire (or Ikea) refrigerator
Comments (10)That CD Electrolux FD model that akchicago linked to --- I think that is the one for which holiday weekend discounts or rebates took the price at or below $2k a few months ago. On akachicago's suggestion to look at Samsung CD fridges: Consumer Reports gives Samsung fridges high marks for quietness, temperature performance, etc. Samsung's fridges seem to have average reliablity in the membership surveys. Note that the LED interior lighting is not to everybody's taste. Good idea to get a look at it. (LEDs are theoretically more energy efficient than other appliance bulbs, but the actual improvement in efficiency of the fridge is going to be negligible unless you have teenagers who hold the doors open for use as kitchen lighting.) AFAIK, the biggest benefit to LED lighting is that the "bulbs" do not get hot. No chance of a broken door switch leaving the light on and heating up your fridge or freezer compartment. (I forget whether it was LG or Samsung, but two or three years ago one of them had a spate a problems with defective swtiches and a lot of very irate owners of SxS fridges. A few of the units reportedly overheated and caused fires. A lot of irate postings about that problem, as you might imagine.) I do not know anybody with a Samsung SxS model, let alone a CD version, but several friends do have CD Samsung FD models and have been very pleased with them. Pretty much everybody who buys a Samsung fridge likes it unless and until they happen to need service. Samsung's warranty service and support practices have been uneven and have sometimes generated a lot of ire. Check them out on www.consumerafairs.com. Check for regional patterns, too, because service and support might be better in NYC than, say, my neighborhood in rural Montana. One of the attraction of the Samsung fridges is having dual evaporators and separate fans. Not quite the same as dual compressors but theoretically the dual-set-up lessens the chances of freeze-ups in the venting system and theoretically makes for better temperature regulation. I say "theoretically" only because I haven't seen any testing or data that shows that they are noticably "real-world" better than the current good WP/KA and Frigidaire/Electrolux models. AFAIK, all of the SxS Samsung CD models have through-the-door ice and water dispensers (TTDDs) which may be an issue given your preferences. This is definitely a YMMV thing, however. As I have said before, TTDDs are so important to some of my friends that, for them, fridge storage is merely a nice accessory to the TTDD. As for akchicago's points favoring FD over SxS, I pretty much agree that FD models have more usuable space and give more flexibility in the use of space. Of course, if those were the sole criteria, we'd be buying top-freezer models. :-) A couple of places that I sorta differ. First, while I can see gary dodge's point -- cited by akchicago --- about some of us older folks maybe having trouble pulling on a bottom-freezer drawer and therefore preferring a SxS model, that point strikes me as a six of one and half dozen of the other kind of thing. I says this as a certified chronic old fart. Us oldsters are as apt to have bending problems as problems pulling on a freezer drawer. My personal preference is for FDs in order to have the crispers and deli-drawers up closer to waist level because those are the things I will use the most frequently. Also, my perception from fridge shopping last fall was that bottom freezer models (including FD fridges) seemed to have a bit more crisper space than the drawers in SxS models. WIth the freezer drawer in my KA FD fridge having a couple of sliding compartments inside the drawer, I haven't had any trouble finding and retrieving frozen goods. Although the capacity is slightly less than the freezer compartment of the top-freezer fridge it replaced, I actually find it easier to sort through and find things. OTOH, freezer capacity in FD models will be reduced -- at least compared to a top freezer model --- by the space needed for the compressor and other sealed cooling system components at the bottom rear of the fridge. In top freezer and SxS fridges, that space reduces the space for the bottom mounted crisper drawers. If you go by specs, the specs for SxS freezer compartments may seem a little bit larger than the specified capacities of FD models. But, when you talke usable freezer capacity, I think FDs are a better buy. (Mind, we are talking about 36" wide units here. It hink it is a completely different story when you get to 48" built-in SxS models and the "twin tower" combos.) For me, the problem with freezers in 36" wide SxS fridges is that they have a series of narrow, small compartments. I call it the "card catalog" effect. Handy for folks who like that arrangement but, for me, however, the full width freezer drawer in an FD model results in more spacious, flexible and useable capacity. All the more so because I don't use the ice maker. This post was edited by JWVideo on Sun, Jun 16, 13 at 16:03...See MoreIKEA vs Colorado Custom Cabinets
Comments (10)Sorry to hijack, aloha. Hope it's ok. flwrs: We were almost as pleased with our GC as our cabinet maker and I would use him again in a flash. Compared to some of the horror stories I read here, it was smooth sailing for us. But there were some issues, as I suppose every major remodel encounters, but they were smallish. Our GC was Tim Floyd (Home office 303-425-7351 cell 303-881-4104). He has subs for electrical, plumbing, granite/counter tops, and flooring. The subs bid separately directly to you and you pay them, rather than Tim paying them. I liked this arrangement because I preferred to deal directly with them for questions, changes, etc. I loved his electrical and plumbing subs, counter tops was fine and went to great lengths to help me find my granite. I used my own flooring company and that caused some problems with scheduling - they insisted on doing things in a different order than Tim is used to (for example, IIRC, they insisted on a few days between texturing the walls and floor finishing due to the high moisture environment during texturing. They were also concerned about spills during texturing). Tim did not appreciate this and I ended up having to schedule their work myself. I wasn't that happy with them in the end, so if I was to do it over again, I would consider using Tim's flooring sub. Tim insists on pulling permits even for small remodeling jobs. He says it's the rare job that doesn't require it. I interviewed 5 GCs, and 2 said we didn't need permits ("we never pull permits for a job like this") and one said we might be able to get away without permits. We clearly needed permits. We didn't change the layout a whole lot, but we raised the ceiling (and with 2 bathrooms above the kitchen there was a lot of pipe re-jiggering to do!) and of course there was a fair amount of electrical work required on our 1975 house. As far as issues that came up with Tim, the biggest one was the OTR microwave. My DH and I took it out of the box, carefully measured the height at the sides, gave that measurement to the cabinet maker so that the MW sides would be even with the wall cabinets on either side. Then when Tim installed it, he put a piece of filler above the MW so it wasn't even. He had his reasons for doing it, but we went back and forth on removing the filler, and in the end he wouldn't do it. I gave in on that and I find the whole confrontation thing quite stressful, so I didn't feel good about it. Of course, I don't even notice it anymore. Then there was the day he brought a guy with specifically to install the pulls and knobs. This was before the cabinet installation was totally complete. I had bought various sizes with lots of extra pulls because I wasn't sure what I was going to use. So I told him that he would have to wait a day to install them. If you look closely at the picture I posted, there is one crooked pull (left side of frigde, middle drawer, left pull). I didn't notice this until the kitchen work was complete. That's what I get for delaying the pull installation - his brother ended up doing it instead of the guy that he brought specifically for that work. We weren't completely happy with the backsplash installation. The mesh backing shows through on some of the glass pieces. I had told him of this concern before he installed it, and he said that he's using the recommended white thinset (which he did). If my DH and I had done it, we would have cut the backing off of the glass pieces. Also, we had him replace some of the glass pieces with a different color and it doesn't seem random to us. But, as I said, I would use him again. He was excellent at getting back to me promptly when I contacted him, and correcting the things that I pointed out (with the exceptions that I noted). His carpentry work is beautiful. The cabinet guy was really worried about that since they had never worked together before, but after they were installed he told me that Tim did a really beautiful job. And we have had some construction types over since then and they say the same. He took so many calls during the day that I was amazed that anything ever got done, but it did. Also, he wasn't great about telling me if anyone would be at the house (or who would be), and there were days when no one would be, but I think that's normal. I got his name from the cabinet store that I almost ordered cabs from. That is how he usually works (he installs/GCs for several cabinet stores), and that is how he prefers it. I was an unusual case - when he originally bid, I was getting cabs from the store. He told me that I could give his name out but he wasn't sure that he would take non-cabinet store jobs. It depends on how busy he is. He's in Longmont and I'm in the tech center, so sometimes he was late in the morning because of traffic (we tended to meet in the morning to discuss things). He would always call me to let me know if he was delayed. He was really patient with me when I put a stop to the cabinet installation because I was concerned that an aisleway was too narrow. In the end he and the cabinet maker (and a friend that I called over in a panic!) convinced me that the aisle was ok. I agree that the GC decision is a very difficult one. Hope your remodel goes smoothly!...See MoreNew vs old color of Adel/Nexus Birch at Ikea
Comments (35)Hi melle, No luck finding any of our needed pieces in the "As Is" section of IKEA Burbank, Covina or Costa Mesa CA. It was worth a shot. I decided to buy the cheapest piece in the new "birch" color for testing; a drawer front. I bought a 39 cent Trial Sample of Varathane Brand Stain (Natural #203) at my local hardware store. I sanded the right half of the drawer front down to the natural wood and left the other side alone for comparison. I stained the sanded half with the Natural #203 and I have to tell you I am amazed at how close it matches. Not sure how the mid veneer section will look stained though. Now I have to decide whether I will proceed and sand the 2 actual doors (which are the only 2 things I have left of this project) -or- bag the idea and go with aluminum framed frosted glass. Decisions, decisions....See MoreIKEA kitchen vs One-stop shop cost difference?
Comments (31)Hi Nora New, the kitchen planner that came out was Jenny I think and the contractor I ended up using was Michael Early construction. He is on houzz, just search under pros, you can see his previous projects. I'm not sure he's still a designated Ikea installer still, but I'm sure he can tell you. What I heard was that Ikea grossly underestimated the demand and that they were having major out of stock issues and therefore projects being delayed. Not sure what the situation is now. I also had good experience at the kitchen department in San Diego, they were really helpful. BUT this was my experience, I don't know anyone else personally who's gone through Ikea so I can only tell you my own experience. I have not used Ikea for bathrooms, my kitchen was the last project that I was dreading to start, I had already done bathrooms with other contractors. ikea installer vs. outside contractors, I think it's your personal choice. There are a few contractors that don't like to work on Ikea cabinets so I think you just have to do your research. I'm happy with the result. Good luck to you and let me know if you have any more questions. also there's another thread started by Marcia Dorherty (I think) that has a lot of detail about Ikea kitchens, check that out, it might be helpful....See MoreRelated Professionals
Bonita Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Commerce City Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Northbrook Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Riviera Beach Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Sun City Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Brentwood Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Gardner Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · South Park Township Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · West Palm Beach Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Glenn Heights Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Brea Cabinets & Cabinetry · Middletown Cabinets & Cabinetry · New Castle Cabinets & Cabinetry · Wilkinsburg Cabinets & Cabinetry · Charlottesville Tile and Stone Contractors- 7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago
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