AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!!! Our nightmare is described here. We placed a nearly $4,000 order with Cabinets To Go on 6/13/12. The standardized Cabinets To Go receipt and paperwork we received stated that we should expect 1-2 weeks for shipping. Carrie, the representative in the Raleigh, NC office that we worked with and ordered from, told us we should expect 10 days for shipping. The 1-2 week timeframe on the CTG correspondence would have placed our delivery somewhere between 6/20/12 and 6/27/12, and the 10-day estimate from Carrie would place our delivery date on 6/22/12. However, we have received no cabinets by 6/29/12. As soon as CTG received our payment (which was made in-full and immediately upon ordering on 6/13/12), all communication with us stopped. We were extremely satisfied with CTG's customer care during the designing and ordering process, and Carrie exchanged 35 emails and 5 phone calls with me over the 5 days that we spent considering our options and making our decisions. However, as soon as CTG got our money, customer care went out the window. On 6/29/12 we were still waiting for delivery of our nearly $4,000 order, which was paid for in-full and upfront. Furthermore, we received no communication from CTG in regard to tracking our $4,000 shipment, updates on delivery, or even scheduling a delivery until I started asking questions on 6/21/12 about where our cabinets were. We understand that CTG may not be able to pinpoint an exact delivery date immediately upon ordering. However, we never even got the opportunity to request an estimated delivery date during any conversation with CTG, because these delivery estimates were bestowed upon us and this topic of conversation was completely initiated by CTG! If you are going to give an estimate, it needs to be an accurate estimate. If something goes wrong during the processing and shipping of an order, the customer needs to be told, so as to adjust their expectation for delivery. We were never told that the delivery estimates provided by CTG needed to be adjusted due to processing or shipping problems, so we expected the estimates to hold true. When we had received no cabinets by 6/21/12, I contacted Carrie in Raleigh to inquire about the status of our order because we had not received any correspondence from CTG during the 8 days that had passed since paying for our cabinets. Carrie responded via email on 6/22/12 and told us the cabinets were in transit, but one item was on backorder. So, our cabinets been shipped and no one had told us, and part of our shipment was on backorder but we were not informed about this. So we waited for 5 more days, but when we still had received no cabinets on 6/27/12, I began calling and emailing the CTG headquarters and their customer care representatives. At this point, it was 9 days after our items had shipped and 14 days after we had ordered, and we still had no cabinets. Chris, the corporate customer care representative I spoke with, informed me he was very concerned about the lack of customer care we were receiving and would forward my concerns on to the Raleigh office, something I had already done on my own. Later that same day (6/27/12) Carrie forwarded me an email that she had received on 6/18/12 containing details about tracking our order. (It took 9 days to get our shipping information forwarded to us from CTG, and we had to request this information from them!) We were directed to contact CGL (the carrier that CTG uses for delivery) directly about our order. CGL must have been informed that I was on a mission to track down the cabinets, because a few minutes after I got the email from Carrie, Katarina from CGL called and left a voicemail requesting that I contact her to schedule delivery of our cabinets. I called, but was told the scheduling team would not be back until 9:00am the next morning. So I called them back at 9:00 on 6/28/12 and asked to schedule our delivery. Katarina told me she could not yet schedule delivery, as our cabinets had not reached the distribution terminal yet and she could not tell me what day we could expect to get our cabinets. I called CGL three more times over the course of 6/28/12 and spoke to three different CGL representatives, all of whom gave me different answers about when we could expect delivery and whether or not they could even schedule delivery yet. My fourth call to CGL on 6/28/12 ended with the representative telling me that the cabinets would arrive in the distribution terminal in Fayetteville, NC during the night on 6/28/12, and she said she thought we could get delivery on 6/29/12. Exasperated by the back-and-forth of the last two days, I emailed the CTG headquarters a second time and updated them on the mess that we were dealing with. I also called the number Chris had left for me and left a voicemail for him with the same update. I called CGL at 9:00am on 6/29/12 to check on the arrival of our cabinets at the distribution terminal in Fayetteville, NC. However, I was told that someone at CGL had made an error since my last phone conversation with them the evening before, that our cabinets were put on the wrong truck, and they were currently at the distribution terminal in Atlanta, GA. I insisted that we get our cabinets before the weekend, but CGL said they had no trucks available to bring us our cabinets. I requested that CGL rent a U-haul and drive our cabinets to us, since this was their error and we were way past the delivery timeframes indicated by CTG. They indicated they would not consider this option. I immediately called the Raleigh CTG office and asked someone there to deal with CGL. I was told by the man that I spoke with (Bob) that he would look into it, but I never got a call back. I called him again later that morning, and he said he had no information for me. I asked him to keep me informed, but I never got another call from anyone in the Raleigh CTG store. I called the CTG corporate offices again and spoke with Chris. He indicated that he was sorry for the inconvenience, but offered nothing in terms of restitution for the incredible hassle that our order had become, and did not even offer to contact CGL on my behalf. Katarina at CGL called me several times over the course of the day on 6/29/12 and appeared very apologetic and concerned that the delivery of our cabinets had spiraled into a big mess. She indicated that she had called another shipping company in Charlotte, NC and that they could deliver our cabinets between the hours of 1pm and 3pm on 7/2/12. I indicated that this delivery time was not preferable, as we wanted our cabinets before then, but that it could work if need be. The director/manager at the Boston CGL location was also on the line and asked me to call CGL's contact in Charlotte, NC to confirm this delivery, and then call CGL back to let them know what was said. I did as he requested, but this could have been handled by someone at CGL rather than by me, their customer. We were then looking at a delivery time of 19 days at the very very best, but IF AND ONLY IF our cabinets actually got delivered on 7/2/12. As you can imagine, we were extremely displeased with the absolute mess that our order turned into. As CTG's customer, I shouldn't have even been expected to deal with their distributor, CGL. I am the customer, I just paid them $4,000, yet they put the burden of tracking down my cabinets on me. I am appalled that the Raleigh CTG office washed their hands of this mess, since they are the originators of the order and the people who are ultimately responsible for ensuring that we continue to get quality service DURING OUR ENTIRE Cabinets To Go experience. I am appalled that CTG headquarters has offered nothing in terms of compensation for time lost or for hassle, and am even more appalled that Chris said, "I'm not sure how we can compensate you for this," during my phone conversation with him on 6/29/12. I can think of several ways: 1.) Paying for and arranging for special delivery of our cabinets so we get them on 6/30/12. The drive from Atlanta, GA to Wilmington, NC is only 7 hours long. 2.) Offering our money back for what we paid in shipping and delivery costs. 3.) Offering a discounted price on our order, since we have been waiting for $4,000 worth of cabinets that have yet to show up. This order and shipment of cabinets was only half of what we had designed for us by Carrie and only half of what we planned to buy from CTG in Raleigh. We told Carrie up-front that we would have to split our purchase in two to make it fit our budget, and she indicated she would save her designs for us when we were ready to order the remaining cabinets. We had planned to order the other half of our kitchen cabinets from CTG around mid-July (more than $3,000 in additional cabinets on top of the $4,000 we just spent), but at this point, you can safely assume we will NOT be ordering from CTG ever again. While CTG offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee policy on all purchases, they in no way guarantee their service OR the customer's experience. On June 30, 2012 Mark McIntire from the Cabinets To Go corporate headquarters called me (someone had forwarded him one of my emails - I'm not even sure what his position is in the company) and asked me why I was "causing such a debacle." I told him we were frustrated with the poor communication between all parties involved in our order and just wanted some acknowledgement that things had gone wrong. We wanted an apology for being left in the dark, and wanted an answer about when we would get our cabinets. He said that I was "being ridiculous" and that he didn't "want to deal with this" so he cancelled my entire order. Then he hung up on me. And that was the end of that!

Veneer is a much greener choice. It takes the desirable wood and allows say 100 people to enjoy that tree instead of just 2 that would consume it for solid wood cabinets. Veneering over plywood is very tricky and usually most top quality cabinet makers won't do it. THe problem is that you have to have a very very smooth substrate, and plywood just isn't smooth enough or contains knots. Those knots and grain patterns of the substrate plywood can telegraph through the veneer and show. That's NOT what you want in a job. It's a myth that plywood is somehow more "real wood" than is MDF. Both are composed of wood! Plywood is very very thin veneer layers laid cross grain to each other and glued and pressed together. Good quality plywood has no internal voids and all the layers are composed of the same quality wood material, such as baltic birch. Poor quality plywood is crap. It has skips and voids and big knotholes etc. MDF is small offcuts from the milling process separated into the basic fibers of the tree. When those fibers are combined with glues and pressed, the grains go every which way, which creates strength. It also creates an extremely smooth surface which is perfect for furniture construction. The terms partical board, and MDF are routinely interchanged without much thought as to the fact that they really aren't interchangeable. Partical board has visible wood fibers and can be compressed at a density of anywhere from around 14 pounds per square inch for the cheap round bed tables that fall apart when you put a drink on them to 60 pounds per square inch with better quality glues that can sit in water for an hour or two and show no ill effects. MDF is smaller and more invisible fibers and compressed under higher pressure. It's actually a lot more wood per square inch than any plywood is if you want to get technical! Ask any cabinet installer. They don't prefer plywood for durabiliy. They prefer it because it's a lot lighter and makes their job easier when hanging. When cabnets are made from factory sourced desirable wood plywood, then the cherry or teak or whatever is the desirable grain is the final layer on the plywood and is done on quality no knots or voids plywoood at a cross grain to the previous layer with good quality glues. The desirable wood is generally thicker than shop applied veneer, so even if there is a problem with the substrate, the veneer won't telegraph the issue. It's pretty easy to take that good quality plywood and edge band it and create slab cabinet doors. I could do that, and I don't even own a panel saw, just a good table saw. However, it's pretty difficult to take any plywood, good quality or not, and apply a thin veneer to it in shop without it telegraphing the plywood substrate at some point. A good quality vacuum press will suck that thin veneer right to the substrate and mold it to it, and that includes any substrate graining patterns if they exist. That's why MDF is the traditional substance used for veneer work. Yes, you can find thicker veneers out there to go on plywood, but they are specialty items and pretty expensive and usually reserved for fine furniture rather than cabinetry. If you want your cabinets made like fine furniture, you can certainly have it done. Just be prepared to pay the labor and materials to have it done---and be prepared to take those cabinets with you when you move like they do in Europe. THe next owner may not appreciate the quality and paint over them or rip them out.

YoungDeb-I grew up in Dallas, over by WR lake. My family is still there and it's home. You're very lucky to live there and in such a gorgeous house! I really love your office. I am definitely going to try the tape trick on the cabs. Jakabedy- yours is another kitchen that I've spent much time studying the pictures of. It's so gorgeous, and I love how true it seems to the original feel of your house. I love your range niche, and your bs is gorgeous. Louisiana- join the club on over thinking! I definitely sweat every detail, which most people don't even think about. I think minimal crown is probably ok. It's when you get into the gigantic moldings that it starts to jar with the original style of the home. Laura- is the doors will be solid walnut, you will have to have battens-the ones my cab maker proposed are pictured above. Do a search for slab cabinets on this site-veneer is often the choice of even higher end lines. I am also using semi handmade walnut doors. Scherrs has walnut ones too-both solid and veneer IIRC. Writers block-thank you, yes, I saw that on IF. Their website is not easy to search and seems to crash my browser so I try to minimize how often I visit. But I saw that some had recommended a specific blade, which I will buy. Also going to try to find an as is door for practice. Joanie- thanks for the thoughts on the floor. I think you are right about the white being too high maintenance. I ordered a 12x24 grey tile, so hopefully it doesn't show too much dirt.

I'd just like to pop in here (since we're being mentioned) and say a couple of things. Right now we have a 5 cabinet minimum for custom engineered cabinet projects (no lower limit for door/drawer only jobs). We used to do smaller projects in some cases (and still do in rare cases if the conditions are right), but custom engineering and sending one, two, or three cabinets halfway across the country is rarely a cost effective endeavor that ever gets to see the light of day. Which fits with the original poster's desire to go with an in state producer. We usually recommend that people hire a local carpenter in these cases who can build something on site. Go local! :) Even though we're based out of North Dakota, 99% of our business is out of state with most of it being in California. I'm not sure why exactly—maybe it's the cost of doing business out there or it's a regulatory thing... by no means can we call ourselves Californian, but sometimes I feel like we ought to relocate! Good luck Pablo!