Work photos

[William Karstens]

That's pretty interesting, judging by the junkmail I get for "Custom Cabinetry".

I wonder what the scams are for a roof.

[Jays89YJ]

So are these cabinets out of the "box?" These are the cabinets at my mom's house in Idaho.

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by Jays89YJ
So are these cabinets out of the "box?" These are the cabinets at my mom's house in Idaho.

Out of the box is hard to tell nowadays.

Look at these. They are out of the box, can you tell?

http://www.siematic.com/sseries_new.php

Don't let out of the box fool you into thinking you got less than a custom job. The difference is less than a 1/4 of an inch for filler material which is usually needed to follow the contour of the wall anyway.

The difference between custom and out of the box in cabinets with faceframes is that the stile on the wall side is left a quarter long and scribed to the wall.

With out of the box cabinets, it's either a scribe molding or a narrow strip sandwiched and fitted to the wall. The look is identical, the cost is just less because they assembly line produce the cabinets 100's at a time.

Every box manufacturer we dealt with made base cabinets in increments of 1". That's close enough to custom to satisfy even the most discerning homeowner with a normal to high end budget.

It's been my experience from building 100's of cabinets that the quality of custom is generally less as on site finishing is costly and poor quality for a wet environment.

The catalyzed conversion varnishes sprayed at the "box" shops in spray booths is many times better than can be done on site.

On site gets you lacquer. 1 coat of sanding sealer, couple of top coats and ruined inside of a year if water gets around it.

[Jays89YJ]

Originally posted by mrblaine
Out of the box is hard to tell nowadays.

Look at these. They are out of the box, can you tell?

http://www.siematic.com/sseries_new.php

Don't let out of the box fool you into thinking you got less than a custom job. The difference is less than a 1/4 of an inch for filler material which is usually needed to follow the contour of the wall anyway.

The difference between custom and out of the box in cabinets with faceframes is that the stile on the wall side is left a quarter long and scribed to the wall.

With out of the box cabinets, it's either a scribe molding or a narrow strip sandwiched and fitted to the wall. The look is identical, the cost is just less because they assembly line produce the cabinets 100's at a time.

Every box manufacturer we dealt with made base cabinets in increments of 1". That's close enough to custom to satisfy even the most discerning homeowner with a normal to high end budget.

It's been my experience from building 100's of cabinets that the quality of custom is generally less as on site finishing is costly and poor quality for a wet environment.

The catalyzed conversion varnishes sprayed at the "box" shops in spray booths is many times better than can be done on site.

On site gets you lacquer. 1 coat of sanding sealer, couple of top coats and ruined inside of a year if water gets around it.

My family's cabinets are solid wood and custom made. Actually there was a template made for the shape of the wall. Then they were designed in a 3D modeling program by the gentleman. I got to choose the hardware used for them after a discussing hardware options for quite some time. Those suckers are Solid. You could probably ramp your Jeep on one of them and it wouldn't break.

The cabinets on that website are hideous IMO.

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by Jays89YJ


The cabinets on that website are hideous IMO.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I agree that those are pretty sterile.

If you offered me a kitchen of my choice, this would about do it-

http://www.smallbone.co.uk/navpage_fr.html

go to the pic of the unfitted kitchen

[Chris L]

Now thats a bad ass kitchen. one thing I like about high end Kitchens is the pot filler for the stove. Usually a brushed stainlesss unit that folds against the wall, then folds out to fill pots on the stove with water.

This one time and band camp....oh wait, wrong story .

I did a kitchen a coulpe of years ago in Bel Air, and this place had 4 sub-zeros, one sub zero wine cooler, 2 sub zero freezer drawers that were located in the lower cabinets, a fireplace and 3 sink areas. It was probably around 1000 sq. ft. The cabinets alone were over 80 thousand $$. They were built back east and were of the "french distressed flavor". Also the kitchen had its own bathroom which I did in Venetian plaster. Including the doggy door inlet to the out side. Funny thing is there were an older couple living there, in there 70's and they did not cook much.

Another guy I work for is named Possi H. He is around 38 and is a senior partner with Morgan Stanley investments {if I remember correctly}. He lives on the beach, in Hermosa, right on the sand. He has 3 sub zero units in his place. One in the garage and kitchen just for wine storage, then another thats usually empty for food. He has some radical sound system. the speakers alone were 20 thousand each and the amps to drive the speakers were 10 K each. Then you flip a switch in the living room and all the blinds automatically lower themselves and a full movie screen drops from the ceiling. For bed time viewing he has a 60" plasma at the end of his bed and the sarround sound speakers are inside the walls and are not visable {plastered over}. Last time I worked for him he had just bought a V-12 S coupe 4 door mercedes for his girlfriend, a S55 V-12 mercedes 2 door for himself and a brand new bentley. For fun he drives an Aston Martin {with composite/kevlar suspension} and I heard he just bought a new one 2 weeks ago. He shows up at my friends for dinner with a $800 doller bottle of wine Makes me sick with envy

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by Jays89YJ
My family's cabinets are solid wood and custom made.

Can you expound on this a bit?

I've seen solid wood doors, face frames, and some shelves less than 6 inches wide that were solid. I've never seen solid wood laid up and glued together to make widths sufficient for box sides, bottoms, and shelves.

Exorbitantly expensive, very prone to warpage, and not too practical.

I'm confused.

edit- never mind, I went and looked at the pic again and those cabinets are conventional custom construction. Veneered plywood for the end panels, solid wood for the face frames, and glued up laminations for the doors.

[BlueJeeper]

I myself subscribed to the versatility and value proposition of the boxes in my own remodeling experiences, however, there is just no comparision between boxes and a custom shop say like Grabill.

The funny thing is that it hardly ever makes a difference as most people in their starter castles bugger it all up at the design stage with a completely inefficient work triangle. That semi-circle dog and pony show in the one link is a prime example.

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by Rick Bernotas
I myself subscribed to the versatility and value proposition of the boxes in my own remodeling experiences, however, there is just no comparision between boxes and a custom shop say like Grabill.

The funny thing is that it hardly ever makes a difference as most people in their starter castles bugger it all up at the design stage with a completely inefficient work triangle. That semi-circle dog and pony show in the one link is a prime example.

And what's total length of the sides supposed to be?

[cbremer]

Originally posted by mrblaine
And what's total length of the sides supposed to be?

isn't it 15 feet? probably not

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by cbremer
isn't it 15 feet? probably not

Guess again. You do realize that you are talking about the combined length from the rangetop/oven to the sink to the refrigerator, right?

If they were a work triangle of 15 feet, the average person could stand in the center and touch all three without moving their feet.

[cbassett]

Chris,

PM me your rate. I've got a potential customer for you in WA.

Jeeper relatives get discounts, right???

[cbremer]

Originally posted by mrblaine


If they were a work triangle of 15 feet, the average person could stand in the center and touch all three without moving their feet.

sounds fine to me i suppose opening the refrigerator/oven might pose a problem

i kinda thought 15 feet sounded wrong- i heard the work triangle size once, but that was in 8th grade. not much of a surprise that i forgot!

however, google (my best friend) indicates 15-22 feet is ideal, with 12' and 26' as absolute minimum and maximum. http://muextension.missouri.edu/expl...ing/gh5669.htm

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by cbremer
sounds fine to me i suppose opening the refrigerator/oven might pose a problem

i kinda thought 15 feet sounded wrong- i heard the work triangle size once, but that was in 8th grade. not much of a surprise that i forgot!

however, google (my best friend) indicates 15-22 feet is ideal, with 12' and 26' as absolute minimum and maximum. http://muextension.missouri.edu/expl...ing/gh5669.htm

We were taught in drafting and design that the optimum is 21 feet. Of course we've never built a kitchen yet that fit that parameter.

I think the last one had a work triangle of around 36 feet or so because you had to walk around the island to get to the pair of SubZeros.

[Jays89YJ]

Originally posted by mrblaine

edit- never mind, I went and looked at the pic again and those cabinets are conventional custom construction. Veneered plywood for the end panels, solid wood for the face frames, and glued up laminations for the doors.

Yup. They have all the conventional bracing.

I wish I had pics of the kitchen from my parent's last house in New Hampshire. Solid cherry doors & frames. I had the conventional bracing of course. No veneer on anything but the end panels. The hardware was crap though. They were really nice, plus granite countertops & backsplash. My only complaint: the doors warped with the weather. Once the central AC was installed it helped out a LOT. The hardware sucked and did not allow for adjustments for warpage.

The unfit kitchen is very nice. Lose the plants though. It reminds me of my ex g/f's kitchen because of the ceiling mounted pot rack.

[BlueJeeper]

Originally posted by mrblaine
drafting

pencil, pen, or cadd???

I think the last one had a work triangle of around 36 feet or so because you had to walk around the island to get to the pair of SubZeros.

LOL