Dilemma? WWYD

Expanding from my Mill's Pride Cabinets post yesterday:

Do you think it's better to redo my kitchen now with those cabinets, new laminate flooring, new formica countertops and keeping the appliances we have now (mind you the stove works fine, it's not old looking but you can tell it's an old model, for heaven sakes it's made by RCA..you know the company that makes stereos? I didn't know they made stoves..weird. And the fridge is falling apart inside a bit - one shelf on the door is unusable since the thing that holds the stuff in the shelf fell off. And it's obviously old and one side of it is dirty and nothing I use takes it off. But it works fine otherwise, never had any other problem with it.

I am just upset because first off, DH promised me when we moved in he'd redo it the way we (well, I ) wanted it. I was all psyched, I was looking at all nice cabinets and appliances on the web and in Home Depot. Then he said lets get it done with all Ikea stuff. We had a fight over that, he kept saying it's good stuff, durable, and cheaper. And easier to install too. So after a few weeks of research on the web I realized it wouldn't be the worst thing to get an Ikea kitchen and said fine. So NOW he wants to do this thing with Mill's Pride or other stock cabinets. I understand, we had a problem with the electrician, now that we have the baby and he's going to start crawling in a few months we need working cabinets and seriously, we need a better working kitchen than what hwe have now, baby or no baby.

But I just am so mad that I was promised a nicer kitchen and now it's come down to a temporay kitchen and I'm just worried that I'll never get my nice kitchen.

Should we just do the "temporary" one now. He thinks he and his friend can do ALL of this (tear out the countertops and floor cabinets, tear out the floor, replace with nicer laminate flooring - I don't mean laminate wood I mean like linoleum - but not the squares - put in new countertops and floor cabinets and wall cabinets) ALL in one weekend and got mad at me when I said "there's no way you can do that all in one weekend". He also thinks it will cost him less than $2000.

OR

Suck it up for a few more months, the baby will probably start crawling by March or April, we'll just gate off the kitchen and when we have the money do a nicer Ikea kitchen. That will entail: ripping up the floor, putting in tile on one side and hardwood on the other side where the table is (wall between eating area and dining area will be ripped down to make kitchen & dining area one room), Ikea cabinets, new appliances (in black), range hood, and Corian countertops.

We have about $5000 saved right now.

WWYD.

I don't know why I even ask opinions because the whole problem is that DH just wants to redo it now temporarily, got mad at me for saying why can't we wait and do it nicer like we wanted to in the beginning, he said I put down all his ideas. I just odn't see the point of redoing a kitchen twice. I know him. He gets ideas and sometimes doesn't follow through all the way. We still have a picture window to be hung since June. He still hasn't finished the trim around the windows he put in last fall. So why does he think he will do the kitchen in one weekend and why does he get mad when I roll my eyes? But he will badger me until I finally relent and let him do it. And it will take him longer than a week, I will end up washing dishes in the tub and I will be ****** off to no end and he doesn't get it. But maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.

Re: Dilemma? WWYD

i would wait till you can do it right -kitchens take longer then expected and losing that room you only want to do it once -

i would only do the temorary fix if you could be happy for 3-5 years otherwise it is not worth the money or time

Re: Dilemma? WWYD

I replied to your mills pride post, if you don't think you'll be happy with the lesser stuff I'd wait till you have $$$ saved to do the whole deal. My DH is a contractor & it took us more than one weekend to do everything-realisticly you'll be without your kitchen for a week or so....and doing it the cheaper way doesn't save much time. In fact putting together the mills pride cabinets correctly will take six times longer than installing them. I have a vinyl floor-super easy to clean, formica counters(custom made but really affordable) & cheapo stock cabinets.
Here's a picture of my cheapo kitchen-we took down a wall to make it bigger & changed everything for a little less than $5,000


I don't think it looks crappy, maybe I'm wrong


a better view of the floor


Hope that helps

Re: Dilemma? WWYD

Id wait and do the kitchen EXACTLY how you'd really like to remodel it.

ETA: KellyFG, your kitchen looks great, I cant believe you were able to do all that with $5k!!!

Message edited 11/22/2006 1:15:12 PM.

Re: Dilemma? WWYD

I have Ikea cabinets and I dont think they are cheap at all. I think the cost really depends on how big your kitchen is and what products you choose to put in it.
If you have your heart set on an Ikea kitchen and you already have $5K saved then I think you could definitly do it now. If you need new appliances alot of the times PC Richards will give you a "package" where if you buy the stove, fridge and dishwasher all made by the same manufacturer you get a better deal. My BIL did this and they paid b/w $2ooo and $25oo for I think Kitchen Aide. Lowes always has sales on floor tiles and you can find some really nices for for under $1.50 sq/ft, and countertop you can still do nice formica or grainte. With grainte, a good way to get a better deal is to ask to see remants. THose are left over pieces and again depending on the size of kitchen would depend on the size you need you could probably cut your cost in half with that.

So, if you will only have to wait 4-6 months then I would wait. It would be like throwing money out the window for you to just fix it up now and you might end up waiting a while for that kitchen you want.

Re: Dilemma? WWYD

Re: Dilemma? WWYD

thanks, our cabinets were ordered through home depot, I think the brand is american something or other. They only take 3 days to get. we spent about $1200 on them & they get delivered to your house ASSEMBLED, which is HUGE if you want to get it done quickly.
We did our kitchen this way because we decided that we couldn't deal with the old nasty one however we spent our budget on renovating the rest of the house & we weren't sure if we'd live here long term or flip it. It was a last minute decision on a shoe string budget. When we did it we said if we decided to stay we'd rip it out & do our "dream" in 3-5, but honestly although I'd love a double oven, I wouldn't change a thing. It has held up beautifully, going on 3 years & I'm so happy we didn't borrow money to get all the bells & whistles. I'm cooking sitdown dinner for 18 on thanksgiving(like I always do) & aside from the double oven there is nothing I can't do well in this kitchen.
Its a personal decision though, if high end stuff really turns you on, maybe you should wait.

Re: Dilemma? WWYD

Re: Dilemma? WWYD

Looks very nice. Not cheap at all! Good Job.

Re: Dilemma? WWYD

I think you should wait. I don't think IKEA cabinets are much more expensive.

We gaited off our kitchen when DS was crawling and we redid it. It wasn't bad at all.


As for what you can get done in a weekend. If you have a friend helping, you can definitely demo in one day! cabinets can definitely be done in another day, but I don't know about the countertop (I'm assuming you would get stock formica?)

I'm not sure about flooring either - but I would think linoleum squares are easier to install than the sheet stuff. laminate wood flooring doesn't look too hard, but I think it would extend your work by a day - maybe DH can take off a friday or monday and you could do it in a whirlwind 3 days weekend?

Re: Dilemma? WWYD

I would wait.

Re: Dilemma? WWYD