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My wife and I live in a two bedroom ranch house built in 1967. It sits on a five and a half acre piece of property in Rockland County New Yok and has been in the family for about a hundred years. Our kitchen is original and needs replacement. The problem is we are not we are going to hold on to the house for another ten years. The property consists of several homes which also need considerable work. The taxes on the property are high and are beginning to over take any profit the rental property provides. We need a new kitchen badly but throwing $10,000 into putting in new cabinets does not make sense. We can put in some really inexpensive cabinets which will cost us about $1200. They are low quality but will do. I have been told that the low cost cabinets have stapled draws and are not dovetailed. At best we can get ten years out of them. If you were in my position what would you do? Any advice would be very helpful.
We can tell a lot better if we see some pixs of the existing kitchen.
Maybe you can just rehab / refinish the existing cabinets yourself's.
A total gut out, new wiring, plumbing, floors, walls / ceilings etc, maybe even some new appliances are not that expensive if you can do all the work yourself. I basically redid a kitchen much older, completely, saved the old cabinets by refinishing them, all new counters / sink / plumbing, everything else new for ~$1400.
Basically in those situations it helps a lot not to be limp wristed and DIY, plus shopping very smart and keeping the budget totally under control.
Pixs are worth a thousand words. Helps a lot to know where you are starting.
No I do not agree with you at all that those junky wooden boxes will "just do". Next..if you dont do what everyone thinks first when they think of cabinets and run to the Home Depots or Lowes you will not have to spend $10,000. Why buy anything from a store who charges full list price? If those stores quoted you $10,000 I can guarantee you that kitchen can be had for $5500. I do it every day but dont worry, I'm not advertising, I live 3000 miles from you.
Whatever you do, do not be tempted to buy that Chinese formaldehyde
and sulfur infested junk that is sure to give your family cancer. And I also highly advise you to steer clear of those unfinished wooden boxes they call cabinets the big box stores sell. If that's what you want you can go to the Uhaul or any storage unit facility who sells cardboard boxes.
Your average buyer is dumb but not stupid. The kitchen and bath sell the house and the wife makes that choice to buy that house or walk away, men have little say in anything. The wife will picture herself in that kitchen and if she opens drawers and sees nail pops and unprofessional latex paint inside the drawers, that sale is not going to happen.
If you want high quality cabinets and inexpensive you have a couple choices. Mills Pride is/was is being fazed out by Home Depots. They are American made but not of good qualtiy. Look up Covered Bridge Cabinets which are are out of Pennsylvania. They are very high quality cabinets at a low cost and are MADE IN THE USA!!. You can also look up Cabinet Liquidaters which have distribution centers all over the USA. They are their own brand who have independant reps out and about.
Dont get so tied up in that particle board VS all wood either. Save your pennies and go PB. Stay away from white which is out of style too. Before the white VS wood debut starts again, I been selling some off white colors lately. We call our color bisque and people are liking it epecially with a dark brown glazing.
Well do not write off the old cabinets yet...........
We have no idea what is there.
In my old house, I just refinished the cabinets. Removed the doors. Sanded everything down, stained, poly coats. Got all new hinges. Reworked the old pulls to be better than new.
Nominal manhours involved, something like maybe $25 out of pocket. The other huge plus the kitchen appears to fit well in the house design. Looks like it belongs there, does not clash with the rest of the house appearance.
Too many of these "Great Rehabs" the final result looks hugely out of place in the house which has everything else from another period / era / style.
They go for fancy looking cabinets, then everything else appears out of place, that has to be upgraded, then the rest of the house feels like some type of orphan.
Not that you can't get all the modern whiz bang stuff. Best to blend it into the house as it sits. Can be surprising lil money out of pocket. Again you need the Vision Thing, skills and patience to carry out the plan.
Most of the visitors that come into my old road shack, love the kitchen, but if you talk to them, they really can not explain why. But if you listen closely, they will roam thru the house and "Feel" it all fits together and has this pleasing atmosphere without trying to be over powering in any part. It is the old house brought up to a modern, safe, comfortable, extremely affordable standard as whole entity.
Do not try to make a nice beagle into a poodle, you wind up with a mongrel.
Way too much of this kitchen / bath make over game attempts to make those rooms over power the rest of the house. It actually comes out as a negative. The rest of the house feels "Cheap and Unworthy". Almost a type of culture clash that has this way of leaving you uneasy at some gut level.
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
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Can you post some pictures of what you have? I would bet that refinishing or painting the cabinets then adding new hardware would help a lot, then new floors and countertops and it might look great.
Can you post some pictures of what you have? I would bet that refinishing or painting the cabinets then adding new hardware would help a lot, then new floors and countertops and it might look great.
Hi Ruby
You cant paint 40 year old cabinets. I dont believe in painting cabinets period but when they are that old it's pretty safe to say they are too far gone to save as well as functionally obsolete and full of design flaws.
In those days, cabinets.......ummmmm painted wooden boxes were all made of a cheap 5 ply plywood. The inner ply cores were paint grade junk but just used as build up plys and all glued together to make the nominal thicknesses needed by tradesmen. The outter cores were of a more quality stainable ply. This outter ply is very thin, not as thin as a veneer plywood we all hear about today but still thin. If this is sanded too deep you will sand right through the outter ply and into the ugly grained plys and glue layers. This can not be repaired once you sand too deep except by painting it.
And there is nothing more fugly then a painted cabinet. Which I refer to as a painted wooden boxes....not cabinets.
People should not be so afraid to buy new cabinets. There are inexpensive ways to do it. It's not really a scary experience.....honest!!!!!!!
Hi Ruby
You cant paint 40 year old cabinets. I dont believe in painting cabinets period but when they are that old it's pretty safe to say they are too far gone to save as well as functionally obsolete and full of design flaws.
In those days, cabinets.......ummmmm painted wooden boxes were all made of a cheap 5 ply plywood. The inner ply cores were paint grade junk but just used as build up plys and all glued together to make the nominal thicknesses needed by tradesmen. The outter cores were of a more quality stainable ply. This outter ply is very thin, not as thin as a veneer plywood we all hear about today but still thin. If this is sanded too deep you will sand right through the outter ply and into the ugly grained plys and glue layers. This can not be repaired once you sand too deep except by painting it.
And there is nothing more fugly then a painted cabinet. Which I refer to as a painted wooden boxes....not cabinets.
People should not be so afraid to buy new cabinets. There are inexpensive ways to do it. It's not really a scary experience.....honest!!!!!!!
i have posted before and I'll keep posting. YOU CAN successfully paint cabinets. See my fugly cabinets in the link below which were successfully painted over 3 years ago. These are, BTW cabinets from 1966 that were saved. Yes, the do not have all the bells and whistles thats come with cabinets today, but they are not falling apart or obsolete. Someday you'll get it.
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
1,501 posts, read 11,753,094 times
Reputation: 1135
Quote:
Originally Posted by desertsun41
Hi Ruby
You cant paint 40 year old cabinets. I dont believe in painting cabinets period but when they are that old it's pretty safe to say they are too far gone to save as well as functionally obsolete and full of design flaws.
In those days, cabinets.......ummmmm painted wooden boxes were all made of a cheap 5 ply plywood. The inner ply cores were paint grade junk but just used as build up plys and all glued together to make the nominal thicknesses needed by tradesmen. The outter cores were of a more quality stainable ply. This outter ply is very thin, not as thin as a veneer plywood we all hear about today but still thin. If this is sanded too deep you will sand right through the outter ply and into the ugly grained plys and glue layers. This can not be repaired once you sand too deep except by painting it.
And there is nothing more fugly then a painted cabinet. Which I refer to as a painted wooden boxes....not cabinets.
People should not be so afraid to buy new cabinets. There are inexpensive ways to do it. It's not really a scary experience.....honest!!!!!!!
Generally I am not a huge fan of painted wood, but sometimes its an approriate solution. And if the OP is worried about the cost of a kitchen remodel before selling the house in a few years, then its not a bad option. Why sink the money into a kitchen only to see the market keep going down (5-year plan)? Or if its a 10-year plan, then whatever is trendy now will be out of date then. (it wasn't clear the OP's plans, I couldn't tell if there was supposed to a comma in there and they were going to move in 10 years or (s)he was saying they will not stay 10 years). Yeah, there are classics that they say never go out of style, but didn't they say that about brass for 40 years? I don't know how bad the OP's kitchen really is. Maybe that is the only reasonable solution (and I've seen some really bad original 60s kitchens!). If money is tight, why not try a facelift on what you have with a coat of paint? Worst case, it does look horrible and you are back to square one and replace the cabinets anyway. Best case, it buys you a few years to save/decide what you really want & where you are going.
Not totally arguing with you, I know you know your cabinets I'm just tossing out an option that could, possible by time and save money. Or it could be a long process that turns out looking worse in the end and the OPO wastes $100 on paint.
i have posted before and I'll keep posting. YOU CAN successfully paint cabinets. See my fugly cabinets in the link below which were successfully painted over 3 years ago. These are, BTW cabinets from 1966 that were saved. Yes, the do not have all the bells and whistles thats come with cabinets today, but they are not falling apart or obsolete. Someday you'll get it.
Hard work is always rewarding. Seeing ones hard work is more rewarding. I will never be a fan of painted wooden boxes. But that's just me, I love the beauty of natural wood. Some people do not.
I also see painting the outside the same as putting a newly pressed fine Italian suit on a man who is wearing dirty underwear and sneakers. Not to mention the dirty worn out pockets.
Yea you can paint cabinets. You can also paint glass, plastic, metal, cement and even grass as the local DOT does. But that dont mean it's the best way to do it.
And by the way, it looks like you took the time to do a real good quality job. For most, they dont have the time, patience, skills and knowledge that you do and yet for others it's just easier to buy new cabinets.
Hard work is always rewarding. Seeing ones hard work is more rewarding. I will never be a fan of painted wooden boxes. But that's just me, I love the beauty of natural wood. Some people do not.
I also see painting the outside the same as putting a newly pressed fine Italian suit on a man who is wearing dirty underwear and sneakers. Not to mention the dirty worn out pockets.
Yea you can paint cabinets. You can also paint glass, plastic, metal, cement and even grass as the local DOT does. But that dont mean it's the best way to do it.
And by the way, it looks like you took the time to do a real good quality job. For most, they dont have the time, patience, skills and knowledge that you do and yet for others it's just easier to buy new cabinets.
Oh my a compliment?? Thanks!
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Let us see some pixs........
I'm just tossing out an option that could, possible by time and save money. Or it could be a long process that turns out looking worse in the end and the OPO wastes $100 on paint.
Thanks!
