It has been a forever since I posted here. Lowe's took back the first set of cabinets that had been installed by their installer - cracks, tops not level, crooked panels around refrigerator.
A long time later we received the second better designed kitchen. Yay!
However...
those cabinets, though they took a long time to get, were evidently a rush job at the factory. There were paint drips, glue drips, split and bad joints, rough paint, cracked wood.
With these obvious workmanship defects, we were ultimately able to return the cabinets for a full refund at Lowe's (though we were reminded a few times that they did not give refunds!) and we did NOT reorder through them. Two times is enough, so back they went.
We decided that although it would cost extra money, we would hire a cabinet maker recommended by our contractor. Loooong story and loooong time later...
After all this went down the toilet, and we had very little money left for a kitchen, I went looking on The Marketplace on FB for kitchen cabinets. In a town about 2 hrs. from Friendship, I located some cherry cabinets that had been pulled for a kitchen renovation. I went out to look at them and see if anything could be done to make them work in our small kitchen. Wouldn't be the "custom" kitchen I'd planned, but it would be "custom" in an odd sort of way. It would be a "make do" kitchen! I measured and imagined multiple times. It was a hot humid day but the cabinets were very nice, so I imagined enough to imagine that some of them should work. Maybe not all of them - there were more than I needed - but there were enough so that we could do a trial and error kind of piecing together. Something WOULD work, I was sure, so I negotiated a price for some I was almost positive would work and a couple just in case we needed parts or a bit different size. The owner gave me all of them at a small fraction of the cost of new!
In the garage - studying them -
Last week we had the bottom ones installed for countertop measurement - uppers mostly done.
Looking SO good!
Just a couple of empty spots that will have shelves custom built in...and a couple of uppers to put in on the second wall. What a relief!
I'll post more as it progresses. It was so discouraging earlier that it was hard to post about.
The kitchen cabinets have taken well over a year to get done...The first were ordered in April of 2017 and we're still not finished in October 2018. But it is getting there!
Oh, there is more to our house saga...I will maybe fill you in on some of that later, too, when I get the energy! LOL!
Sprucing up Georgetown - prow front cedar log home, 2 br; 1 main bath; 1 mbr with master bath; cathedral ceiling lr with wood stove, granite two story chimney, prow front; porch; all pine and cedar walls; pine and tile floors; loft for sleeping or office, 4 car garage; 5+ acres; quiet road, access to much common land with hiking trails and island on river; 7 miles to town or 7 miles to ocean - beach and working lobstering/fishing dock...Summer home or permanent. In the summer is it usually 5 -10 degrees cooler and in winter 5-10 degrees warmer than in town.
I love this house, but it is time to be selling it. Friendship is beginning to call.
If you know anyone who is interested in moving to Maine where deer, turkeys, bald eagles and osprey are a common sight, where the wonderful aroma of beach roses and ocean fill the air, where seagulls are bold and seals peek at you, where you can have the freshest lobster rolls in the world...send them our way.
There are houses that are meant to be
for a time in your life's history.
You care for them as they shelter you
and stay with them till something new
becomes your family's home, sweet home;
and stops your soul mid roam, feet roam.
by Donna JT Smith, 2018
