Our remodel...continued

David and Allyssa find a good use for packing materials.
David measuring for the counter top.
Counters on. Working on drawers. David, Jr. offers David his drill.
Counters top, drawers, and handles all on!
David works on old cabinet.

We chose to use IKEA for our cabinets. We'd priced similar cabinets at Lowes, but found that it was about $5000 more to go that route. IKEA it was! (Yay for a husband who's not afraid of work!)

We began our planning of the kitchen several months ago, so when we went in we already knew what we wanted save for the handles.

We had chosen white cabinets with a black counter top, laminate. I was under the impression that the quality of the IKEA stuff was similar to what we had before, but as we put things together this past week, I found that really it was better quality. We still have laminate counter tops, but we can tell that they are better. The doors on the cabinets are also much better. The drawers, well, I can't tell you how much better they are. They are totally awesome. The frame is metal. They extend fully so that you can reach the stuff in the way back of the drawer. They way that you adjust them to make sure that they are just so is really awesome. Really, the drawers might be the coolest part.

We didn't have handles on our old cabinets, but IKEA's stuff really requires it. The drawers that are all in a row don't have space to grab, so you need handles. I preferred handles that wouldn't catch on our clothes. We had handles in a previous place that caught on clothes and tore many a pocket as we walked by. David wasn't sure about my choice in handles, but he let me pick them out (he didn't tell me that he wasn't sure until after he installed them). Now, he is sold on them. They look so great with the metal facing on the counters.

The big corner cabinet is really cool as well. We were planning on a regular shelf in there, but the lady who placed our order put pull out shelves (we didn't want a Lazy Susan). We were planning on returning this little gem, but after installing the cabinet and seeing that it is almost as long as I am, I realized that I would have to literally climb in to get stuff, all the way in. This really cool shelf spins out and then extends so that you can reach even the stuff on the back of the drawer easily. Ahhh. Our wasted dead space will be wasted no more!

We're about half-done. Really, it is more than 1/2 because all of the uppers are in, but the sink remains. I'm concerned that the sink will take forever, but David says he thinks he can do it in a day. I hope he's right, but it is better to be prepared for a few days without a sink than to think that I'll have one and not. Right now, David's working on installing that cool pull out drawer that I talked about and handles on the uppers.

Enjoy some photos until next time...