Custom Cabinets Wrong!

18 years ago

Hi - this is my first time posting - I've received a lot of useful info on these forums. We are building a new home and made the mistake of using a friend as our builder - another story all together.

The kitchen and bath cabinets have been a nightmare from the beginning. Our builder friend wanted us to use his cabinet guy. We asked if we could please go see his shop and what he had availabe for cabinets - this was not an option - the best we got was that we could look at cabinets he put in another house. Finally, I was able to meet the cabinet man at our new house - I expected him to show me door designs/ideas for a layout - NOTHING but notebook and pencil. I tried to visualize what I wanted and told him. It scared me because he kept double checking what I had said - like he couldn't remember. I asked him what door styles he had and he drew 2 different types on the stud - so I picked one. I've been dreading the day of installation - scared to find out what my surprise cabinets look like.

Tonight we went to look at them - the cabinet over the refrigerator is 24" from the wall (like I asked) - but it's only 12" deep - there is a 12" empty gap between the back of the cabinet and the wall. This isn't normal is it - if you asked for a 24" cabinet over the fridge, it should be 24" deep?

Also - the corner appliance garage has a hinged door (like I asked), but there is a 1" lip at the bottom - is that necessary?

None of the shelves are adjustable.

The pullout trash cabinet doesn't have walls on both sides - so it opens into another cabinet? The blind corner cabinet is the same - no inside wall to separate it from the next cabinet over.

The bath vanities are worse - the master is a 71" wide vanity with only 2 very small drawers (maybe 6" wide) and all open base cabinets - usually a wide vanity has at least 3 drawers in the middle, right? The kids bath is a 48" vanity with only 2 very small drawers also - we have 3 kids and were planning on having at least 3 decent size drawers!

I hate to have paid so much money for cabinets that aren't even right.

Can he just "fix" the cabinet errors? Am I being too picky? All my family and friends who I've told about our cabinet situation think it was nuts that we had to pick our cabinets sight unseen. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

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Comments (5)

igloochic
18 years ago
I'm not going to tell you that you were nuts (because you already know that don't you?) but there are some obvious issues. Obviously the fridge cabinet, the other cabinets, they should be the proper debth and size and ummmm walls...ya that's rather standard :) So I'd discuss that, but as to the number of drawers, etc....well that (and even the above stuff) should be in your contract....you don't have one I'm sure, so you may have to bluff your way through this and hope for the best. Or buy all new cabinets and eat this very hard lesson :(

Be fair, and understand your errors. You didn't HAVE to pick your cabinets sight unseen....you CHOSE to do so (was there a gun involved?) because you were pressured into it. So at this point, you can eat your errors or your can hope to bluff your way into fixing them, but without a contract, you have nothing to force the issue forward (except a new cabinet builder).

Me...I wouldn't even deal with him (we met with a guy JUST like him and asked him to leave when he started drawing on the studs LOL) but I personally, in your place...would quit messing with this and just have someone else fix them and move forward.
raehelen
18 years ago
Wow,

Considering that you seemed to order your cabinets on blind faith, I'd say you must have been born with 'the luck of the Irish' to get what you did with relatively few problems. So, #1, hopefully you've learned a lesson, and really had fairly small consequences. According to our first KD, who has been fired (not by us, but by our Kitchen Company)supposedly, it's not uncommon for 24" OTF cabinets to be only 12" deep. She said it's cuz people don't like to reach into that far space, and it's virtually inaccessible. I have a similar issue with my base cabinets- the shelves are only 16" deep- my mistake, I didn't think to check about that, just assumed that they'd be 24" deep. Not a huge issue as it's only one cabinet- we had the two others converted into drawers and a trash pullout- and used the shelves from those for more shelves in my uppers, so I haven't made a huge stink about that.

It sounds like you told him what you wanted for the kitchen, but didn't tell him what you wanted for the bathrooms? If you gave him carte blanche then you have no recourse, if you asked for drawers- then drawers you should get. And if you look at all the pre-fab vanities out there- you'll see a definite lack of drawer space- which is why people get custom.

But, not having walls in your cabinets- even handling it the way you did, you definitely should expect walls- no doubt about that. At the bare minimum, get walls installed (not sure how they'll do that without taking cabinets out...?)

You haven't mentioned quality of workmanship- got any pics?
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mitchdesj
18 years ago
Making the shelves adjustable is not a big deal , after the fact, he should be able to rectify this easily.

If I were you, I'd insist on him reconfiguring the bathroom vanities but would let go of the kitchen issues.
randjj1
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks - I guess I just needed to vent. The cabinets are really nice quality. The big issue to be honest is simply using our builder friend in the first place. This has happened with several different things - the storm shelter closet that he didn't bother to follow the FEMA plans I gave him - the master bathtub he ordered without asking us - then refused to wait the one extra day so I could order the one I wanted (nothing fancy - I just wanted a shower/tub combo so I wouln't have to clean tile). He's been really inflexible on a lot of things.
It is our fault - we have been way too nice about everything because he is a friend (my cousin's wife's (one of my best friend's) dad and my husband's fishing buddy). Never work with friend's or family is such a true statement! We've given him way too much control/liberty.
We'll definitely talk to our friend to see what can be done - otherwise we'll have to decide whether to take them out and buy what we want elsewhere or live with our mistakes.
Sorry - thanks for listening =) - it really is our fault - I was just so upset last night.
Thanks.
ci_lantro
18 years ago
Sounds like you have site-built/ built in place cabs, not necessarily a bad thing. That would explain no 'wall' separating cabinets and the non-adjustable shelves.

There are a couple of definite advantages to not having the walls separating cabinets. The walls take up space and place limits on the usefulness of the space. With factory cabs, stuff has to fit inside the space and can't be nudged over to borrow space from the neighboring cab. Another advantage is that you don't lose space to 'fillers', which is often the case when you use semi-custom factory cabs.

The major disadvantage to site built, IMO, is the cabs usefulness in their next life. Not easy/ next-to-impossible to disassemble and re-use/ reconfigure/ resell.

If your cabs are built-in-place, adding 'walls' and making the shelves adjustable will probably not be easy (as in next to impossible) or pretty in most of the cabs. But adding a panel to separate the trash pullout should be do-able and not terribly difficult.