the area with the sink and stove, microwave, will be my first job, whenever I finish it, I will make a few cabinets for the bare wall on the other side of his kitchen. He doesnt have room for an island, so we are going to take out a piece of wall between the dining room and kitchen, and put in a counter at stool level, to open up the area, and Ill put some cabs underneath to give it an island type of feel/design. Nothing fancy, straight box like cabs with raised panels doors, no corbels,(if thats what they are called) posts, nada.......just neat and clean, something I feel I can accomplish.
-he has oak cabinets. the doors are completely shot, scratched up, destroyed. this is what 400 thousand dollars buys you in a house on Long island, and he got a steal on this house, most homes in his nabe same size go for above 500, so he was lucky. for me, its incredible what crapola you get on long island for half a million. his home is a nice size though, just not a big enough garage and yard that would make me happy, but he loves it, its 2 minutes from his work, and he has great neighbors in a decent area. his taxes run around 9000 a year after a reduction he received.
he doesnt have money put in a kitchen yet, and it doesnt seem anytime soon. He did purchase a new stove and microwave, and is going to install a dishwasher before I do the bottoms. just wanted to fill you in. I figured worst case scenario, I mess things up he has to purchase a cheapo small kitchen cab set, or just sand down what he has and Ill make him some oak doors, and leave things as they are until he can afford a new kitchen.,\
in comes me, and Ill attempt to make him a kitchen out of cherry, the same style doors I made for his pantry.
my question-we discussed sanding down(scuff sand) the frames, and applying cherry veneer to the current cabs, since the cabs themselves are fine, then Id make doors.
My idea, lose 3/4 of an inch, and instead of worrying about veneer peeling or not applying it correctly, Id just build new face frames, the cost would be minimal, and attach them directly on the current face frames, a few trim screws through the old face frame into the new, wont be seen.
this way, no veneer problems in the future, and no extra cost since the cost of the cherry lumber for frames would run me about the same and Im alot more comfortable with using real lumber than veneer onto oak cabs.
is this a good idea? Id prefer not to rip out the old cabs, simply because it would be alot more work, another expense, and who knows what problems we will encounter once I rip out the old cabs and make new ones. a fraction of an inch off, there will be problems. and I know I will create problems. will my idea look ok? please consider, Im limited in my knowledge of this stuff, installation is difficult for me, and I have to travel with tools to do installation, and Im trying to avoid alot of this, not wanting to put a huge expense on myself in case it doesnt work out.
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