The 10 Year Kitchen

This is the first kitchen I’ve ever done in my pajamas.

After buying our house in 2000 and adding on 960 SF plus a pool, the kitchen never got done. Sure we had grand plans but things kept getting in the way. Because of some of the other work in the house we would do parts of the kitchen toward the master plan but never did the kitchen completely until this last winter. I decided to go ahead and ‘get-er-done’ as they say.

We looked at buying new cabinets and got prices, we looked at the option of unfinished cabinets and finally decided to work with what we had. One of the key motivators was that a used counter depth Sub Zero was donated to The Atlanta Fuller Center for Housing’s ‘Re Claim It Store’ that we were able to purchase very reasonably. We also started looking at what used cabinets at the ReClaim It Store were available that we could implement.

Being an award winning remodeling contractor I struggled with a perception of what would people think if I’m out here doing all these beautiful kitchens and what my clients and perspective clients would think of me using used stuff in my own kitchen, and here are my thoughts;

I really wanted to get our kitchen done this time and we could finally piece it together.

As a tree hugger I really liked the idea of reusing, I wanted to lead by example and what better way than in my own home.

I really wanted to support the work of The Fuller Center through our purchases.

I knew we would save a lot of money on cabinets, and could invest the sweat equity to make up the difference by doing the refinishing work ourselves.

Now our kitchen consists of items from four different kitchens plus some new stuff.

We reused 8 existing cabinets, 8 used cabinets and the Sub Zero came from the Re Claim It Store, we only had to purchase 3 new cabinets, the stove and microwave came from a scratch and dent store, the sink we bought a long time ago at IKEA, the faucet is new, the countertops were made on site with new material, the raised bar material came from a used commercial display, we made the corbels out of scrap iron, the floor tile we’ve had for 10 years as well as the backsplash material, new paint, hardware we bought new online.

We still have a new lighting plan scheduled after we have our home measured for energy efficiency (or lack thereof) so I can have real world testimony and experience based on applying the principals on my own home.

At the end of the day I’m happy with my decision and my wife is happy with me.

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