Last week, Rob was in the midst of a small kitchen remodeling project and hoping it would please his wife. Several of you offer words of encouragement and advice. – Editor
“Back in 2007, I did a kitchen remodel while my wife was away on the West Coast. I kept the cabinets but stripped and refinished them. I then built drawers and installed them in all the lower cabinets. Now that we have moved, I am doing it again. So be careful what you do.” – David F. Rogers
“Happy wife, happy life! I made and installed pull-outs for all of our kitchen cabinets, and I even saved my back as I was the one that had to get the pots and pans out. I went to Lowe’s and bought sliders to make the drawers.” – Robert Durst
“I have faith in you. You can do it! Hang in there.” – Ken Erlenbusch
“I just read your editorial about removing your kitchen cabinets and adding roll-out shelves. I would recommend large drawers instead of roll-out shelves. When reaching for a pot/pan you will have to open a door, then roll out the shelf; it becomes tedious unless you mount the door to the bottom roll-out. It’s also a chance to scratch the inside of the cabinet door unless a roller is installed. I’ve seen many kitchens with this problem and customers requesting large drawers instead. Good luck!” – Andrew Remiarz
“I wish I were more like you, because I hate ‘hiring it done.’ I even hate buying something that I can make. In fact, it’s hard to remember the last time I paid someone to do something. Thirty years ago, my dad and I built cabinets for the kitchen in the house my bride and I were moving into. Like everything we did, we over-built them. They look and work as good today as they did then. Jump forward to today: we are starting a whole-house remodel on a house we will move into when it’s finished. Dad isn’t around anymore, so I will be doing all of the work. My wife agreed, but she pushed that this would work only if I agreed to purchase things like cabinets, doors, etc., rather than buying them, to get done as quickly as possible. So we stopped at a big box store to look at kitchen cabinets. She picked one that I actually agreed with. Looking at the SMALL island that was part of the display, she asked if we could work one into the revised floor plan. Sure, I said. Then she said, ‘$1,300 isn’t bad for an island.’ I pointed out that was the price of the countertop and that the whole LITTLE island was $3,400. The next words out if her mouth were, ‘You can build cabinets like this pretty quickly, right? And, they’d be better!’ I hope she understands I might need to purchase a few special tools to get the job done quickly! Good luck with your kitchen project. Show us some pics in a future Weekly.” – Edward Colianni
“I have heard ‘We should hire it done’ countless times over my 38 years of marriage. Fortunately, I have been hearing it less over the years, either due to my increased skills or my wife’s understanding of what I am capable of doing. Either way, I am guessing your column will ring true with many of your readers.” – Jerry Levy
