To Ikea kitchen or not........ that's the question

Whether you're a home owner or even a contractor I urge you to think twice before going the Ikea kitchen route.

Remodels are costly and as a contractor it is up to me to come up with ways to save my clients money.  And when it comes to kitchens, cabinets can be a budget killer.  Many of us, whether we choose to admit it or not, have been in an Ikea and even own a thing or two from there.  Why wouldn't we!?  They make easy solutions to home furnishing at a low cost.  Now when there we all see the amazing looking kitchens they have on display. What is even more attractive is the price!  As a contractor this has always intrigued me.  An awesome looking kitchen for under five grand?  Yes please!  But because I have owned several pieces of Ikea cardboard furniture that once its erected should not be moved, looked at or even touched, I was weary to offer this as a cost saving solution to my clients.  So what better way to test their product than on my own home.

My fiance and I love the modern look so after some shopping we decided to go the Ikea route.  Hell, since the labor is free what do we have to lose right?

Let the games begin!
  
The process of getting the cabinets is trying to say the least.  You yourself need to go to Ikea and design your kitchen on a computer they provide for you.  This software is much like floor planning software I use for larger projects.  To put it simply, if you have doubts in your computer skills, stop thinking about Ikea cabinets now.  After that process your order gets sent downstairs to be picked.  This is dope!  No 2 month wait for your cabinets!  They estimate it to take about 1 min per item and most kitchens will be 100 or more items.  So after you order go grab a beer and some Swedish meatballs because its gonna be awhile.  Hopefully you brought a large truck because you'll need it to take everything home.  After this process alone you will be exhausted, so get some rest and start fresh in the morning.

Now the fun begins!  If you have trouble with erecting a bookshelf from Ikea but eventually get it, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT go the Ikea cabinet route.  As a contractor I can put almost anything together.  Hell, I can easier build it from scratch.  But this was not an easy project.  The "directions" are nothing like that of a book case but still understandable.  Building the cabinet boxes is the easy part.  After that you need to go rouge because from here on out there are no instructions to follow.  You WILL make plenty of mistakes so have plenty of beer handy to help ease the pain.  

Now a large kitchen cabinet install, by myself, takes about 1-2 days tops.  A kitchen our size should take me no more than 4 hours.  Using Ikea cabinets my install took 3 ten hour days, 2 cases of beer and A LOT of cursing.  This was no easy feat but with that said, we love our kitchen.  The cabinets themselves are strong, the design is exactly what we wanted and their storage solutions gave our smaller kitchen a larger feel.

After going through the growing pains on my kitchen I know doing another one would be much less painful but I still would not recommend this option to any of my clients.  The added labor costs alone for a kitchen like this null the cost you save on the cabinets themselves.  But if you are a homeowner and fancy your self "handy" and have the time to do this it is a great option. 

Contractors be prepared and homeowners beware.  The low cost of an Ikea kitchen comes at a price.

Suburban life ain't what it seems

Maybe I have been lucky in my life but minus an evil lady when I was in high school, I have always had nice neighbors.  Or at the very least ones that kept to themselves and let me do the same.

Day one in our new home almost went off without a hitch.  We began demo of the flooring and kitchen.  Jess found a love for power tools and new respect of what I do for a living.  Our fencing materials also arrived.  See, we live on a corner lot where our house is set back.  This gives us a large front yard but a smaller backyard that corners up to the backyards of our side neighbors.  Since one of our biggest draws of moving to the burbs was having a fenced in yard for our dogs, I planned to waste no time on building one in our backyard.

While the fencing was being unloaded I got to meet my first neighbor.  Out of the corner of my eye I see a man walking up to me.  Mid 40's with signs of oddness in his eyes.  I turn to look at him with a smile on my face only to hear "Let me see your permit".  Point blank.  I respond by saying "Hi, my name is Mark and I am your new neighbor".  Thinking that he may just assume I am the contractor and not the owner.  He looked shocked at first.  Shook my hand, said nice to meet you and then said "I need to see your permit for this fence."  Against my instincts I calmly state I don't need a permit to have something delivered sir but when I get my permit I would be happy to show it to you if it would help you sleep at night.  This seemed to appease him so we moved on to regular new neighbor small talk/interrogations.  Me being the criminal in this scenario.  

After some discussion I learned that he likes the "country" feel of our backyards.  Country feel?  Oddly enough this is the very feel we want to block with our fence.  We just didn't have a name for it yet.  Apparently "country" means unkept yards, broken down above ground pools, a blue elephant statue laying on its side and moomoo's drying on a cloths line.  For the most part, although odd, our remaining talks were fine all things considered.  But I have a feeling this is the calm before the storm.  And this calm kinda freaked me out.  

This fence would be for our dogs more than us, so after discussions with Tank and Sneaky, majority rules. Its 4-1 and a fence WILL be erected!  Regardless of it being a Beverly Hillbilly's ambiance killer.

Change

After living in Chicago for the past 8 years I never thought I would see the day that I would be moving back to the suburbs.  And not just THE suburbs, but right next door to the very suburb I grew up in!

Moving to the city was one of the biggest and best decisions I have ever made.  Being there truly made me who I am today and that is something I am very proud of.  But its funny how life works out.  One day we (my fiance and I) are looking for condos in Humbolt Park, dreaming of being close to the actual park where we can walk the dogs and avoid crack dealers.  And the next day, quite literally, we find our dream home in Glen Ellyn of all places.  And now I dream of grilling on our deck and having a peaceful meal outside with our dogs in a fenced in yard.  It’s amazing how dreams can change so rapidly.  But these new dreams come with some nightmares.  And not the nightmares you get in the city.  You get used to worrying about being shot or potentially male rapped while walking home.  I wake up in cold sweats now with thoughts of going to Costco followed by lunch at Chilis but then having to rush home because I spilled special sauce on my Dockers.  Does a pastel colored polo shirt and deck shoes come with the purchase of a new home in the suburbs?

Change is something I never feared and always embraced and for my first time I have fear for a change.  But when I sit down and think about this change, I end up with a smile on my face.  After 14 years in the construction business I have never had the opportunity to renovate my own home.  The smile I have put on homeowners faces for years is now on mine.  I finally get to make a home, my home.  And I get to share that home with an amazing women that lets me think I get to remodel things the way I want.  Together we are going to make her design dreams come true, my remodeling dreams come true and ZERO of our nightmares come true.

Change.  It’s not so bad.  When it comes with a yard and a garage.