Return-Path: Received: from IUS4.IUS.CS.CMU.EDU by K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU id aa19009; 8 Jun 93 14:14:42 EDT Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1993 14:13-EDT From: David.Simon@IUS4.IUS.CS.CMU.EDU To: bovik@CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Kitchen Cabinet Info Message-Id: <739563202/das@IUS4.IUS.CS.CMU.EDU> From: das+@IUS4.IUS.CS.CMU.EDU (David Simon) Subject: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? Originator: das@IUS4.IUS.CS.CMU.EDU Sender: news@cs.cmu.edu (Usenet News System) Nntp-Posting-Host: ius4.ius.cs.cmu.edu Date: Mon, 24 May 1993 22:06:17 -0400 I'm thinking about buying some IKEA kitchen cabinets. Before I do, however, I'd like to collect some comments from satisfied (and dissatisfied) customers. If you own IKEA kitchen cabinets and have good or bad things to say about them, I'd appreciate hearing what you have to say. Responses -> Bovik Thanks - David ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 24 May 1993 23:31-EDT From: Scott.Safier@MORPHEUS.CIMDS.RI.CMU.EDU Reply-To: Scott Safier To: David Simon Subject: Re: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? I have the cheapy IKEA cabinets and like them. Easy to install. The only thing to be careful about is non-standard sizes (metric v english systems) Scott ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: David Simon Subject: Re: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? Date: Mon, 24 May 93 23:43:49 -0400 From: Scott_Fahlman@SEF-PMAX.SLISP.CS.CMU.EDU I don't know about Ikea kitchen cabinets, but we have been well satisfied with other Ikea furniture (bookcases, dressers, etc.). They are well designed, assemble with little hassle, and generally stay together. Not real wood, of course. I have heard from others that the stress of moving from one city to another can be too much for these things, but I don't imagine you'll be taking your kitchen cabinets along if you ever move. -- Scott ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 May 1993 09:19:07 -0400 (EDT) From: "Karen L. Van Dusen" To: das+@ius4.ius.cs.cmu.edu (David Simon) Subject: Re: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? Cc: We have just one small set (3 of their small units stuck together with one countertop) and they're WONDERFUL. A pain to put together, but I love them. I'm in a wheelchair and so cabinets are hard to work with, especially very low shelves. We bought sliding drawers instead - they're huge and hold as much as shelves (more, even), but they slide all the way out. I've tried this with other sliding shelves, and they couldn't take the load of lots of canned goods. But the IKEA sliders and hinges are very sturdy. -Karen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 May 1993 09:38-EDT From: Can.Baykan@ISL1.RI.CMU.EDU To: David Simon Subject: Re: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? I have installed IKEA cabinets in my kitchen. I am satisfied. They are not as easy to install as they tell you when they are selling them. Partly because they are designed to be installed in apartments with masonry walls. --Can ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 May 1993 12:07:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Dana Lindsay Rinehart To: das+@ius4.ius.cs.cmu.edu (David Simon) Subject: Re: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? Cc: David, You already know me, but I wanted to tell you that we love our IKEA cabinets!! One tip: in your big lower cabinets, get those pull-out wire rack thingies they have instead of fixed shelves. It is so much more convenient to get to your pots and pans in the back of the cabinet. We love these things!! We got white cabinets and countertop, which I wouldn't do again (tho David would) because every streak, every spill shows. After wiping the countertop, I can see where my strokes were. I don't mind having a less-than-sterile kitchen, but I don't want to be able to see the dirt! That's it. All in all, we're very satisfied with our cabinets. Good luck with your kitchen -- hope all goes well! Dana ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 May 1993 12:18:57 -0400 (EDT) From: Dean Rubine Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII To: das+@ius4.ius.cs.cmu.edu (David Simon) Subject: Re: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? I don't have IKEA kitchen cabinets, but after several bad experiences with dressers and the like I stay away from any IKEA item with moving parts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: das+@IUS4.IUS.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Re: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? Cc: Bcc: Date: Tue, 25 May 93 11:04:18 EDT From: goddard@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU Sender: goddard@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU You might want to consider Techline instead. We got Techline for our study. The hardware (gliders, hinges) is far superior - steel, made or at least designed in Germany, etc. Also some of their shelves are 1 inch to avoid bowing. We got it at Houseworks. During their annual sale it is 35% off if you assemble yourself. I think the sale may be on now, if not then it should be soon. The store in Regents Square should have a catalogue, you can look at our stuff sometime too. You can also get Techline from a store on the road on the north side of the Allegheny between the Highland Park bridge and Waterworks but I don't think it is any cheaper there. When we bought in the Houseworks sale I figured out the cost was about equivalent to IKEA. Techline is a CMU-grad-owned company I believe. We dealt with Betsy at the North Hills store when we ordered from Houseworks, she is very helpful and accomodating, even gave me a few extra pieces of material for free. Nigel ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 May 93 13:38:38 EDT From: Sanjiv Singh To: das+@ius4.ius.cs.cmu.edu (David Simon) Subject: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? Reply-To: ssingh@ri.cmu.edu (Sanjiv Singh) Hey David, Sonia and I did a lot of checking around for cabinets in March. We narrowed our search down to three places. Ikea was the low priced option. Builders Square was the medium priced option and C&C Lumber was the highest priced option. What we found was that the IKEA cabinets look pretty good but are somewhat lower quality. The bottoms and sides of drawers in particular look pretty flimsy. Except for the PLUS line, all the other cabinets have the same workmanship. The only difference is the material used on the doors. We were looking into the PLUS line which is the lowest priced line that IKEA has. It doesn't have a lot of options but is much more modular than the other lines. It also has about the same level of finish, except that the grommets that hold the cabinets together show on the sides of these cabinets as opposed to being on the top and bottom for the other lines. We don't expect to live in our house for very long (approx. 5 years) and have very little to spend so the PLUS seemed like a reasonable alternative. It turns out that if you are doing a comprehensive kitchen renovation, the price of the cabinets maynot be such a big factor compared to other things like plumbing, lighting, and flooring, especially if you are looking at the lower end cabinets. For us, it came down to about $800 for IKEA cabinets, $1200 for Hechingers (castleton), and about $1400 for C&C (forgot the name of the exact line). Its difficult to make these comparisons because its like comparing apples and oranges but I did my best to equalize the products in my evaluation. In comparison our kitchen renovation is slated for about $5K, so maybe its worth spend the few hundred extra after all for the better cabinets. Of course the ratio might be different if you decide to do the installation yourself. I like IKEA's approach to selling and like the way you can just look up stuff in their catalog. However, after buying quite a few things from them (bookshelves, coffee table, drawers, chairs, etc), I have to say that the products don't wear terribly well under high usage. We were planning on doing the renovation in a couple of weeks but got side tracked and haven't made the final decision yet. My guess right now is that if it came down to it, we would cut back on some other things and buy better cabinets (probably C&C or Hechingers). If you need a name of a person who does installation very reasonably let me know. He has installed IKEA cabinets as well as others and does a very good job. We are planning on giving him the jon when we do decide to renovate. I had posted something on general asking for people's opinions on cabinets in general. I collated the replies but hadn't sent them in to Bovik because I was waiting to put our own decision in the file before sending it off. If you want, you can get that file: /../h/usr/ssingh/info/cabinets -Sanjiv ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: das+@IUS4.IUS.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Re: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? Cc: Bcc: Date: Tue, 25 May 93 14:41:51 EDT From: dredish@GS17.SP.CS.CMU.EDU Sender: dredish@GS17.SP.CS.CMU.EDU We actually chose not to buy IKEA Kitchen Cabinets. I just want to make sure you've looked into C&C (aka Concepts II in Monroeville) and Hechingers/Builders Square. We also were going to go to IKEA but when we actually compared price, IKEA was not significantly cheaper but was significantly lower quality. dave redish ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 May 1993 19:26-EDT From: Thomas.Gross@N3.SP.CS.CMU.EDU To: David Simon Subject: Re: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? I've IKEA cabinets (although a lot of people have not been able to guess this). A few thoughts: I like the metric system, so that's not a problem for me. I've heard of people who ordered more (or less) than they needed. Think about the countertops. I've custom made countertops (Corian) and installed the cabinets a few cm from the wall, so that they are flush with the (US) appliances. Unless you buy metric appliances (expensive, if you can find them), don't go with the IKEA counter tops, since then either the appliances stick out, or there is a gap between the counter and the wall. You don't have to go with Corian, standard colorcore or whatever counter tops will do. One of the door faces has been assembled poorly, but I could fix that with glue. Think about the door face you want to select. If you pick a man-made material, it will be much more uniform. IKEA contracts out the fabrication to companies all over (Eastern) Europe. So the 40cm door is made in Poland, the 50cm door is made in Yugoslavia [or one of its parts], and the drawer doors are made in Sweden. If the surface is man-made, it's not too difficult to make them all look the same. If the surface is some veneer (beech is the worst), it's difficulty to get the shine right on all of them. I ended up going through their supply of 50cm doors to find two that matched the rest; I learned about IKEA supplier codes, and finally found the matching doors in Germany. Not sure you want to get into this -- so my advice: man-made material. [Man-made means to me that the exterior is controlled by machines. A painted front-panel qualifies; a veneer panel does not. Of course, if you pick knotty pine, it may not make a difference.] Finally, dealing with IKEA involves a certain amount of hassling them. But all the people I ever dealt with were helpful and friendly (and novices at that time, I bought my kitchen when they opened). Just don't give up -- if it is not perfect, don't take it. A friend of mine exchanged an ironing board 6 or 7 times before a perfect one was found. If you are willing to do this, you can save a lot, and in general, IKEA quality is pretty good. They don't throw away money (the owner of IKEA is one of the richest men in Sweden, possibly richer than the king), and they are not a welfare agency, but they try to satisfy their customer. Friends of mine have used their stuff in Europe for a long time, and it's still in good working condition. tg ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 May 1993 09:33-EDT From: Roni.Rosenfeld@HEE.SPEECH.CS.CMU.EDU To: David Simon Subject: Re: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? I bought some IKEA kitchen cabinets a few years ago, and am very satisfied. I installed them myself, with lots of advice from them. The main issue was: do I need to attach them directly to the studs, or is it enough to attach them to the wall. It depends on the kind of wall that you have, the expected load, and your personal safety margin. I ended up connecting to the studs. The cabinets look nice, and function flawlessly. -Roni ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: David Simon Subject: Re: IKEA Kitchen Cabinets? Date: Wed, 26 May 93 11:07:10 EDT From: phoebe@GS15.SP.CS.CMU.EDU Sender: phoebe@GS15.SP.CS.CMU.EDU Hi David, I bought some of the very cheapest IKEA cabinets for my (rental) apartment. They were easy to put together and are a little sturdier than I expected, which probably isn't saying much. The fact that they are the cheapest is apparent when you see how the drawers line up (i.e., not very well). But in general I got a great price, they look nice, and I am happy with them. - Phoebe Sengers ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 May 1993 15:55-EDT From: David.Simon@IUS4.IUS.CS.CMU.EDU To: das Subject: cabinets To: ssingh+@H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Re: Reccs. for kitchen cabinets needed Cc: Bcc: Date: Wed, 14 Apr 93 10:11:26 EDT From: rollins@VISTA.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU Sender: rollins@VISTA.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU Status: O I bought unfinished cabinets, and finished them myself. I was very pleased with the results. The Builder's Square unfinished cabinets are cheaply made and have poor drawer hardware. I bought mine at Vitte's Hardware. They have solid oak doors, oak plywood bodies, and good drawer hardware. If you want to know more about finishing them let me know. ....gene To: ssingh@GS17.SP.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: kitchens Date: Sun, 11 Apr 93 16:49:44 -0400 From: David Redish I am also remodelling our kitchen (as you probably saw in my post). Here are two messages I have received about it. If you get any email would you please forward it to me too. thanks dave redish ------- Forwarded Messages Return-Path: Received: from G.GP.CS.CMU.EDU by G.GP.CS.CMU.EDU id aa23997; 8 Apr 93 13:03:27 EDT To: dredish@G.GP.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Kitchens. Date: Thu, 08 Apr 93 13:03:21 -0400 Message-ID: <23995.734288601@G.GP.CS.CMU.EDU> From: "Karen Haigh" I went to a whole set of places to look at cabinets. Prices are for my kitchen, no counter Ikea: worst quality (by miles) 1/10 lowest price (by only a little) $1100 essentially no service Sear's/Hechinger's best quality (by only a little) 9/10 highest price (by miles) $5000 plus Sears: had to come in to house to give quote Hech : computer layout. Answered some questions. Reasonable service good to plan where things go. Excel (1800 5th Ave. 261-0166) good quality - cumstom 8/10 - 50/10 good price - extremely high $2200 for non-custom kitchen extremely good service -- lots of questions answered, good (non-slimy) salesmen... No layout, though. C&C Builder's Supply (Tars, PA. 696-5761) good quality 8/10 best price $1500 mediocre service. DON'T GO ON WEEKENDS. It's packed. My salesman, Dennis Barrick, was extremely slow & ignored me. Find someone else. Had good computer layout. My suggestion: shop in town 'til you know what you want, then go to C&C and tell them. K. ------- Message 2 Return-Path: Received: from DB1.SPEECH.CS.CMU.EDU by G.GP.CS.CMU.EDU id aa00194; 11 Apr 93 15:48:22 EDT To: dredish+@cs.cmu.edu Subject: Re: remodeling kitchens Newsgroups: cmu.cs.general In-Reply-To: Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon Cc: Bcc: Date: Sun, 11 Apr 93 15:48:06 EDT From: hsmoliar@DB1.SPEECH.CS.CMU.EDU Sender: hsmoliar@DB1.SPEECH.CS.CMU.EDU In article you write: > >We are buying a house and will have to redo the kitchen in it. >Has anyone redone their kitchen recently? Any recommendations? >Disrecomendations? > >Thanks >dave redish First of all, get a good architect. I can recommend several: Tai + Lee 3114 Brereton Ave. Pgh PA 15219 681-8832 [CMU grads and Steve Lee teaches at CMU now] Doug Cooper/Sherry McKibben 7025 Edgerton Ave Pgh PA 15208 241-0381 [my neighbors--work for a big downtown firm] Then you need a good contractor. The guy who did our kitchen did good work but took forever and it turns out that we were his last job before he folded and ran away with other people's money. But again, I have two recommendations: Joint Builders 363-0100 [they did some work on our house--excellent job but not cheap] John Cummings 421 Lloyd Street Pgh PA 15208 371-9105 [a neighbor--I've seen his work and it is excellent and I know that he's a good guy] Hope that this helps. Harold Smoliar English horn, Pittsburgh Symphony Piano, Symphony Jazz Quartet hsmoliar@db1.speech.cs.cmu.edu ------- End of Forwarded Messages To: ssingh+@H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Sanjiv Singh) Subject: cabinets Date: Mon, 12 Apr 93 10:11:04 EDT From: Purvis Jackson Status: O 84 Lumber is reasonably priced for ~IKEA quality. For better quality, check out Excel Kitchens, which is located in the old Fifth Ave. High School in the Soho of the Hill district. I bought cabinets there this past autumn, and they were less than IKEA with the contractor's discount. -Purvis ------- Forwarded Message Date: 11-Apr-93 16:19 Subject: Reccs. for kitchen cabinets needed From: ssingh+@H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Sanjiv Singh) We are in the process of getting quotes for kitchen cabinets. So far we have been to IKEA, Builders Square and C&C lumber. If there is a place that you were particularliy happy with (quality/price), please send me mail. I will summarize the info and send to HQB who seems to have very sketchy info on this topic, at the moment. -Sanjiv (ssingh@ri) ------- End of Forwarded Message To: ssingh@cs.cmu.edu Subject: Re: Reccs. for kitchen cabinets needed Date: Mon, 12 Apr 93 10:31:36 -0400 From: Li_Lin@SAURON.GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU Status: O Check out Techline in Aspinwall on main street. We heard about them after we have already ordered cabinets from Excell, which we don't recommand. Bring the blueprints with you, their people will help you with the planning/designing. Ask them when they are having a sale, the sale price could be very attractive. -- Li Lin To: Sanjiv.Singh@H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Re: Reccs. for kitchen cabinets needed Date: Mon, 12 Apr 93 11:34:44 -0400 From: Li_Lin@SAURON.GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU >> I was wondering why you didn't reccomend Excel.. several people have >> reccomended them. 1. They were slow, the delivery dates were postponed 2 or 3 times and left us an empty kitchen without a sink for 3 to 5 days. 2. Their assembly was poor. There are several place where doors were not lined up straight, serveral cabinetes came with the doors open to the wrong side so our contractor had to spend hours switching the sides. 3. It's been only 3 years, a corner of a draw already shown signes of chipping out. We had very bad experiences remodelling our kitchen. The contractor was a friend of a friend of a friend. He got a us a very good price from Excel (60% off), afterward, it was disastrous. My husband happen to be trusting people too much. If you find their cabinets attractive, ask for a good price. Besides, tell them to send someone (free of charge) to do the touchups and alignements after the remodelling completed. (Oh ya, have them guarrentee the delivery date.... Well, there are always excuses and tomorrows) Good luck. -- Li Lin To: ssingh@ri.cmu.edu Subject: Kitchen Cabinets Date: Mon, 12 Apr 93 11:58:29 -0400 From: Colleen Everett We've had good experiences with Style-Rite in McKeesport. My fiance has installed numerous kitchens with ccabinets from Style-Rite and has always gotten a good price and quality cabinet. Don't have the number off hand. colleen Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1993 12:01:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Ricky Houghton To: ssingh+@H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Sanjiv Singh) Subject: Re: Reccs. for kitchen cabinets needed Check out Excel Kitchens at 1800 Fifth Ave. (261-0166). They have some beautiful stuff. Ricky