🏡 Better Homes The "Custom House Build" Thread

[FirstWorldProblems]

we did merillat masterpiece cabinets when we redid our last houses kitchen and i miss them.

they were so fucking solid and nice but oh well...

i know one thing we did last kitchen vs what i have now is last kitchen i had the upper cabinets mounted slightly higher than "normal" and that made the area between the lower and upper feel much bigger and brighter.

View attachment 102092

are you doing 42" uppers with trim above that?

these were 39" uppers with crown above them, it worked well enough for us. not many people can get to the top of a 42" cabinet with out a ladder/stool anyways.

Looks great, just wait 10 years before your current cabinets go out of style then you'll have an excuse to rip them out lol. I know white is already starting to age but the wife wants white cabinets and light counters, so I'm making sure the hood/backsplash/floors/appliances offer some decent contrast. I tried to talk her in to a dark island, but no luck there (yet)

I believe the uppers are 42", won't know for sure until the rendering comes through. 9' ceiling in the kitchen and we're taking them all the way to the top, but I'm not sure of the crown height

 

[Five-0]

I'm at around the same stage with my house. House is framed windows/doors in except for 2 on backorder, roof on and mechanicals started. We just picked out all of our flooring, tiles, countertops, etc. In terms of the cabinets, we're doing a mix of manufactured and custom. The manufactured are still really nice with plywood construction, painted, etc. No particle board and sticker garbage. Then we're doing custom for the island and hood to give the kitchen some character. I was doing great with the budget until it came time to the finishes. Kitchen is way over budget, floors and counters are bit over, and the island/hood is costly. Luckily the lumber difference should help some of that, lol.

 

[Yaj Yak]

Looks great, just wait 10 years before your current cabinets go out of style then you'll have an excuse to rip them out lol. I know white is already starting to age but the wife wants white cabinets and light counters, so I'm making sure the hood/backsplash/floors/appliances offer some decent contrast. I tried to talk her in to a dark island, but no luck there (yet)

I believe the uppers are 42", won't know for sure until the rendering comes through. 9' ceiling in the kitchen and we're taking them all the way to the top, but I'm not sure of the crown height

im not doin shit i have too many cabinets now.

i have a wall of a pantry that would cost more than the truck i drove to work today to replace.

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

I'm at around the same stage with my house. House is framed windows/doors in except for 2 on backorder, roof on and mechanicals started. We just picked out all of our flooring, tiles, countertops, etc. In terms of the cabinets, we're doing a mix of manufactured and custom. The manufactured are still really nice with plywood construction, painted, etc. No particle board and sticker garbage. Then we're doing custom for the island and hood to give the kitchen some character. I was doing great with the budget until it came time to the finishes. Kitchen is way over budget, floors and counters are bit over, and the island/hood is costly. Luckily the lumber difference should help some of that, lol.

That's awesome, so lumber for you is an allowance item? I had our guy get another quote from the distributor and it's looking like a 20-30% savings for us on lumber, that's big dollars.

Good idea going custom on the island. I still need to confirm that the cabinet place can get or make the island that we want, pic in next post. I emailed them this pic today and asked her to confirm it's something they can do.

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

The style of island we will haz

 

[Yaj Yak]

$2900 for the vanity on the left and the other cabinet on the right, this was in our master bath... (no counters in any of these prices of course)


i really can't stress enough, do drawers where below waistline instead of cabinets, it's so much easier to access absolutely everything. that drawer setup on the right held so fucking much it was awesome. basically held a linen closet worth of towels/cleaning supplies/etc.

 

[Yaj Yak]

i also really miss the counters being finished like that. they didn't show shit. now our gloss/polished counters show fingerprints and everything so easily. i don't think those prior were fingerprintable.

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

Make sure lowers are drawer-heavy, noted. I think they are but will confirm.

I'll post the renderings in here when I get them

 

[Yaj Yak]

also granite ftmfw. i beat the ever living fuck out of those counters. id cut on them, i took fucking anything out of the oven and went directly onto them. they just gave no fucks.

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

also granite ftmfw. i beat the ever living fuck out of those counters. id cut on them, i took fucking anything out of the oven and went directly onto them. they just gave no fucks.

We're def not doing marble, so it'll be quartz or granite.

 

[Yaj Yak]

Looks great, just wait 10 years before your current cabinets go out of style then you'll have an excuse to rip them out lol. I know white is already starting to age but the wife wants white cabinets and light counters, so I'm making sure the hood/backsplash/floors/appliances offer some decent contrast. I tried to talk her in to a dark island, but no luck there (yet)

I believe the uppers are 42", won't know for sure until the rendering comes through. 9' ceiling in the kitchen and we're taking them all the way to the top, but I'm not sure of the crown height

id almost rather do 39 uppers with 3" crown with a gap above them and have them 3" higher than normal if i were to do it all again.

one thing i strongly dislike, is when people do 30" uppers and then 12" above them to give the look of 42" cabinets the "cheap" way... it just looks tacky to me. and those uppers are so fucking high off the ground that only i or EmersonHart13 are gonna be able to grab them handles.

 

[Yaj Yak]

We're def not doing marble, so it'll be quartz or granite.

just remember...

How Heat Resistant is Quartz Countertop? | Caesarstone US

Quartz countertops are more than capable of withstanding the typical heat levels in a kitchen under normal use. Learn more about their durability here.

www.caesarstoneus.com

150* is really not that hot...

 

[Five-0]

That's awesome, so lumber for you is an allowance item? I had our guy get another quote from the distributor and it's looking like a 20-30% savings for us on lumber, that's big dollars.

Good idea going custom on the island. I still need to confirm that the cabinet place can get or make the island that we want, pic in next post. I emailed them this pic today and asked her to confirm it's something they can do.

Yes, he made the lumber an allowance item just because of the massive swings at the time we signed the contract. We should be 10-12k under what the lumber cost was the day we signed.

We're doing white cabinets and a natural walnut island and hood to break it up. Quartz in the whole house because kids and honestly it just looks better than granite IMO. Of course it costs more, but happy wife happy life.

 

[Five-0]

just remember...

How Heat Resistant is Quartz Countertop? | Caesarstone US

Quartz countertops are more than capable of withstanding the typical heat levels in a kitchen under normal use. Learn more about their durability here.

www.caesarstoneus.com

View attachment 102102







150* is really not that hot...

What dumb ass puts a pot or pan directly on the counter to begin with? Do people actually not own pot holders??

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

The style of island we will haz


View attachment 102100

Looking at this pic I understand why the wife doesn't want an accented, darker island. She wins this round.

I'm not all about the HGTV design "labels" but whatever this style of island is, it's the style we want to carry throughout. The house is a "modern" layout and wide open, but if I had to call our cabinets & island anything i'd call them "classic" lol. The cabinet doors have a good amount of detail too, they aren't just a flat recessed tray, I think that'll look good with the bright white color we chose (technically called sea salt)

 

[Yaj Yak]

What dumb ass puts a pot or pan directly on the counter to begin with? Do people actually not own pot holders??

why not? if it can take the heat why use a pot holder? what's the point?

i take shit out all the time and go directly to my counter... because it can

 

[Yaj Yak]

i loved how our granite looked.

 

[Yaj Yak]

the marketing madness behind quartz is amazing to me.

really incredible what was able to be sold to the general public.

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

id almost rather do 39 uppers with 3" crown with a gap above them and have them 3" higher than normal if i were to do it all again.

one thing i strongly dislike, is when people do 30" uppers and then 12" above them to give the look of 42" cabinets the "cheap" way... it just looks tacky to me. and those uppers are so fucking high off the ground that only i or EmersonHart13 are gonna be able to grab them handles.

View attachment 102101

What we talked about doing is full height cabinets on each side of the hood, then the cabinets next to those (i think another 2 per side IIRC) will have glass and lighting at the top. So really display only for the top ~10" or whatever, no actual storage.

 

[Five-0]

why not? if it can take the heat why use a pot holder? what's the point?

i take shit out all the time and go directly to my counter... because it can

Ballsy of you, lol! I guess just one of those things as a kid it was always pot holders and it's just engrained in my head that way ?‍

 

[Yaj Yak]

Looking at this pic I understand why the wife doesn't want an accented, darker island. She wins this round.

I'm not all about the HGTV design "labels" but whatever this style of island is, it's the style we want to carry throughout. The house is a "modern" layout and wide open, but if I had to call our cabinets & island anything i'd call them "classic" lol. The cabinet doors have a good amount of detail too, they aren't just a flat recessed tray, I think that'll look good with the bright white color we chose (technically called sea salt)

the only thing that sucks about the detailed cabinet and drawer faces is they hold dirt much easier and are harder to clean than flat style. but of course we went with them before and have them now

 

[Yaj Yak]

Ballsy of you, lol! I guess just one of those things as a kid it was always pot holders and it's just engrained in my head that way ?‍

 

[Yaj Yak]

if i were building new id do a butcher block island because fuck yeah

 

[Yaj Yak]

 

[Yaj Yak]

Ballsy of you, lol! I guess just one of those things as a kid it was always pot holders and it's just engrained in my head that way ?‍

well and further i mean 150*, chances are someone can bare-hand that temperature... something out of hte microwave could be that after a few seconds