As you know, the house we bought a couple of years ago is a fixer-upper. It’s a majestic historic home that the previous owners started renovating but never finished. We have a ton of house reno to complete. (More info on the new house purchase here)
That means the entire kitchen was in disarray. The owners had gutted it and then began renovations but it was a mess. We emptied it all out to start fresh.
Thankfully the house used to be a two unit and there is a lovely, big kitchen on the second floor. We are basically living on the second floor of the house (2 bedrooms, full bath, dining room, living room and kitchen) while we slowly work on cash flowing the renovations downstairs.
We purchased porcelain tile for the main flooring (front entry, dining room and kitchen) some time ago and are close to beginning that project. Before the tile is laid in the kitchen however, we wanted the cabinets to be in place.
Kitchen house reno plans
For about a year I have been pouring through kitchen idea booklets, scouring magazines, browsing IKEA online and in person and detouring through the kitchen cabinetry section every time we enter Lowe’s, Home Depot or Menards. You get the idea, right? I’ve measured and experimented with layouts for cabinets multiple time. I knew I wanted pull out drawers for storing my pots & pans, easy close drawers, etc. This was going to be a big (aka expensive) project.
Then I happened upon a Facebook Marketplace post that had a picture of a beautiful kitchen with “kitchen cabinets for sale” as the post title. The picture showed white cabinets and what I thought were quartz counter tops with stainless appliances. You know us well enough by now to know we are always interested in saving money and recycling things so I investigated the post. It was vague, so I asked the seller some questions. Are the counter tops included? Are the appliances included? What is the condition of the cabinets? His answers made me giddy…..counter tops were included, all appliances except the refrigerator were included and the cabinets were in great condition. They just bought the house and wanted dark wood cabinetry.
I shared my discovery with Jim and he too was intrigued
Inspection
The location was about 2 hours away so we set an appointment and drove to investigate. I am so thankful for Jim’s personality; he never shies away from my often crazy ideas and is always up for adventure. He’s also a crazy ass hard worker so manual labor never scares him away from any project.
Before leaving we remeasured our space (for the 20th time) and we left armed with our measurements and an agreement that the quality of the cabinets would be the decision maker. We were confident that we could make the pieces of cabinetry work for our kitchen although possibly not the quartz counter tops. (Secretly I am 100% OK with that because I would love for Jim to create concrete counter tops for the new kitchen and use the quartz for the island only).
When we arrived we were met by the kindest young couple. They are getting married next month and just bought this home but are not moving in until after the wedding. You can see the excitement in their eyes as they explained the new kitchen and house reno they are planning on. It was a fun conversation.
The house was huge, located in a prestigious community, lovely and spotlessly clean (all great plus points). My suspicions were confirmed; the counter tops were a fabulous quartz! Our first reaction to the cabinets was that they looked great. Then I opened a drawer and spotted the Merillat cabinet logo. The drawers glided with ease, the doors were perfectly aligned, the interiors were spotless. They were well made and definitely well cared for. Score!
Oh, and the Kohler cast iron white enamel sink with Kohler kitchen faucet? Yep, included.
Our reasoning
SOLD! This was a no brainer for us and we returned the following week to remove the kitchen piece by piece. Every trip to the trailer added to the adventure and our house reno dream come true! It took us both working (hard) from 9am to 3:30pm to complete the job. The hardest part was handling the counter tops which were super duper heavy!! Thank goodness Jim is a beast because his muscle power was the only way those babies made it into our vehicle. We are doubtful that we can use the counter tops given the layout of our new kitchen – but we can use the island counter top which was my main hope. The quartz is only 4 years old (the stamp is on the underside of the tops)! It’s a lovely mix of white and off white with a hint of gray – perfect to go with our porcelain tile. (and we will resell the other pieces of quartz to recoup some of the cost of our purchase).
We can’t pinpoint how much this recycle purchase saved our remodeling budget but we know it is at least $5500 and could be double that depending on all the bells and whistles I would have put on the cabinetry in the “dream kitchen”.
Will we have easy close drawers? Nope. Will we be able to pull out a drawer to access our pots and pans? Nope. Does that matter, really? Not to us. What matters more is being good stewards of our money and spending sensibly. Freeing up that amount in our remodeling budget is such a blessing and we know this “new” kitchen is going to be delightfully ours. We are firm believers that things happen for a reason…..and that is probably why I spotted that Facebook Marketplace post.
Stay tuned for updates as the house reno projects progress!
