Use a pre-screened Contractor
June 26th, 2009
Archive
Archive for the ‘Interior Projects’ Category
RTA Cabinet Discussion
February 17th, 2009
I like to include information regarding techniques or products when people contact me directly. I know that many of you will have the same questions and it is great to get the information out in a forum where everyone can benefit from it.
On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 10:14 AM, <> wrote:
Hi there. I was an article you wrote about RTA cabinets. I really like some that I see online. However, my husband is concerned about the quality of the cabinets. Who did you purchase your cabinets from? Are you still happy with them? Do you remember who you bought them from? I really like the cabinets from O’Neil cabinets. Please let me know.
Thank you for your assistance.
Amy P.
MY REPLY:
Amy,
I have used RTACabinetStore.com and KitchenYourWay.com.
They both offer decent cabinets but there tends to be some inconsistency in the finish. It would certainly depend on your color scheme. With the darker cabinets they stand out a bit more than the lighter. In the overall scheme of a kitchen, with counter, appliances, sink, and decor, you hardly notice.
The shortcomings with the RTA cabinets tends to be with the side panels or end panels. There tends to be some warp to these sheets. You can deal with the warp if you have the opportunity to cleat to a wall, a floor, or create a face piece. I haven’t found that my end panels (especially refrigerator size) were usable out of the box.
I hope this helps. I would tend to lean toward www.rtacabinetstore.com. They are located in PA and offer very fair pricing. Any issues that I did have were addressed promptly.
I would encourage you to spend the money on a small cabinet that fits into your design plan. This will give you a sample cabinet that can be used in your plan. It should be inexpensive enough to use elsewhere should you decide against that company. You can never have enough cabinetry in a garage, laundry or basement!
Good luck.
Instructions on Hanging a Door
July 18th, 2008
I was recently contacted by a representative of the Masonite corporation about publishing some content that they are providing. It is something that most people who do basic renovation will eventually need to know. The following documents are instructions to hang/install interior doors, exterior entry doors, and patio doors.
The instructions are pretty straightforward and are illustrated. I hope that this helps.
Good luck.
Stair Stringer Calculator
March 31st, 2008
If you aren’t an expert in stair building, you will probably find the math a bit of a challenge. part of the difficult part can be calculating the angle on the stair stringer where it meets the lower landing and the upper landing. There are some great tools out there to make the task of calculating a stair stringer or calculating the rise and run of stairs, but this calculator gives a great visual and even provides a cutting diagram for your stair stringer.
Take a look at this great tool.
stair calculator
Renovation Finds – Wasps Nest
January 30th, 2008
Call it a treasure, call it gross (as my wife did). We pulled an old wasps nest from an attic crawl space. The entire hive is about 24″ long. It is paper thin on the outside and has stacks of honeycomb structures on the inside.
Enjoy! (or not)
Demo is Dirty!!
November 13th, 2007
When people watch all of the home improvement shows on TV, they don’t get true sense of things. Thirty minutes later and the house/room is done. Clean, painted, decorated, etc.
The truth is that renovation is usually dirty, messy and SMELLY. Those are things that don’t come across when you watch it on TV. I thought that I would share a photo of a room 2 hours after demolition.
