Saturday, August 02, 2008

berryberry's Kitchen

Berryberry's Finished Kitchen




Posted by berryberry on Fri, Jul 11, 08
Link to berryberry's Gardenweb finished kitchen post
Link to berryberry's before kitchen photos
Link to berryberry's finished kitchen photos

Details:
More details:
Our goal was to re-do our 17 year old kitchen, original to the house. The old cabinets were standard builder grade and while looking good on the outside, were showing signs of wear (broken drawer guides, etc) internally. Plus the color scheme was, ummm, just a tad outdated – LOL.

We planned 90% of the kitchen ourselves, from doing research ahead of time, looking at magazines, and using the garden web and other internet resources. We met with 3 different cabinet reps / KDs to obtain quotes from three different cabinet lines – Durasupreme, Shiloh, and Kahle’s (a regional brand based a few hours away from us on PA). We obtained a few different ideas from the various KDs we met with and incorporated them into our vision. Our vision was further defined seeing a display of Omega cabinets at the one showroom which also sold the Shiloh line. This display is what we used in helping us design our plan and look.

In looking at cabinetry, we were impressed with the Shiloh brand’s construction but they had no door styles, finishes that would give us the look we really wanted to achieve. Durasupreme was the least inexpensive of the group but also the least flexible (ie they couldn’t do the special microwave cabinet we wanted to do). It was only by a fluke we came across Kahles. Even though they are based in Pennsylvania, we had never heard of them. But one day, when out looking at appliances, one showroom we stopped at had full type kitchen displays. Some of the cabinets we saw were fantastic – better quality than the Omega custom line we saw at the Shiloh dealer – and we thought they had to be full custom cabinetry. We asked one of the appliance sales people about the cabinets and he said a couple local contractors installed all the cabinets at their facility. We showed him the couple cabinets we liked and he told us they were all installed by a man named Dale Conrad. He gave us his number and we contacted him http://www.conradkitchenandbath.com/

We found out the cabinets were made by a company called Kahle’s – which sells regionally in the eastern part of the US. They are a family run operation and do things the old fashioned way as the quality of their cabinets can attest to (for instance note the full plywood TOPS on the base cabinets). They are based in northwest PA pretty much in the middle of nowhere. http://www.kahles.com/ As you can see from the website, marketing is not their strong suit but making top quality cabinets is. They happened to offer styles and finishes that we were looking for and help us complete our vision. Furthermore, we found Dale to be a forthright man to work with. And while his initial quote came in a lot higher than the other two, we worked together, thru some minor design changes, as well as advantageous scheduling to help him fill some down time to come up with a price that was competitive with the others we had received. Dale told us the job would take about 2 weeks (except waiting for the granite to be fabricated) and he was spot on. His crew was here 9 days and completed 95% of the kitchen, hooked up our old sink / faucet as a temporary sink and then we waited about 3 weeks while the granite was being fabricated. Dale’s crew was back the day of the granite installation to disconnect the temporary sink and faucet, install the new ones after the granite went in and finish up some minor details. Two weeks of work exactly with no issues. The only issue we did encounter was with our DIY backsplash. The tile store initially ordered the wrong material so that delayed me installing it for about 10 days until they had the correct material shipped. Since we didn’t order the tile until the granite was in, this pushed the final completion back slightly.

Features:
Appliance Garage
Baking Drawer
Blumotion
Bookshelf
CabinetsWall >12"deep
CabinetsWall >36"high
Ceiling Fan
Cutting Board Storage
Drawer Dividers
Full Extension Drawers
Gourmet/Professional
Inset Doors
Island without Seating
LightingPendant
LightingRecessed
LightingUnder Cabinet
Message Center/Desk
Microwave Shelf
Open Shelving
Plug inside Cabinet
Prep Area (Multiple)
Reach-in Pantry
Soap Dispenser
Spice Storage
Stone
Trash Pullout
Unique Hardware
Warming Lights
Wine Storage

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