Cabinets & Water & Mortage... oh my!

Kitchen Cabinets

Well, Monday night we did get the kitchen cabinets from Surplus Warehouse. Oak ones, at that. They are lovely, and I can't wait to see them installed.

How are their prices on cabinets? Great.

So... here's a rundown of our cabinet-shopping experience:

Originally were only going to get three new cabinets & refinish the rest. Shopped at several different home improvement stores and came up with about $500 for three decent quality, but pressboard cabinets. So... averaging approx. $165 each, right?

Then FireMan remembered Surplus Warehouse.

And when he saw their prices on oak cabinets (real wood, not pressboard), we talked & talked, and negotiated, and did math, and talked, and...
decided to get new cabinets throughout the entire kitchen.

For our entire kitchen, which means 11 cabinets & a pantry (we don't have a built-in pantry, which is one of the reasons we need so many cabinets), our total was roughly $1200. So an average of $100 each. But the total includes the pantry, which was our most expensive purchase. Take that out of the equation and you're looking at an average of $85-$90 per cabinet.

*note* I don't have the breakdown with me, so our cabinets include sizes from 15 in to 42 in, base & wall. Just so you know what it includes. It's a pretty good mix, but your cost might be higher or lower depending on what specifically you need.

Considering our per-cabinet price was significantly lower than any other store we found, and the quality of the cabinets is better... I definitly think it was worth the drive.

The best part? Last night when FireMan was removing the old cabinets, the ones we were originally gonna keep? He found that the very backs of the cabinets were beginning to deteriorate. That just reinforced our confirmation that in the long run, we are gonna be much happier paying more now to get all new, higher quality cabinets.

Water

Well, the county hooked up our water. Sort of. They put the water meter 15 feet from where the water line is that connects to the house. So FireMan spent his remaining daylight hours last night digging a ditch from our water line to the new meter, so when the plumber comes out he can hook it up right away & not charge us for labor for all the digging.

This means that we might actually be able to do laundry soon! Woo hoo! I'm sure my mother (aka laundry service for the past four weeks) will also be glad for this development.

So I spent last night preparing the laundry room for painting. We had saved it for last because: a) we didn't have water anyway, b) we plan to use some of the leftover paint from the rest of the house to paint it (ie not really picky about the color of the laundry room), and c) it's been a really nice place for FireMan to store all of his junk tools while he works (which I now have to find new places for so we can get the room ready).

Mortgage

Our first mortgage payment on our new house is due next week. And it's really bad timing. Not that paying a mortgage is ever really good timing, but...
FireMan's business got it's first big job. So instead of working his usual overtime at work, he's been dedicating all of his spare time to this job. Once the job is finished & we are paid, it will be really good money. But... we have to wait for it. And in the meantime this means that FireMan's paycheck is much smaller than usual, since he usually has a good amount of overtime and this check he has none.
And... The bank still hasn't released the final check of our renovation money. Basically, in order to protect "their" asset, they give you the renovation money in stages, each time requiring proof of the work that has been done. So you have to front the money for everything, then get reimbursed. We can't get the last check until our water is hooked up & running, which is close, but not here yet. So right now we've fronted a lot of money for these renovations, and are waiting for this last check.
So long story short, things will be really tight for a few weeks, but then after that we should have a large influx of funds, both from the family business, and from our final renovation check. The timing is just a little off for our liking.

Sorry this post has been so long, but as always, thanks for checking in!