Kitchen Design Mistakes: Don’t Let These Cost You Big Bucks!

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Now let's get this hour started.

Welcome to the Round the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Thanks for joining us today.

I am Eric G. John Dudley.

Great to have you on again, my brother.

What's happening, brother?

Another day.

Always good.

Always good to see you.

And this is.

We're getting into, like, you're in my wheelhouse right here with this subject.

I love it more Yours.

We're talking kitchens.

Mine.

But you were the one throwing it together and taking my designs and trying to make it look good.

Right.

That's how it works.

And it worked well.

And you saved me plenty of times.

So that's why I say more your wheelhouse than mine.

I'm like, eric, I'm going to do this.

You're like, yeah, no, you're not.

No, you're not, man.

I tell you what, as a certified kitchen designer for what, geez, 35 years, you learn some lessons along the way, for sure.

And some of the mistakes I made over the years.

And that's how you learned.

I mean, it's so crazy when you look at how the industry has changed.

When I started, everything was hand drawings.

This was before CAD was just coming out.

But it was.

It was really rudimentary and I learned in a home center type thing at Eagle Hardware and then went from there.

And technology has changed.

I remember, though, back in the 90s, some of the stuff we have today was coming out in.

GE had an induction cooktop back then.

Yeah.

That they were trying to push.

They were just 20 years ahead of themselves on it.

Right.

It was interesting to see how that's gone.

But I wanted to talk about today.

Just our 10 pitfalls that people make out there.

And the first one is so common, but it's copying the old design from 30 plus years ago.

Yeah.

That's.

Don't do that.

Think about it.

Think about 30 years ago.

People had the microwave cart.

Yeah.

And you had the cupboard full of, like, margarine containers that were the Tupperware containers of the day.

Right.

Yeah.

Yep.

You have the toaster oven, the mixer, and that was about it.

Yeah.

Now they have retailers out there that just Sell the junk that goes in your kitchen cabinets and they have a store of it.

Yep.

You got the Sur La Tabs, the all the different companies out there, Williams Sonoma that's selling all the crazy stuff and you gotta store it someplace.

And those old designs really were usually done by the builder to save money.

Yeah.

There were boxes they didn't take into consideration any of the stuff that we have now.

Like, it's a whole different storage factor that you have to consider.

Back then, the traditional kitchen had one bank of 18 inch drawers, three or four drawers, top drawers around the rest of the kitchen.

And you were good.

I just remember the Tupperware drawer since you brought up the margarine container.

And it was always the big deep drawer on the bottom that you to dig through to try to find the one top that fit the one green something container that you were trying to put mashed potatoes in.

You're like, oh my Lord.

Oh, yeah.

And then by the time you found it, you realized the bottom had a split in it and you had to throw it away because it wasn't going to work.

Yeah.

You know, so.

And here's the thing that I think that people miss when it comes to design.

When you're looking at a price of a cabinet, let's say we're looking at that 18 inch 4 drawer kitchen cabinet.

Right.

When you're looking at that is twice the price of a traditional base cabinet that had a drawer and a door.

And so many times builders in the day, or even the remodeler before that copied the old design, based it upon.

Drawers are expensive.

You know, we.

We don't want to put a lot of them in there because that just makes it more expensive.

And these days drawers are just more efficient.

And I would rather have a drawer than two doors and a pullout even, because that's.

Yeah.

Open one door, pull out the pull out.

I'd much, much rather just grab the drawer and pull it out and have all those extra moves and things just out of the way.

Yeah.

This is a cleaner setup too for.

Right.

For the items we're talking about.

There's so many different collections.

Right.

You bring up williamsonoma.

Okay, look, that stuff goes in this drawer instead of a mix of things across two cabinets.

Right.

Or two doors.

You got your matching custom color Le Creuset 32 piece set that weighs 400 pounds in there.

And a kitchen's a personal thing.

Right.

So we say this stuff, but I'm not allowed in the kitchen.

Let me just say that.

So I had you As a designer telling me, no, you can't do that.

No, that's a bad idea.

And as far as me functioning in the kitchen doesn't happen.

So I'm probably not a good judge.

Boy, I'd sure love xyz.

Yeah.

I could tell you how to install them and what I like to build and what I like to work on and what I think looks pretty.

But as far as functionality and use, I'm out of the loop.

What's funny too, man, is that that there's some accessories out there that people now it's.

It used to be magazines, now it's Pinterest and they save their Pinterest stuff or whatever.

And some of those accessories have not stood the test of time.

Like the tilt out drawer front always runs into the sink.

It never works.

And so there was a lot of that stuff that you would have to.

You'd sell 20 of them and then people would come back and say, Johnny, can you take that, pull out, out that tip down sink tray?

It doesn't work.

Yeah.

And makes no sense.

They broke a lot to that too.

So that's the first one on our top list of 10 here.

The next one is one that if you're on a budget, you can do it.

But really, if you're going to go out and do it right, buying different brands of appliances that don't match is a big mistake because it's not just the white appliances that we had in the 70s that was just.

It didn't matter if they didn't match.

Nowadays the handles match, the stainless steel has to match all the different things.

And if you buy the Samsung range and the LG fridge.

Yeah, they don't look right.

It looks haphazard.

Different stainless, right?

Yep.

And then some companies have their no touch stainless, which is a gray, not a stainless, it's a painted finish or whatever.

Is it even really stainless?

I don't know.

That's what they call it.

So I'll go with it.

That's what they call it.

The point being is there's so many shades to each of those.

And yeah, if you don't stick to the same one, you're gonna end up with a. I thought that it looked gray in the store.

Yeah, no, it's different.

And now with smart home appliances, it's even more because the refrigerator and the dishwasher and the range and the microwave are talking together within their system.

This is so crazy.

That frightens me.

But yes, it's true.

The things that make a difference though, when you're talking smart appliances, though, it's nice to go, hey, we're having people over tonight.

I better jump on my phone and turn on the extra ice to make extra ice to make sure that's going and all of those different things that you can do.

Smart appliances.

I love it when the laundry's done and it sends me a thing on my phone.

I don't have to keep going in, going.

Is the dryer done?

Is the dryer done?

Is the dryer done?

It saves time.

It saves time.

So I think those things are cool.

You're seeing now that for people that can't cook, like you, Johnny, for instance, you can go in and look at the directions and go, okay.

And literally punch in on the touch screen on the range.

Okay, I'm cooking this.

And it'll say, oh, the best way to cook that in this oven is this.

It'll set the temperature and tell you the time.

And then you can throw the box of Stouffers in there and have yourself some lasagna.

I go to my phone, dude, and I say, deliver me a burrito.

There you go.

It's game over.

There you go.

That works.

If I'm feeling frisky, all order Chinese.

Oh, can you get Chinese in Colombia?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

There's some good ones.

It's hit and miss, right?

But okay.

But is.

Yeah, Thai is a little harder to find.

There's a lot of Vietnamese, a lot of sushi.

It's normal.

We're normal down here, dude.

It's pretty metropolitan.

I didn't know.

I haven't been down there yet.

So it's one of those things that.

That you go, okay, it's 20 years ago when you'd get Thai food in the Pacific Northwest.

It was hit and miss back then, too.

Yeah.

Ty is probably the hardest to find down here, and that bums me out because I love it.

And then you go to Tacoma and go to Indochine and let it ruin you.

Oh, yeah, because it's so good.

Wow.

Man.

I hadn't thought of that place in a while.

Thanks for ruining it.

Right?

That place is so good.

So good.

So that's another one.

When we come back here, I'm going to talk about probably the most expensive mistake you can make.

And if you want to find out more about us or if you want to get some more tips like this, send us a message over to roundthehouse online.com and we're there to help.

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At our website@aroundthehousonline.com we'll be right back after these important messages.

Don't go anywhere.

What's up?

This is Sticks it in ya and.

Satchel from Steel Panther and you are.

Listening to around the House with Eric G. Yeah, we love Eric G. And you should, too.

Welcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Thanks for joining us.

Johnny and I are sitting here talking about those top 10 mistakes or pitfalls you can make when planning and designing and installing that new kitchen.

And I think the most expensive one here is this one.

Not hiring a kitchen designer to design out the kitchen.

Maybe you go and grab your pad of paper or you jump on and try to have AI do it for you.

This can get expensive when things don't fit.

No bias coming from the certified kitchen design.

But here's the thing.

Even good designers make mistakes.

Go to the countertops on this one.

When you said most expensive.

No, but go ahead.

Yeah, that's the next one here, brother.

This is one that I think is a huge mistake that people make because what they'll do is they go, okay, I'm going to go in and, oh, I'm just going to get a pad of paper, run down to my home improvement store or run down to the knockdown import shop and I'm going to get these cabinets off the shelf, put them together or whatever.

And then don't realize you have to put fillers up against walls because the wall's not square or how come that corner cabinet doesn't fit.

Yeah.

And all of those things that you think about it, a kitchen designer, if they go to school, they go to college, for instance, and they take their four year design degree when they get out in the real world, it takes them a couple years to be really proficient, to be really good at what they do.

And you as a homeowner have little or no hope to do that the first time around.

It's going to be expensive when you have to go, oh, we're not going to give you your money back on this cabinet.

So you got to order four more to make this work.

Yeah, a designer would have been less expensive.

Not to mention, you're going to leave out so much.

Like you said, filler strips, scribe that.

Right.

The list goes on.

Yeah, there's so many pieces to a good cabinet installed that generally speaking, 90% of homeowners just aren't even aware of.

Oh, that, oh, that's how you got, like you said, the, the corner lazy Susan to fit in there correctly.

Well, that's because there's a filler strip six feet away from that makes that possible and makes it tie together with blah, blah, blah and line up with the uppers and that.

Yeah, it's.

Here's one of the best.

Hates admitting that, but, you know, you won my heart decades ago.

I'm like, okay, that.

Yeah, there's a difference.

Well, and Johnny, here's what can happen too.

It's the knowledge.

Right?

Yeah.

If you order plywood cabinetry boxes here, I'm going to pay a little more and get plywood.

Plywood is not a consistent thickness.

If you put a mic on it and get it.

I have had custom cabinets made or even manufactured cabinets made out of plywood.

And if that plywood is maybe a 16th thicker or thinner per panel.

Yeah.

That adds up on a 10, 12, 14 foot run.

Yep.

I have had it where just the veneer thickness throws it off three quarters of an inch down at the other.

Side and it's hanging over the better.

Have that under it's past your wall.

By an inch by the time you get there.

Why is this cabinetry in the hallway?

That's not good.

Nope.

Or it's going between the two walls.

Where's that?

What are we going to do with that extra inch that needs to be in there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so I've had to go both ways.

I mean, I had one where I had.

The client was so mad.

I don't want these big three Inc. Fillers.

They won't be there by the time we get done.

And because it was an older house, by the time it was there, it was almost too close.

We were almost shaving drywall to get it to fit in there.

Yeah.

And we lost two and a quarter inches out of that run because it was long.

And that gets.

That will bite you.

And there's a thousand things like that you got to be careful with.

Yeah.

You just say shaving drywall.

I'm like, I don't miss it that much.

No, it's tough.

And then you gotta get into all the building codes and stuff out there of somebody puts the range up against the wall and it's.

Well, you need to have a.

At least 6 inches there between the side of the cooking surface and the wall to not catch the wall on fire and all of those.

I want a shelf to put my microwave on over the top of the stove.

Well, no, you can't do that because that's a burning surface over the top of a cooking surface.

So all these Things that, that you can save money on, that you just miss those critical things and that can get expensive.

And look, a kitchen remodel period is already expensive.

Don't make it worse on yourself.

Yes.

You know what I mean?

That's like me saying I'm gonna build my own car.

No, I'm not.

In fact, I'm not even gonna do the brakes on my car.

Like they're brakes and they stop you and save your life.

I'll just stick to what you're good at.

I don't know.

I'll do my own brakes because I've done them enough that.

So have I.

That's why I don't do them now.

Yeah, there we go.

There we go.

When you think about it with the kitchen like that, it's just there's so many things that can go sideways and it hurts your schedule as well if you have to wait six more weeks for new cabinets.

Yeah.

That's a big issue with kitchen.

Well, with cabinetry.

Right.

One glitch, one mistake, one manufacturer malfunction, whatever it is.

Yeah.

It's not run down and grab another piece.

It's.

You're waiting six or eight weeks, depending.

And that's brutal.

And my favorite one, the drawer that opens into the side of the appliance.

It only opens an inch.

That's another one.

I don't miss it.

I don't miss it either.

And that's the thing.

That's it.

That's number three on this list.

Now the next one here, I'm gonna.

I'm gonna fire you up here.

Refacing instead of a full remodel.

No.

Might as well burn it down.

Yeah.

I am not.

I am not a kitchen refacing person.

Yeah.

I can't even rant.

There's just not.

Words.

Yes.

Man.

You are not saving money.

I don't know how to be, like, gentle about this.

You're not saving money and it's not going to look good, so don't do it.

That's all I really can say.

Yeah.

And then, then the other fatal mistake people make, and you and I talked about this earlier, but taking that 30 year old kitchen, pulling off the tile countertops and putting quartz back on it, because guess what, guys, when you go, oh, that looks beautiful, boy, I hate these cabinets.

Now you're stuck refacing those cabinets because that quartz is probably going to have to be thrown away when they install that in silicone, those solid surfaces down, it's not coming back up because you've got holes cut for cooktops and sinks.

Those break.

They just do.

You're going to be throwing.

You're paying to throw that away.

So you're literally going to be paying hundreds of dollars to put that in the dumpster to haul it to the landfill.

And it's just garbage at that point.

So my solution many times to people is when they go, oh, I'm thinking about putting the new countertops on, and then down the road, do the kitchen.

It's, please save your money.

Unless you just got money to burn, then go ahead.

No one has money to burn, my friend.

No one has money to burn.

All people do.

There's people out there, like, yeah, there are.

Ah, let's just swap the countertops.

I'll worry about the rest of it in three years.

Okay.

All right.

I mean, that's something I do, to be honest.

To be fair.

And to be honest, I might go that road because I'm that well, but because I'm like, that's your.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I'll deal with that in three years.

Yeah, that's.

But here's the thing.

That's because you're doing the work, though, right?

You're going.

I'm going to rip it out and do it, and it won't be that big a deal.

It's a value.

When you're paying, litter it before you blow 6k on a granite countertop.

And at least know that if you are going to redo the kitchen in three years, you're just throwing $6,000 away.

And if you can accept that and sleep at night, head on, man.

It's your kitchen.

It's your kitchen, your money.

And you know, it's good for the granite supplier that'll be out there in three years doing it all over again for you.

Yeah, that's the key.

All right, let's run out to break.

We've got another one here coming back.

That's going to be a good one.

And you're going to be.

You're going to laugh about this one because it's one of my biggest pet peeves.

We'll talk about that just as soon as around the House returns.

To find out more about around the House, head to our website, aroundthehouse online.com.

We will be right back.

Welcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Hey, if you want to find out more about us, head over to our website.

Beautiful one.

The Johnny Dudley here.

Invented, created, beautified, and made smart.

That's aroundthehouse online dot com.

We've been talking here about the top 10 mistakes you can make when designing and remodeling that kitchen.

And we've been going down through the list here.

This next one is one of my pet peeves.

If you're listening to the show, bear with me because we're going to talk about this again.

But is messing up that vent hood replacement or it's not even there.

And this is one of my biggest pet peeves, because that cooking surface really is.

It's your most polluting thing you can do to the indoor air in your house is that cooktop.

And you want to get that stuff out of there.

To be honest, it doesn't matter if it's a gas one or an induction one that's super green, you're still cooking stuff.

There's still lots of gases, lots of moisture, lots of chemicals from cooking food you want out of the house.

So if you've got that one that we call the forehead duster, it's that Bro Newtone one that kicks it right out the front, right into your face, that recirculates.

That thing does you no good.

Get rid of it.

It's pretty and it's not that expensive.

I know.

And I wish, I wish we could ban those for sale in the United States because they're absolutely pointless decoration.

It is a metal hood liner that might slow down a kitchen fire for a few minutes until you get the fire extinguisher.

That's about all it's good for.

You could just hang a painting there instead, right?

Oh, so bad.

And.

And you need a properly sized exhaust hood.

You do.

It needs to go all the way out, not into the attic space, but all the way out through the roof, through the sidewall outside.

And you need to size it for the cooking surface you have.

So now if you've got a nice super tight house that's energy efficient, you need makeup air to bring back in so you're not sucking in the carbon monoxide from whatever's venting outside.

So there's some science to this.

Make sure you're doing it right.

Or if you've got that 70s house that just leaks like a sieve, not that big a deal.

You think about that.

Just piss the hibachi out back, you go yeah.

You know, not that big a deal.

Houses that breathe, you know, not that big a deal.

Houses that don't.

It can be deadly.

So you want to make sure on that.

Yeah.

There's rules for a reason.

Yeah.

And here's the nice thing.

When you have a properly sized hood and it's nasty outside, it's raining, or you're.

You just want to throw that steak on that cast iron pan, you're not going to smell in the rest of the house for the next two weeks because you gas the house out or cooking that salmon, you know, and you don't want the fishy smell around.

That's the worst, dude.

Yeah, that.

And just throw the vent to the attic and call it good.

So your bedroom upstairs smells like steak all the time.

So bad.

Yeah.

And not only do you get the grease in the attic, that's all over everything up there because that filter doesn't do that good a work.

Now you got the mold and everything else up in the attic.

And man, I tell you what, if you want to see an expensive price, go get mold abatement for your attic.

Put that on your bingo card.

That's expensive.

That's super expensive.

So take the time, do it right.

Get a good one.

The good ones are quieter.

I mean, I did one, I was just walking the other day through a neighborhood and oh, I remember I remodeled that house.

Yeah, I'm that guy.

You're the same.

Driving through Tacoma, I remember when I did that house.

But we did one of the flush vent hoods.

It's flush with the ceiling up on a 8 foot high ceiling.

And they had a remote control and it was wider than the cook cooktop up there.

But the fan was built into the attic space, so they didn't have this hood hanging down and in their view and everything else.

But kind of cool when you can do that.

There's so many different hood options out there.

You know, there's a good one.

One of the biggest, most expensive mistakes people make as well is when they do those wood hoods, you know, the decorative wood.

And then if you're not a good designer or you're trying to design it yourself, that wood wood hood has to be wider than the cooking surface because otherwise you got a piece of wood over the top of a flame.

Never good.

No, not the best idea.

So, for example, to give you guys a clean picture of this, if you've got that 48 inch range, many times you need a 54 inch hood to go over the top of that because the inside liner has to be at least as wide and deep as the hood.

So there's some math involved there.

And you don't want to have the kitchen done, go get your final inspection.

And I've seen this happen.

Not on my jobs, but I've seen this happen because I got the phone call, how do we fix this?

Later, when the designer quit, and I had to go in and rescue it.

And I was just going to say, now we're back to kitchen designer, because now you got to, what, cut an upper cabinet in half to fit your range.

You're ordering two new cabinets and a $6,000 wood range hood and liner that you need to do or more.

That's.

Yeah, that's the stuff you miss.

Yep, that's the stuff that I don't miss at all.

So.

All right, next one here on the list.

Using the wrong countertop materials.

And now I'll say using tile as a countertop.

I hate tile countertops.

Yeah.

I hate putting them in.

I hate having to clean the grout.

I hate tearing them out.

They're the worst.

It's just something that should be left in history as a bad idea.

I did it.

We've all done it.

Yeah, I've done it.

Yep.

Not a fan.

Not a fan.

I mean, even that, you know, even with a 16 inch, 16th of an inch gap.

Right.

So you don't have a big grout line to clean.

It's still just dirty and bad.

It's just like.

It's a bad idea.

Solid surface all the way around.

And I know where you're going next with the butcher block, so go ahead.

Yep.

Yeah.

I mean, so many people.

Hey, I.

You know, and again, I get people on budgets, right?

You know, they go out and say, oh, I'm tearing out this laminate that's destroyed.

Or that old Corian that's.

That's destroyed in there that they just.

It's tired and it's old.

They run down to Ikea or their home improvement center and buy some butcher block tops and get out the circular saw and the screw gun and put it in.

But the problem is, is wood and water do not mix when it comes to butcher blocks.

They will split, warp.

And then I see people going to put like their.

I put eight coats of Jim Verathane on it, and it's.

It'll be fine.

Well, guys, your food's gonna touch that.

So if you're gonna put a coating on it, make sure it's a food safe coating.

I don't want the gym stuff in my.

In My sandwich that you just made on the.

On the countertop.

Yeah.

Salami with varnish.

Ah, yeah.

What's the dipping sauce?

Spar varnish.

Yeah, It'll be great.

Yeah, super.

It'll be great.

Here's a glass of turpentine.

Oh.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, as he used to say.

Oh, you're right.

Way to go, Mary Poppins.

Look at you.

Housing chorus in fifth grade.

I remember.

You remember.

I think we all were by force.

But really, that's.

That's the mistake people make.

And then they go, oh, wow, it's split, it warped, it did all these crazy things.

And it's wood.

It's wood.

It's gonna move.

It's gonna move when you get it wet and it's gonna get destroyed.

So I've seen people do it.

And here's the other thing, too.

When you get into marbles and things like that in Europe, people have used marble for millennia for surfaces, and they fully understand that someone that spills wine on it is gonna totally stain.

And it's just part of the patina.

Our American culture here in the US is not designed for that.

People want it to look like the brand new car when it came off the lot.

Perfect.

Yeah.

And when you put a soft living finish down, it usually doesn't go well.

So for you folks out there that want it to, like, look perfect, find a quartz or porcelain.

I like porcelain a little bit better because it's more durable and you'll be fine.

Porcelain by far, I think, is the most durable surface you can put down there in slab form.

You know, it's more durable than granite.

It's non porous.

You're not going to hurt it.

It'll take a beating and keep on ticking.

So don't you put travertine on the floor.

Oh, man.

You would get people with acidic water.

And I saw this happen twice.

They did the travertine tile in about nine years.

The water was hitting the shower wall and it wore through the travertine.

And they were seeing the mastic come through from where the water wore through it.

Yeah, I mean, it's beautiful stuff.

I put a ton of it in.

But don't put it on your kitchen.

Floor, Vicky, or anything polished as well.

No polished tiles because that gets slick.

Yeah.

So, yeah, not good.

Not good.

Well, we're running out of time on this one here.

Let's wrap this up when we come back, Johnny, because I Tell you what, we got a bunch to go through.

We still got four more to do here on our list.

So we'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

Don't change that topic.

All right, Welcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you want to find out more about us, make sure you follow us on social Media.

Find our two YouTube channels.

Follow us there.

We've got great content coming up out there as well with a whole bunch of new stuff coming up.

You can find that all@aroundthehousonline.com we're working through our list here, Johnny.

Of our top 10 mistakes you can make when designing and remodeling your kitchen, the next one is an amazing one because I watch this happen every day.

I'm in a group called Ask the cabinet maker on Facebook and Buddy Corbin clay created.

There's 40, 50,000 people in this group.

Right.

95% Of the cabinetry problems that are in there are not from the brands.

You see it Home Depot.

It's not from Lowe's, it's not from Ikea.

It's from air quotes.

Custom manufacturers out there.

The custom cabinet manufacturer.

So many people out there assume custom has any bearing on the word quality.

Yeah.

And it doesn't.

You have to consider what these guys are up against.

Right.

Like it's one thing.

I don't know how to pitch all this.

The point being is that you're talking about a five man team up against a craft made like they gotta cut costs somewhere.

Right?

Yeah.

And that means maybe their blades aren't as sharp, maybe their saws aren't as straight.

Maybe they are in a hurry because they got four orders.

And I mean.

Exactly.

Margins are tight.

Help us thin it.

The finisher just quit and the new kid that was boxing cabinets is now the new finisher and has never sprayed in his life.

Right.

And now he's supposed to be staining some dark maple job that he's never done before.

And it's where it goes.

It's where it goes.

And so many times you think about and people rip on all those big box manufacturers like that.

Right.

Well, they realize that time is money and callbacks cost them money.

So they have the CNC machine that takes the unit of plywood.

Yeah.

That is pre finished and is cutting pieces down to the 64th of an inch and kicking out where you got the guy showing up on a Tuesday morning that watched the basketball game last night that probably had six, six Beers too many.

And is trying to focus on his tape measure to make sure he cuts the box correctly on the table saw.

Sometimes it doesn't go as planned.

I'll tell you what I mean.

And we say this, but we've dealt with some really good custom shops, you and I both, a hundred percent.

So they are out there.

So let's not bag on all of them, but be forewarned and do some research.

Right.

Before you just go buying some snake oil.

Peddler.

I'm a custom cabinet maker.

For how long?

And who are your clients?

And give me some references and.

Right.

Custom cabinet, custom cabinet shop.

Been around for 20 years.

I'll buy that.

Yeah, yeah.

But their weakest point is usually the fish.

They got it quit some big shop and just started two years ago and is doing custom cabinets.

Yeah.

Hold off on that one.

Yeah.

Finishes where the problems always pop up.

Right?

Yeah.

Because finishing is not easy.

It's not.

And space alone that you need to do it correctly is.

Puts half the guys out of the ball.

Out of the.

Absolutely right.

Some of my warning signs that I see out there is when they tell the homeowner to go to the Home Depot or the Lowe's or the Menards or whatever, grab some stain and recreate the stain color and bring it into me and tell me what you got.

Oh, yeah.

If they're buying the finish off the shelf of their local store, that's the next one.

If they're running down to Home Depot, Lowe's, even Sherwin Williams off the shelf and they're buying it, that's a no go for me.

Can't just wipe some Minwax on there and seal it in the clear.

Call again.

Oh, dude.

So horrible.

And these are the things that I see out there.

And it's just three times a week I can say there is somebody with this awful cabinet that I'm just like, oh, it's so horrible.

I feel so bad for him.

And two more warning signs before we jump over to the next one here that I see.

When you order that cabinet and it goes into production, that cabinet package, you should have a sample that you've approved.

That's.

You should have a stain color or a paint color you've approved.

There should be drawings that you approve.

So many times I see people do that.

And here's the biggest one.

If they're staining cabinets for you and they're going to stain them in the field, you hired the wrong cabinet shop.

I can't tell you how many times I see here's my white oak kitchen that's raw getting installed.

You can see that they're drywallers and finishers, and so it's just soaking up all the moisture.

And I guarantee you, you're going to have warped doors.

They're going to say it was installed in an improper situation because of the humidity.

That's a job site because you've got tile people in there.

It's the highest humidity of the entire build.

And you never want to put unfinished cabinets into a house, period.

No.

And the unfortunate part is there are those outlet places where you can go and buy the raw, stick them in.

You're like, oh, we saved 2,000 bucks.

No, actually, you burned 8,000, because you're gonna be replacing them in three years.

And then the other problem is that you're bolting all these cabinets together.

Right.

And now the edges touching aren't finished.

So that's just gonna soak moisture in.

If you have that little.

The dishwasher is always steaming, you know, when it's drying.

So there's always humidity there.

These are all those problems you really got to be careful of, and it's part of the process there.

So if they're sending you unfinished cabinets, that's a hard no.

If they're.

If they can't get a good sized sample, make sure that it's the exact color that you've got.

I see so many people that will place the order, though.

Yeah, we got the order placed.

Really?

What would Species.

Oh, we haven't figured that out yet.

What do you mean you haven't figured that out yet?

Yeah, so get it all written out, have it under contract, have samples, and then you can compare that because you need to be able to say, hey, this is what it's supposed to look like.

And what shows up needs to look the same.

I can save you a ton of headaches with that now.

And if it doesn't, there's another eight weeks.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

If not more, because they're going to take three or four weeks to debate the repair.

That's the biggest one.

Next one on here.

Hiring the lowest bidder for design and install up there, the low price.

I tell you what, there are some great cabinet installers that do spec house kitchens that can be in and they can put a kitchen and two bathrooms in a day.

Yep.

They're in and out.

Yep.

There's no moldings.

There's no crown molding.

It's very simple.

And if you've got all of these details stacked, crowns, recessed, this.

You better Have a craftsperson in there to put that together because those details matter.

And if you get the wrong person, they just put up inch and a quarter scribe around everything.

It looks horrible.

It looks horrible.

And you're gonna, yeah, you're gonna spend a bunch of money, whatever.

Yeah, I, I'm just gonna bite my tongue on this one.

Never mind.

I'm crossing my arms and going home.

Yeah.

It just gets expensive.

It gets expensive, guys.

That's one of the biggest one.

And then the next one here, I think it's important is using inexpensive hardware, especially when it comes to cabinet handles.

When you're drilling a hole in a drawer face and it might be a metric size versus inches or whatever, get what you're going to get and put it on there.

And yeah, they can be expensive.

But it's the difference between the $2 pop metal one off your home improvement store that lasts a year and now you're driving around trying to figure out what can I fill those holes with to make it work because they failed.

Yeah, spend the money and get the good stuff.

Yeah, it makes a difference.

And yeah.

And right.

And yeah, the sizes aren't always exactly the same or they're only the same for a year and then you go back next year and you're like, I wanna know.

Yeah, it's an eighth inch off.

That's a, that's a lot of holes.

You know how many handles I've tried to bend into place and then rip the handle because I'm jamming the screw in there.

Because I want.

Yeah, though it happens.

Yeah, it does.

So get the good stuff because that's the wearing part of the kitchen.

That's the part that the oils, the grease, the rings are going to bounce off of the, that kind of stuff.

So plan ahead, get the good stuff.

It will last you a lifetime if you get that stuff.

And then the last one here on the list here, brother, before we go, is assuming open concept kitchens fit all lifestyles.

Knocking down the walls and moving the load bearing walls and all that stuff just so people can see you in there.

And if you're entertaining, maybe you want to be able to shut that door and leave the dirty kitchen so you can be out entertaining versus spending half the time cleaning up that kitchen for your dinner party.

Sometimes having that kitchen around the corner is not a bad thing.

Yeah, that's a valid point actually.

I mean I love, I, I love the kitchen being open.

And it's true.

Everybody hoards in the kitchen, right?

Or at an island or a bar or whatever.

And it's fun.

But you're right, you know, when the parties, when you're done eating, there's this big mess there.

And there's always like two people in the kitchen cleaning that.

You should be visiting, but you gotta clean the kitchen because it's horrifying.

Yeah.

If it's around the corner, you think about it.

Yeah, we'll deal with that later.

Let's go play cards.

Yeah.

You think of like Frank Lloyd Wright, we got to go out and wrap this one up.

But Frank Lloyd Wright, you go in his kitchens, you go, wow.

Not impressive on many of them.

It's because they were utility room.

They were no different than the laundry room back in the day.

And only into his later years did he start doing stuff that is what I would call decorative and part of the house.

It's pretty amazing.

Johnny, thanks for being a part of this one today, man.

I always appreciate it.

It's always great to hear your take on it from the installer contractor point of view versus the designer point of view.

Yes, sir.

Thanks for having me, brother.

Always fun, brother.

I'm Eric G. You've been listening to around the House.