Graham and I decided that we are going to look into a refinancing option to help us manage our debt. Hey, it’s cheaper than moving. So we went to Home Depot to look at their kitchen department because hey, if you’re going to refinance you might as well gut your kitchen, right? Now, we’ve spent countless hours in that department over the last couple of years. We know their kitchen displays inside out and backwards. We’ve priced out base cabinets before, but thought it would be fun to actually sit with one of the employees and price out a custom kitchen. The problem is, they wouldn’t do it for us. The first employee we talked to said that we had to make an appointment because it could take an hour or two to complete the process. She said we needed to come into the store with all of our kitchen measurements (which I had in my pocket, except for the bulkheads). Graham was totally annoyed, and so was I. She didn’t even end her spiel by asking if she could set an appointment for us. We just nodded and went away to wander through the flooring aisle.
Before we left we noticed that there was another employee manning the kitchen design station, and when we asked if we could make an appointment to price out a new kitchen, she said that she needed to “qualify” us before she’d make one. She asked us what style we wanted, if we’d be doing the floor, too, if we’d be installing the cabinets ourselves, blah blah blah. And still didn’t set an appointment with “the designer”. We left wondering why they wouldn’t let us give them our money. It felt like we weren’t worth their time.
We headed over to the new RONA store instead, but the experience there was even more disappointing. Their displays were fewer in number, and there were absolutely no prices to be found. The one staff member on duty sat at her desk on the telephone for the full twenty minutes we spent in the section. We bought a snow shovel and left.
I had fun when we got home using the design tool on Mill’s Pride website. Who knows, though? This could all be futile. I should wait until we get to the bank and see if we can actually swing this. Our kitchen is really poorly designed. There are cupboards that are inaccessible and blind corners we’d like to eliminate to maximize space. Cough cough stainless steel appliances would make my YEAR cough cough. I know it can be fun to live vicariously through a home renovation project, so if we actually go through with this, I’ll be sure to post lots of pictures showing Graham wielding power tools and me pulling out my hair.
Expect lots more where this comes from if we actually go ahead with a new kitchen…
In the meantime, feel free to check out my latest writings at Suite101.com. I need to write another four articles by December 10 if I want to be eligible to become a Feature Writer. Which I do.
Before we did our kitchen we visited a bunch of places wherein the staff wouldn’t even speak to us before one of their men came out and measured our kitchen, which was crazy because we were expanding it. So – they won’t measure for new cabinets until the new room exists (even though we had architect plans). Which meant we never got further with THEM.
Bossy is too put off by the word Financing, especially when it’s REfinancing.
I don’t know if you have an IKEA in your neck of the woods, but their cabinets are supposed to be great value for the money AND they will help you put together the design, etc. Plus, they are obviously well priced. More funds to divert to the stainless appliances!!! Sorry to sound like a commercial for them, but I would give my first born child to have one here!
We had that same problem at Home Depot and Lowes. They basically blew us off. We ended up using The Great Indoors, but ultimately I think we ended up paying too much and they didn’t communicate with us as well as they should have. And I was too uninformed on some issues to even know what questions to ask. I have to redo my master bathroom next and I wish I knew the right direction to take for this kind of project.
Sigh. Renovating the kitchen. I think the only thing keeping me going right now is the promise of that. Ours is big and has so much potential, and it’s the room in the house that we spend the most time in…if you end up doing it, I’ll just have to live vicariously through you for a while…
I’d avoid the HD & Lowe’s stores. You have limited choices with their packages/products and you might not end up happy with their installation. They pay subs to come in and install and they don’t pay well at all.
So, the subs have to rush all the jobs they do to make any money. And most good ones wont’ even take their jobs.
If you want to talk to a pro, post a job on Constructiondeal.com. Its free. You can talk to as many kitchen pros as you want.