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Cabinet Hunting (No Store Left Unturned)

First of all- holy cow. We just had a crazy earthquake a few minutes ago. Very strong! It was completely unexpected for our area (we’ve never had a strong one before). The epicenter was right outside of Richmond (only about 35 miles from our house) and it registered about a 5.9! We’ve even heard from friends up in NY who felt it. Miraculously nothing fell off the walls or broke, but the whole house shook violently and it was insanely loud (we all gathered under a steel-enforced doorway and stared at each other). So yes, we were all shaken up by it but very thankful that we’re ok and hope that everyone else who experienced it is too.

Now for the cabinets. We promised to share all of the other places we hunted/solutions we considered when it came to the office built-ins (mentioned here) – because our thrift store cabinets definitely weren’t the first things we found. And we figure since not everyone can stumble upon six cabs for six bucks (uh, we never even thought that was possible until this recent discovery) we hoped that detailing a few other options that we considered might help anyone else who can’t find secondhand cabinets that work for them. So here we go, on a virtual cabinet-hunting whirlwind of sorts…

Our first stop was actually the Richmond Habitat for Humanity ReStore, but we didn’t find much in the way of cabinets. We did find that Clara loves the breeze from a big industrial fan.

6Dollar Clara And Fan

And that they had this crazy big leather / zebra-print lounger thing if anyone’s interested. Tres practical for storytime, no?

6Dollar ReStore Leather Cha

The cabinet situation though was almost enough to make us give up on the ReStore entirely (everything was too tall or too wide and we couldn’t find six identical cabinets (or three identical double-wide-ones) that would work to make our wall of built-ins look related enough (and not like a mismatched secondhand cabinet sale). They did put us on a notification list in case anything that matched our needs came in, which was nice (never knew they did that).

So next we dragged the kiddos (yes, Burger included) to Lowe’s and Home Depot to see if their stock cabinets could do the trick. They had a lot of affordable-ish options for unfinished cabinets in a slew of shapes and sizes. Our rough math put us at about a $300 investment for three double-wide cabinets (to create left, middle, and right cabinets with two open spaces for our chairs along the built-in wall like this). Then we could have just painted them and topped them with a wood counter, which wouldn’t have been too bad for a wall of built-ins and a nice long two-person desk (around $400 for two desks or something custom built-in along an entire wall sounded about right I guess).

6Dollar Clara Burger HD

The only hitch in our plan were the cabinet sizes. Base cabinets were the perfect depth for a standard counter (24″) but their toe-kick made them too high (35″) for our chairs (27″). We contemplated adding casters to our chairs to make them higher, but weren’t sold on the idea (especially because 2″ casters might be cool, but 4″ casters would be a bit much for our chairs). So we looked at 30″ upper cabinets instead, but at only 12″ deep it’d make for either a super narrow desk or cabinets that floated a foot away from the wall. Definitely something we could remedy by buying additional lumber, but again, not ideal.

6Dollar Lowes Cabinets

Then it was time to do some Craigslist surfing, but nothing turned up in the way of cabinets that would be the right depth or height off the bat (and we worried about sacrificing stability and making things look a little – uh, shady- by trying to cut something down or build it out). If we had found something super cheap or almost perfect (like our much-shorter-than-average $6 ReStore cabinets) we would definitely have pounced on them. Even for around $100 for the set. But nothing with the right dimensions came up after a few consecutive weeks of checking back.

Then we turned to Ana-White.com to see if we could find any awesome plans to build something ourselves (like the plans that inspired our giant console table build). There were definitely a few workable options, but we realized that a lot of the plans would cost more than $30 per cabinet (thanks to lumber, hardware, hinges, and interior fittings) – and because we noticed that many secondhand cabinets on craigslist and in thrift stores were under $30 (and some were priced waaaay under that), it made us wonder if we’d actually spend more building something than retrofitting something existing.

Next we checked out Ikea. From their website, it looked like we could build their cabinets without a toe-kick, making them the perfect height (around 28-30″ instead of 35″+, which would be too tall for our existing chairs (even if we added casters to them). Score! And we all know Ikea has tons of customization options, so it was starting to feel like a perfect solution… even if it was a bit pricier – roughly about $500 if I did my math right, since we definitely wanted doored cabinets over open shelving (for Clara reasons along with the general desire to very roughly mimic the look of the base cabinets from our built-ins – though not exactly). We were actually pretty invested in this being a good solution, so I started mapping it out using their online planner tool (technically for kitchens) since we were planning a stop there after our visit with Cat, Travis, Elsa and their new son Edison.

6Dollar Ikea Floorplan

But that trip to Ikea never happened, thanks to our decision to give the Alexandria Habitat For Humanity ReStore a chance while out of town. Though even that trip started off somewhat discouraging. They certainly had more cabinets than our ReStore in Richmond…

6Dollar At Restore

…but the prices weren’t necessarily screaming “take me home” at first. Yowsa.

6Dollar Other Cabinet Price

Of course, that was until we came across the ones in the very back with $1 stickers on them that screamed “You’d be an idiot not to take us home. We’re six friggin dollars!” And the rest, as they say, is history.

6Dollar All Six Cabinets

Well, not totally history – there’s still lots to do to these puppies. But that’s a story (and a project) for another day. Someday soon hopefully. You know Sherry and her propensity to paint anything that doesn’t move…

So in summary, it was harder than we thought to find cabinets that were deep enough (24″) and not too tall (over 30″) and we ended up checking two thrift stores, two home improvement stores, an online build-it-yourself website, a Swedish warehouse, and the list of a man named Craig. The cost of the project ranged from around $300-$500 at most places that actually had things that might work (not including a countertop), which was definitely making us sweat a little. Custom built-ins can obviously add function and value to a house, but unlike adding a patio to a monkey-grass-riddled side yard, it somehow felt a bit more like a rushed gamble to spend half of 1K on a desk, at least for cheap-os like us (who built our current desk from an old bathroom door). So we’re glad we took our time and eventually came across something around 95% cheaper. The lesson: hold out if you can, and leave no stone (or store) unturned (unvisited?). Whenever we dive in too soon we get all nervous and twitchy and sometimes even lay awake wondering if we rushed into something that might not be the best thing for our house/lifestyle in the long run. So there you go.

What have you hunted down after visiting a bunch of stores or googling a ton of options? Is there some sort of magic number (like five places) that usually results in a major score? Have you been searching for something for months or even years that continues to allude you? Isn’t it funny how the perfect thing is always in the last place you look? Probably because once you find it you finally stop looking.

Psst- The lady wife did a fun little interview about how our blog has grown and revealed a lot of behind the scenes blogging and book-writing info for anyone interested right here (it’s long, but full of tons of juicy stuff, at least in my humble husband opinion). We’re also over on BabyCenter talking about a sweet little boy’s nursery that we crashed (coolest light fixture we’ve seen in a long time).

Comments

    • Sarah says

      yep – you did a great job. i love how you didn’t acknowledge the somewhat awkward ‘this too will end’ comment. i’ve only used the ‘this too shall pass’ comment for unpleasant things….anyways… You’re such a pro :)

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw you guys are so sweet. Thanks so much! I was totally having one of those “was-that-completely-terrible?” moments after it was over. So glad it sounded ok.

      xo,
      s

    • Karla says

      I listened to it too and you did a great job!! I was also proud of how you didn’t address that could be awkward moment :)

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Shucks, you guys are so sweet. I felt like I blanked out and didn’t even remember what I said, so it’s so nice to hear that I didn’t completely bomb!

      xo,
      s

  4. Julia @ Chris loves Julia says

    1. So glad you are all okay!

    2. What a steal! What an adventure!

    3. This title sounds very King Triton to me. You know, the part when Ariel is missing and he wants the search party to leave no part of the ocean unturned. Hahahha… Just me?!

    Reply

  5. Britt says

    So glad you guys are ok! I hope Burger didn’t freak out too much (my dog was freaking out and we live about an hour south of Montreal Canada). We heard it up here (windows, beds and glass shook)

    Reply

  8. Molly says

    Cabinet SCORE! Those are going to be great. I recently had my own cabinet hunt for laundry room uppers, and found mine at my Habitat Restore. And I sprayed them, because I too paint everything that doesn’t move.

    Thanks for all of the inspiration!

    Reply

  9. Deb Della Rosa says

    Listened to the podcast. Small world — Martine Resnick is married to one of my Emory b-school classmates. Great job! Glad you all are okay in Richmond. Felt it in Southern Jersey — rocked our house. Crazy. Any word on how UVa fared (my undergrad alma mater, too)?

    Reply

  10. Lindsey says

    We felt it here in Raleigh, NC. Crazy!!

    Glad you guys are safe, I immediately checked to see if you guys were ok as soon as I heard how close it was to Richmond! Now get ready for Irene!!

    Reply

  11. Nikki Kelly says

    Apparently there was an earthquake in Colorado Springs last night too! I live in Denver (just 45 minutes north) but I read about it on Facebook this morning! Time to stock up on bottled water and cans of soup!

    Reply

  12. Annie D says

    Felt the earthquake here in Raleigh, NC. Scary here….could only imgaine how it felt up there! Glad to know you guys are ok!

    Reply

  16. Caity says

    So glad you guys are ok! You’re definitely loved…I’m really enjoying listening to your interview at work, and I agree: the reason you guys are so successful is because you’re so family oriented, down-to-earth, and sweet! Cannot wait for this book!

    Reply

  17. Megan says

    Wow! So you guys must have been on my page today. First of all, after I heard about the earthquake near Richmond I rushed over to your site to see if you guys and everything was okay. Then I read all about the deal you found which was awesome! Even though I didn’t buy any cabinets I did find a pretty retro and cool looking magazine rack at the Goodwill today. I’ve been looking a magazine rack for months but didn’t want to spend a lot and really just couldn’t find the right one until today and it was only $3. Yay me!! Then I got on Pinterest who would have guessed ;) and found the exact same retro looking magazine rack re-finished. So now I’m going back in forth between glossy white like I originally thought or the glossy orange that was on Pinterest. Decisions decisions… Then you mentioned where Sherry had done an interview on blogging and such and I was just thinking today I wish I could pick John and Sherry’s brain on how they got started and how everything works because I really would love to have a blog myself. I’ve been storing up posts for the last couple of weeks and the majority of my posts have been on projects for our baby boy’s room, who is due in November. So I definitely will have to check out your post over on BabyCenter as well. See I told you I felt like you guys wrote to me today!

    Reply

  18. Lindsay@Tell'er All About It says

    Glad you guys are okay after the earthquake! Please take care!

    Btw, I had almost the same experience when I was re-doing my laundry room a year or so ago. I went to the Habitat ReStore and a other building supply stores and found that old cabinetry was slam-damn expensive!

    http://tellerallaboutit.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/airing-our-dirty-laundry-chapter-2-cabinetry-conundrum/

    …what a great find for $6!!! That’s amazing!!! Can’t wait to see what it looks like!

    Reply

  19. Kate says

    “Isn’t it funny how the perfect thing is always in the last place you look? Probably because once you find it you finally stop looking.”

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! That cracked me up!

    I just found a hutch after looking for the last few months. After nothing turned up on Craigslist that met my criteria (a basic build that could be modernized with a new paint job, glass doors on top, not too large/deep for the space, and CHEAP) I had considered buying (nothing in stores was cheap enough for me) and building based on Ana’s plans (I had the perfect designs all laid out, but it would be pricy and I’m not too good with building yet).

    I finally found a good on on Sunday for $50, yay! Now I just need to work on getting the cigarette smell out (the house didn’t smell like smoke, so I’m not sure why it smells so much…) and painting. I intend to leave the (nice wood) inside alone and paint the outside (scarred and worn) white, but if I can’t get rid of the smell I’ll have to coat the whole thing.

    Reply

    • Kate says

      Duh… Forgot to mention that I did finally find it on Craigslist, it just took a lot of patience!

  20. Shiloah says

    Didn’t feel the quake here in Oklahoma but I have to say your little girl is too cute! Makes me smile everytime I see her.

    Reply

  21. Margaret says

    I’m in upstate NY, Albany area and I felt the earthquake as clear as day! It was pretty crazy. Our whole office was shaking. On another note great score on the cabinets. I’m sure they’ll be all pretty by the time you are done with them.

    Reply

  22. Erika says

    Glad to know my favorite bloggers are safe. When I heard it was centered outside of Richmond, I thought of you. We felt it in eastern NC, a first for me. I was quite suprised.

    Reply

  24. amanda says

    I just heard about the earthquake in my office and thought, let me get over to Young House Love for the scoop. I had no idea the east coast had real earthquakes (the kind you can feel) and of course yahoo news doesn’t mention when the last noticable earthquake was in the East (great reporting huh?). Definitely a very strange occurence. I live in TX and we never get earthquakes either, so I can imagine it’d be freaky (we’re used to tornadoes and hurricanes, but the idea of earthquakes freaks me out!).

    Reply

  25. Sandy says

    Felt at my workplace in Providence, RI – entire building swayed crazily!! You guys were the first that I thought of when I found out where the earthquake happened! Glad you’re all ok!!

    Reply

  26. Karen says

    Glad you guys are okay! We had to evacuate our building in DC and were all pretty nervous about it. It felt like our building was collapsing! Of course, when I heard the epicenter was near Richmond, I thought of you guys first, haha! Amazing how connected we all are in blogland :)

    Reply

  30. Liz says

    First, glad you all are ok! Over here in Oregon, we don’t get earthquakes much.
    Second, love that you got such a great deal, partly because I love a great deal, but mostly because I’m so excited to see them all finished and installed! Yay!
    Worst ever item-hunting experience was for a slab of carrara marble for our kitchen island. We made 4 trips up to Portland (2 hour drive) to look at all the warehouses. First time we went, every place was closed because it was New Years Day. Oops. Next time, found nothing. The next time, we found what we thought we wanted, but no one was there to move the slabs around for us (so we could pick our EXACT slab) because it was on a weekend. Sooo, we had to come back on a weekday to finalize our decision. Who would have thought it would be so hard to find a good-looking slab of marble? Anyway, it’s one of my favorite things in our house so it was worth it!

    Reply

  32. Anessa says

    I live in Wisconsin and people in my office building felt it! Our building has a suspended floor which causes it to vibrate throughout the day so I didn’t even notice. Other people sitting 20 feet away felt it. Now they keep asking if you felt the earth quake. Some how I missed it. Anyways, glad to hear you are all Ok.

    Reply

    • Kate says

      Oh, wow! I’m in Madison but didn’t feel a thing (but then, I also never felt them in Michigan when people said they felt them).

      As with everyone else, just so glad everything’s well in the YHL household!

  33. Eileen says

    Yikes, I had never felt an earthquake before but definitely felt it here in Charlottesville, which I think is about equidistant from the epicenter as Richmond. It was surreal how much the building was shaking! I just sat frozen, not knowing what to do, but luckily my officemate is from Iceland and knew we needed to get outside! He said in Iceland (where earthquakes are fairly common) all the buildings are reinforced with steel, but a scary thing about VA is that most buildings are brick – which are the worst material for withstanding earthquakes.

    Luckily everything seems to be ok here! My husband was at the dentist which also could have been bad (drilling mishaps?!) but he was on his way out when the quake hit. Glad to hear you guys are ok too!

    Reply

  36. Tara says

    Felt in down here in Newport News and thought of you guys as well. Just moved “clean out under stairs” up on the priority list. Well, that and the possibility of a hurricane coming near soon (Irene is a possibility they’re saying).

    Love the cabinets. Can’t see what you do with them especially the way you solve the height problem.

    Reply

  37. Kathy says

    holy moly, those are some awesomely cheap cabinets! so, on another note, do you still love ed the bed? any regrets with ed? we’re contemplating adding ed to our bedroom, too.

    Reply

  40. Kai says

    Got hit with the tremors here in Alexandria too! Glad you are all ok and so happy you found your cabinets at our local ReStore! I love that place and find that they usually have some amazing deals (found a couple mid century modern buffets and a record player cabinet for $40 when I was there last time! Too bad we already have wayyy too much furniture.)

    Can’t wait to see what you guys do to them!

    Reply

  42. Amy says

    We felt it up here in NJ too! Glad you guys are okay.
    Great find on the cabinets/soon-to-be-desk!
    What are you thinking of doing for the top surface?

    Reply

  44. RVA Born and Raised says

    I felt it north of Baltomore. I was very nervous because I couldn’t get a hold of any of my family in my home town of Richmond. Finally found out that it wasn’t too bad. Get ready for the aftershock any minute. They said about 2 hours after the previous quake.

    Reply

  46. RVA Born and Raised says

    Oh, and another thing…There is a substancial huricane making it’s way up the east coast. Should make landfall around Friday with anticipated 100mph winds.

    I feel like I am moonlighting as a weather woman.

    Reply

  47. DanielleR says

    Felt it all the way in Maine! Me and 2 of my co-workers were sitting at our desks and all of the sudden we started swaying back and forth very gently, felt like we were getting dizzy or something. Lasted about 2 mins and made us all feel crazy and then it stopped. Glad you all are ok!

    Reply

  48. Pam C says

    Yep – felt it here at UNC, too. Glad you’re okay. Congrats on the cabinet find – they look to be in great condition and very well built. You’ll love those sliding shelves.

    Reply

  49. Peggy says

    I felt it all the way up here in North Bay, Ontario, Canada too. It was pretty slight, just a slight side to side motion as I sat in the living room but I could see my laptop moving on my lap (I guess it was actually my legs moving) and the tower fan beside the chair was visibily moving too. I thought I was crazy until another Ontario girl (though down around Toronto) on my message board posted a similar thing. Then I went googling and found the VA quake.

    Reply

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