Prologue and History

I may be a little too ambitious and crazy to try to keep this up. I am away from most of my digital pictures.

The project has not been started. We started toward a kitchen project last June. I had been extremely resistant to starting a kitchen project for fear of crazy costs and not knowing what the heck is going on. Last summer I started looking at refinancing our ARM into a fixed. During this process, my wife said it should be $20 - $25k. At that point I was cool with it, because I was assuming it was going to be $40k at minimum.

We started with magazines and walking around Home Depot and Lowes. We started with a Home Depot consultation and $60 measurement service. We balked at the cost of the plans and put them on the shelf for a few months.

We then visited the new Ikea in Atlanta. We saw the cost of cabinets and then thought we are back in business. We went to the Ikea-sponsored installation company. We again paid a measurement fee and had plans made. The best thing about Ikea is the design software with prices and layouts for endless obsessions on layouts. Download Planner.

We then quit doing that project for some reason.

We visited a new Lowes on Moreland Avenue. We were impressed with the kitchen showroom and once again paid for a measurement. I called to set up an appointment and got voicemail. They never called back and I never got around to it either.

We have spent approx $200 for three designs, none of which will ever see the light of day.

We then got hooked up with a neighborhood Yahoo Group. A post came across with kitchen designers. We called all 3, 1 called back. We are now working with a designer.

This is the first time in the process that my wife and I are in agreement with the cabinet layout and other pieces.

I will add some more details later on where we are on specific pieces as well as other frustrations in this process.