Kitchen Cabinets Drama

If you've had a chance to build a new home, either independently, or a tract home, have you ever felt like you made a mistake with some of your choices?  Looking back at some of our decisions, I know we made them based on keeping the overall price in check, but today I think we should have thought about a bit harder.  For some reason, we opted to not have cabinets installed over the refrigerator when planning the kitchen.  Neither John nor I can remember why, other than just cutting costs.  What a mistake!  It's been this blank space just begging to be filled, and I've yet to fill it in a way that doesn't make the room seem over styled and cluttered.

I'm not sure if it's obvious or not, but I'm going through a phase of simplicity.  I just can't stand clutter!  Okay I know, if you've been to our home that's a laughable statement, but that's exactly why I can't stand it.  It's everywhere!  I'm ready to get this house organized and more functional.  We are working on it currently, sending items to be sold at garage sales, and baby stuff to be stored, "just in case".  Ugh!  I wish I could  say that Rordan is going to be our only child, but it's just too hard to predict the future, and we don't really want to have to purchase everything again if we do find ourselves expecting again.  Of course if we do and it's a girl, well, it will all go up for sale ASAP.  Haha!  As it is though, John and I have agreed that we love being a family of three, and don't have any plans for another.  

Okay, back to the cabinets.  We recently had the bright idea to contact the builder's design center to see if they could point us in the direction of the maker of our cabinets.  After a day they called us back and gladly provided the information to us.  I called the cabinet maker, and they took our information.  The lady said someone would call back the next day to set up an appointment, since the person that handles that wasn't in the office at the time.  Well that was supposed to happen yesterday. Guess what.  No call!  I decided to call again this morning, and a different person answered.  He said he would pass the info along to the rep in our area, but warned that they normally don't sell to the public.  Hmm.  So I'm guessing the first person I talked to was new.  Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten my hopes up.  I asked this guy if he had any suggestions for me, if they wouldn't sell to us.  He suggested contacting a public custom cabinet maker.  I'm hoping that they make an exception, but if not I hope that we can find a reputable company that won't take us for a ride, and have us end up with mismatched cabinets.  

My biggest worry isn't really the shape of the cabinet.  I feel like they should be able to replicate them fairly easily.  My biggest concern is matching the stain of the wood.  I've read that it can be pretty hard to match stain, but maybe we will get lucky.  If not, we might have to either nix this and learn to live with the eyesore above the fridge, or choose to paint the cabinets a complimenting color to the bottom cabinets and island.  That seems extreme, but it's an option, cost permitting.  I can't say I hate that idea so much, since it would "update" our cabinets, but I really don't mind our kitchen now that we have the new backspash.  I could have done without the original tile backspash.  Again, another building decision mistake.  Maybe I'll cover that story in another post.  

So now you can see why not getting them originally was a mistake.  I can't imagine they will cost as little to get now, as they would have before.  As with everything else on our plans list, it's up in the air, so we will see what happens.  I hope someone at least gives me a call from the cabinet company to say yes or no.  

Anyone have any suggestions for us if they don't agree to sell to us?  Also, I'd love to know if you have been in this situation yourself.  Please leave a comment if so.  Thanks for stopping by!