We made a late-night stop at the house last night and found that not much
more has been done, but all of the cabinets, trim, sinks, interior doors, etc.
have been delivered and are hanging out in our garage patiently awaiting
installment. We are going to take a bike ride over to the house on Saturday so
I
reallllly hope at least some things are installed by then. I've gotten so
used to rapid progress, so when I visit and nothing has been done I get
disappointed.
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| Boxes of cabinets and trim! |
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| Railings (where's the bullnose?!?!) |
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| Some interior doors. I guess the little door is for one of the attic access panels? It's kind of cute! |
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| French doors for the study |
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| Double-bowl sinks. I like how well they follow directions: "Lay Flat" = Stand up on the narrowest end |
On the topic of cabinets...
One thing that irks me a bit is the fact that all of the
cabinets choices Ryan offers have particle board
boxes instead of plywood. I just really hate particle board for practical and
cosmetic reasons: Any sort of moisture causes warping/flaking of your board (it's the worst in bathrooms) and
the fake wood veneers they use on the sides of the boxes look
so bad.
Particle board is the cheapest way to build cabinets and unfortunately,
that's the only thing you can get with Ryan (save for a custom request which
would likely cost a fortune). Not only are the boxes made from the lowest grade
material, but only when you upgrade to the highest cabinet choices (
rushmore
or
wyoming) do you even get solid wood doors. The rest of us
fairfield or
scottsdalers get veneered
doors.
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| Here's a close-up of the particle board and the ugly printed veneer on the sides. I couldn't get to the front of the cabinets, so I'll post some pictures of the whole thing later. |
Here are some good websites if you are interested in more information on cabinets:
To be fair, I don't think this is a Ryan-specific thing (though I'm sure
some of the higher-end builders offer better cabinets options) so much as a "new
age" thing. It seems that the trends for the building and construction industry keep moving
more and more toward the "quick, easy and cheap" options, rather than the
"built-to-last" options. If I could afford it, I would buy all of my furniture
from the Amish over in Lancaster. They seem to be in the minority of those who
still take pride in their craft, and it's obvious in the quality of their
products. You'll never see particle board in any of their furniture!!
Ok, enough ranting... thanks for letting me get that off of my chest... now I will proceed to get excited about my cheap, yet beautiful kitchen cabinets, which are hopefully going in as we speak!
