Part IV of “Why Buy Custom Cabinets??” (If you want to read it from the beginning, here’s a link to part I, Why Buy Custom Cabinets (Part I) ).
As we’re edging closer and closer to Summer.. it’s really only days away now and I’m looking forward to some ocean air and mountain vacation time with my family. So you may think.. why would anyone want to think about custom cabinets while they relax? The fact is, everywhere I go I see and inspect cabinets of all types and sizes (except the beach that is..lol). They are an intricate part of life because they help us to organize our things and thus make our lives easier and more simple.
So yes, I like simple and you guessed it.. I’m always checking to see what’s out there. I see lots of high output factory made garbage where a drawer bottom is falling out or a drawer slide is stuck or a door is missing pieces, the handle is broken where someone did a quick fix with duct tape (You duct tapers know who you are…haha). Anyway, there comes a time when you just get sick of things breaking. Like a car that always breaks down, gives you trouble time and time again and is in the shop more times than you care for it to be there and is costing you money, time loss, aggravation and trying your patience. Who needs that right? No one does… Exactly! When you take the time to do things right (like we do) things last longer. In fact .. A LOT LONGER… When you use the best quality materials, hardware and finishes you get longer service life…. right? That’s the idea, you betcha! This all adds up to VALUE.
Value can be lots of things not only in the material sense but also in the living of life. For those of you who don’t get this or understand, let me give you some examples.. The car you buy that’s always in the shop and you’re worrying about how much its going to cost you. While sitting in the waiting room, you swear and promise to yourself that, “I’m never going to buy another piece of [expletive] again!” You want peace of mind, you don’t want to worry about it, you just want to live your life in peace and enjoy your pool or your beer, glass of wine or your daughter’s birthday party or Monday night football. Being able to buy something that doesn’t give you trouble in the long run is Valuable.
Here’s why. Is it not valuable to not have to worry about something that you paid good money for and is still functioning for you after years have passed just like it did when you first bought it? Obviously we all want our money’s worth. How much love have you had for your IPhone or Rolex because it never let you down? I’d like to think that your awesome BMW or even your favorite Harley that you love, shine and polish that is garage kept and with regular maintenance never gives you much worry. Right? Not having to worry about it or spend time fixing it yourself is valuable to your life. It’s simple and life of course should be simple! I don’t think anyone would argue about that. I personally like simple. When I buy something, if it gives me trouble, I return it. I bet you do too because it’s simply not worth your time, energy or the money that you paid for it when you bought it thinking it was a bargain. Ok.. So do you see now?
Buying cheap cabinets is a bit of a gamble. Maybe you don’t mind, maybe you like to gamble and you’re willing to play the odds and are willing to fix a broken drawer slide in the future. Maybe you think that you’re ready for anything with your new cordless screw driver and a roll of duct tape in your toolbox. But then, disaster strikes! Something breaks and needs fixing and your attention NOW when you least expect it! I think life throws curves at us like this. Something like during a holiday when the kitchen is being used the most and you just can’t do it because the roast is in the oven, the kids are hungry and your company is about to arrive any minute. You had to buy a piece of equipment, you’re annoyed that you had to try to fix that damn thing when you didn’t want to and maybe worse off, you may have injured yourself in the process. This is simply because you’re not accustomed to doing this line of work or don’t possess enough knowledge to effectively handle the repair long term. To me, that is not value, that is just plain annoying. Being in the custom cabinet business, you wouldn’t believe how many calls over the years that we’ve got, walk ins and e-mails about fixing broken stuff. Things like drawers, doors, warped shelves, broken frames, and hardware issues. These are all things that we unfortunately have to turn down as we are not repairmen. Most times these things in need of repair are a mess with missing pieces with a need to match a 6+ years of a time aged finish. Which, is nearly impossible to match in a perfect sense. My point is, If it were done right in the first place, all these things that these folks need repaired or replaced would not likely happen.
I’ll be continuing this story with Part V of “Why Buy Custom Cabinets?” next week.
Until then,
Enjoy Life –
Tom 🙂
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