Cabinatorial Calculus

Our new house is actually the same design as a house our builder was showcasing last fall. Mrs found it and took a tour, liked it, had me take a tour, etc.. That house had some really nice hand-built cabinets in the kitchen, done by a couple of local guys. We wanted similar cabinets (because they were nice!), but the builder thought those guys took too long to complete them in that other house; so for our house he proposed that we go with a traditional cabinet company. He said it would be cheaper, too. And that it would fit into our allowance, no problem.

Our contract specifies a certain allowance for cabinets in the house (kitchen, bathrooms, laundry room, etc.). Let's call it $X.

Five weeks ago we met with the cabinet company to pick out cabinets. We did a 3 hour meeting with the cabinet guy; then nothing happened for three weeks. Then we had a three hour meeting with a woman at the cabinet company. We picked out everything except the kitchen counter top surface - Mrs wants to look around for that. We picked out cabinets and counter tops for all the other rooms. And, everything was their lowest end stuff. There were at least two levels higher.

Then nothing happened for two weeks. After much complaining by us and the builder, the cabinet guy finally came back with an estimate: 160% of $X, not counting the cost of any counter tops. Why no counter tops ? Beats me! But there's little doubt that they'll contribute a huge amount to the final cost. 200% of $X wouldn't surprise me a bit.

So, we're kinda fucked.