5 Favorite Granites for Gorgeous Kitchen Countertops

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Home improvement can start with something as minor as installing track lighting or unique ceiling fans.
Find curtains and plantation shutters for french doors, or kitchen curtains and curtain rods for your kitchen windows.

The Kitchen of the "Not So Far" Future

 Just for fun here’s a picture gallery of some unique and interesting gizmos and appliances for cooking, cleaning, and cooling.

 Warming Drawers

 

Ever wanted a built in Fryer?

 

A Microwave Drawer perhaps

 

How about a dishwasher drawer unit

 

No room for a cook top, try this handy portable one.

 

Drawers for everything, even your refrigerator

  

Tired of your clothing being wrinkled, dry them while hanging in this closet dryer

Want to conceal your washer and dryer

Hows this for a toaster?

Why not steam and cook at the same time

Dishwasher drawer

 

 

You own unique beverage center



 

 

 

Apples to Apples

    It’s an old saying, and one that still holds true.  In today’s faster and cheaper world, a lot of the most important decisions are based solely on price and how fast we can get it.  Sometimes faster and cheaper is just that.  When you’re comparing remote controls, you might stand there for 20 minutes looking at all of the options before you decide.  You pride yourself on finding the most bang for your buck, and move on.  Maybe later you realize that you should have taken a little more time, and bought that one that was $5 more.  We all do it, and usually end up buying twice.  Value and lowest price aren’t the same thing. 

    Whether you’re building a new home or remodeling your existing, if you’re like most people, you have done your homework.  You’ve looked at all the latest websites, schemed and dreamed, and come armed with a big book of ideas and plans.  Taking all of those pictures and convenience hardware options and integrating them into your exact space isn’t easy. 

Factors to consider when choosing a custom cabinet maker:

Customer Service:    Customer service is probably one of the most important.  If you’re waiting two weeks for a bid from one company, and another has already met you, provided samples and designs, and accurate pricing, then you shouldn’t keep waiting.  The same way you’re waiting for a bid is how you’ll be waiting 6 weeks late on your cabinets, and then waiting again for them to come and do their punchwork if you go with waiting.  There is a serve in customer service.  Find someone that wants your business, takes care of your needs and questions quickly and efficiently.  How you are treated is something to never overlook for the potential “savings”. 

 Quality:    What your cabinets are made out of and how they’re put together is important.  Do you save $1,000 bucks and live with puttied nail holes that don’t match scattered across the face of your $15,000 dream kitchen?  Did you consider asking how they attached their face frames?  Most people don’t.  Are you painting your cabinets?  Are you being quoted “Paint Grade” by one company and “Paint Grade Maple” by another?  Most people don’t know that what’s specified as “Paint Grade” is usually a combination of wood species and man-made pressed board that could never take paint evenly.  “Paint Grade Maple” is just that, solid white maple.  The nebulous combination of “Paint Grade” might save you a little money up front, but what are you going to have to live with?  You’ve put so much time and thought in your dream kitchen, would you want to pinch pennies in quality? 

 Finish:    The most beautiful cabinets in the world can still be ruined by a poor finish, and the ugliest can be made beautiful by a good finish.  The finish is really what you see when you look at cabinets to be honest.  Are you really comparing the same things when you look at pre-finished and job-finished?  The guys that painted your walls might be cheap to throw some stain or paint on your cabinets, but what’s that going to look like in your home that you’ve worked so hard for?  Wouldn’t you rather your project be finished in a dust-free controlled environment by experience professionals using state of the art processes?  You might save $500 having those painters “stain and finish” your cabinets, but who’s going to pay them to put them all back together when they’re through?  How many options and samples do you think the wall painters will have for your unique finish?  What is the finished product going to look like when you’re through, and isn’t it worth $500 to be happy with the finish?

 Installation:    Getting your new dream kitchen installed properly is probably the most crucial step.  You’ve approved your designs and finishes and can’t wait to see what it all is going to REALLY look like.  Are the same people that designed and built your cabinets installing them?  Some cabinet companies “sub out” their installs to other individuals that you’ve never met and have never seen your cabinets before the morning they arrive at your home.  Are you comparing a sub-out install to an employee install?  Will your project manager be there to oversee the crew?  Will the installers even speak your language?  It might be a wash price wise, but you can bet that if your cabinet price has installation as a separate line item, your cabinet install is being subbed-out to the lowest bidder.  Having the people that know your cabinets inside and out install them not only saves you time, it produces a better end result.  Isn’t that what you’re looking for?

 

 

LWi Custom Cabinets Works on Renovations for a San Marcos Historical Restoration Project

The city of San Marcos is restoring the historic home of Ulysses Cephas.

The city purchased the home in 2003 as a historic preservation project. Mr Cephas was a blacksmith and community leader at the turn of the 20th Century, with the goal of making it a focal point in the Dunbar Historic District.

The Cephas House is located at 217 W. Martin Luther King Drive, across the street from the Calaboose African American History Museum. The Dunbar Neighborhood is the birthplace of jazz and swing composer and musician Eddie Durham (1906-1987) and the home of the city’s first African American residents.

The Cephas House renovations will include restoration of the exterior, some repurposing of interior rooms, and accessibility improvements. When all rehabilitation activities are complete, the City's Parks and Recreation Division will offer a variety of leisure and cultural arts classes and programs at the Cephas House. In addition to these programming functions, the Cephas House will provide a venue for the display of materials that detail the history of the Dunbar Neighborhood, its prominent citizens, and the importance of the African-American presence in the growth and development of San Marcos.

The project contractor, Cougar Construction LLC of Nome, Texas, has completed a number of historic renovation projects. Owner Richard Bates is performing much of the work himself.

The kitchen cabinets were completed by LWi Custom Cabinets to match the original color and style, a “Holiday Turquoise”.

Attention To Every Detail Pays Off

Being attentive to details and conscientious rewards you in many ways. One of the jobs we are working on right now came about because the customer recognized that in us.

An architect that we work with owns a very nice bungalow style home and he’s renovated it himself with his own personal style. He understands that the devil is in the details and when he wanted to do his stairs, he chose us.
We went with Long Leaf Pine to match the existing flooring and keep the historical integrity of his home.

Long Leaf Pine is a material that I am very familiar with: I’ve done everything that you can do with wood to it, from market it to miter it. To say I like it would be an understatement. Each piece is a little “living history”, and what you’re holding was probably an established tree when the Pilgrims were landing at Plymouth Rock. It’s a beautiful wood, ranging in color from electric yellows to deep reds and browns, very tight grained, and hard. While there a lot of “Antique Heart Pine” products out there, really only Long Leaf looks like Long Leaf. Loblolly can be nice and even some old Southern Yellow can look really good, but Long Leaf stands above the rest.

It is an expensive product, ranging from about what you’d pay for a nice African Mahogany and up, depending on clarity and sizes. That being said, it is worth every penny.

We just finished his project this week, and I have to say it turned out very well.

As we got into the project, the scope grew, and we added cladding the walls and ceilings of his loft with tongue and groove clear yellow pine, the walls of the stairwell, and even the underside of the stairs, seen from below. We also built and installed a sliding door system at the first floor. The project looks amazing, and the customer is extremely satisfied. Mission accomplished, Team!

Winder grain running correctly, around the corner, it takes more time but it’s worth the effort We had to maintain straight and level lines of the tongue and groove around the room and clad the closet doors as well with an 1/8” clearance

Our customer wanted to be able to separate off his office, so we worked with him to design this sliding door. We had the door and the wall material’s horizontal lines match up, which presented an interesting challenge.

Cabinet Brochure- Full of Ideas

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Modern Rustic Design

The sleek lines and clean understated look of modern design have always appealed to me. But, I also enjoy the rustic look of ceiling beams, wood flooring and worn antiques.

Lets take the challenge of making a modern room look warm and inviting. Modern smooth surfaces, sharp angles, geometric shapes, and crisp lines form the foundation of the look. But it needs some added warmth to look and feel appealing and homey. So how do you get that warmth without sacrificing the bold look you wanted in the first place. With texture and a touch of rustic.

Here are a few rooms that do that well. Building a very modern wall unit, for example out of a rustic knotty pecan wood for example. Notice how in monochromatic rooms, the contrast of woods texture can warm it up and create a unique look.