We didn’t expect to find $1 cabinets like the ones we scored for the office built-ins, but we still made a trip to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore to look for the four cabinets needed to build our peninsula and frame in the microwave and fridge. We were able to reuse the 36″ cabinet that used to sit where the stove now lives, which saved us a lot of money. The great news: we found three of the four cabinets and spent only $90 total.
We picked up a corner base cabinet for the peninsula for $50 and two upper cabinets — one to go over the fridge and a slightly taller one to go over the microwave — for $19 each. For comparison, those same stock cabinets from Home Depot or Lowe’s would have cost about $219, $96, and $89 respectively, totaling $404. Buying used saved us roughly $314. Since we planned to replace or remove the doors anyway, getting solid oak cabinet frames at that price felt like a steal.
The only downside was that none of the doors matched our existing 30-year-old cabinets. But with the frames in solid oak, we can paint them white and fit them with new or retrofitted doors taken from other cabinets we aren’t using. Once painted and fitted, nobody will guess they came from the ReStore.
We could only fit two of the three cabinets in our trunk, but the ReStore will hold items for seven days. A few days later we borrowed a bigger car from John’s sister and picked up the large corner cabinet.
They’re all home now, though not installed yet. The carport and our sunroom are acting as temporary storage for the old cabinets and doors we’ve removed and the new pieces we’ll be swapping in.
The sunroom is looking particularly chaotic and definitely smells like fresh wood — not the worst scent, honestly. We’re hoping to share the finished built-in fridge in the next few days once everything is installed and painted.
But it’s Halloween, so we couldn’t resist sharing photos of the kids in costume. Meet Mrs. Monkey and Mr. Banana:
Clara did an excellent monkey impression — “ooh ooh ah ah” and waving her arms — while Burger looked hilariously embarrassed. The moment we put the banana “hat” on him, he slumped and gave us the look that clearly said, “this is not okay.” We freed him from the yellow suit shortly after the photoshoot and gave him a treat. Clara’s generous monkey even handed him a bone.
Clara’s cousin Emanuel, who just turned two, joined in as a tiny but ferocious lion and kept asking for candy corn during the photoshoot. It was adorable and hilarious.
Of course the banana-and-monkey duo might not be quite as cute as one of last year’s combinations…
Wishing everyone a very happy Halloween! What did you get up to this weekend — any cabinet hunting or candy-corn bingeing?
Psst — check out our pumpkin patch adventures (including a family moon bounce and corn bin) coming up in another post.