The Little Big Project
Who is in the picture?
The owner contacted me a couple of months ago, looking to get his cracked glass cabinet door fixed. I suggested that a glass shop is probably a better fit to repair broken glass. After all, we are wood workers and we build cabinets! We are not in the business of fixing broken glass doors! A month goes by and he calls again because he still can not find anyone to fix his broken door. By now, he has moved to New York, rented out his loft on Glencoe Avenue, but still needs to get this door fixed. The main problem is that the glass door is painted a custom color on the back side and no one wants to deal with the risk of not finding a perfect match. On top of color matching, the glass would have to be custom cut to fit. This is a hard bid to sell because we have to add up the hours - picking up the door, getting the glass made, finding a matching color, paint the glass, disassemble cabinet door, reassemble cabinet door, and then installing the door back at the loft, on top of the material costs. First of all, shame on the cabinet builder/installer for not keeping the paint on file or offering some type of repair service for cabinets they built and installed. I am guessing there are maybe 100+ units in this complex, all with the same painted glass cabinet doors in every kitchen. When I went over to pick up the door to fix, we discovered that there is a second door that is cracked! These glass cabinet doors are a bad idea or something went terribly wrong with the initial design. It is only a matter of time for the rest of them to break.
Color Matching
The first two paint shops had horrible customer service or no customer service at all. I was trying to find a sample to match, but nothing was even close and no one was around to help.
The third paint shop had pretty lame customer service as well, but the guy behind the counter was pretty confident that he can "match by eye" but for a fee of course. He did an amazing job and I believe it was a perfect match.
I also suggested to the owner that we use acrylic instead of glass, at least this will prevent any more cracks. I also added a couple of spare pieces for future repairs. This only made sense to me because it did not cost much more to get the spares.
The Moment of Truth
The two doors we fixed are:
The door to the left of the vent hood (pretty close match)
and
The door furthest to the right. (not as close of a match, borderline acceptable)
It turns out that not all the doors are the same color to begin with, but at the same time, there is a variation in tint between the glass and the acrylic, even though both materials appear to be clear.
I learned today that the nice person that let's me into this loft every time I need to work on the broken door is a newborn photographer. Meet Karly Wood of karlywoodphotography.com (website will be live in a month). "Well hey! I have a newborn, Cameron turned 1 month old today!" My wife and I are going to schedule a photo shoot with Karly. Karly is also expecting a little one, so congratulations!
Meeting for the First Time
Today, I also met Steven and Stacey who just moved into their loft on Glencoe Avenue a few days ago. Stacey is a super talented wedding and event designer. You can look into her services at Staceylynndesign.com and/or check out her blog (for those of you looking for some inspiration, she has some great pictures on her blog). These two were nice enough to let me take a picture of them and post them in my first blog entry, even though we just met.
Steven and Stacey were not completely happy with the optional island provided by the developers and are looking for an island that has a trash rollout, can house their wine refrigerator, and provide storage for their pots and pans. It is my job to come up with something that can do all of those things and match their existing kitchen.
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