u/Cerealcitygarage

Wife and I are finally moving forward with our kitchen remodel. We have gotten 3 quotes. One from a box store. Two from cabinet places.

I am doing the install myself except for countertops.

I never wanted to use the box store so pretty quickly moved away from that.

One of the cabinet stores estimated us for cabinets and quarts countertops installed at about $8800. Cabinets assembled.

The other place quoted us at $12,933.61. Counter tops installed and cabinets assembled.

Same style cabinets and color. The more expensive place absolutely was a better experience as soon as we walked in the door. Both company’s have great online reviews though and we didn’t have any issues at the cheaper place.

Just wondering what others input is. Is the more expensive worth it just for the fact that they seem to have their shit together. Or do I just use the cheaper one since I’m doing install anyways.

We are about to start the process of getting quotes for cabinets and counter tops. We received a quote a few months back just to get an idea if this was even feasible for us and the quote seemed vague. Had the wrong color cabinets listed. The guy told us they assembled everything included in the price but that wasn’t stated. Counter tops were just a hand written quote. He did say he needed to come measure so I assume after that maybe he could have given a more accurate quote with all the correct info.

But what should I watch for on quotes. I don’t want to get a good quote at the start and end up thousands more in the end.

I am doing all the work myself except for counter tops.

Located in SW Michigan if anyone is from the area with recommendations.

My mom recent had her car totaled and is looking for a new one. We’ve narrowed it down to these two.

2016 Explorer XLT. Has 143k miles. Timing chain and water pump were replaced at 118k (had paperwork verification). Has newer front suspension except struts. Will need new tires soon. Engine sounded perfect. Drove very nice did have a slight hesitation on 3-4 shift under 85% throttle. Regular acceleration was very smooth. Also had a slight hum in the rear. Couldn’t tell if it was tires, wheel bearing or rear end (don’t really think it’s that). They did have the tires over inflated so leaning toward that. Overall seemed like a solid car and the person seemed very honest. Asking $8500 for that but would try and get them to $8,000 or less

The Edge is a 2014. Family friend owns it. Has 122k miles. From what we know they take very good care of their cars. Inside is in great shape. Underside does have more rust than the explorer and looks like all original suspension. We weren’t able to dry it but was able to pop the hood. Oil looked very new. Almost new tires. I’m pretty sure the water pump has not been changed on this one. Asking $8,000 and seem pretty firm.

To me on paper the 2014 seems better just because we know the people and it’s got less miles with better tires but that water pump scares me.

What’s your opinions. Obviously it would be ideal to drive the edge but they are not around for another week and the explorer may be gone by then.

Thanks for any input!

I have a 45ish year old GE central air unit (before trane bought them). Our furnace is a Lennox from 1997. As of now both still work. The furnace got us through our first winter in the house no problem. I haven’t needed to run the A/C much but did try it out on a warmer day recently and it was blowing cold air. Oh located in Michigan.

I’m able to get new furnace, a/c, coil, lineset for roughly $4500 (budget equipment). Would be a self install so no labor cost. Won’t be in house more than 5-10 years.

Do I just replace them now to avoid being without A/C if it breaks down this summer. It was repaired last summer by the previous owner and I don’t think he used it much anyway.

Or just let it ride until it quits and worry about possible higher prices during peak season.