Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

| By | | 304 Comments

Using Secondhand Cabinets For A Kitchen Renovation

We knew we weren’t likely to find $1 cabinets again (like we did for the office built-ins) but we couldn’t resist checking out the Habitat For Humanity ReStore for the four cabinets that we need to create the peninsula and build in the microwave/fridge (we’re able to reuse the 36″ cabinet that used to live where the stove now sits, so that saved us some major money). The good news is that we found three out of the four we needed! And only spent $90 total.

Restore Cabinets

Yup, we got a corner base cabinet for the peninsula for $50 and two upper cabinets (one for over the fridge and one slightly taller one for over the microwave) for $19 each. And just for reference, to buy those cabinets new from Home Depot or Lowe’s (in the stock, off-the-shelf department) they would have been $219, $96, and $89 respectively (for a grand total of $404). So we saved $314 by going secondhand. Which made complete sense since we’d be scrapping the doors anyway.

The issue with the doors? They don’t match our existing ones (nothing that we hunted down both new or secondhand did since our doors are 30 years old). But to get the solid oak cabinet frames for that price is a steal and once they’re all painted white with new or retrofitted matching doors (from other existing cabinets that we’re not using), no one would ever guess they hailed from the ReStore.

We could only fit two of the three into our trunk. But thankfully they’ll hold items for seven days at our ReStore, so we just came back for the giant corner cabinet with a bigger car borrowed from John’s sister a few days later.

Cabinets Trunk

Now they’re all at home, but not in their places yet (the carport and our sunroom are the holding area for lots of old cabinets and doors that we have removed and new ones that we’ll be switching in).

Cabinet In Carport

Cabinets In Sunroom

And yes, the sunroom looks especially crazy and smells like wood. Could be worse (wood isn’t that bad of a smell, actually). Hopefully in the next few days we’ll be back to share our freshly built-in fridge.

But wait- it’s Halloween. Did you really think we’d let you go without sharing the kiddos in costume? Meet Mrs. Monkey & Mr. Banana:

Costumes Petting Burger

Costumes Sucking Thumb

Costumes Clara Tail

Costumes Running Together

Clara liked doing her best monkey impression (saying “ooh ooh ah ah” and waving her arms) while Burger slinked around looking beyond embarrassed. The second we popped on the “hat” part of his banana, he just slumped down and half-closed his eyes as if to say “this is not ok.” We freed the poor guy from his yellow prison within a few minutes of this photoshoot though. And gave the boy a bone. Actually his monkey friend handed one over. She’s a very generous chimp indeed.

And Clara’s cousin Emanuel (seen here turning two) even got in on the fun. He was a ferocious lion who requested candy corn throughout the photoshoot. Hilarious.

Costumes With Emanuel

Of course the banana + monkey thing might not be as cute as one especially cute combo from last year…

Halloween Costumes

Hope you all have a very happy halloween! Oh and what were you guys up to this weekend? Any cabinet hunting or candy corn binging goin’ on?

Psst- Check out our pumpkin patch adventures (including a family moon bounce and corn bin adventure) here.

Comments

  1. Sabrina says

    Poor, poor Burger lol My 8 month old is a blue monster from Old Navy and my almost 3 year old couldn’t decide on just one thing so she is a Kitty,Princess,Fairy. We are currently putting down stick on tiles in our livingroom until next year when we can afford the hardwood flooring. Though someone thought we had put down a leather floor so I guess it doesn’t look to bad!

    Reply

  2. Kristen says

    What a great deal on those cabinets! I can’t wait to see the fridge built-in; I’m really looking forward to seeing how you do it.

    The picture of Clara and Burger where she’s sucking her thumb is too adorable!

    Reply

  4. Monica says

    I adore the pics of of Clara sucking her thumb and walking the banana! Such a cute costume idea. Great find on the cabinets. I can’t wait to see them painted and installed. As for us, we spent the weekend looking for the perfect pumpkin, watching college football, and going to Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival. Happy Halloween Petersiks!

    Reply

  5. Maia says

    Such cute kids in cute costumes! what a great combo! did you get those at old navy?

    we considered dressing our 15 month old daughter as a monkey but then found a sweet lamb costume instead.

    Reply

  6. Jessica says

    I love their costumes!! I was *this close* to buying that monkey costume for my little monkey, but he won’t wear hoods or hats :( So sad. Coincidentally, he is being a cheeseburger instead (same costume that it looks like Clara wore last year!). Old Navy? Love that place for kids’ clothes!

    (Great job on finding cabinet for a steal, btw. Habitat Restore is just so money ;) We got cabinets for our garage there, and the price was laughable!)

    Reply

  8. Liz says

    Clara and Burger are too cute! Seriously, I’m so impressed with you guys. Do you find it harder or easier to tackle all these home improvement things now that Clara is older? I have a one year old and it’s all I can do to put his clothes away let alone stencil a wall. Way to go Petersiks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes!!! She’s all over the place now and only gives us a 1.5 hour nap each day. So we do almost every project after bedtime for her (7:30) and take her along on errands (like cabinet shopping) and hope that she’ll be cool with it. She usually is a very good shopper. Except when teething. Haha. We’re getting some molars now. Ouchie.

      xo,
      s

  10. Carly says

    Those costumes are precious! I love them! I wanted to dress up our dog, but he hates having anything on his head. We tried a birthday hat for my birthday last year and it lasted about 10 seconds before he pulled it off. Same thing when we tried antlers for Christmas. I might try again this year just to see what happens. Happy Halloween!

    Reply

  12. Amanda says

    Since basically everyone is talking about the costumes …
    Great find on those cabinets! Can’t wait to see them all painted white and with a gorgeous counter on them. :)

    Oh and I’ll conform ;) Those costumes are adorable! Love the photo of Clara walking Burger, I uh .. mean Monkey walking Banana.

    Reply

  13. Donita says

    You two are amazing!!! Great buy!!! You inspire me to check out our HFH store.
    I’m so excited to see your finished kitchen. :-) I love the wallpaper, shelf paper idea for the inside of the cupboards. What a great idea.

    The pictures of Clara and Burger, PRICELESS!!! I have to say, the one with Clara sucking her thumb WINNER!!!! She is so cute!!

    Reply

  15. Gina says

    This is so cute! I love the pic where Clara’s/the monkey’s tail shows. I love those costumes! Unbeatable combo, and right for the chilly weather!
    Happy Halloween!

    Reply

  16. r8chel says

    Haha. That picture of Clara walking Burger cracks me up. :)

    Since you asked, this weekend I opened an online paper goods shop called {rachel+paper}. It’s at rachelpluspaper.etsy.com.

    Reply

  18. Kim says

    I still can’t get over your $1 cabinet finds and $50 for those 3 is such an awesome deal as well.

    Those costumes are adorable! I think the thumb sucking one needs to be framed!

    Reply

  19. AarthiD says

    I am so, totally, completely dead of cute! :D The cabinets for a song are (obviously) awesome, too, but d’awwww monkey!Clara is just too adorable. ♥

    Reply

  20. H from O-Town says

    Ok, we were going to dress our dog as a shark with one of us as a boat and the other as Roy Scheider. I think your photos are way cuter than what we’d have done.

    Your kid is so photogenic

    Reply

  22. Haley says

    I love the picture of Clara walking Burger in the yard with the leash! So cute…

    I’m impressed that you were so easily able to find cabinets close enough to match.

    Reply

  23. Natalia says

    I thought the burger and hot dog costume was cute, but the monkey and banana costumes are even more adorable! How do you guys get both of them to pose for pictures so well? And Burger is such a good sport (although he does look a little bit embarrassed, poor guy ha). Thanks for sharing :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Our trick = treats. Haha. Crackers for the dog and baby alike. Of course it results in a lot of outtake shots of them chewing, but it seems to keep them interested long enough to get a shot or two that works!

      xo,
      s

  24. Susie says

    Omg, Clara and Burger are the absolute cutest combo in those costumes (well, they’re cute all the time, but especially in those costumes…you know what I mean). Anyway, Halloween home run, you guys!

    Reply

  25. Laura@JourneyChic says

    Aw, they look adorable in their costumes! My 15 month old son is wearing that very same monkey costume today. I love the sewn in banana – he keeps trying to grab it. He’s in a Spanish bilingual daycare program, and he ran around the house in his costume saying “Mono!” all day yesterday (mono = monkey in Spanish). Happy Halloween!

    Reply

  29. Pauline Cruz says

    Costumes are too cute. My husband and I spend Saturday at Ikea (one of your other favorites). Getting ideas to spruce up our 30 year old kitchen – probably going to repaint the cabinets and put in new countertops and backsplash. Picked up a bunch of frames to create a gallery of frames. All very much inspired by your blog!! Can’t wait to read it each and every day!

    Reply

  35. Sara says

    Our sweet boy had that costume last year, and we loved it! It was such a nice, warm costume and we found it on sale 2 weeks before Halloween! He was our monkey, mommy was the banana, and daddy was the zookeeper. Clara looks adorable in it! And Burger isn’t too bad either :-)

    Reply

  36. Debbie says

    the brown thing (stem?) coming out of burgers rear end looks like, well….a brown thing coming out of burgers rear end. when my daughter was that human paper weight age (some 22 years ago), i dressed her up as a pepto bismo bottle (fuzzy pink bunting & black stocking cap w/ a zeroxed, enlarged label on the front).

    Reply

  43. Susanna says

    I think my own kids are pretty cute but may have just ***slightly**** died of cuteness overload at your human and canine versions. I can almost though hear burger whispering “Please….come…..help…..me……..” in the same voice as the Taco Bell Chihuahua of yore.

    Reply

  44. Kasey March says

    You’re cabinets have me completely inspired. I’ve got a craft room reno on the brain and now I’m thinking about checking out the my second hand options so I can snag the right cabinets on the cheap.

    On another note, these costumes are fantastic! I love Clara’s little tail. My nephew is a cow this Halloween and the little utters are ADORABLE.

    Reply

  45. Sarah says

    I am so impressed with that Habitat for Humanity Re-Store, so much so that I had a dream once, where I was wandering around the store and they had everything for extremely cheap – literally, everything. For some reason I was attracted to a food truck that they had for $40. I even took it for a test drive haha…love a good bargain!

    (P.S. loving the costumes – Happy Halloween!)

    Reply

  47. Diana says

    Soooo adorable!! Clara looks like a very contented little monkey, and Burger is thinking, “I can’t believe I’m a banana being led around by a monkey!” Love it!!

    Reply

  48. heyruthie says

    hi, guys! love the progress!

    quick question:

    I know that budgets *always* change (i remember your patio!) but would you be willing to share a rough idea of what budget you’re aiming for with your kitchen? i know you always spill the beans afterwards, but even knowing about the process of shooting for a budget, discovering that it works/doesn’t work, deciding how to handle that (stop halfway through?? charge up the credit card?? make sure you always have 2x as much in the bank “just in case”, etc.) would be a great excercise. i’m trying to do a kitchen budget right now, and have no idea what is even reasonable, or how much margin to work with, or how to handle “sucesses” (like cabs from the restore) or “failures” like a plumbing problem along the way.

    thank you for considering!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      When it comes to our method of money management, here’s a post about that (basically we save up for stuff and then do it, so we have the money for stuff as we do it instead of owing/being in debt). It takes longer but it helps us sleep at night! We figure we’ll probably dip into our savings for around 10K when it comes to this kitchen reno since our last one was 17K (but we’re aiming to come in under that by reusing things like our existing cabinetry and not going with such a pricey counter material). If we’re lucky it might come in around 8-9K or so (which would be awesome for new floors, new lighting, new counters, new tile, new everything but some existing cabinets)… but who knows! So we have more money in savings that we can use if we have to, we just prefer not to (so we aim for an amount and do our darndest to come in under it).

      Appliances were already $2,400 and the flooring may be around 1K after we DIY the install (and our backsplash tile was around $300 with our cabinets being around $100) so right there we’re already around $3,800 without including the cost of new counters, new cabinet doors to match the old ones, electrical work and new lighting, open shelving, a new range hood, hardware for the doors, and of course knocking out a giant 8 foot hole in the wall to lead into the dining room. We still have a long way to go and we know how these things can snowball when you get to knocking walls down!

      xo,
      s

    • heyruthie says

      sherry, that is so helpful! i have to demo a wall too, and i’m skeered that weird stuff will happen in there somehow! but i read the post you linked to, and it was very insightful. i’ll keep plowing away at crunching my numbers, so that i’ll know when the time is right, so i, too, can sleep at night ;-) thanks for the openness!

  49. Kim says

    Too cute! I’m helping my daughter’s social studies class (6th grade) mummify a chicken today! They’re studying ancient egypt. Should be interesting!

    Reply

  50. Rebecca Armtage says

    Cabinet hunting yes. And appliance hunting, window, sink, floor, everything hunting! It is fun, AND frustrating…and sadly Ikea’s kitchen event JUST ended, so now we won’t even get anything back for all the money we spend. It still is SO much fun looking for everything, and finally getting to put to use all those pin’s hehe. I come to you and John for my kitchen redo moral & sanity support. It’ nice to know there’s someone else out there crazy enough to tackle a giant makeover coming into winter!
    Thanks for all the inspiration (and support)

    Rebecca

    Reply

Stuff We Love

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *