HandyMan and I have had quite a tiring weekend. We are in full renovation planning mode. And in two days, we've been to Canac for an updated estimate, Aya Kitchens for a look at their cabinets, Home Outfitters to search for an end table I saw in Canadian House & Home magazine, Saltillo Tiles to start looking at our tile options, Lowe's to check out its newly opened store, Designer Fabrics to return the fabrics, HandyMan's office to do a CAD drawing of the kitchen, back to Lowe's for a kitchen estimate, and finally Olympia Tile to see more tile. WHEW! And in between, we fit in dinner with friends, a housewarming party, and cooking of a pork roast. I am soooo ready for another weekend :o\

We learned alot of good things and some not so good things during our travels. Most disappointingly, it might be back to the drawing board for our kitchen provider. We were really happy with the Canac quote we received, but upon a second look at their products, I'm not sure if I'm entirely satisfied with the quality. We had chosen a plain shaker style door in white. A true "white" door can't be achieved through painting so many cabinet manufacturers offer only a thermofoil MDF door or the more expensive stained white door (which requires many coats of stain). While I was fine with the thermofoil white door, I didn't quite like the texture. Both HandyMan and I agreed that it reminded us of those bad laminate Ikea cabinets where the laminate would start to peel after a few months revealing the crumbly particleboard underneath. Instead of a nice smooth lacquered finish, the cabinets had a stipply cheap-ish feel. AGH! And we were thisclose to sealing the deal!

So, we traipsed across the city in search of a better alternative. We got a quote from Lowe's which fell about 25% higher than the Canac quote - but it was for a stained white wood door and for what seemed to be better quality. However, it was framed construction cabinets which was not what we wanted. We're waiting for a revised quote using a thermofoil door (which doesn't feel stipply) and frameless construction.

On top of that, we're now reconsidering the quote we got from Altima. It was about 80% higher than Canac -- but once again, offered a painted smooth MDF finish, better construction, soft close drawers, wood veneer interior and whole bunch of other good stuff that makes it worth the 80%, lol.

So where are we at? Here's our options:
- go for the Canac but get doors that don't feel right at a price that is right
- go to Lowe's and get the right doors but wrong cabinet construction at a price that is okay
- go to Lowe's to get the right doors and right cabinets at a price that may be okay
- go to Altima to get the right doors and the best cabinets at a price that is higher than I want to pay
- call the whole thing off

With the amount of work this is taking, I'm slightly inclined to take that last route. But we'll wait and see... I just know our perfect kitchen is out there. Its just going to take a few more weekends to find it.