Hmmm.....

Maybe it's just me.

I have what I call the "Significant Other" factor. The love of my
life can be sweet and wonderful most of the time, but she can also be
impatient, demanding, and very unpleasant when something is disturbing
the karma of the castle.

If the project is outside, she can be very patient. If it is inside,
we need a strong, realistic timetable that I am willing to commit to
without offering any excuses.

I say screw the cost. If the queen ain't happy, the king doesn't
stand a chance. Misery ensues.

Don't underestimate the size of the task. It isn't brain surgery or
piano building, but it certainly can have its challenges. Even when I
go to a homeowner's home and they show me homebuilt cabinets (some
quite good) they don't have the finishing skills to compliment their
woodworking skills, and some build great cabinets and don't know the
little tricks to hang or set them properly. End result: not so good.

I would take on a smaller cabinet first, and time myself. Rip out
that old vanity in the bathroom, rebuild one to your mutual liking,
and keep careful costs and an honest record of your time, including
rounding up all materials, waste (all those off cuts really add up for
certain sizes), cost of finish materials, and the time spent
finishing. And I would hate to think that you would spend a lot of
time getting your cabinets just right, then go out there with a brush
and swab finish on them.

And an excellent point brought up by Steve above, do you have the shop
space to accomodate all the cabinets, and then all the cabinets when
finishing them?

Personally speaking, even as a contractor, unless I was going to die
in the house I would probably buy the cabinets. That doesn't
necessarily mean going to HD or Lowe's, but maybe to a cabinet man in
your town. He can supply you with samples of his work, and you can
talk to his customers. I have a guy here in town that made me give up
building any kind of cabinet for clients, as this is all he does all
day long. He has an enormous shop, has a few old timers that have
been with him for a while and he pays them by the piece. He is fast,
too. Quality, excellent. (As a sidebar, he is getting old himself,
and may be out of the biz soon... crap.... )

If I were to build anything, I think I would build carcasses, then buy
the doors somewhere. They are all over on the net. When you buy a
door online (or locally if you have a shop there) you will most likely
get a quality product at a reasonable price. Carcasses are fast to
build. Building your own doors means that not only do you have to have
the correct machinery to build it, but you must deal with the
challenges that the materials you obtain locally present.

With a shop built/purchased door, you are dealing with a product that
is finish ready, sanded, without major defects, square, and hopefully
built with the wood at the correct moisture level and stored
accordingly. Homebulilt finished wood doors stacked in a garage can
do some really squirelly things over just a month or two.

Whatever you do, good luck. There are guys here that build there own
and it works for them quite well. And a quick search of this newgroup
will give you the proper books to get you on your way (don't forget
the ones on finishing). This topic comes up frequently, so there is
an evening's reading here on this group.

Robert