The Latest on Ryan and Timberlake Cabinets

Before I purchase anything, I research. A lot. That trend continued for this house, options, and cabinets.  For the cabinets, I checked into model homes, what Ryan offered, and details from the manufacturer, Timberlake Cabinets.

The first and most essential step in starting the research process is to get any and all information from your Sales Representative. They will often have a "Out of Town" packet of information. Get everything emailed or shared on Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar services. You can save them a lot of emailing trouble with the Dropbox method.

Returning to cabinets, the first document I looked at was the Kitchen and Bath selling sheets for the cabinets. The first tier was eliminated immediately due to color. I'm sure they do this to up-sell you to the higher tiers.  That left the second and third rows seen below.

Maple Cognac was okay, Espresso was too dark, and Spice seemed too 'brown'. That left Bordeaux and Butterscotch. Pricing varied widely between those options (prior to May 15, 2013). I wondered why. If we liked the Bordeaux color, why bother paying for the higher tier? This and the date will come into play later. 

So I researched the tiers through the Timberlake Cabinets web site. Scottsdale and Tahoe are "Portfolio" series, an upgrade from the "Value" tier. Wyoming and Rushmore and the "Portfolio Select Tier". The Ryan information provided some information. The web site gives more details on the differences between tiers. But the information the Ryan document doesn't say it what makes all the difference.

The key difference between Portfolio and Portfolio Select is the Solid Hardwood doors, Dovetail drawers, and hidden glides.  Really nice features. Notice the Ryan document doesn't mention the dovetail joints or hidden glides. I noticed this after I looked at several models. The Ryan Cabinets (pre May 15, 2013), do not include dovetail, or hidden glides. This is an attempt to keep costs down, but it is a bit deceiving. You get stapled joints and side mounted glides that don't give you full access to the drawer. 

As you can see, those are Rushmore Painted Maple Butterscotch. They are "supposed to have" dovetails and hidden glides, but the Ryan version offers the same basic construction as the lower tier drawers. Once again, probably to lower the price point, but still a bit deceiving.  

When we were looking at various models before our 14 day appointment to get option ideas, I noticed this. I assumed they had done it in the model to save some money but screwing the Rushmore face on the normal drawer. But the sales representatives in each model said this was how the cabinets came. I was disappointed. We wanted to put our money into the kitchen and master bathroom for resale. Why would we buy cabinets that only "looked good", but weren't that great in their construction?

This is where the May 15th date comes in. Prior to that date, anyone who signed a purchase contract was under the old options (and cabinets) list. After May 15th, you are on a new options list with different options (and higher prices). For instance in our area, Rushmore Painted Maple Butterscotch Glaze is now $4,795 instead of $4,295 and Wyoming cabinets are $3,595 instead of $3,095. Why the price increase? 

By the way, the reason for the Rushmore being a higher price is due to two main reasons:  They are full overlay, and they are painted and glazed. Full overlay means they cover the cabinet completely compared to partial overlay. The additional painting costs more in labor. Full overlay was a feature the Ryan cabinets also had in common with Timberlake.

It turns out Ryan is finally implementing the features from the Portfolio Select series into their cabinets. So when you order those cabinets you will get dovetailed joints and hidden full-access glides. Quality features I would be willing to pay more to get. 

The new options list removes a few colors, but adds many others. We saw a brand new model (near Glen Allen, Richmond) with the new cabinets. They had Rushmore Painted Maple Hazelnut Glaze with the nicer features. Very nice cabinets, though we didn't like the glaze effect as we thought we would. One truth of home buying: pictures do not reflect reality. This can go either way.

The new colors include: Wyoming Cherry Java, Rushmore Painted Maple Linen, and Rushmore Painted Maple Hazelnut Glaze. They removed the Wyoming Cherry Bordeaux. I learned this was to differentiate between the tier two (Portfolio) and tier 3 (Portfolio Select) cabinets. All part of sales and marketing strategies which is expected.

So we asked our Sales Representative to get the new cabinets features. We tried the "we want the old price but quality of the new ones".  That didn't go over. But he said since we were so close to the May 15th date, we could do a non-standard request for the new cabinets. Since we hadn't had our 14 day appointment yet, they hadn't ordered anything so this was reasonable. We would have to pay more, but I wanted the quality especially in the kitchen. 

At the time, we didn't know Java existed. We thought we would have to do a non-standard request for Bordeaux. We initially decided on the Maple Butterscotch but couldn't decide yet on a light or dark kitchen. We would decide at the 14 day appointment.