Sticker Shock: Green Means $$$

We first ventured out before the holidays to see what green has to offer or, more specifically Greenmaker Supply. The small warehouse/showroom at 2500 N. Pulaski is in a sort of strip mall with other building supply stores. Greenmaker sells low-flow toilets, low-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints, energy-efficient lightbulbs. And kitchen rehab materials.

The on-site display kitchen has sustainably-grown and harvested wood cabinets produced in neighboring states so it isn't trucked all over the country. One display countertop is made of bamboo and the other of concrete with recycled glass and seashells, which is quite pretty despite the sound of it. The lights catch the embedded materials and they sparkle like jewels, a far cry from the ugly particle board countertop I've used for almost 11 years.

We loved the unique designs for wall and floor coverings - made of recycled glass, aluminum and other materials. Although the showroom is small, there were plenty of options in design and detail. The Urban Prairie cabinets had local flavor with style names such as Bucktown, Lakeview, Lincoln, Logan Square and Edgewater.

After selecting a cabinet style, you can choose from seven types of wood: maple, cherry, hickory, red oak, alder, beech and lyptus. Each wood type has a selection of finishes from ash white to java - 48 options in all. That part was easier to narrow down than it would seem. We aimed for Sauganash style with a honey finish but later switched to Lakeview, with its smaller decorative edging, to save money and keep a cleaner line in our small kitchen space.

The first estimate for the cabinets was between $4,000 and $5,000 for 10 cabinets to snugly fit in our 14-foot galley kitchen, before taxes, delivery or extras. With adjustments, assistance from the designer and our hopefully-will-be contractor - and a discount - the cost went down a good amount - only to be bumped back up later when we added 3 glass doors, stronger pull-outs for the pots and pans and other minor finishing touches.

The real sticker shock was the countertop.

You think concrete and recycled glass, right, like you could find in any dumpster or blue bag in town - how much could it cost? The answer is: plenty! I haven't priced this out, but I hear you can get marble at half the price. Well, just one slab, we were told, runs around $1200. But that was only a fraction of the total cost.

Ice Stone countertops are poured, cut, made-to-order and installed(!) by the manufacturer's representatives. But knowing that - which I learned along the way - did not prepare me for the almost $3,000 price tag! That's about the cost of all of our appliances, which just seems wrong.

The "Green Remodeling Guides" on the City of Chicago's Web site (see kitchen guide link below) points this out: 1) Expand your definition of cost (roger that!) and 2) Do your homework.
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_EDITORIAL/GreenRemodeling_Kitchens_1.pdf

I would also see if you can RE-USE anything in your current space. If you have wood cabinets, maybe they can be stripped and re-stained (they do it on HGTV!) or re-faced? Ours are hideous so that's a "no go" for us. But we are keeping the over-the-range microwave hood we bought a few years ago and will get appliances to match.

We are also keeping the tile floor - well-installed and even level - by previous owners - an exception in our somewhat haphazard condo building. It's gray flecked - not color(s) we'd have picked but to save resources (financial and environmental), we are going to work with it.

Appliances, almost as surprising in their low cost as the countertop on the other end, I will cover another day. For now, I'll just say no to the depot and let Energy Guide guide you.

After a full-day of remeasuring, re-thinking, revising and quadruple-checking, we both signed off on our cabinet order (they asked both spouses to do so - wonder if they had issues in the past - probably a story there!) - we faxed it in to Gwen at Greenmaker yesterday. And made our down payment. So... ready or not, the Green Rehab 'game' is ON!!