04/04/2023
April 2023 - Why Choose Jim Farris Cabinets
I recently met with my best friend whose home was damaged in the recent storms. A very large oak tree fell on the back of his house, came through the roof, and knocked out the large picture window in their den. Rain was literally pouring down through the ceiling in their kitchen/breakfast room! After reviewing his situation, measuring, doing layout options and pricing he asked me, “Why should he choose Jim Farris Cabinets over the general contractor?” I spent the next 30 minutes explaining why. He said that I should have that information on my website. So here it is!
You get Jim
Jim is the owner. He is your main point of contact. He is the one that answers the phone, email and text messages. He wears many different hats very well. His talents include artist, engineer, designer, contractor, craftsman, woodworker, problem solver, perfectionist and more. He cares about the smallest details of your project and how they all work together. His goal is to make your ideas form and function with artistic beauty and practically. His job regularly includes dealing with projects and people that are new, different, or even difficult! He thrives on challenging projects. Your satisfaction is his priority. He will make you feel like you are his only client! When it comes to custom kitchens or other projects, Jim will help guide you through the process, keep you on track, and help keep you from making mistakes!
You get his team
John Fife first started working at Jim Farris Cabinets back in 1988. It didn’t take long before John was at home here. He has grown into a really great artisan. On the side John is a guitar luthier (a skilled craftsman that builds and repairs guitars). Jim owns a beautiful mahogany acoustic guitar that John made for him. John can build anything and do it to perfection!
Dave Kerner is the newest skilled craftsman here at Jim Farris Cabinets. Jim first met Dave back in 1977, and they have been good friends ever since. Over the years, they have consulted with one another about various projects. On several occasions, Jim tried to get Dave to come work at Jim Farris Cabinets, but the timing was never right. In the summer of 2022, all that changed when he came aboard full-time. He is an outstanding craftsman, problem solver, and finisher as well. Dave and his skillset have been a valuable addition to Jim Farris Cabinets.
You get tangible and intangible things that make the difference
• Honesty and integrity
• Excellent reputation
• A member of the Better Business Bureau with an A+ rating
• Clear communication in English, with a southeast Texas drawl!
• Personal attention
• A business that specializes in one thing - custom cabinets and furniture
• Superior design
• The very best use of the space you have to work with
• Accurate scale drawings of exactly what we are going to build
• Attention to the smallest detail
• An exhaustive knowledge of materials and construction methods
• The finish work on your cabinets is done in the shop, not in your home
• Minimal mess
• Quick installation
• Experience – Together Jim, John, & Dave have over 140 years of custom woodworking experience!
• Doors and drawers that work and keep on working
• The highest quality solid hardwoods and panel products
• The highest quality hardware – drawer slides, hinges, trash pull-outs, etc.
• The highest quality clear and pigment finishes
• The highest quality craftsmanship
• A fixed price contract with no surprise overruns
• Completion of every project
• Cabinets and furniture designed to last a lifetime
You don’t get
• Surprises
• Ignored
• A bunch of sorry excuses
• A team that just disappears
• Chaos
• Handcuffed by a limited catalog
• Cookie-cutter box cabinets
• Particle board
• Cheap Chinese panel products and hardware
• Thin 1/2” or 1/8” materials where you need thicker 3/4” and 1/4” materials
• Stinky finish work in your home
• A long-drawn-out mess in your home
• Shoddy craftsmanship
Stories:
Drawer Problems
I recently met with a potential new client about their newly remodeled home. They contacted me because they were having problems with their drawers being hard to open and close. They had hired a design/build company to remodel their kitchen, utility, den, powder room and home office. I must say that the design was very beautiful. The big problem was in the execution of the design. They failed miserably at the most basic level. The doors and drawers did not align properly, nor open and close properly. Part of this problem was caused by the cheap Chinese knock-off drawer slides and hinges. The shortcuts they took in the drawer construction compounded the problem. All too often problems arise when a company cannot deliver what they promised. The company owner didn’t even recognize that the problems were legitimate! The homeowner had already spent a huge amount with this firm and were facing spending as much as $60,000 with us to fix their problem. The last I heard they were still fighting with their contractor to make it all right.
Contractor disappeared
I can’t tell you how many times I have had the call that “my contractor has disappeared”! One woman recently called me for that very reason. I met with her at her home to see if we could help her. She had a real mess. Part of the cabinets had already been installed, some with doors, some with drawers, but all were incomplete. The design was so inferior that the cabinets didn’t even fit the space correctly. One bank of drawers would not open because the fronts wouldn’t clear the adjacent cabinets, and they had not allowed enough space for the dishwasher. She had a partial stack of doors and drawer fronts that had not been installed yet. The ones that had been installed didn’t fit the cabinet boxes right. She had already paid the contractor for most of the work. I gave her a proposal to make her kitchen whole. Because she had already paid the now invisible contractor for most of her contract, she couldn’t afford to hire us to make it right. In the time frame right around this encounter I had two other calls just like it!
Builder’s grade woes
We were referred to a new client who was building a new home. They hired us to do the difficult and most prominent cabinets and built-ins in that home. They opted to have the builder build the other cabinet work because he was so much less expensive. At the end of the job, they had some real problems with the builder-provided cabinets. They wanted to hire us to do all the repairs, but we were just too busy. I recommended another craftsman to help them out. Because so much had been done wrong, this ended up being an expensive repair. At the end of the project the home owner wrote us a very nice recommendation. In that recommendation he said, “We wish we had used you for our regular/boring cabinets in the house.” When they did their next home that is exactly what they did!
