Custom cabinets across the Colorado Front Range.

The corridor runs about 130 miles and climbs from the plains around Greeley to the Palmer Divide north of Colorado Springs. The houses change a lot along the way. Two things don't: the air is dry, and much of the ground underneath is clay that swells when it gets wet.

Dry air moves wood

Wood takes on and gives up moisture until it matches the room. In a dry Colorado winter with the furnace running, a solid wood door panel shrinks across its width, and a stained panel that was finished after assembly can show a pale line where it pulls out of the frame. Painted five-piece doors can show hairline cracks at the joints for the same reason. None of that is a defect in the wood. It is a construction and finishing question.

• Ask whether door panels are finished before assembly, so movement doesn't expose bare wood.
• For painted doors, ask how the joints are built, or consider MDF center panels where the look allows.
• Let new cabinets sit in the house before install so they reach the same moisture level as the room.
• Keep a humidifier in mind for solid wood inset work, where a tight reveal shows every bit of movement.

Clay soil moves floors

Expansive soils are why many Front Range basements have slab floors that float and partition walls built with a gap at the bottom. Cabinetry on a lower level has to respect that gap. We fasten to the parts of the structure that stay put and check how the slab and walls are built before a basement bar or kitchenette is set. The city pages go into what this looks like in each area's housing.