06 / Boulder and Weld counties / Erie
We design, build and install custom cabinets in Erie, Colorado, and in a town growing this fast, the cabinet question usually starts with a new house. Erie's population has more than doubled since 2010, and a lot of that growth arrived as production homes with a standard cabinet package. The useful decisions are what to change, when to change it and what to leave alone.
Erie straddles the Boulder and Weld county line, and the subdivisions spread across both: Vista Ridge with its golf course, then Erie Highlands, Compass, Flatiron Meadows and Colliers Hill. Down on Briggs Street the picture changes. Old Town Erie dates to the coal mines of the 1870s, and its houses are small, older and full of earlier remodels. Two different jobs, one town.
Brief 01 / Erie
Production builders sell cabinet upgrades through a design center, priced item by item at contract. Taller uppers, a finish change, crown, soft-close hardware, an extra drawer stack. Those choices get rolled into the mortgage and installed by crews already on site. The trade-off is the menu, at the builder's price.
After closing you can choose anything, but now you're tearing out or adding to new cabinets in a finished house. Our position is simple. Make the decisions that live inside walls at contract time, and leave cosmetics for later. Moving a sink, adding an island with plumbing, extra outlets for an appliance garage, blocking for heavy uppers: do those through the builder. Hardware, organizers and most custom built-ins can wait.
Anything buried in a wall or a slab. Plumbing locations, electrical, gas, hood venting, the island footprint. Those are expensive to change after drywall and nearly free to change on paper.
Pantry interiors, drawer inserts, a coffee bar, mudroom lockers, a basement wet bar, stacked cabinets that take the uppers to the ceiling. All of these go in after closing without disturbing finished walls, and by then you'll know how the household actually uses the kitchen.
Brief 02 / Erie
Packages vary by builder and price tier, so look at what you actually got. Open the sink base and check the floor of the cabinet. Pull a drawer all the way out and look at the corners. Measure the uppers, then measure the empty wall above them. Our cabinet guide walks through what each of these tells you.
None of that means the cabinets are bad. A tidy particleboard box with decent hinges can last for years in a dry Colorado house. Water is the weak point, and it shows up first at the sink base and the panel beside the dishwasher. If those two spots are plywood or well sealed, keep the boxes and change what's around them.
Brief 03 / Erie
The houses off Briggs Street are a different animal. Erie wasn't a mining camp; miners owned land and houses in town, and plenty of those modest homes are still lived in. Many kitchens there have been remodeled two or three times, each layer laid over the last.
That changes how we approach cabinet replacement. Expect a kitchen that never had a dishwasher, a range on a circuit that won't carry a modern one, or a dropped ceiling hiding the original height. We open up the questions before ordering: where can a 24-inch dishwasher go, what's above the ceiling, and does the floor under the old cabinets match the floor in front of them? Cabinet installation in an Erie house this age starts with demolition questions, not door samples.
Response units / Erie
How each service fits Erie's mix of new subdivisions and Old Town houses.
Layout changes and upgrades for builder kitchens, and full redesigns for older houses.
Swapping builder vanities for drawer storage at a more comfortable height.
Good post-closing projects that don't disturb finished walls.
For failed sink bases and drawers, or kitchens that no longer fit the household.
Careful around fresh finishes in recent builds and around old framing in Old Town.
Cabinet packages for builders and developers working in Erie's growth areas.
Routing
IfYou're under contract and the house hasn't framed
ThenLock plumbing, electrical and island decisions through the builder. Save finishes and organizers for later.
IfYou closed recently and the kitchen is short on storage
ThenLook at stacked uppers, a pantry wall and drawer conversions before replacing anything.
IfThe sink base is swelling or drawers are coming apart
ThenReplace the failing pieces, and check the dishwasher side panel while you're there.
IfYou own an older home near Briggs Street
ThenStart with a site visit. Old Town layouts are set by what's behind the walls and above the ceiling.
Coverage / Boulder and Weld Counties
Erie spreads across two counties, and some newer subdivisions sit several miles from Old Town. Lafayette borders it to the south; Frederick, Firestone and Dacono lie to the north. We plan measure and install trips by area, so include your subdivision or cross streets when you reach out. It lets us group visits and give you a realistic window.
Call transcript / Erie
Split the decision. Anything that changes plumbing, electrical, gas or the island footprint should go through the builder, because it's built into the walls. Finishes, organizers and built-ins can wait until after closing, when you know the house. Ask the builder how outside work affects your new-home warranty first.
Sometimes. If the builder's cabinet line is still in production, matching the door style and finish may be possible, though color shifts between batches and with sun. If it's discontinued, a deliberate contrast usually looks better: an island, a pantry wall or a bar in a different finish, so nobody expects a perfect match.
Not automatically. In a dry climate, particleboard boxes that stay dry can last a long time. They fail at water: the sink base, the dishwasher side and anything near a refrigerator line. Watch for swelling at the bottom edge and hinges pulling loose. Replacing one sink base is a reasonable fix when the other boxes are still solid.
Send the builder's floor plan if you have it, photos of the kitchen and a short list of what isn't working. Use the quote request form and we'll follow up to set a measure. For a house still under construction, include the builder's name and your expected closing window so we can plan around it.
Open a case / 06
Send your builder's plan or photos of the kitchen you closed on. We'll sort the changes into now, later and never.
Accessibility / Language
