Parker House Library Review

Since before we had our house, we had planned to eventually buy a library/ office to sit, read, work in and for all the books (kids and everyones) to fit in. From a long time ago, we had found the Parker House Barecelona library collection on the internet. This was maybe 10 years ago. We had in fact priced out a similar library to what we eventually bought with direct buy before their ownership change this year and with Wayfair. There were basically no other regional distributors we could buy from in our area to get this collection. Purchasing items from directbuy is very flexible in the sense that if the company has a relationship with the supplier than everything on the suppliers product list is available for purchase. Everything you can find that they sell is available basically. That seems to be true from my experience. Compare this to other distributors like wayfair where they don’t have that flexibility and what you see is basically what you can buy from the internet. This is important for the library because we are talking about a modular system like kitchen cabinets. Each module comes in a certain size and dimension and the best fit in your office is determined by measuring the office and choosing which set of modules fit for you. In my case, I ordered the following:

BAR 495

BAR 450

BAR 460-2

BAR 425  X two

BAR 456

BAR 520  X three

BAR 550

BAR 560 X two

So, if I needed more bottom file cabinet space for my particular office than I just order more of those modules (BAR 520). If I need a TV hutch instead of library book shelving than I order that too. This allows the purchaser to customize the order exactly to their needs and space. It also ensures the responsibility for getting a correct order is on the purchaser as well and not on either direct buy or Parker house. If you get it wrong than that’s on you!

We waited 3 years after we finished the house before we completed the office. Money (mainly saving for it) largely determined when we could purchase the order. In a general sense, I think purchasing through direct buy saved me on this. It is difficult to find comparisons because there are no equivalent prices in our area to compare but likely I saved at least 4k on this and upward to 10k with the shipping and installation (judge for yourself what it would cost based on what the final installed furniture looks like).

I’ve already written about the delays in the delivery on another blog. This review is about the actual items and the installation itself. First a bit about the construction itself. The modular pieces come with only minor installation required. They are essentially 3/4″ OSB carcasses with what looks like solid wood mahogany? moldings for the facing and decoration. They are well made and solid. Modules are joined together side by side with included screws and locks that are attached with included allen keys. They are leveled at the bottom with feet that screw higher or lower. The actual dimensions of each module is actually smaller than the online published dimensions (slightly). This had the effect of making my library slightly smaller than what I was expecting based on my initial calculations by about 6″ on each side. An online reviewer of the Parker house line commented that there are gaps and the modules don’t fit snug with each other once assembled. Whereas I can see how someone would notice that, I would say that it is an unfair criticism because it is made out of real wood that would expand, contract and warp and they are modular pieces. If you don’t want any gaps, or awkward pieces than spend 50k (what it would really cost) for a custom library made on the spot. That’s not what you get when you order this. I think with a lot of work and playing, you get an awesome set that really looks nice (small gaps and all). The modules come with all sorts of nice features that give it a bigger wow factor. For example, the desk has a built in extention cord for plugs and USB charging. The top cabinets of the library have touch hinges to turn on undermounted lights. The back panels of the top units have openings to allow wiring to pass through either for extension cords, power bars or what have you.

Installing the units were difficult and done over the course of several weeks. I had hoped to get the boxes and just put them in place but it’s just not that straightforward. There is a lot of planning (this is important), leveling, tightening, adjusting and even modifying the boxes. Also, I had ripped my baseboard moldings out of the wall to increase the space in my room so I had to put those back. Planning is maybe the most important thing. I didn’t do enough of that because I would install a unit, realize my wiring behind the unit was insufficient to meet my needs and than remove and reinstall my units. I did this several times because several wall plugs were being covered by the library. One wall plug needed an metal extension box to allow the plug to be extended through a custom cutout in the cabinets and be usable after the library is set in place. A Cat5e plug was in the wrong location and a cat5e cable had to be run behind the library to the location it was needed. Another plug was used to serve the extension cords to the extra power bar in the table, the overhead lights, the computer and another extra power bar I made available on the desktop of the file cabinets. All of the wiring for these covered plugs had to be planned first before the wall could be covered up with the units. Even once the wiring was in place, the corner unit had to be modified to allow the plug to pass through (a cutout was made). The bottom file desk did not sit flush in its place without removing trim molding from the two adjacent glass bookcases. To tighten the gaps at the top more, I added additional screws through the crowns on adjacent units. Finally, the top of the units (which is not seen) leave large spaces mainly for wiring and lights but are also an incredible source of dust collection. To prevent this, I ripped down 3/8″ Masonite I had lying around and nailed them to the top (the wood was too hard to staple them down). This covered all the gaps and we could easily wipe or vacuum the tops down in the future when dust collects.

Would I give any advice to Parker house to make the units better? Sure.

I think that there was little flexibility to where the holes aligned between units. If the holes were a bit bigger and the washer heads larger than there would be more flexibility and it wouldn’t be as difficult. I think it’s important for people to remember that when Parker house builds the units in factory, the holes and units are perfectly aligned for a flat wall, flat floor and perfect corner but that is absolutely not the case in any real wall. The room and floor just seem flat. When you are trying to build the library across a distance of 20′ around a corner with the floor bowed and the walls bowed and the corner not at 90 degrees than there are lots of minor adjustments and more flexibility is needed.

I found leveling the feet in the file cabinet bases very difficult as the head of the screw is just 1″ below the tracks for the file cabinets. I think a special screw driver may be needed for this. I dunno. There is essentially no space to hand screw it even with a super small screwdriver.

I think the file cabinet bases would benefit from included locks. This is just a little more work and hardware but a really nice and sometimes necessary feature for an office.

I wish  that some cover was already available for the top to prevent dust collection.

I wish the light wiring could be modified to allow activation from one hinge rather than touching the hinges of each individual unit to turn each one on.

These are my thoughts. I rate the unit as 8 out of 10 for the above reasons and I would buy them again in a heartbeat from direct buy at the price I paid. All the books in the house and tons of my file folders now have a place to be (much less clutter). Doing office work goes by in a breeze and is filing mail I get on a daily basis happens in seconds rather than getting thrown into a pile and spending hours dealing with it later.

Panorama picture with iphone. The entire unit cost less than 10k CAD.

 

 

 

The ‘New’ Direct Buy Experience

As some of you may know, we have previously blogged about our direct buy experience but much has happened in the 4 years since we became members.

For one, all of the franchise stores have since closed or were shut down. There was a much publicized bankruptcy filing earlier this year.  The company has since been purchased and financed by a Chinese private equity firm and apparently is now ‘moving’ on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectBuy

I for one am horrified at the fact that we were not notified or reassured about the change in ownership.

Having said that, our personal relationship with direct buy has recently shown that they are working to make amends.

Take for example our recent purchase of the Parker House library from direct buy. The initial order was in February 2017. In March 2017, they said that the shipment would be delayed. The following 2 months of correspondence can only be described as outright lies, as they mentioned over and over again that the items arrived in California, shipped to the east coast and were sitting in a truck or warehouse somewhere in America. The continued misinformation came to the point in August nearly 7 months after the initial purchase order that I demanded the items be cancelled and my money returned. At that point, I was able to communicate directly with a manager who was responsive, responsible and was finally able to deliver my items. She even went above and beyond my expectations by corresponding almost daily and replacing one of the items when it came broken.

We have now finally installed our furniture and I have an office to sit in. I cant say if the recent ownership change had anything to do with my initial delayed shipping but the personal relationship I eventually developed with their customer care has helped rehabilitate my trust in the company to continue my membership and purchases.