The New-Cabinet Saga
May. 23rd, 2013 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amanda_loddenI ordered new cabinets. You may have heard the squeal of delight-- I've been wanting to redo the kitchen since we moved in 15 years ago.
The guy at Home Depot (Dave) was nice. Once I'd finally decided what I actually wanted, it was fairly easy to get them ordered, though the design phase was slightly frustrating-- mostly because I actually took courses in architectural drafting (a million years ago, admittedly), and could make some logical leaps faster than Dave could. My initial math was wrong, and I had to change two 36" cabinets to two 30" cabinets, and it took a few minutes to explain to Dave why 36" + 36" + 36" wasn't going to work in a 96" space. He would have gotten there himself eventually if I had just shut up, but "just shut up" is not my default setting.
Home Depot had some excellent specials running, netting me 10% off of the cabinets and 20% off of the countertop (or vice versa, I can't recall). They also have a "2 years at 0%" promotion going for financing, provided the total is over $2400. My total is over $2400-- it's $2700 for the cabinets and countertops plus $950 for installation. Dave rang up just the cabinets and countertops, saying that when it was time for installation they'd back out the charge and re-run it with the install fee. (I asked, because I'd like to get the $950 into the 24-months-at-0% thing as well.)
Fast forward about a week and a half, to when Jeff at Home Depot calls me to tell me that my cabinets are in, and when would I like them delivered? I stammer something along the lines of "uh, I assumed you'd bring them when you installed them." Jeff knows nothing about installation. Jeff's systems don't indicate that the cabinets are being installed. Well of course not, because Dave did something unusual and weird with the charges. We flounder for two days until Dave comes back in, and then Dave says something like "Huh, I don't know why they didn't send someone out to do the second measurement." (Dude, really? No one sent out an installer because no one but you and I realize that there's any damned installation to be done because you have some weird phobia of ringing up the install fees.) But we get it sorted out, and my request for a second measurement so that we can proceed to installation gets sent out to the company that actually does that, which is a partner of Home Depot.
The company that actually sends someone out to measure doesn't have anyone available that week (it was, admittedly, a Thursday when Dave put the request in, and I didn't get a call to set up an appointment time until Friday), and the only day that they can come out that I plan to be home is Thursday-- which works out to "today".
The gentleman who came out was very nice, and very professional, and told me that:
1) Anything that they touch, they will bring up to code, because they pull permits. That means that if I have them do any plumbing (including removing the sink so that they can remove the old sink-base cabinet and put in the new one), all of my kitchen plumbing will be brought up to code-- at my cost, obviously. I am actually okay with this.
2) The company that makes the countertops will install them-- so when this company comes to install my cabinets, they will pull out the old ones and take them away (yay!), put the new ones in, and then the other company will have to be called to come out and deal with the countertops. Which means a minimum of one day of no counters, and probably more (because you know that if this company needs its own measurements, the countertop company will need them too). I am... a lot less okay with this, but it wouldn't be the first time that we've had to work around a household construction project. (Though not having to have our lives disrupted for weeks on end is part of why I was excited about having Home Depot do the install-- they've got a lot of incentive to be in and out in one day.)
3) This company will not re-install anything old. Like my sink. Or my only-a-year-and-a-half-old faucet that I really really love. I will need to purchase a new sink and a new faucet. This is where I said "Uh, I'm not sure I want you guys to do the install, because I really love that faucet."
4) Installation, with the upgrade-to-code items that they know about by looking, will be $6000. It's not included, and the $950 is to install the countertop, not the cabinets.
And that made me say "Oh hell no." We called Chris to get him to quote it, and he figures it will cost half that-- we don't NEED to bring the electrical up to code, since we're not touching it, and that was a big part of the code-violation parts. It does mean that the old cabinets won't get hauled away, but I can work with that-- there's a Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Lapeer (and I thought there was one in Pontiac, but Google says no) that would love to have them, I'm sure-- they're in good condition, they just don't work that well in our kitchen.
So, I called Home Depot back and said "I'd like to arrange to have my cabinets delivered, please." They said "We'll leave a note for Jeff to call you." Then this afternoon, they called back to say "The toekick you ordered [as an add-on, after today's measuring guy noted that my order did not include any toe kicks or back veneers for the island-- and he was the one who submitted the add-on, so I know that they have received the second set of measurements now] is in." I said "Can you deliver it when you deliver my cabinets?" and she seemed a little bit surprised to find out that I have cabinets, so... that's a bit frustrating, too. But she's also leaving a note for Jeff, so I assume that by the time he gets in he'll have about fifteen notes asking him to call me. She's also putting a note in this file to stop asking for John, because I find it wildly frustrating that even though I ordered the cabinets, everything is in his name (except the credit card, which I had to apply for to get the 0% deal). I'm pretty sure it's just that his name was already in the system under our phone number from a previous project, but it is still annoying as hell. We'll see how the "note in the file" thing goes.
So, I'll have Chris next week, and hopefully I'll have cabinets next week as well. No idea when the countertops will appear, but we're not making a lot of structural changes to the countertop layout so if I have to have the old one laid on top of the new cabinets for a little while, it's an option. I hope. Or maybe I'll have plywood "countertops" for a week or two.
To be clear: I'm not blaming Home Depot as a whole-- everyone has been very nice and very helpful when I say "but you're missing a vital piece of information" and very willing to work to make it right. Dave, however-- I would very much like to wring his neck. Actually, I would very much like to sit him down and explain to him that he does not work in a vacuum, and eschewing the standard system in favor of his own process means that no one else has any fucking clue what's going on and can't do their part of the job in a timely manner. And THEN I'd like to wring his neck.
The guy at Home Depot (Dave) was nice. Once I'd finally decided what I actually wanted, it was fairly easy to get them ordered, though the design phase was slightly frustrating-- mostly because I actually took courses in architectural drafting (a million years ago, admittedly), and could make some logical leaps faster than Dave could. My initial math was wrong, and I had to change two 36" cabinets to two 30" cabinets, and it took a few minutes to explain to Dave why 36" + 36" + 36" wasn't going to work in a 96" space. He would have gotten there himself eventually if I had just shut up, but "just shut up" is not my default setting.
Home Depot had some excellent specials running, netting me 10% off of the cabinets and 20% off of the countertop (or vice versa, I can't recall). They also have a "2 years at 0%" promotion going for financing, provided the total is over $2400. My total is over $2400-- it's $2700 for the cabinets and countertops plus $950 for installation. Dave rang up just the cabinets and countertops, saying that when it was time for installation they'd back out the charge and re-run it with the install fee. (I asked, because I'd like to get the $950 into the 24-months-at-0% thing as well.)
Fast forward about a week and a half, to when Jeff at Home Depot calls me to tell me that my cabinets are in, and when would I like them delivered? I stammer something along the lines of "uh, I assumed you'd bring them when you installed them." Jeff knows nothing about installation. Jeff's systems don't indicate that the cabinets are being installed. Well of course not, because Dave did something unusual and weird with the charges. We flounder for two days until Dave comes back in, and then Dave says something like "Huh, I don't know why they didn't send someone out to do the second measurement." (Dude, really? No one sent out an installer because no one but you and I realize that there's any damned installation to be done because you have some weird phobia of ringing up the install fees.) But we get it sorted out, and my request for a second measurement so that we can proceed to installation gets sent out to the company that actually does that, which is a partner of Home Depot.
The company that actually sends someone out to measure doesn't have anyone available that week (it was, admittedly, a Thursday when Dave put the request in, and I didn't get a call to set up an appointment time until Friday), and the only day that they can come out that I plan to be home is Thursday-- which works out to "today".
The gentleman who came out was very nice, and very professional, and told me that:
1) Anything that they touch, they will bring up to code, because they pull permits. That means that if I have them do any plumbing (including removing the sink so that they can remove the old sink-base cabinet and put in the new one), all of my kitchen plumbing will be brought up to code-- at my cost, obviously. I am actually okay with this.
2) The company that makes the countertops will install them-- so when this company comes to install my cabinets, they will pull out the old ones and take them away (yay!), put the new ones in, and then the other company will have to be called to come out and deal with the countertops. Which means a minimum of one day of no counters, and probably more (because you know that if this company needs its own measurements, the countertop company will need them too). I am... a lot less okay with this, but it wouldn't be the first time that we've had to work around a household construction project. (Though not having to have our lives disrupted for weeks on end is part of why I was excited about having Home Depot do the install-- they've got a lot of incentive to be in and out in one day.)
3) This company will not re-install anything old. Like my sink. Or my only-a-year-and-a-half-old faucet that I really really love. I will need to purchase a new sink and a new faucet. This is where I said "Uh, I'm not sure I want you guys to do the install, because I really love that faucet."
4) Installation, with the upgrade-to-code items that they know about by looking, will be $6000. It's not included, and the $950 is to install the countertop, not the cabinets.
And that made me say "Oh hell no." We called Chris to get him to quote it, and he figures it will cost half that-- we don't NEED to bring the electrical up to code, since we're not touching it, and that was a big part of the code-violation parts. It does mean that the old cabinets won't get hauled away, but I can work with that-- there's a Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Lapeer (and I thought there was one in Pontiac, but Google says no) that would love to have them, I'm sure-- they're in good condition, they just don't work that well in our kitchen.
So, I called Home Depot back and said "I'd like to arrange to have my cabinets delivered, please." They said "We'll leave a note for Jeff to call you." Then this afternoon, they called back to say "The toekick you ordered [as an add-on, after today's measuring guy noted that my order did not include any toe kicks or back veneers for the island-- and he was the one who submitted the add-on, so I know that they have received the second set of measurements now] is in." I said "Can you deliver it when you deliver my cabinets?" and she seemed a little bit surprised to find out that I have cabinets, so... that's a bit frustrating, too. But she's also leaving a note for Jeff, so I assume that by the time he gets in he'll have about fifteen notes asking him to call me. She's also putting a note in this file to stop asking for John, because I find it wildly frustrating that even though I ordered the cabinets, everything is in his name (except the credit card, which I had to apply for to get the 0% deal). I'm pretty sure it's just that his name was already in the system under our phone number from a previous project, but it is still annoying as hell. We'll see how the "note in the file" thing goes.
So, I'll have Chris next week, and hopefully I'll have cabinets next week as well. No idea when the countertops will appear, but we're not making a lot of structural changes to the countertop layout so if I have to have the old one laid on top of the new cabinets for a little while, it's an option. I hope. Or maybe I'll have plywood "countertops" for a week or two.
To be clear: I'm not blaming Home Depot as a whole-- everyone has been very nice and very helpful when I say "but you're missing a vital piece of information" and very willing to work to make it right. Dave, however-- I would very much like to wring his neck. Actually, I would very much like to sit him down and explain to him that he does not work in a vacuum, and eschewing the standard system in favor of his own process means that no one else has any fucking clue what's going on and can't do their part of the job in a timely manner. And THEN I'd like to wring his neck.
