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fixing things, or not, in 2017

metsmarathon Jan 12 2017 02:56 PM

so... on august 30th last year, i started into a kitchen remodel. demo started november 3rd. i got word on monday, that my stove might arrive sometime in mid february. at best. mind you, i'm still waiting on the countertop, erroneoulsy fabricated with a too-small sink, and window, erroneously specified in the wrong configuration, to be installed so that the rest of the damned thing (backsplash, electrical, plumbing, painting, etc) can be finished so that all i have to wait for is the damned stove. the lesson: don't fucking use lowe's ever again.

themetfairy Jan 12 2017 03:46 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

That's unfortunate. We did a bathroom remodel with Lowe's in 2012, and by and large things went well. However, when there were some small glitches it helped that we know the store manager, who also owns and runs a coffee shop in town. I hope your kitchen is completed soon - I'm sure it will be worth the wait!

cooby Jan 12 2017 04:30 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

You could try Sears

metsmarathon Jan 12 2017 04:43 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

see, that's the thing. i was expecting little things to go wrong. i can honestly say that every single aspect of the project had problems. some small. many big. about the only thing they did right was, during demo, they left the rest of the house standing. the story of the stove is a saga in and of itself. originally ordered on august 30th, it was to be delivered at a future time when the kitchen would be ready for it. namely, after the base cabinets were installed, so that the countertop could be measured and appropriately account for its existence. because of delays caused by the contractor not showing up when scheduled, not scheduling work when there was work to do, and neither planning nor communicating when the appliances should be delivered, in late-november, i called to have it delivered. come to find out that, when we paid for everything, the bar code scanner skipped over a few items - namely the fridge and dishwasher, both fairly important items for a modern kitchen to have - but at least we had a stove paid for. and it would be delivered on december 1st. oih, wait. no. it was damaged in shipping (or so we were told). and now, lookit that. back ordered. because black friday sales. should be in around mid december. the fridge that was finally ordered, well, that's looking like an after-christmas thing. just in case, i looked at the store model. it looked in good enogh condition. but since the rest of the kitchen, through a litany of other delays, wasn't going to be ready until mid december at the earliest, i figure, we'd stick with the one that hadn't been poked at by every tom dick and harry to come into the store, no matter how good its condition appeared. mid december comes... nope, wait... still on backorder. maybe late january. uhh, guys... that's pretty late. kitchen should be done a month already by then. can i get the store model? sure. that comes in a week after the countertop was installed with the wrong sink (a countertop which still needs to be yanked out and replaced to this date). um, guys... this isn't the same model. it looks close, but it's not as good. i told them to take it back. oh, you thought i just wanted "a stove" and didn't think to mention that it's an older model and wasn't as good? well, at least it was the same color, i guess. thanks a bunch! guys... .guys.... i want my stove. oh. it's backordered until late january by the manufacturer. it still take 5 days to get shipped over. then five more days to get to our warehouse. then five more days to get to the store. so... mid febraury, at best! y'know, if it doesn't get delayed in customs or anything. guys... not cool. i've been without a kitchen now for two. and. a. half. months. my stove won't come in for another month still. if i'm lucky. this isn't fucking rocket science. they took down a non-load-bearing wall, but almost all of the electric was carried over, and neither water nor gas plumbing needed to be moved. and it's not a gigantic, huge, monstrously large and intricate kitchen. this is fucking ridiculous. i could have fucked this up my own damned self and still not taken this long.

metsmarathon Jan 12 2017 04:49 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

cooby wrote: You could try Sears lol. sears actually apparently has my stove in stock. could conceivably deliver it within a few days. so says their website. it's more expensive than my stove, and since the kitchen electric and all that isn't complete yet, it can't be installed for free by sears. and lowes won't comp the difference and their contractor won't install an item not bought at their store. so i could pay more for the stove, and pay more to install it, and lowes gets off scot free.. fuck them.

Ceetar Jan 12 2017 06:12 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

rough. My kitchen is newish but the more I work in it the more I want to remodel it. Father works at Lowes so I'd get a nice* discount but that sounds like a pain. We did our garage door through them and it was..relatively painless. I think the next repair I pay for is gonna have to be a house filter/regulator. The water is super hard and the pressure is too high that it causes problems. ONe of which is the dishwasher (new, delivered, put in myself) the parts I had to connect the water required an elbow and it leaks a teeny bit from there. I think it's because of the pressure hitting the turn. So I've been looking for a different piece and keep finding the wrong one. I think the piping is a weird size (7/16th?). I should probably just disconnect it and bring it, but I always forget.

metsmarathon Feb 16 2017 03:14 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

it has been 105 days since i had a kitchen that i could fully use. it could get mostly finished (with one glaring exception*) this week, but i ain't holding my breath... * so way back when, Lowes ordered me up a window, and came to find out when the installers tried to install it, that they managed to order the wrong thing, somehow. not the right something something. it was also damaged but the installer would've totally put it in in that condition, which is bullshit. anyways, Lowes orders up a new one, it took 6 weeks or more to get here, and then we had to wait for the countertop to get replaced (which they were clearly in no rus to do, because, gosh, it's not like that wasn't holding up every fucking thing else that needed to get done). so finally hte countertop got replaced, and on friday, they put in the new window. it looks good. really good. i'm pretty sure the dimensions of the two casement windows got smaller, to the benefit of the central picture window. not really sure how that managed to happen, but, hey, it actually looks better that way. it's another case of "just what the fuck are you even doing, Lowes?" but whatevs, right? it's a window, in my house, keeping out the cold, and now they can finish the rest of the goddamned kitchen. so i go over to the window, to try it out. left side casement window. turn the crank. wait.. what...? it opens out, away from the center window... that's... odd... usually they open towards the middle, with the hinged side towards the outside. scratching my head... did my genius contractor install these backwards...?! i go over to the right side casement window. inspect it. OH, are you fucking kidding me, Lowes? this one opens properly, to towards the center, with the hinge on the outside. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. their "window expert" who came here to inspect the old improperly ordered window, the guy who knows his shit and was called on to unfuck the situation, ordered up two LEFT windows to flank my picture window. un fucking believable. i sent an email immediately to Lowes about it. they finally called me yesterday to tell me that they're ordering up a new one. it'll probably take about six weeks. third time's the charm, amirite? AAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

d'Kong76 Feb 16 2017 03:39 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

You need to urge Lionel Hutz out of retirement and SUE SUE SUE!! (actually I'm anti-litigious but 105 days is fucking ridiculous)

Lefty Specialist Feb 16 2017 03:39 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

I have a guy that we've used for 25 years. He's fixed/repaired/rebuilt dozens of things in our house. He actually started with a rebuild of our kitchen in 1992, and he rebuilt it again in 2016. He said it would take 3 weeks, and it took 3 weeks. He's got other contractors that he works with do do other things (he worked with another guy to rebuild our deck, for instance). It's nice to have a guy you can trust. I'm sure he cost more than a box store (in fact we're probably putting his kids through college), but that level of trust is priceless.

metsmarathon Feb 16 2017 05:06 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

yeah, i'm waiting for it to all be done, and then i'm going to be having long detailed (ideally expletive-free) discussion(s) with the store management. a kitchen is not rocket science. i know that, because i know rocket science. this has all been inexcusable and unfathomable.

Nymr83 Feb 16 2017 05:11 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

Lefty Specialist wrote: I have a guy that we've used for 25 years. He's fixed/repaired/rebuilt dozens of things in our house. He actually started with a rebuild of our kitchen in 1992, and he rebuilt it again in 2016. He said it would take 3 weeks, and it took 3 weeks. He's got other contractors that he works with do do other things (he worked with another guy to rebuild our deck, for instance). It's nice to have a guy you can trust. I'm sure he cost more than a box store (in fact we're probably putting his kids through college), but that level of trust is priceless. When you factor in the costs of not having a kitchen for 4 months and all the expensive restauants/takeout that result I'll bet your guys end up being CHEAPER!

Chad Ochoseis Feb 16 2017 06:15 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

Probably too late now, but I have a good friend in Morristown who is a kitchen designer. She coordinates kitchen renovation projects and takes responsibility for ensuring the contractors get the job done. She renovated my kitchen (at my NJ condo) four years ago and did a great job. If it ever gets to the point where you fire your current contractors and you're interested, PM me and I'll put you in touch.

metsmarathon Feb 16 2017 06:37 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

yeah, it's way too late now. i'm basically just waiting for a coat of paint, hooking up the range hood exhaust, and cleanup, i think. plus the window nonsense, but that's not so much on the contractor... i used to think the contractor was the biggest source of the problems. and they were until the window and countertop manifested themselves. but once those issues came up, the week or two or three worth of delay that the contractor caused was small potatoes. the delays all compounded upon themselves, too, so the contractor's delays led to lowes' screwups being worse, for the most part, but there's nothing the contractor could've done to positively affect the outcome with either the window or the countertop, other than move the date of discovery forward a smidge. that shit, the reason i haven't had a kitchn since early november, the reason no forward progress was made in my kitchen between late november and late last week, that shit is all on lowes for being complete incompetent fuckups. but the kitchen does look nice. and appears to be solid, from a workmanship standpoint. the window being wrong hte first time headed off one potential contractor fuckup in putting a damaged window frame into my house, and i headed off another potential fuckup with routing my exhaust fan wildly incorrectly, but the nailing together of things looks sound. i can't wait to be done with this, and be able to use my kitchen. and i'm really hoping that lowes will find sufficient financial brain bleach so as to make me forget this experience ever happened.

Fman99 Feb 16 2017 07:40 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

We have been living much of the same life, over much of the same time period. I will share my heartache and woes later.

metsmarathon Feb 17 2017 02:06 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

hearing the woes of others will make me feel a little less like a complete moron for going with Lowes, though i have heard many a glowing report from lowes customers also. calling in a contractor is like going to the bullpen. sometimes you get a trevor hoffman, or a mariano rivera, or a dennis eckersley - someone you can keep going back to and expect results. other times, you call in mike maddux.

MFS62 Feb 17 2017 02:39 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

Lefty Specialist wrote: I have a guy that we've used for 25 years. He's fixed/repaired/rebuilt dozens of things in our house. He actually started with a rebuild of our kitchen in 1992, and he rebuilt it again in 2016. He said it would take 3 weeks, and it took 3 weeks. He's got other contractors that he works with do do other things (he worked with another guy to rebuild our deck, for instance). It's nice to have a guy you can trust. I'm sure he cost more than a box store (in fact we're probably putting his kids through college), but that level of trust is priceless. We had a guy like that - plumbing, carpentry, construction - he did it all. And he did it well. My wife said he had "golden hands". But he passed away a few years ago, and his sons aren't as good. We're still looking, though. Later

themetfairy Feb 17 2017 03:10 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

FWIW, I had a good experience with Lowe's when they remodeled two of our bathrooms in 2012. It helped that the local Lowe's store manager also owns and runs a coffee shop in town, so when we ran into a scheduling glitch he was accessible and on the ball and fixed things right away. But you weren't an idiot to choose them. I would have recommended them to you based on my experience.

metsmarathon Feb 17 2017 04:05 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

the one positive out of the project is that one of the carpenters that the contractor had employed, i got along with well, and he did good work. he used to run his own kitchen renovation company, but the financial landscape forced him out of business. we're planning on bringing him back to do some other work around the house, as he left the installer after working for him for a month, over the way they run their business and treat employees and customers. i'm still tempted to do my damned master-bathroom remodel (mostly) my damned self. next year. once i recover.

Ceetar Feb 17 2017 04:08 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

This morning my toilet handle (new handle I bought a month ago) broke and my cat was playing with a dead mouse under the dining room table. yay.

Fman99 Feb 17 2017 07:31 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

We also blew up our kitchen, starting basically the first week of December. We had a lot of little things breaking here and there. Our dishwasher was on the fritz. Our cupboards were broken in a few spots and the laminate counters were starting to separate in places. It was time. We went to an open house in our neighborhood (well, Fwife and Fgirl did, but I looked at pictures of it online) and saw that they had removed an L shaped dividing wall in the middle of the floor to open up the kitchen/dining room space, and I said, OK, it's time, let's do this and open things up. We've spent just shy of $20k to do it -- using a contractor that had done some smaller projects for us last year, and Home Depot for the materials. Their contractors did the flooring and granite counters, and we bought the cabinets there, and our guy installed them as well as the appliances. The problem, now, is our contractor. While he does good work, and is friendly, he's also dealing with personal issues. Namely, he has a spouse with health issues and it's forced him to cancel on us. We're literally just a few full days from being done -- we have our stove and microwave, and some of our lights in place, as well as the counters, cabinets, new walls, etc. We just need to have the last half of the new electrical work done, and our sink/dishwasher, as well as having our new fridge and water line put in (our old one is in the basement, to ultimately be used as a 2nd fridge/freezer, but right now still the only functional one in the house). I can even forgive someone who has to miss work due to family issues, but our problem is that he doesn't call or text to say he's got to cancel. I have to come home each day to find out he's just not made it over, and I don't hear anything unless I text him first. He's been coming on weekends, the last couple of weeks, to try and keep up, but we're now probably 2+ weeks past schedule, and still eating at a folding bridge table in our family room, and I can't cook pasta without a kitchen sink, and I am tired of washing dishes in my paint sink every night. Just be done already.

metsmarathon Feb 18 2017 04:13 AM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

Ceetar wrote: This morning my toilet handle (new handle I bought a month ago) broke and my cat was playing with a dead mouse under the dining room table. yay. Better than a mouse playing with your dead cat...

metsmarathon Feb 18 2017 04:21 AM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

Our kitchen was beat to hell when we bought the house 10 years ago, and looked every bit the part of having been built in 1962. The cabinets were custom built-in so it needed a full strip down. The fridge was probably from the early 2000s and small, and we'd replaced the dishwasher, cooktop and small wall oven along the way, with an eye towards a future upgrade. The functional layout of our kitchen is largely unchanged. We took down a wall between the dining room, along which we had a kitchen table we never sat at and only put things on and under, replacing it with 8' of cabinets and a big ol countertop, with no cabinets above. Holy crap does that change the whole damn space. The one thing I'll miss is that we had a narrow but deep pantry next to our small fridge. With the bigger fridge that we needed there was no way to still have the pantry in which to lose things for years. The peninsula will likely assume much the same intended role, only better.

Fman99 Feb 19 2017 02:56 AM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

The newest wrinkle? The gap between the top of the fridge and the cabinet above it is a very noticeable 5.5" in height. It should not have been more than a 2" space, by our estimation. Someone done fucked up something.

metsmarathon Feb 19 2017 11:39 PM Re: fixing things, or not, in 2017

that's... odd... is it the same depth as the rest of the cabinets? usually the fridge-toppers come out further. is it possible the cabinets that were put in up there are the ones to go above a microwave range hood thing?