This week hasn't been the walk in the park that I was hoping for. If you follow me on facebook, you may have gotten an inkling about my frustrations with the Home Depot kitchen installers. We asked them to leave before the completion of the project at the end of the 3rd day. The whole situation just makes me sick to my stomach- I hate being that person and it takes a LOT to push me over the edge, but they found my breaking point.
I apologize ahead of time- this post is largely a rant (and I won't blame you if you'd rather skip it and come back Monday for a more positive post), so I'll start with a kitchen progress picture to ease the pain.
After being rescheduled several times, the installers arrived Monday knowing only half of the scope of work (I hire them for installing cabinets AND running vent duct through it). Understandably, what they though was an easy one day project turned into 2. However, when we were nearing the end of day 3, 25 hours of them being in my house, and the end wasn't even in sight.... I was getting fed up. There were a LOT of little issues going through the project starting from day one that I won't get into, but the recurring excuse/complaint why the project wasn't going well was my unlevel floor. This is a 100 year old house- it's not unexpected, that's why I thought I was hiring the pros & explained as such when they came to measure and quote the project.
On day 3 when they were working on the base board/toe kick and they told me that I should have ripped up my floors and leveled them before installing the kitchen, I started to lose it. Insulting my floors or my house is like telling a woman her baby's ugly. Although these aren't the original floors, the lack of perfectly level floors is part of the charm of an old house and this wasn't an extreme case. Essentially he was telling me I should remove charm from my house so his job would have been easier.
One cabinet couldn't be installed because we need to wait for a larger filler piece to be ordered (which I discovered on day 1)- not the installers fault and I should have caught that problem when I approved the design- BUT when they proceeded to tell me that I needed to sign off on the completion of the project so that they could get paid sooner- that was the straw that broke me. After all the little issues they kept bringing up, my patience was wearing thin. I'm not signing off that it's done, until, ya know it's done! They kept pushing and an argument ensued which concluded with them being asked to leave.
In the moment, I knew it was 100% the right thing to do, but I keep second guessing myself after the fact... because that's what I do. I really do feel terrible- I never want to be the reason someone doesn't get paid or gets reprimanded, but from the get go there was a lack of professionalism.
So now I have to wait a few weeks for the filler piece and a few other replacement pieces arrive, THEN I'll hire my own installers to finish the job. At least we have a functional kitchen until then & I can finally start putting the kitchen and dining room back together (AND work on installing my tile!)
I had decided to go through Home Depot to hopefully streamline the process with them ordering, measuring, and installing, but I missed the mark a bit. At least Home Depot was SO helpful yesterday when I arrived to tell them of the complete situation- they were apologetic and are doing all they can to make it right. I'm sure there are those with amazing experiences with their installers, but I was not one of them. C'est la vie.
The kitchen will be amazing when done- I'm just ready to move past this whole thing. I know I'm not the only who has had contractor issues. Feel free to share your stories in the comments to help me feel better.
Monday's post will be up-beat, I promise! Have a great weekend!
