The day after the install was a holiday, which gave us time to look over the new cupboards. We found a few problems. I had ordered extra shelves for the tall upper cabinets. We discovered the workers had ripped open three of the cartons and removed the shelf support pins. Three packets equaling 36 pins are missing! There was no reason for them to take them as the cabinets are shipped standard with two shelves inside. We don't have enough pins to finish our project, but used the pins available to add some extra shelves.
innermost cabinet with extra shelves
The counter top measurer came on Thursday. He put black and white 3-inch dots on the walls and used an imaging camera to measure the counters. I have an appointment to view the slab on Monday afternoon and were told it would be ready in 3-5 weeks. Before he left, he said the carpenters should cut the hole in the sink base and install the 2x4 supports in the corner as his team doesn't have finishing tools. This confused me as we don't have the sink or know where to cut into the support in the top of the sink base. When I spoke with the project manager on Friday, he said that was ridiculous and the counter installers always cut the hole and add supports. Can you believe the communications problems between departments?
We don't like how the toe kick edges look. The project manager said "welcome to the world of box cabinets." Apparently, the toe kick is a composite material and doesn't take stain well. We think we will try to find a furniture marker and see what we can do about coloring it.
toe kick end
We discovered some of the drawers are misaligned, the worst case with the large drawers where the middle ones touched. The project manager said they cannot do anything about drawers. Huh?!? I suggested perhaps I could live with it if they could be switched around. He told me how to work the drawer release mechanism so we could try that.
I decided I can live with this one as it is next to the stove.
drawers don't line up and the middle ones touch
This conversation with the project manager happened on Friday. That evening, Chuck and I pulled out the drawers to re-arrange them. This is what we found.
broken drawer support
broken drawer support
I remembered seeing one of the workers drop this cabinet and a chunk of wood flew off. At the time I checked the antique cabinet next to where he dropped it for damage, found none and then cleared the work area to stay out of their way. So now this cabinet is out of square and they nailed the piece back on with protruding nails. The particle board flakes off onto the drawer glides. After some angry steam-rising-off-our-heads thoughts about the workers who deliberately hide this error (and took our shelf support pins), we came to the conclusion we wanted this $500.00 cabinet replaced and should cancel the floor install on Monday.
We went to Home Depot on Saturday morning. The floor department said there was no way to contact the crew2 installers and we should call them at 5:00 am on Monday morning. Yea, right. Like I'm not losing enough sleep about this already? Next, we went to the kitchen department and the designer asked how our project was going. We said "you don't want to know our troubles" but she said she wants to know everything. After telling our story, she went to find her manager and the two of them assured us this is not a typical install experience. They asked us to cc them on further e-mail communication and to contact them directly if the crew2 project manager doesn't resolve the cabinet replacement to our satisfaction within a few days. They said the floor install could go ahead as long as footprint of the cabinets doesn't change, and that the counter people always do the supports and sink base cutting. They also informed us that a homeowner repair kit with a color pen and a tube of nail filler is shipped with cabinets - another thing to retrieve from the workers! It was very reassuring to talk to people face to face and I sincerely believe our local Home Depot kitchen designers care.
We went to Home Depot on Saturday morning. The floor department said there was no way to contact the crew2 installers and we should call them at 5:00 am on Monday morning. Yea, right. Like I'm not losing enough sleep about this already? Next, we went to the kitchen department and the designer asked how our project was going. We said "you don't want to know our troubles" but she said she wants to know everything. After telling our story, she went to find her manager and the two of them assured us this is not a typical install experience. They asked us to cc them on further e-mail communication and to contact them directly if the crew2 project manager doesn't resolve the cabinet replacement to our satisfaction within a few days. They said the floor install could go ahead as long as footprint of the cabinets doesn't change, and that the counter people always do the supports and sink base cutting. They also informed us that a homeowner repair kit with a color pen and a tube of nail filler is shipped with cabinets - another thing to retrieve from the workers! It was very reassuring to talk to people face to face and I sincerely believe our local Home Depot kitchen designers care.
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