The Saga Continues

Ah, the kitchen. We ran into the plumber at Fazoli's last night before we got home and he asked us how we liked our sink. We hadn't even seen it. He said that he didn't make the drain for the dishwasher or replace the line for the water/ice maker on the fridge. I'm guessing that means he'll have to come back next week. I'm very confused about why he didn't do either of those two things but Jason says that it must be a communication issue. Like Jason didn't properly communicate what needed to be done. Oh well, as long as it all gets done.

The major progress last night was that the sink, faucets, and garbage disposal were all installed. The garbage disposal is still not operational because the electric is not yet hooked up. That will be Monday. It would have been yesterday but Jason had to get a second estimate and that pushed us to next week. The top cabinets also were refaced but no doors have gone up. The painter is still working on those.

We're having additional issues with the painter. He's all over the place with what he wants to do, how he wants to renegotiate the contract. Facts are that the job has changed-- mostly in our favor. There are three fewer cabinets than there were previously and new wood rather than existing wood on the cabinet facings. I'm not a painter but I'm guessing that painting new wood is probably easier than sanding and painting old, greasy, dirty existing wood. So Jason is renegotiating that contract. I spoke with the guy this morning to explain our position and I think it was effective. It set the stage for Jason to go in asking for reasonable prices. This guy wants to make up with stuff like painting the insides of the cabinets. While I think that would be nice, I'm not interested in paying for that. I could do that myself after the kitchen is done and before I put everything back. After all, the inside of the cabinet doesn't have to look perfect. I never would have thought that the painter would be the hardest contractor to deal with.

Ok, so here's another thing. Why is it that some contractors (like the plumbers) neglect to do what needs to be done and others do stuff that wasn't asked for and then expect to get paid for it? We negotiated with the carpenter that he order the knobs and pulls. On the contract it states that if we supply our own, that $100 comes off the cost. In reaction to that, he decides without approval to add rollers to the drawers to make up for that $100. Honestly, if he'd just called us to ask whether we would be willing to do that we would most likely have said yes. Just the fact that he sprung it on us last night after it was done rubbed me the wrong way. Then we find out that he's coaching the painter to do similar stuff. Part of my conversation with the painter this morning was that we do not want him doing work that we did not ask for but that we will pay him for work that we ask for. And that the price will be prenegotiated so that we don't have surprise costs. In the case of the carpenter, he is very skilled and does great work for pretty cheap. Even with the hidden extras, he's totally worth it. I don't believe, however, that the painter will be the same.