Kitchen

Our conclusions so far: 1. Home Depot does a good job of specifying the job, ordering materials, and arranging reliable contractors. However, when it comes to coordinating deliveries and the activities of cabinet installers and countertop people, you are your own general contractor, by necessity. 2. The Home Depot "project manager" never sees your kitchen, and the cabinet people and the countertop people don't coordinate among themselves. They don't even leave notes for each other about potential problems. If you're not there watching everything, the odds are that the project will take three times as long as it should, and it may not get done right at all. 3. Some contractor crews are better than others. The crew we had most of the time paid great attention to detail and did excellent trim work. Another crew did very poor trim work.	A Kitchen Remodeling Job with Home Depot
	Have you ever thought about remodeling your kitchen, and using the services of a jumbo home store to coordinate the job? We did, and after visiting several stores in the area, chose the Home Depot on Pickett Street in Alexandria, VA, for the job. This is a blog of what ensued as the project unfolded in our Old Town Alexandria, VA, townhouse...
	Where it's at (May 2, 2006): 1. Waiting for grinding of 1/4" off one granite backsplash to create proper width opening for stove. 2. We still need touch-up kits in both Bordeaux Cherry and Oak. ...and then on Monday, May 8, our new contractor is supposed to begin the wall renovation, painting, etc. Hurray! 5/2/06 (Tuesday) Roberts shows up at 11:00 to install the skin and trim molding for the china cabinet, and the two replacement cabinet doors. 5/1/06 (Monday) Bernadette from Roberts calls to schedule the remaining door installation and trim work. Scheduled for arrival between 8:30 and 9:30 tomorrow. Baldino's arrives and installs new locks and digital combination deadbolts on the front and back doors. 4/24/06 (Monday) John from Home Depot calls and says if I pay $100 for travel cost, Innovative Stone will come out and trim the backsplash. I pay the $100 to him immediately by credit card. 4/21/06 (Friday) John from Home Depot returns our calls. We discuss what needs to be done to complete the cabinate work and to trim the granite backsplash. He says he'll call Innovative Stone and get them moving, and call us on Monday. 4/17/06 We return home and find another a piece of oak 1x3" molding next to our front door. 4/12/06 A delivery service delivers the sheet of oak skin to our home. We talk to John at Home Depot. He says that IS claims they will have to remove the backsplash piece to trim it, because they are afraid of damaging the wall. I explain that the wall is presently unfinished, and I don't care if they damage it. It's about to be repaired and painted or tiled anyway. I call Ital and explain the situation, and they agree that they can do it in place. 3/22/06 (Wednesday) We return home and find another two replacement doors next to our front door. This one has a pre-printed card of apology inside. We leave a message at Home Depot. 3/15/06 I call both Innovative Stone and their local contractor trying to get the backsplash trimmed. Both say that arrangements can only be made through Home Depot, even if I am willing to pay for the task. So I call John at Home Depot again, and explain again that the stove opening is less than 30" wide at the backsplash. 3/7/06 (Tuesday) We return home and find two replacement doors next to our front door. We leave a message at Home Depot. 3/1/06 (Wednesday) Another person from Home Depot left a message on our answering machine advising that our order was "in and ready for pickup." 2/28/06 (Tuesday) Someone called from Home Depot to advise that our cabinet was in and ready for pickup. I told them that we had already received the last missing cabinet (delivered by Pierre and Steve) and it had already been installed. They seemed confused. 2/26/06 (Sunday) John called from Home Depot. He said he would call Innovative Stone on Monday and arrange to have the backsplash ground down as needed. 2/25/06 (Saturday) I called Home Depot in the morning, but John wasn't in yet. I called in the afternoon, and the store said he was there, and would be until 5pm, but he didn't pick up when they paged him. They said Pierre might be able to help me, but he wouldn't be in until Monday. So I left a message for John to please call us at home. I heard nothing by 5:30, so I sent John an email asking for his help on the countertop problem with the range opening. 2/24/06 (Friday) Bray and Scarff called and arrived with a three-man crew around 11 am. They set to work removing the range and dishwasher. They immediately noticed that the garbage disposal was hanging crookedly, mounted by only one of its three mounting ears. A small amount of water was leaking to the bottom of the sink cabinet; I put a pan under it. Another problem: they don't know anything about mounting to granite counters, either by screws or by glue. The plan to mount to the side, into the sink cabinet and wall. If that isn't successful, they say it will be up to the countertop guys to deal with. As they were working, I sought to confirm that they were installing only the range and dishwasher -- but no, they had the refrigerator as well! Surprise -- so much for the two extra weeks! I had to immediately empty the old refrigerator and freezer. Installation of the dishwasher went smoothly, but there was a problem with the range. One granite backsplash piece slightly overhangs the countertop, and the opening is therefor not wide enough to allow the range to slide in fully against the wall. The backsplash will have to be trimmed. I call Home Depot, but John is not in today, and no one else can help. I call Tanya at Innovative Stone, who says it will cost extra (because their crew didn't leave a standard 30" opening?), and I will have to arrange it through Home Depot. So we're stuck with the range protruding a bit from the counters until something breaks loose. Bob of Roberts Construction calls around 1:30 and says he's arriving shortly. I'm glad it's Bob, since he and Nick are the two most meticulous and reliable of Roberts' staff. I arrange to meet him at the house in fifteen minutes. I show Bob the job so far (he wasn't here the final day of cabinet installation, so hadn't seen the countertops). I show him the disposal, and he immediately sees and fixes the mounting problem. He runs hot water for some time, saying that they sometimes plug the drain pipe with paper towels during work, to eliminate the backflow of sewer gasses into the house, and that sometimes these towels don't flush through immediately. He also advises trimming the rubber flap in the sink drain opening to improve the drain flow. After all this is done, the disposal seems fine and the sink is draining properly. Bob begins preparing to leave, and I ask if he's going to install the final cabinet. He says he didn't know about the cabinet! I show it to him, and tell him that Steve and Pierre had delivered it on Monday, etc. Apparently Bernadette didn't pass on anything except the sink drain problem. He calls back to Roberts to get the OK to do it, and then goes about the installation. It's very tight -- it seems Roberts placed the 1x2 pieces on the wall to support the countertop a little low, so he has to remove the floor tile in that area to get the cabinet in. He's eventually successful with the cabinet and the filler beside it. However, it takes a while to get the two lower drawers to close completely and glide smoothly. It turns out that the rails are very loose (he tightens them), and one of the drawers has one piece of wood which has broken off the dove joint (should be of no significance). He mounts the three pulls, and cuts and fits the toe kick. Before he leaves, we list the remaining items on Roberts list: installation of the china cabinet skin, trim to ceiling, and the two replacement doors. After Bob leaves, I notice that this cabinet and the 30" cabinet next to it are not aligned correctly, since the top drawers interfere with each other when fully open. It's not obvious to the eye, however, so I guess we'll live with it, since they shouldn't both be open at the same time anyway. 2/23/06 (Thursday) Bernadette called from Roberts to ask why I hadn't signed off on the form for completion of the job! I replied that I didn't even know of such a form, as no one had mentioned it to me; and, besides, the job was not yet completed. Roberts seemed surprised, so I guess no one from Home Depot was in contact with them after Pierre and Steve's visit Monday. I told them that the final cabinet was here, the toe kick also had to be completed, two replacement doors were on the way, and about the sink drainage problem. She asked if we would be available for someone to come out on Saturday, and I said yes, any day, any time. She said she'd call back. Bernadette call back in a while and asked if we'd be available tomorrow. I said yes, as the new range and dishwasher were being delivered. She said whomever they sent would call in advance of arrival. Nancy received a call that Bray and Scarff were delivering the appliances tomorrow between 10 and 2, and would call before arrival. The replacement longest pull arrived by UPS. 2/20/06 (Monday) Pierre called at 1:35 to say Steve had just arrived and they were about to leave from the store, and to get directions. They arrived about 2:10, bringing with them the final replacement base cabinet. Steve examined the drawer fronts that had fallen off, and found one example that was perfect for taking back to the factory to illustrate the problem. They itemized the six cabinets they were taking away with them and loaded them on their truck. I showed the the work that had been done, and told them we were generally pleased so far. Steve said the two replacement doors would be shipped directly to us from the factory. Pierre was going to check with John about the 15" x 60" inch oak skin and the 8' x 3" oak filler we still need. I asked if I should call Roberts to schedule the final cabinet installation. Pierre said Roberts would be calling us to schedule the final cabinet installation and trim work. I also received emailed shipping notification of a package on the way from Cool Knobs and Pulls -- should be the replacement longest pull for the one that arrived damaged. 2/17/06 (Friday) Pierre called from Home Depot. He wants to stop by around 1 pm Monday with Steve from American Woodmark to pick up the six incorrect and damaged cabinets which are currently taking up half our dining room. John the called from Home Depot and I told him I had already spoken to Pierre. Steve then called and left the same message. I called Steve back to make sure he knew that Monday was a holiday, and he said that there weren't many holidays in the retail business. 8;) 2/16/06 (Thursday) We went out tonight and bought new stainless steel appliances -- a Maytag dishwasher that is an update of the same model we have right now; a GE Profile free-standing 30" stove with glass cooktop and double oven; and a counter-depth Kitchen Aide top-of-the-line side-by-side 24.5 cu. ft. refrigerator with the ice-maker in the door (which seems to yield a lot more freezer room). The dishwasher and stove will be delivered and installed next Friday; it could have been Wednesday or Thursday, but we both have work commitments those days. The refrigerator is a special order, so will take around two weeks longer. We bought them from Bray and Scarff, a local dealer. We didn't buy from Home Depot because they offer a very poor selection, little of which is higher-end, and their appliance staff is absolutely pathetic, in both stores. Lowe's has a much larger selection of everything but stoves, and attentive sales staff, but they didn't carry the Kitchen Aid refrigerators. We absolutely wanted digital temperature readouts and controls, in as tall and shallow apackage as possible, with in-door ice-maker to maximize the number of freezer shelves, and shallow (non-gallon size) refrigerator shelves. While we liked the new electronic Samsungs and some of the GE Profile and Articas, the Kitchen Aid at $2,600 fit our needs best. So far as the dishwasher was concerned, we wanted a front panel air gap (common now), fold-down/flexible lower rack prong thingies, and an adjustable height top rack to maximize flexibility in washing hordes of wine glasses. We don't care about a stainless steel wash tub, since dishwashers don't last long enough for that to be of any value. The Maytag we selected is only around $500, but none of the more expensive Bosches, etc., met our specific desires. I really wanted a slide-in stove (thus no gap at all between stove and countertops), but the second oven (140-450 deg F) in place of the storage drawer sold us on this GE Profile model, even at $1800. 2/9/06 (Thursday) We have noticed that the sink is not draining properly. It can't keep up with water flow from the faucet, which has never been a problem before. We don't know if this is a problem with the revised dishwasher hookup, or a general problem with the drain/disposal/ trap configuration. We'll need to have it addressed by either Roberts or the installers for our new dishwasher, whoever gets here first. 2/8/06 (Wednesday) Click here for pictures! The Roberts crew of three showed up around 9:15. They were set to finish as much of the job as they could. A fourth man showed up a bit later with a good garbage disposal. They installed the sink and faucet, caulked the sink, and reconnected the plumbing for the sink, disposal, and dishwasher. They managed to install the faucet with the control parallel to the back of the sink, but the lever does touch the eat-in countertop at full hot. We'll have to see if that is satisfactory in use. They left the dishwasher unfastened to the countertop, since they know we plan to replace it shortly. They greatly improved the trim at the top of the glassware cabinet, and centered the door glass. They installed the three cabinets of the china cabinet which go on top of the granite, but found they didn't have enough oak trim pieces to trim in the top to the ceiling. When they went to install the side finish panel, they found they didn't have enough paneling to do the job, because a previous crew had used the wrong piece of paneling for the lower part of the same cabinet. Instead of using the pre-cut piece which was on hand, they had cut the 8-foot long piece to size. This left us with two pieces of paneling, neither of which is long enough for the top cabinets. So we will have to order an additional piece of oak paneling, plus more oak trim molding. They installed the rear panel and corner molding on the cherry island cabinet, along with the drawer pulls. They replaced the counter support bracket broken by the granite installers with one of the new ones I bought last night. While this work was going on, we found that the granite crew had marred the right sink door and put a nick in the glassware cabinet side while doing their installation. They also gouged our top stair step edge. 2/7/06 (Tuesday) Click here for pictures! Innovative Stone shows up at 10:30 with the countertops. They're a little more brown and a little less red than expected, but within the normal range of color variation. Two fellows carry up and put into place the two pieces of the stove counter, the piece for the bay window, and the piece for the china cabinet. They carry upstairs but do not install the island top, as requested. However, the sink countertop and eat-in counter, one piece each, are too heavy, so they have to wait for another helper to come over before installing them. The Dakota Bordeaux granite looks great with the Bordeaux Cherry cabinets and the Kohler Provence Red cast iron sink! The hole for the sink and the hole for the faucet are cut here with the countertop in place. Also, the sink counter backsplash is cut to size here and then fitted in place. Unlike the two main countertops, the backsplash that fits between them is fabricated in three pieces to accomodate the two electrical outlets; the crew says that the border around the holes would be too thin and fragile to simply cut the holes out of a single piece. All the countertops except the eat-in are held in place by their weight only. The eat-in countertop is glued in place, along with the backsplashes, using Liquid Nails. The seams are sealed using a grout that goes on white, then cures to clear. There are a few minor problems: 1. The bay window piece is off in one corner notch, leaving a gap of three inches length and one half inch width. The same edge is off-angle, leaving a gap widening from nothing to almost a half inch. The crew ends up filling these gaps with grout, although they first told me that couldn't be done, and that they couldn't cut a small piece from scrap to fill the rectangular gap. 2. The piece for the china cabinet is similarly off from the non-square walls, but the total gap is only about a quarter inch. The end nearest the walls projects past the wall about 1.5 inches, but it is cut square and not polished. The crew cuts that corner to a one inch radius and polishes in place; it looks fine. 3. The crew installed the eat-in counter before noticing that the edge against the wallis is cut square. This is not a problem near the glassware cabinet, but it is unsightly for the 2-1/4 inch that projects over the main counter near the sink. The crew says nothing can be done about this without damaging the wall and the backsplash. 4. There are a few little chips out of the granite surface -- typically about an eighth of an inch in diameter and just through the polished surface. The crew says that these are a natural feature of the stone, that the surface sealer seals them as well, and that they need no further treatment. 5. While installing the eat-in countertop, the crew breaks the end 3 or 4 inches off of one of the two middle wooden support brackets. I will pick up a replacement tonight, and it should be possible to simply screw it directly in place of the broken bracket, with a stripe of Liquid Nails along the top. 6. The utility tray has to come out of the sink cabinet -- it interferes with the drop-in sink. 7. With the thickness of the backsplash, we're a bit tight on space for the Grohe Ladyluxe Cafe dark bronze pull-out faucet. It will have to be installed with the controls somewhat forward, or fully forward in front of the neck. We're inclined to just cope with these glitches, since we're ecstatic to have the countertops in place, and think they look terrific! The crew leaves at 4 pm. I immediately call Roberts and give them status -- the final replacement cabinet hasn't arrived yet, but the three cabinets that go on top of the china cabinet granite are ready to go, and the sink and faucet are ready for hookup. I tell them that I don't see the garbage disposal anywhere, though. They say they removed it with the sink and threw both away. Since it was only around a year old beefy Insinkerator, I hadn't planned on replacing it. They say they will provide a replacement, but don't specify brand or quality. We'll see. We don't necessarily want them to eat the cost, but we do want a quality unit. They are sending one of their crew over tomorrow morning, between 9 and 10, to install the plumbing; I don't know if he'll do any more than that. 2/6/06 (Monday) Innovative Stone called to say that our countertops are ready. They'll be here tomorrow between 8 am and noon. 2/3/06 (Friday) Click here for pictures! Four Roberts contractors show up between 8:30 and 9:00. They bring the two replacement 15" cherry cabinets. The base cabinet is incorrect -- it is a four-drawer , instead of a three-drawer. The contractors call Home Depot, and say a replacement has been ordered. The final 15" cherry wall cabinet is installed in the kitchen, with a gap still left for the base cabinet. The glassware cabinet is installed in the dining room. The glassware cabinet top molding looks awful -- it projects beyond the wall, and since the cabinets are set into a corner, the molding ends protrude, cut at an angle. Pinkish putty looks awful and is on the painted soffit as well. This entire top molding will have to be revisited. Nail holes in the end panel were not filled. The bay window corners are squared up for the granite top. Supports for the edges of the granite are installed along the back of the sink cabinets. The eat-in counter support brackets are installed. One shim wedge was left protruding (not cut off) behind the stove base cabinets. Two shim wedges were not cleanly cut off and are protruding below the wall cabinets. The utility tray and its hinges are installed on the sink base cabinet. There are a number of nicks and one quite large gouged chip along the top edge of the sink counter. The kick plate is installed on the sink line of countertops; however, it is overlapping but unsupported in the gap between the two angles sections, below the cherry filler panels. The remainder of the pulls are installed on the kitchen cabinets and the glassware cabinet. The two crooked pulls are straightened. The replacement 36x15x15 oak cabinet for the middle of the china cabinet arrives by truck -- intact this time! The doors are removed from the originally delivered 12" deep cabinet and installed on this 15" deep cabinet. Trim molding is applied above the kitchen wall cabinets, and looks good. All the kitchen doors are adjusted. One cherry 30" x 18" door on a cabinet below the bay windows is found to be too badly warped to be adjusted for proper fit. The crew agrees that the one rough 30" x 18" wall cabinet door with the rough finish has not been properly finished. The crew says that the "air gap" for the dishwasher can be looped below the sink and connected to the disposal plumbing. Thus an air gap (and hole) will not be required atop the sink. The crew leaves at 1:30. After they leave, I notice that a glass edge is visible in one of the glassware cabinet doors. It is not broken, but will have to be repositioned, the clamps adjusted so that the glass is centered and the edge is not visible. I also notice that they positioned the under-cabinet light on the newly installed wall cabinet about an inch closer to the wall than the other four. It isn't a big deal, but why not do it the same way? Now we're waiting for the granite installation to be scheduled. After the granite installation, we still have Roberts left to finish the china cabinet, the island cabinet, the remaining 15" 3-drawer cabinet after it arrives, the kick plates, various trim, and the plumbing hook-up. We also have the two cherry doors that need to be replaced. 2/2/06 (Thursday) Roberts calls to arrange to come out tomorrow between 8:30 and 9:30. They advise that the two 15" cherry replacement cabinets are in at Home Depot, and want to know if I can pick them up. I advise that I don't have a vehicle they'll fit into. She says Roberts can pick them up for a fee. I say they should pick them up. She advises that I should buy the counter supports; they will install them for $20 each. Roberts calls me back and advises that Home Depot will pay for Roberts picking up the cabinets. Joh from Home Depot calls. We discuss status. We discuss the granite estimate; we are due a small refund, but there may be an extra amount due when the final backsplash, to be fitted between the sink countertop and the eat-in countertop, is templated. He says the granite has already been cut, even though this was not supposed to be done until we have agreed on the details IS has presented to Home Depot. He advises that the island top has been included. I advise that we did not want the radius cuts they proposed. He says I should talk directly to IS. He advises that the standard corner is a 3/4" radius cut. No one tells you this, so that if you specify, for example, a 1" radius corner at extra cost without knowing that 3/4" is free, you're just throwing money away. We discuss the rough finish on the one wall cabinet door. Tanya calls from IS. She faxes me their drawings. The drawings do not show exactly where the sink cutout is positioned, so I do not know how far it is set back from the front edge. They are responsible for making the sink and faucet fit, but I don't know if it will allow enough space for the tilt-out bin on the sink base cabinet. We discuss what radius cuts they have made, and I agree to accept them as described, since they've already been done and we don't want extra delays. We go out at night and buy four of the beefiest wood support brackets we can find at Home Depot. 1/26/06 (Thursday) We get a call from a delivery agent seeking to deliver a cabinet. Nancy zips home from work to receive it. It's the replacement 36" wide, 15" high, and 15" deep oak cabinet for the china cabinet, but the package is damaged. Nancy has the delivery person stay while she opens it up, and sure enough, the cabinet is broken. She calls Home Depot, which has her call American Woodmark. American Woodmark say they will ship out another cabinet within two working days. When asked if this broken cabinet should be returned, they say no, to "throw the broken cabinets away." The additional 8" pulls arrive, but one is a half-inch shorter than the others. 1/24/06 (Tuesday) I come home at 2pm. Innovative Stone finally calls at 5:15, saying they are on the way. They arrive at 6:20. They say the trim moulding on the knee wall will have to come off before they can template, so I remove it.The templating takes over two hours, mainly because of the sink counter with the 45 degree angle in it. We specify standard height backsplashes, no backsplashes for the china cabinet, radius corners, etc. They advise that the corners around the bay window need to be squared for the granite installation. They look at the new sink and the new faucet. Because of several problems in undermounting the cast iron sink (even though it's designed for undermounting), we agree to surface mounting it. They advise that the eat-in counter will indeed require three or four supports, despite Home Depot's assurance that they wouldn't be required. Thus Roberts will have to obtain or fabricate and install supports. They advise that they will go back and do all their paperwork, and submit the final cost to Home Depot, who will then make sure we have paid enough. They say the cutting should take about a week, and then installation can take place. 1/23/06 (Monday) Around 4pm, Innovative Stone calls to schedule the templating. I tell them any time, the sooner the better. They say they have openings Tuesday and Wednesday. I say Tuesday is fine. They say between 2 and 6. I ask if they can call 15 minuites before arrival; they say fine. 1/20/06 (Friday) Click here for pictures! Today we have two contractors from 9 until 2. They finish up the bay window cabinet mounting and install the doors. They install the base cabinets for the china cabinet. Roberts now says they can trim cherry moulding to the varying thickness necessary to cover the gap between the wall cabinets and the soffit. 1/19/06 (Thursday) Click here for pictures! Today we have two contractors from 9:15 until noon, and 2 to 5. There is private talk among the contractors. They tell me that I have not paid for installation of the oak cabinets in the dining room, which will run around $900. I agree, and respond that no one has yet asked me to pay for that item. I call John at Home Depot, and arrange to pay that fee over the telephone. Whien the contractors unpack the oak cabinets for the china cabinet, we notice that the 36" wide center cabinet, which was ordered as 15" deep, is only 12" deep. I call Home Depot. John is not in, but another employee tells me to call American Woodmark's 800 number directly. I do so, am asked if the doors are OK, and am advised that a new cabinet will be shipped out a.s.a.p. The contractors finish installing the cabinets under the bay windows, and install the two oak base cabinets for the china cabinet, as well as the exhaust hood. This completes the base cabinet installation except for the one 15" replacement cabinet, so I call Innovative Stone to schedule their "templating." The woman at Innovative Stone tells me that someone will call me "within two days" to make an appointment. The pulls have arrived. We count and check them, and find that the one long pull for the only 30" wide drawer has been damaged in shipment. I call the vendor, and they say they will ship out a replacement. I also order 15 more of the 8" pulls, since we have decided they look better on the 24" wide drawers. 1/18/06 (Wednesday) Click here for pictures! Today we have two contractors from 9:15 until 5. The contractors install the rest of the base cabinets in the stove section and partially install the four wall cabinets under the bay windows. In the afternoon, the new exhaust hood arrives. 1/17/06 (Tuesday) Click here for pictures! Today four Roberts contractors are here from approximately 10 until 4. I get a call at 9:30 from the shippers -- the cabinets will be here at about 11 am. Thay arrive at noon, and there's an immediate problem: they say they deliver to the ground floor only, and our kitchen -- and the dining room where we've made space for the new cabinets -- is up a flight of steps from the front door. They ask if the contractors can carry the cabinets, and I reply that it's not my place to ask them. I tell the shippers that if they won't deliver to the dining room, I will not accept the shipment. They retreat to their truck, and a few minutes later, begin unloading the boxes and bringing them upstairs. When they're finished with all 29 boxes, I sign their bill of lading certifying delivery and that they did the extra work of upstairs delivery. While the contractors are unpacking the cabinets, I notice that one of them -- the 42" tall oak base for the glassware cabinet -- has a front frame that is split entirely through the wood, with a crack, running about two inches down the front of the cabinet, that has been patched with some sort of putty or wood filler. I call Home Depot and leave a message for John. John calls back and says he will order a replacement for the broken cabinet. Later on, I attempt to gently (two fingers on each end of the front panel) slide open one of the drawers on a base cabinet, and the front panel falls off. The screws barely penetrate into the thinner center panel of the front panel -- either the screws are too short, or there is a design flaw with such thin (less than a half-inch) center panels. Still later, another front panel falls off a 24" base cabinet after installation, damaging the front panel below. (This panel is later re-attached by one of the Roberts people, who drills new holes and reinserts the screws.) The contractors install three base cabinets in the sink section, and most of the wall cabinets. When they get to the last wall cabinet in the stove section, they note that it is an 18" cabinet and the remaining space is just less than 18". Their conclusion is that the two 18" cabinets at that end -- wall and base -- will have to be re-ordered as 15", and installed with a filler. They contact Home Depot and arrange to order the replacement cabinets. I notice that one wall cabinet, an 18" to the right of the stove, has a noticeably rougher finish than any other cabinet. There is also a gap, from 1/16 to over 1/2 inch, between the top of the wall cabinets and the soffit. Since they are full overlay cabinet doors, Roberts is unsure how to cover this up. 1/16/06 (Monday) Click here for pictures! Did I say "no problem"? Problem. We're up early, with our bodies still partially on Paris time. We make coffee, and we're sitting around in our bathrobes reading the paper, when the doorbell rings at 8:55. 8:55 in the AM. Yep, it's Roberts Construction, here to begin the cabinet installation. Surprise! No scheduling, no advance notice, zippo. We throw on clothes and bust our butts to empty the rest of the kitchen while the Roberts man is assessing the job, and manage to get it done in an hour and a half, before he's ready to begin removing our old cabinets. He's joined by another contractor, and they're here until 3:15. They get everything removed -- the sink, wall cabinets, base cabinets, and dishwasher. A Roberts contractor mentions accumulated grease on the two-year old exhaust hood, so I order a new stainless steel Broan Allure III, same as the old one. 1/13-15/06 We return from our vacation in France late on Friday the 13th. We find a telephone message left on January 12 from CBS logistics, the cabinet shippers, that they will deliver on Tuesday, the 17th, sometime between 8 and 5, calling one hour before their arrival. We spend Saturday unpacking and recovering. On Sunday, we begin on the kitchen: setting up temporary shelving in the dining room, boxing and moving everything from the kitchen cabinets into the dining and living rooms, while also leaving room for the new cabinets. We get about halfway through emptying the kitchen; no problem, we're both off tomorrow, Monday the 16th, a national holiday, so we'll finish easily. 12/11/05 We do the redesign with John, adding two cherry cabinets to replace the pantry, one cherry cabinet to go over the refrigerator, five oak cabinets for the china cabinet, two oak cabinets for the glassware cabinet, and a cabinet for the island. Second day of reckoning: we pay Home Depot $10,377.57 for the cherry cabinets and installation, and $3,266.49 for the oak cabinets. I am told to call American Woodmark to arrange scheduling, and I do: the cabinets are supposed to be shipped from the factory in Maryland no earlier than January 10, and should be delivered sometime after January 16. After doing that, I am told to call Roberts Construction, who will be doing the cabinet installation, and tell them when the cabinets are being delivered. I call them, and advise the cabinets will be delivered sometime after January 16. They say they will schedule installation for the 18th. We also select stainless Euro-style pulls, and I find the best deal for them on-line from CoolKnobs And Pulls.com. I order three different sizes to fit various cabinets, about 65 pulls in all. 12/7/05 First day of reckoning: I went to Home Depot and paid them $5399.10 for the granite countertops, including installation. This includes the sink section, about eight feet long, including a 45 degree angle; the eat-in counter above that section; the stove wall section, 10 feet long; the bay window section, 77 inches long and 16 inches deep; the china cabinet section, three feet by two feet; and the island top, about 30 by 26 inches. I am told to call Innovative Stone and let them know when the cabinets will be installed. I call and advise them that the cabinets will not be installed until mid to late January, and that I will call them again when I know more. In order to make all the other changes and additions we've decided on, we have to re-do the design, so we make another appointment with John for December 11. 11/28/05 First changes to the master plan! After discussions, we realize that it's going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to have a prefabricated pantry cabinet modified to fit our kitchen, because of the soffit already in place. Nancy is in favor of substituting more cabinets with additional countertop space, so we agree to go that way. We also realize that it's going to be difficult to find a carpenter who can build in the china and glassware cabinets we want in the dining room. So we decide to build them from more Townsend cabinets with glass doors, in oak finish, to match our dining and living room furniture, using the same countertop granite as the kitchen. We also decide to order a cherry wall cabinet to be used over the refrigerator, and another 3-drawer base cabinet to be topped with granite and serve as a free-standing island in the kitchen. 11/17/05 A fellow named Dave, from Roberts Construction, showed up at the appointed time to measure our kitchen so that the design can be finalized and they can price the installation. He was there about fifteen minutes, and took one exact measurement: the 120" length of our longest cabinet string, along the wall which includes the stove. For the rest of the measurements, he approximated by holding his tape measure nine or ten inches above the surfaces involved. His measurements agreed wth those I had provided the store on our initial visit. 11/11/05 We spent around two and a half hours with John laying out the kitchen in his design program from our hand-drawn plans, and specifying in detail what we wanted in the way of cabinets and countertops. We decided to go with American Woodmark cabinets because they were one of only two makers who offered all the particular cabinet configurations we wanted, and we like the simplicity of their Townsend design family. We also thought that the finish of their sample Bordeaux Cherry doors looked better than any of the other brands. We also decided on granite countertops in Copper Antique -- black with copper-colored highlights. None of the available Corian colors appealed to us, although their integrated sinks were very appealing, and none of the other materials offered came in a finish we thought would complement the dark cherry cabinets. We advise that we want to make the eat-in counter with an overhang of 10 inches, and John says that will require no additional supports. John was very knowledgeable in specifying all the cabinet options to achieve our goals, including various trim elements which we hadn't considered. We explained to him that we're leaving for Europe on Christmas day, and will be away until January 14, and that we'd like to get things rolling as soon as possible after we return. He says that should work out fine. We concluded by paying $60 to have their contractor come out and make exact measurements before we finalized the order. 11/5/05 Today we visited the Home Depot Expo in Fairfax, a local Lowes, and two local Home Depots. The Expo was a disappointment compared to Expos we've visited in other states, as well as the Home Depot floors-only store we've visited in Dallas. It seemed to offer only higher-end items than we wanted to invest in for our relatively inexpensive townhouse in Old Town Alexandria, and wasted a lot of space on retailing interior decorative items. We finally decided to go with the Home Depot on Pickett Street in Alexandria, because it seemed cleaner and better organized than the other store, and because their floor samples of cabinets, countertops, etc. seemed to be more attractively presented and in better condition. So we approached a remodeling coordinator named John, discussed the project with him for a few minutes, and made an appointment for the 11th with him to design our new kitchen. We decide to begin the project by using Home Depot for the cabinets and countertops, and leave the moving of the washer/dryer, wall work, painting, and floor for later. Background: Our fringe Old Town Alexandria townhouse is 17 years old, and the second-story kitchen is too limited for our cooking interests. It lacks sufficient storage for both cooking equipment and food, and was designed with space for only a 32" wide refrigerator, which eliminates full-sized and side-by-side units from consideration. The oak cabinets are not of very good quality, and we're tired of kneeling down to access most things stored in the base cabinets, which have only half-depth shelves. Considerable space is devoted to housing a stacked clothes washer and dryer. In addition, the flooring needs to be replaced and the wallpaper we inherited from the original owners needs to go, with the walls painted. We've decided that since we expect to live here for at least five more years, we'd like to move the washer and dryer downstairs; rip out a wall section which separates the washer and dryer from the kitchen proper, making that 36-inch wide space available for a 26 cubic foot side-by-side refrigerator; add a pantry where the refrigerator used to be; replace all the old oak cabinets with new dark cherry cabinets having all pull-outs in the base cabinets; replace the old cheap countertops with something better; and, for additional storage, to add base cabinets below the kitchen bay windows with countertop to hold small appliances (breadmaker, microwave, monster Ditting coffee grinder, food processor, blender, ice cream maker, etc.). With these goals in mind, we'd been gathering catalogs from cabinet makers, countertop materials, etc. for a couple of months, deciding on what we'd generally like to do with our kitchen.