Yesterday afternoon we heard back about the cabinets and schedule. Instead of 4 weeks lead time, it is down to 16 days. Not sure if this is due to trying to make up for their shenanigans, or just the luck of the draw and a slow factory. But as a result they want to start demo on Monday! I'm taking off from work tomorrow to try and get as much stuff as possible packed up and moved out. We've got a LOT to deal with in the next 4 days.
Once we get stuff moved out I'll snap some more "before" pictures, this time without all our junk in the frame.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
(Hopefully) The Last Word in Cabinets
On the same day that things were in a downward spiral, there was another incident. The builder brought the framers over to get their measurements so they could figure out the lumber needed. For background, our house has vinyl siding (which was there before us, and doesn't look half bad), and the windows are trimmed out with some kind of aluminum siding. Apparently the framer wanted to get a more accurate measurement on the window that they will be taking out, so he pulled up the window sill siding on one window. Afterwards the builder showed us what the guy did and apologized. I didn't think it was a big deal, since the windows would be coming out in a few weeks anyway. I just asked him to pull off the rest of that piece of siding so there weren't any rough edges, and he did. Even though it wasn't anything to warrant concern, it was just one more thing to make us question the whole undertaking.
Since then things have stopped crashing, and are settling out fairly nicely. On the day that the cabinet shop came out to re-measure, their VP called to apologize for all the confusion. Apparently he runs a lot of the day-to-day stuff at the shop and he had gone out of town for a couple weeks, leaving the rest of the guys (in particular our guy) to pick up the slack. And apparently it was too much for them. So he reassured us and said that if anything else came up to call him personally to get it resolved. It was definitely a nice gesture.
So once the updated cabinet drawings were ready the builder reviewed them with the cabinet shop and the architect before showing them to us. When we saw them they looked pretty good, and we gave them the thumbs-up to place the order. A week or so ago I had asked our builder to let us know how much we were over budget on the cabinets prior to the order, just so there wouldn't be any surprises and everybody would be on the same page. Yesterday when I brought it up I thought he was just playing it down, saying something like "I'm going to work with the cabinet shop to minimize any costs". Eventually I got the point that he was suggesting that they would figure out a way to absorb the cost, and we didn't need to worry about the cabinet budget. So maybe we're not in bad shape with the budget after all. All the shenanigans with the cabinets were not fun, but it's nice to see everyone stepping up and trying to make up for it as best they can.
And another positive budget note - we may have a source for countertops closer to our budget. The cabinet shop reps a few lines, and the builder sent us an email with a link to a few options of Affinity that were within our budget. I'm not sure that we'll go that route, but it's nice to know that we've got an option within budget. I'm also starting to wonder about the cost associated with undermounting a sink with solid surface countertops. A price sheet that I got from Ikea last year had a charge of about $300 for installing an undermount sink. Yikes!!! I doubt that our builder is aware of that, since they seem to be accustomed to installing granite. Either way, I doubt we'll end up going over our budget on countertop/backsplash by nearly as much as we were over budget on cabinets.
So the cabinet order will get placed with the factory on Monday, at which time we'll get a firm ETA (right now they think it will be 4 weeks). We should get an updated schedule toward the middle of next week. I think we've underestimated the amount of packing that we need to do, since we've barely started. And we need a lot more boxes.
Permitting is done (it was finished a couple weeks ago). Appliances have been ordered. Windows have been ordered. We saw doors that we like, but need to get pricing and approval of the architect.
We're starting to roll.
Since then things have stopped crashing, and are settling out fairly nicely. On the day that the cabinet shop came out to re-measure, their VP called to apologize for all the confusion. Apparently he runs a lot of the day-to-day stuff at the shop and he had gone out of town for a couple weeks, leaving the rest of the guys (in particular our guy) to pick up the slack. And apparently it was too much for them. So he reassured us and said that if anything else came up to call him personally to get it resolved. It was definitely a nice gesture.
So once the updated cabinet drawings were ready the builder reviewed them with the cabinet shop and the architect before showing them to us. When we saw them they looked pretty good, and we gave them the thumbs-up to place the order. A week or so ago I had asked our builder to let us know how much we were over budget on the cabinets prior to the order, just so there wouldn't be any surprises and everybody would be on the same page. Yesterday when I brought it up I thought he was just playing it down, saying something like "I'm going to work with the cabinet shop to minimize any costs". Eventually I got the point that he was suggesting that they would figure out a way to absorb the cost, and we didn't need to worry about the cabinet budget. So maybe we're not in bad shape with the budget after all. All the shenanigans with the cabinets were not fun, but it's nice to see everyone stepping up and trying to make up for it as best they can.
And another positive budget note - we may have a source for countertops closer to our budget. The cabinet shop reps a few lines, and the builder sent us an email with a link to a few options of Affinity that were within our budget. I'm not sure that we'll go that route, but it's nice to know that we've got an option within budget. I'm also starting to wonder about the cost associated with undermounting a sink with solid surface countertops. A price sheet that I got from Ikea last year had a charge of about $300 for installing an undermount sink. Yikes!!! I doubt that our builder is aware of that, since they seem to be accustomed to installing granite. Either way, I doubt we'll end up going over our budget on countertop/backsplash by nearly as much as we were over budget on cabinets.
So the cabinet order will get placed with the factory on Monday, at which time we'll get a firm ETA (right now they think it will be 4 weeks). We should get an updated schedule toward the middle of next week. I think we've underestimated the amount of packing that we need to do, since we've barely started. And we need a lot more boxes.
Permitting is done (it was finished a couple weeks ago). Appliances have been ordered. Windows have been ordered. We saw doors that we like, but need to get pricing and approval of the architect.
We're starting to roll.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Pre-Beginning of Construction
At the time that we signed a contract with the builder there were a handful of things up in the air, which they just handled by allocating allowance items in the proposal. These included the aforementioned appliances, cabinet hardware, exterior door, countertops and backsplash, and sink/faucet.
Before we signed the contract the builder brought by some bamboo flooring samples for us to look at. We were already leaning toward bamboo, and chose the simplest and lightest of them - "natural". Apparently this was also the cheapest of the samples, and was less than they had originally included in their bid.
Just a word about the bid. I think I mentioned earlier that these guys put together a rough estimate based on the "conceptual" drawings, and it was pretty much where we expected it to be (expect that they hadn't included appliances in their number). So then the architect finalized the design - essentially adding a bunch of notes to the drawings, and adding in the living room lighting and replacing the existing original casement windows in the kitchen. So the actual bid went up a little bit, but seemed in line with adding those two items, offset by the savings in the wood floor.
We signed the contract in the afternoon on MLK Day, which I had as a holiday. The critical path item in the schedule is the cabinets, which have about a month lead time. So we decided to head across town that afternoon to the cabinet shop and get the show on the road. We talked about the lines that they carried and agreed with using the line that they had used in their bid. Saw a really nice natural maple cabinet in their showroom from a different line of cabinets. Unfortunately the natural maple in our line was a little too light, so we weren't able to decide on a finish immediately. But we asked them to order us some sample doors in a stain of maple and one natural cherry, and they thought they could have them by the end of the following week.
They had this really cool software which did a rendering of our kitchen, showing the approximate size and shape of our kitchen, with cabinets, sink, appliances, and windows. He could pivot the viewpoint around and look from any angle. For the original bid they already had the general layout set up, but we had them change the lower cabinets to drawers and remove a couple wall cabinets that were in the same location as the existing casement windows. We spent at least 2 hours there, and possibly three, all the while trying to keep a toddler entertained. At the end of it we felt like we had it all figured out.
The next day when we spoke to the builder he said something like "they did tell you how those changes you made increased the cost, right?". Uh, no. So apparently some of our selections (wood? full overlay? drawers?) caused what probably amounted to 20%+ increase in the cost. So they sent a list of things that changed and how they impacted the cost. There were 3 main things: changing doors to drawers on the lower cabinets, adding a trash/recycling center, and some slide-out shelf things in the pantry. We sent an email saying that we wanted to talk more about it, but pointed out that the architect's drawings had always shown drawers. Within a day or so the cabinet shop indicated that they had called in a favor with the factory and they knocked off about 65% of the increased cost. That, coupled with getting rid of the pantry sliding shelving and deciding to build a custom, open island instead of one based on cabinetry, got us back to something that we could live with. We originally went to the shop on a Monday, and all was resolved by the end of that week.
In the midst of our mini-crisis the shop had apparently decided to hold off on ordering the samples for us, since they have to pay for them and they weren't sure we were going to stick around. Then it turns out that the factory doesn't just whip out a door when someone wants one for a sample; they add it to some other order that they are working on with the same wood, whenever that happens. So, a little over 3 weeks from the time we met at the shop and had it all figured out, our samples were ready.
The guy from the cabinet shop brought the samples and came to get measurements, and the builder came out as well. A week earlier I had talked with the guy from the cabinet shop on the phone and mentioned the 3 doors we were expecting to see (natural cherry, wheatfield stained maple, and suede stained maple, the latter of which they already had in the shop). He showed up with 2 doors, the ones that they had ordered. Of course, instead of the natural cherry they had ordered the darker harvest stained cherry. Ugh!!! So the next day he dropped off 3 other doors at my office - the natural maple (just in case it wasn't as light as we remembered it), the suede stained maple, and a different style of door in the natural cherry. Of course we preferred the natural cherry, which was more expensive than the maple...
On Presidents' Day I went to look at solid surface countertops. Turns out that pretty much anything more interesting than solid colors is equal to or more expensive than what the builder had budgeted for granite (which may have been correct). But once we mentioned to the architect that we were not doing granite with the 6" granite backsplash (we had never intended to do granite, and the architect put it there to give the contractor something to estimate against), they suggested that we bring the backsplash further up. And the increase in backsplash results in a decrease in budget for countertops (these were a shared allowance). So we're pretty much figuring we've blown budget in yet another category. And it's compounded by the fact that we saw a really cool tile that is also a little higher than the backsplash budget. (But it's so cool)
That same day we get the revised cabinet drawings (based on measurements), and notice that there's some funky little cabinets shoved up next to the windows on the wall with the new range. We're not loving it. Then I look at the measurements that they took, and figure out that they are just plain WRONG. The length of that wall and the width of the existing casement windows was incorrect.
So now we're feeling it all crash around us. We're over budget on the cabinets. We're over budget on the countertops. The cabinet shop apparently doesn't know how to use a tape measure. Add that to their original bidding error of using doors instead of drawers, and then ordering the wrong sample door and taking forever for it to arrive, and we are losing confidence. Then asking ourselves why are we spending all this money on the kitchen when we originally were going to spend one third our current budget by just replacing everything in place.
So we email and call the builder, and he agrees right off that the measurements aren't correct and apologizes for not catching them. I brought up the list of issues with the cabinet shop and he assures me that this is not how they typically perform, else the builder would not currently be using them due to having lost their shirt on the previous jobs. I just keep thinking about not catching the error and that day a month from now when they figure out that they can't fit all the cabinets in the kitchen, followed by another month of not using our kitchen as we wait for the shop to make whatever magical parts fix the problem.
The next morning the cabinet guy comes out and measures again. The builder is going to review the revised drawings with the cabinet shop and the architect prior to showing us anything. So hopefully we'll see "final" tomorrow (Wednesday) so they can order it with their weekly order on Thursday. Yikes.
So now we just want to get through the cabinets, before we even try to tackle the shell game of trying to coordinate countertop style and color, with the backsplash style and color, with the paint color, to go with the new floor and cabinets. Sheesh!
Before we signed the contract the builder brought by some bamboo flooring samples for us to look at. We were already leaning toward bamboo, and chose the simplest and lightest of them - "natural". Apparently this was also the cheapest of the samples, and was less than they had originally included in their bid.
Just a word about the bid. I think I mentioned earlier that these guys put together a rough estimate based on the "conceptual" drawings, and it was pretty much where we expected it to be (expect that they hadn't included appliances in their number). So then the architect finalized the design - essentially adding a bunch of notes to the drawings, and adding in the living room lighting and replacing the existing original casement windows in the kitchen. So the actual bid went up a little bit, but seemed in line with adding those two items, offset by the savings in the wood floor.
We signed the contract in the afternoon on MLK Day, which I had as a holiday. The critical path item in the schedule is the cabinets, which have about a month lead time. So we decided to head across town that afternoon to the cabinet shop and get the show on the road. We talked about the lines that they carried and agreed with using the line that they had used in their bid. Saw a really nice natural maple cabinet in their showroom from a different line of cabinets. Unfortunately the natural maple in our line was a little too light, so we weren't able to decide on a finish immediately. But we asked them to order us some sample doors in a stain of maple and one natural cherry, and they thought they could have them by the end of the following week.
They had this really cool software which did a rendering of our kitchen, showing the approximate size and shape of our kitchen, with cabinets, sink, appliances, and windows. He could pivot the viewpoint around and look from any angle. For the original bid they already had the general layout set up, but we had them change the lower cabinets to drawers and remove a couple wall cabinets that were in the same location as the existing casement windows. We spent at least 2 hours there, and possibly three, all the while trying to keep a toddler entertained. At the end of it we felt like we had it all figured out.
The next day when we spoke to the builder he said something like "they did tell you how those changes you made increased the cost, right?". Uh, no. So apparently some of our selections (wood? full overlay? drawers?) caused what probably amounted to 20%+ increase in the cost. So they sent a list of things that changed and how they impacted the cost. There were 3 main things: changing doors to drawers on the lower cabinets, adding a trash/recycling center, and some slide-out shelf things in the pantry. We sent an email saying that we wanted to talk more about it, but pointed out that the architect's drawings had always shown drawers. Within a day or so the cabinet shop indicated that they had called in a favor with the factory and they knocked off about 65% of the increased cost. That, coupled with getting rid of the pantry sliding shelving and deciding to build a custom, open island instead of one based on cabinetry, got us back to something that we could live with. We originally went to the shop on a Monday, and all was resolved by the end of that week.
In the midst of our mini-crisis the shop had apparently decided to hold off on ordering the samples for us, since they have to pay for them and they weren't sure we were going to stick around. Then it turns out that the factory doesn't just whip out a door when someone wants one for a sample; they add it to some other order that they are working on with the same wood, whenever that happens. So, a little over 3 weeks from the time we met at the shop and had it all figured out, our samples were ready.
The guy from the cabinet shop brought the samples and came to get measurements, and the builder came out as well. A week earlier I had talked with the guy from the cabinet shop on the phone and mentioned the 3 doors we were expecting to see (natural cherry, wheatfield stained maple, and suede stained maple, the latter of which they already had in the shop). He showed up with 2 doors, the ones that they had ordered. Of course, instead of the natural cherry they had ordered the darker harvest stained cherry. Ugh!!! So the next day he dropped off 3 other doors at my office - the natural maple (just in case it wasn't as light as we remembered it), the suede stained maple, and a different style of door in the natural cherry. Of course we preferred the natural cherry, which was more expensive than the maple...
On Presidents' Day I went to look at solid surface countertops. Turns out that pretty much anything more interesting than solid colors is equal to or more expensive than what the builder had budgeted for granite (which may have been correct). But once we mentioned to the architect that we were not doing granite with the 6" granite backsplash (we had never intended to do granite, and the architect put it there to give the contractor something to estimate against), they suggested that we bring the backsplash further up. And the increase in backsplash results in a decrease in budget for countertops (these were a shared allowance). So we're pretty much figuring we've blown budget in yet another category. And it's compounded by the fact that we saw a really cool tile that is also a little higher than the backsplash budget. (But it's so cool)
That same day we get the revised cabinet drawings (based on measurements), and notice that there's some funky little cabinets shoved up next to the windows on the wall with the new range. We're not loving it. Then I look at the measurements that they took, and figure out that they are just plain WRONG. The length of that wall and the width of the existing casement windows was incorrect.
So now we're feeling it all crash around us. We're over budget on the cabinets. We're over budget on the countertops. The cabinet shop apparently doesn't know how to use a tape measure. Add that to their original bidding error of using doors instead of drawers, and then ordering the wrong sample door and taking forever for it to arrive, and we are losing confidence. Then asking ourselves why are we spending all this money on the kitchen when we originally were going to spend one third our current budget by just replacing everything in place.
So we email and call the builder, and he agrees right off that the measurements aren't correct and apologizes for not catching them. I brought up the list of issues with the cabinet shop and he assures me that this is not how they typically perform, else the builder would not currently be using them due to having lost their shirt on the previous jobs. I just keep thinking about not catching the error and that day a month from now when they figure out that they can't fit all the cabinets in the kitchen, followed by another month of not using our kitchen as we wait for the shop to make whatever magical parts fix the problem.
The next morning the cabinet guy comes out and measures again. The builder is going to review the revised drawings with the cabinet shop and the architect prior to showing us anything. So hopefully we'll see "final" tomorrow (Wednesday) so they can order it with their weekly order on Thursday. Yikes.
So now we just want to get through the cabinets, before we even try to tackle the shell game of trying to coordinate countertop style and color, with the backsplash style and color, with the paint color, to go with the new floor and cabinets. Sheesh!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Where's my Damn Chicken Nugget Button? a.k.a. Appliance Shopping
During the design process we really didn't give much thought to appliance selection. We figured anything that you could buy new would be exponentially better than the junk that we were currently using (see the first blog entry, Before Pictures to get the scoop). But there are soooooooooo many choices.
Luckily we were able to identify a few constraints pretty easily. We wanted stainless steel finish. Due to the spacing between the fridge and the island we knew it needed to be counter-depth, and it helped to rule out a bottom-freezer (we didn't like them anyway); thus we went with side-by-side. We wanted a gas range, though we weren't aware of the differences between freestanding, slide-in, and drop-in. After seeing a couple pictures of slide-in ranges, we felt that was the way to go.
As far as the dishwasher and microwave, about the only additional constraint here was the microwave better look a whole lot like the range, since it will be hanging right above it.
My initial attempt to weed out was using Consumer Reports reliability ratings, and had I stuck with it, that would have been a helpful approach. But after talking with sales people I began to question some of the info in there. Like, why does the Kenmore version of the exact same appliance by the OEM sometimes score differently? And how come every single sales person that I spoke with said to stay away from Frigidaire? Seriously, I didn't even have to prompt them. And how come the Samsung fridge (which we really like) has gotten highest performance ratings from J.D. Power 5 years in a row, yet doesn't show up in Consumer Reports' reliability list of fridge manufacturers?
The features that we care about are so basic that they will be included in pretty much anything. Of course, the fact that the fridge is counter-depth and the range is slide-in drives us to a higher level appliance, so we'll definitely get more goodies than we need.
But what's up with this trend in ranges where you have all these burners of different sizes. Specifically, what's with the cheesy little "warming burner"? This anemic little thing sits on the back row (prime cooking space to keep hot stuff away from our toddler) and is there to presumably keep something warm until we're ready to eat. Guess what? That's the beauty of the knob that controls the flame - you can turn it down! Maybe in 6 months we'll be singing the praises of the warming burner, but as far as I'm concerned they may as well have only put in 3 burners.
But there is one ray of light in this dark, foggy night. Should you need to cook chicken nuggets on a regular basis, Frigidaire has got you covered. Mind you, I'm not sure if it's for heating up frozen nuggets or for baking your own, but these nut jobs put a special button on their oven just for you. And apparently their marketing people went crazy with it. I am not making this up.
On the first product page under Features:
Chicken Nugget Button
Easily bake perfect chicken nuggets with the touch of a button. Read More
On the Specifications page under Control Panel:
Chicken Nugget Button: Yes
Note that there is also a pizza button, which almost seems useful in a pathetic kind of way. But the best part is that there is little mention of the pizza button, yet the chicken nugget button is touted to the extreme.
So at this point it seems like we're just going to go based on price and aesthetics. Eh, what else can you do???
Luckily we were able to identify a few constraints pretty easily. We wanted stainless steel finish. Due to the spacing between the fridge and the island we knew it needed to be counter-depth, and it helped to rule out a bottom-freezer (we didn't like them anyway); thus we went with side-by-side. We wanted a gas range, though we weren't aware of the differences between freestanding, slide-in, and drop-in. After seeing a couple pictures of slide-in ranges, we felt that was the way to go.
As far as the dishwasher and microwave, about the only additional constraint here was the microwave better look a whole lot like the range, since it will be hanging right above it.
My initial attempt to weed out was using Consumer Reports reliability ratings, and had I stuck with it, that would have been a helpful approach. But after talking with sales people I began to question some of the info in there. Like, why does the Kenmore version of the exact same appliance by the OEM sometimes score differently? And how come every single sales person that I spoke with said to stay away from Frigidaire? Seriously, I didn't even have to prompt them. And how come the Samsung fridge (which we really like) has gotten highest performance ratings from J.D. Power 5 years in a row, yet doesn't show up in Consumer Reports' reliability list of fridge manufacturers?
The features that we care about are so basic that they will be included in pretty much anything. Of course, the fact that the fridge is counter-depth and the range is slide-in drives us to a higher level appliance, so we'll definitely get more goodies than we need.
But what's up with this trend in ranges where you have all these burners of different sizes. Specifically, what's with the cheesy little "warming burner"? This anemic little thing sits on the back row (prime cooking space to keep hot stuff away from our toddler) and is there to presumably keep something warm until we're ready to eat. Guess what? That's the beauty of the knob that controls the flame - you can turn it down! Maybe in 6 months we'll be singing the praises of the warming burner, but as far as I'm concerned they may as well have only put in 3 burners.
But there is one ray of light in this dark, foggy night. Should you need to cook chicken nuggets on a regular basis, Frigidaire has got you covered. Mind you, I'm not sure if it's for heating up frozen nuggets or for baking your own, but these nut jobs put a special button on their oven just for you. And apparently their marketing people went crazy with it. I am not making this up.
On the first product page under Features:
Chicken Nugget Button
Easily bake perfect chicken nuggets with the touch of a button. Read More
On the Specifications page under Control Panel:
Chicken Nugget Button: Yes
Note that there is also a pizza button, which almost seems useful in a pathetic kind of way. But the best part is that there is little mention of the pizza button, yet the chicken nugget button is touted to the extreme.
So at this point it seems like we're just going to go based on price and aesthetics. Eh, what else can you do???
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