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!