Modernish Kitchen Remodel: Remainder of Week 11

TUESDAY

No one came out to do work.

One thing that had been bugging us was the installation of the range. They had installed a trim piece behind the slide-in range, but it didn't quite make it all the way to the backsplash and the back wall. I did a little investigation, and it seems that normally there is a piece of countertop that fills the gap behind the range. The trim piece that they used was supposed to installed for cases where you are replacing a free-standing range with a slide-in, and don't want to install the countertop piece.

So I sent an email to the architect, asking about it. But then I decided to send one to the builder when I thought they might try and add the other row of tile to make the existing installation look better.

WEDNESDAY

They installed the remaining cabinet hardware, installed the lever for the exterior door (the deadbolt still isn't in yet), and installed the hardware on the new pocket door.

We noticed that they bought additional flush pulls, presumably for the existing pocket door, but didn't install them. This is kind of annoying because the pulls weren't cheap, and I specifically told them that if they weren't going to install them on the existing door, not to order the extra pair. Add that to the fact that they ordered 5 extra cabinet pulls, and that's about $100 of hardware that was unessecarily spent out of our allowance. And when I got the quote for the cabinet pulls I even told them that I wasn't sure about the quantity.

They sealed up the vents on the microwave, and it no longer sounds like a jet airplane. We're a little concerned that the hole that was cut for the venting was way too big, and the tape is the only thing that is keeping it from really leaking air.

They reinstalled the collar around one of the vent pipes in the laundry room. Apparently they are using some type of rubber instead of the plywood that the architect specified. And it's stuck on there off-centered, with a bunch of spray foam. It looks pretty darn unprofessional, not surprisingly. And that part was done by the VP/co-owner guy.

They indicated that the countertop guy will be out on Friday to install the bridge piece to go behind the range. I don't know, but assume, that the architect talked to them and told them they needed to do that. It's noce to be out of the middle of things like that, but a shame that I have to be in order to get things done.

They were talking about trying to do the walk-through on Thursday, but were waiting on confirmation from the architect.

THURSDAY

Selected screen door hardware. Not a lot of options - they're all pretty boring, or traditional. Oh well.

In an email at the end of the day they indicated that Friday is supposed to be installation of the screen door, exterior touch-up, and installation of the countertop bridge (in the afternoon). They said they wanted to have the "final walk-through" on Friday. I responded saying it made a lot more sense to have the FINAL walk through on Monday, after they actually completed the work. I then forwarded that email to the architect and suggested that, even though they haven't done anything on 1/3 of the punchlist, we need to do the walk through on Monday. It's not like if we put it off they would actually continue to work on the punchlist - it's like they actually believe they are done.

FRIDAY

They installed the screen door, though it was too wet to paint it. There's still hardware to be installed as well. I went through the punchlist briefly with the builder, and he indicated that a few of the items had already been addressed, and some others may not be able to be resolved as we requested.

In talking with the architect's PM, he indicated that he had not spoken with the builder about the range installation, so apparently they decided to do something about it when I asked.

The builder's VP/co-owner and I met for a beer after I left work. He wanted to talk about what needs to happen to finish the job. Their idea of the final walk-through is to create a final punchlist on a form included as part of our overall renovation contract, and once those items were resolved the project would be finished. It sounds like it is a way to get a final list and stop adding things to it, which sounds fair to me. We talked about some of the problem on the project. He indicated that there were a lot of items where they encountered acditional costs throughout the project and didn't try and pass it on to us. In our opinion, they should have forseen a lot of those items (did any 1950's houses have wall insulation?), others they didn't think through well (installing living room light fixtures before finding bulbs that would meet our requirements), and things that we had agreed to before signing the contract (moving our living room furniture out and back in for flooring), as well as some things that they did actually have to do extra work on (moving the door frame as a result of the vent pipes). I didn't bring these up or argue any points, as it's just easier at this time to get the last few items taken care of and get the job over with. We agreed that we'd l ike to have the final walk through on Monday, and would contact the architect to participate.

One of the things that we talked about was the installation of the range. He indicated that he agreed that the right thing to do was to install the counter piece behind the range. I told him that we appreciated how they immediately agreed to do it and didn't bicker. Of course, while in the middle of our meeting my wife called, upset, and told me what they did behind the range today. Apparently they left the trim piece in place and just glued a strip of countertop about 1/4" wide onto the wall (they didn't even make it a seamless install with the countertops on either side. And there was STILL a gap between the trim piece and the countertop strip. So much for the countertop guy knowing what he was doing.

I tried to describe what was done to the VP/co-owner, but I don't think he was able to visualize it. However, he seemed pretty committed to making it right.