Kitchen Renovation Nightmare (insurance, countertops, appliances)

[capitalhockey]

Hi all,


My wife and I are currently in the middle of renovating our kitchen. This was a dream project that is turning into a nightmare. We did our research on Angie's list and talked to 6 vendors. We selected a mid-size company that had glowing reviews. They were not the cheapest but we were willing to play a little premium for quality product and great service that we read about from the reviews.


We have a small townhouse kitchen. The completion target was only 1 week. We are now in 2.5wk mark and it's still not completed. There were long stretches where no work is done (no crew sent out). We even lost 1 day when we were told the crew truck had issues and couldn't come out - I told my wife that I didn't believe this excuse....the company probably sent the crew to a bigger project. With the snow storm, we lost about 2.5 days. Somehow, we are now 1.5 week behind with no end in sight. We have been living at home with a bare kitchen (no appliances, no counter, no sink) -- unable to cook at home. I feel trapped by the situation.....we are already financially invested (they took 1/3 deposit to sign contract, 1/3 at beginning of project)....and my kitchen is already torn up so I am depending on them to finish it.


Another issue during the project was a surprise increase in costs. My wife wanted a specific granite. We went to warehouse with contractor to take a look. That granite was darker than the picture when we saw it. As a result, she selected another one granite she loved at the warehouse. The project was underway the next week. Then I get a phone call saying the granite my wife picked was in a higher price category. We budgeted 4.5k and were told we need to add 2k more. I am not sure who made the mistake...perhaps the warehouse mislabeled the slab or my contractor did not double check on prices to make sure both granite are in the same price class. In any case, I was not happy to hear but I was stuck in a jam. My wife loved the 2nd granite and I didn't want to disappoint her. I offered to meet them halfway...cover 1k difference. I was waiting for them to respond on my offer but they kept stalling for 3 days without answering whether they would absorb the other 1k. Meanwhile, my kitchen is torn up and my wife is getting antsy. I eventually caved in and told them to go forward....I wanted my wife to be happy. That was two weeks ago....they had the measurements and decision to go forward back then. But now, they are using snow storm as excuse and saying we are at bottom of the backlog.


I went back and re-read the contract. They gave us a completion target date of 1wk but there was a 18 day cushion they gave themselves for all projects. Additionally, there was no penalty clause in contract to punish them if they are beyond 18 day cushion (ex: $200 per day tardiness, etc). Looking back at Angie reviews, this company mostly deal with projects in the 20k - 50k range. My project is 10k. We are getting tossed around like a rag doll in terms of priority.


Any advice?

[LuvVA]

Too bad to learn your experience.

Was your project supposed to be over before blizzard hit us? If yes, they are 100% at fault. If not, this blizzard has messed up so many people in so many ways.

In case if you started the project just a day or 2 before the blizzard, you could have anticipated the effect of the snow storm and postponed your project.

I hope this problem is resolved soon and you can start using your newly renovated kitchen.

[capitalhockey]

Originally Posted by LuvVA

Too bad to learn your experience.

Was your project supposed to be over before blizzard hit us? If yes, they are 100% at fault. If not, this blizzard has messed up so many people in so many ways.

In case if you started the project just a day or 2 before the blizzard, you could have anticipated the effect of the snow storm and postponed your project.

I hope this problem is resolved soon and you can start using your newly renovated kitchen.

We started the project on 1/18 (Monday)....the target completion was 1/23 (Sat). They had counter measurements on 1/20 (wed). The snow storm hit that Friday (1/22). We are waiting for the last piece of the project (counter, sink, backsplash) and final touch-ups to kitchen.


We lost a few days to snow storm but they were supposed to be near completion even before snow storm hit. Now they are using snow storm for 1.5 week delay (no end in sight). We have been begging for them to finish up but there's been little to stoic communication back our way. Definite nightmare.

[Mike From NIU]

Well,

I would consider posting this in the in House forum rather than Northern Virginia, as your issues seem to be more general in nature rather than specific to this area. However, with that said, I would say there is not much you can do at this point.

As far as the delays go, you did have a change-order with the granite. It doesn't help now, but in the future, make sure you see actual samples of an item (tile, flooring, cabinetry) before settling on a choice. Photographs cannot create the environment that you will have in your home. Also, with regard to granite, it is not produced on an industrial basis. Variations of shading occur naturally, so what is in a photograph may very well be different from what you get. Change-orders also involve a cost in time. The warehouse might have a wait time, and I'm not sure how much work you expected them to do when you were still deciding on whether or not you'd pay for the upgraded stone (assuming that prices were automatically the same is a separate issue).

I can sympathize with the frustration of not having a construction project completed. We have been waiting for nearly a month for our schedules to align with our contractor's and the weather for a job ourselves. However, I would say that the snowstorm very likely caused more than 2.5 days worth of delays. Depending on the size of the company and how many crews they have, they may have been snowed in or short-staffed for almost all of last week, which would cause a company-wide backlog.

I hope your kitchen is completed soon with no further delays, and that some of these issues become lessons learned for future house projects.

[boogityboogity]

When you wife chose the new granite, did she ask how much it cost?

[capitalhockey]

Originally Posted by boogityboogity

When you wife chose the new granite, did she ask how much it cost?

Yes, we were told it was a comparable granite when we left the warehouse. This was before the project was started. Someone dropped the ball...not sure if its the warehouse or the contractor. They learned about the pricing disparity when they rung up the slab barcode...this is after measurements were taken and the cutting was about to take place.

[capitalhockey]

Originally Posted by Mike From NIU

Well,

I would consider posting this in the in House forum rather than Northern Virginia, as your issues seem to be more general in nature rather than specific to this area. However, with that said, I would say there is not much you can do at this point.

As far as the delays go, you did have a change-order with the granite. It doesn't help now, but in the future, make sure you see actual samples of an item (tile, flooring, cabinetry) before settling on a choice. Photographs cannot create the environment that you will have in your home. Also, with regard to granite, it is not produced on an industrial basis. Variations of shading occur naturally, so what is in a photograph may very well be different from what you get. Change-orders also involve a cost in time. The warehouse might have a wait time, and I'm not sure how much work you expected them to do when you were still deciding on whether or not you'd pay for the upgraded stone (assuming that prices were automatically the same is a separate issue).

I can sympathize with the frustration of not having a construction project completed. We have been waiting for nearly a month for our schedules to align with our contractor's and the weather for a job ourselves. However, I would say that the snowstorm very likely caused more than 2.5 days worth of delays. Depending on the size of the company and how many crews they have, they may have been snowed in or short-staffed for almost all of last week, which would cause a company-wide backlog.

I hope your kitchen is completed soon with no further delays, and that some of these issues become lessons learned for future house projects.

I posted in NoVA forum because the contractor is a major player in this area. I wanted to know if anyone else had a similar experience...was this a typical renovation experience or not.

[FCNova]

Originally Posted by capitalhockey

I posted in NoVA forum because the contractor is a major player in this area.

Who's the contractor?

[Gardner222]

capitalhockey, I can empathize. Kitchen renovations are tough on the nerves. I used a big box store(big mistake!) to install
new countertops, sink, faucets, cabinets in my 50 year old home. I picked the countertops at the store so no surprise when installed. My disaster happened when a contractor they used for installation of plumbing went wrong. I assumed the work
would be finished when I came home from work but I found water spewing into home. When I called the store there was no
concern. The plumber was at fault and his insurance company paid for the Service Pro water cleanup for over 2 weeks!!
It was a nightmare I'll never forget!

[spencgr]

I used a big box (Lowes in Dulles) to redo the kitchen (cabinets, countertops, sink, etc) and the experience was fantastic. They finished early and a very minor punch list.

My thoughts on the OP

1) Always read the contract thoroughly. Anticipate delays and problems, and make sure there are remedies in the contract.

2) The contractor shouldn't pay for any part of the granite costs. While someone did drop the ball and misquote the new granite, this mistake was recognized BEFORE installation. You choose to still go with the more expensive one, because you wife loved it. You had the opportunity to select sonething else.