Great that you are finally cooking!

Well, we've finally done it, and fired the contractor.
Sent a certified letter this week, firing him for nonperformance. As soon as I have an estimate for what it will take to finish, I'll know whether I'll pay him for what little he's done in the last month or so, or whether I'll have to take him to court for what he hasn't done.

Here's a photo from this morning. I uploaded about 50 detailing what is left to be done. Biggest thing is the plumbing: 4 weeks since the countertops and not only hasn't he brought a plumber in, the plumber told me he was never paid for the rough-in. Other than that, and the fact that he installed the soffit for the vent hood wrong, it's a heck of a lot of trim, paint and that sort of thing.


Meanwhile, tonight it's Panang Curry. Galangal's interesting stuff!

So in the past three weekends, we've gotten more done than the contractor had in the previous month: Nearly all the trim is done by us(except where we are waiting for some cabinet-side "skins" from Thomasville to hide damage), we've had a plumber in to do all the sink, dishwasher, etc. work, we brought the folks who originally installed our fence back to repair it, and lots of painting and hole-filling. If you take a look at the flickr set, every wall was full of dings and bumps and we had to repaint the whole thing.

We built the doorway for the broom closet -- that came out very nicely.

What's left?
Rebuilding the vent hood soffit
About a day's work for the electrician (the vent hood, undercab lights, hooking up the power windows and a couple of fixtures)
Installing the screen door
Installing an automatic closer on the door to the garage
A LOT of yard work
A bit more painting of trim and such
Installing the bifold door for the broom closet
Fixing the siding where it was torn up at the start of the project
Some caulking around the stove, along the edges of the countertop and a couple of exterior spots
Final inspection

Probably only the first three items will be done by pros -- we can do the rest.

Oh, and the contractor stopped by to say he'll have the rest of the waivers to me next week. I'll believe it when I see it.

I think you owe it to everyone by saying what contractor NOT to use !

9+ months start to finish. My parents had an entire new kitchen + addition in less than half that. What a nightmare.

tem wrote:I think you owe it to everyone by saying what contractor

I'll be happy to speak with people in person or by PM.
Because I still may have legal proceedings with this guy, I would like to keep the possibility of defamation of character or slander to a minimum.

Because I still may have legal proceedings with this guy, I would like to keep the possibility of defamation of character or slander to a minimum.

Ditto for LTHforum.com!

Regards,

I haven't posted in two months. We've finished up most of the work ourselves, only a few small things and two bigger things: The hood soffit was all wrong, and the screen door needs to be mounted. I thought I had another contractor lined up to do this work but he stopped returning my calls for some reason.

In the intervening time, we've paid out of pocket to repair the fence, install the plumbing, fix the dishwashers in place to the counters, and buy a lot of trim, a door for the new linen closet, some vinyl tile for said closet, and most of the remaining electrical work.

To do: seal the grout, caulk the countertops, a little touch-up painting.

The soffit is the big thing. It was the wrong shape, wrong size, and waaay off on position (about a foot too far to the east), and skewed. Just plain incompetent work. We tore it down, and built a new frame. We've got to reposition the duct and conduit, drywall, paint and maybe a crown molding, before mounting the hood and wiring it up.

A few new pix actually showing a workable kitchen (ignore the ladder and drop cloth):

HI,

Thanks for the update. I'd been wondering on this project but was afraid to ask.

Regards,

MrsF and I have gotten off our collective asses this week and gotten the range hood soffit drywalled, painted and the hood mounted. "Niiiiiiice" as Borat would say. We still have to get it wired (electrician has been called, but it requires roof work since that's where the electrical connections for the fan are, so it may be a while before the ice and snow are gone), and seal up the duct work (it's all in there, just has to be connected.



This sucker was a pain: First the skeleton (visible between the hood and the chimney canopy) had to be screwed to the soffit, then the chimney canopy screwed to the skeleton (it weighs more than the skeleton or the hood itself), then the hood pretty much snaps onto the skeleton (four screws in twist-on holes, then tightened down). It doesn't help that the screws are a mix of straight, phillips, hex head, metric allen and star-shaped, the contractor lost one set of screws, and it involves me climbing ladders (their lies madness and sweaty palms).

So, aside from this little appliance, we have several things lined up: the Marvin door folks are replacing a hinge that's balking at adjustment on Monday, a guy they recommended is installing the screen door on Monday or Tuesday, and we have to caulk, seal grout, and install the garage door closer, and we're pretty much done.

HI,

Almost a year later, you are ready for your annual party!

I am just pea green with envy at the acres of counter space you now enjoy. It really looks beautiful!

You've done good!

Regards,

So this morning (yes a sunday) the electrician came out for the final part of his work: Wiring the range hood (including adding the breaker for that circuit -- almost didn't get it done because of that), and the last two light fixtures.

It would have been nice to have it yesterday when we were doing heavy-duty cooking for next week's party.

All that's left is little stuff: Auto closer for door to garage, screen door, caulk, seal grout, one trim panel, a little paint touch up, and we're done.

Then the fun part: getting the village to approve the inspection.

I forgot to post pix from that last bit of work -- thiis is from just before our holiday party last night started (more photos from that elsewhere). Still a few details to polish as listed above before we get the inspectors out here, but we feel like we're done.

Beautyful, just beautyful. I'm so jealous, I can't say--except to note that you could probably put about three of my kitchens in yours. And the counter space. And the cabinets. And the fridge. Congratulations! Really, it's just beautiful.

Congratulations Joel. I'm about to embark on my own kitchen remodel. Wish me luck. We're about to apply for the permits.

JoelF wrote:but we feel like we're done.

Joel,

Looks terrific!

Enjoy,
Gary

It really looks awesome, Joel. Congratulations!

Great looking kitchen! Question, was the choice to not do any type of moulding above or below the cabinets for any particular reason? Were you trying to keep the lines clean? It looks nice.

Octarine wrote:Great looking kitchen! Question, was the choice to not do any type of moulding above or below the cabinets for any particular reason? Were you trying to keep the lines clean? It looks nice.

Partly clean lines, partly a smidgen of cost savings, and partly the fact that the sloped ceiling (on the bar side) might make some of the lines look funny.

It's also something that if we change our minds, we can go back and add. The undercabinet fixtures portrude by a couple of millimeters, but not disturbingly so... crown pieces just don't appeal to me at all. With 42" tall cabs there's no need to make them seem bigger than they are.

Yeah, I would not do crown moulding there, it would look out of place. I'd just do a simple 1" straight moulding maybe a 1/4" proud of the doors.

I should have mentioned a few weeks ago... We're approved by the village, finally.

In January, we got the inspectors out, and they had about 8 items they wanted fixed: six minor defects in the electrical (mostly related to beefing up the grounding, and the electrician had mixed brands of circuit breakers), wrapping foil tape on all the joints of the added vents, and anchoring one waste pipe to the wall (that was never anchored even in the old kitchen). It took a while to get the electrician back out, and then we passed with flying colors.

So we're done... but not really. There's a couple of pieces of trim to still place, and we still never have gotten around to sealing the grout. I just got my first landscaping estimate (not all based on the back yard) and it's a lot more than I wanted to spend... and that doesn't even put new plants in the ground other than sod.