Day 126

At first glance, the new countertops made the kitchen pop. They looked great and everything went well together. However, sometimes looks can be deceiving. Upon further inspection, we found a number of cosmetic issues. There were drips of resin and adhesive splattered and scattered throughout the slab. Superficial, but annoying nonetheless. There were chips and poor attempts to fill them. There were even cracks that hadn't been disclosed to us at the time of installation.

But above all these imperfections, the most frustrating aspect was the response from the company. Besides somewhat misleading attempts to excuse these issues as “natural stone issues,” their overall apathetic attitude made us feel that our simple kitchen project was pretty meaningless to them. Considering the installers were very quick to finish and made mention of a large commercial job they were headed to after ours was done, we certainly felt like our project had very little importance to the company.

After multiple attempts to get another time on their schedule so this rushed job could be cleaned up, the miscommunications continued as the outsourced representative sent to fix the errors had incorrect information provided to him by the company. Therefore, he didn't have the proper tools to completely finish the job. We laughed to keep from crying. He did however take his time and complete as much as he could and the overall countertop is in much better shape than it was the day of the installation.

We're glad we have no intentions of moving and attempting a kitchen renovation of this magnitude ever again.

Our contractor came back to complete some finish carpentry tasks and hook up all the plumbing. We also got all of the appliances ready including a new double oven and a cooktop. The ancient refrigerator and microwave will remain there until they bite the dust. Though there are a few finishing touches to complete, the kitchen was ready to be used, which meant we could transfer everything over and start demolishing what would be the last room to remodel in this phase of our renovation.

However, before we officially moved into the new kitchen, we took some time to recharge in our big backyard.