Sorry to have skipped my renovation update last week. I was too busy beating my head against a wall to write. Just kidding. I was actually dancing around in my ballet slippers while demanding peeled grapes and a fan.
My beautiful marble countertops came on their appointed day, and then — just as quickly — they left again. Among other things, the sink hole was cut large, creating a positive reveal that I didn't want. As they hauled the huge pieces back out the door, I was assured it would be a quick turnaround and that the office would be in touch to reschedule. The plan was for them to come back with another, comparable yet larger, sink to use instead. It sounded like a plan.
After one week, I was still waiting just for the call about the reschedule. I phoned multiple times to check in but either couldn't reach anyone, or didn't get an actual answer. When I did talk to people, I got conflicting and vague responses. But still no date.
At the end of TWO weeks, I finally reached one of the managers and released a sh*t?!storm of frustration. He said he'd get back to me shortly and I didn't hear from him for another day.
This brought us to week THREE, when they returned to install the bathroom vanities (another long story, but they were done as separate jobs). And guess what? They got it wrong. Again. Among other things, they cut the guest bath stone according to the master bath specifications, and vice versa.
Another call to the manager, where I learned they couldn't find an appropriate kitchen sink that would fit my base cabinet. I decided to go with the positive reveal, just to move things forward. However, I was told that it would still take another five days to install. In the meantime, he would research the new bathroom situation, and get back to me shortly.
As of today, I still don't have an actual date. For either job.
Keep in mind that I drove down from Missouri to be there for this portion of the process; that's 18 hours in a car with an 80 lb. slobbering bloodhound in the backseat. And I am still here, in St. Pete, just twiddling my thumbs until they are done, and squatting in an empty condo with no furniture. I'd love to tell you more, but my butt hurts too much from sitting on the floor all this time.
I seriously regret my decision to purchase the countertops through Ikea. I originally had a smaller company in mind, but went with Ikea's contracted company in order to reach the mark for their 20% kitchen sale discount. Honestly, I feel the price of the countertops wasn't that great, and the customer service is, to say the least, less than stellar. The moral of the story for all you kids: Recognize that this international company hands the job off to a local company and do your research about them as well. I looked them up on Angie's List after the fact and saw that they have a "C" rating.
There had better be a discount, and it better be big.
Lest I leave you with an icky feeling, I'll say that not all is bad. I started gathering lots of great stuff for the condo (can I get a hallelujah for Tampa Bay thrift stores and Craigslist?) and have spent hours since happily wandering from room to room to gaze at the progress and mentally plan. And I can tell that the countertops will be pretty, from the 30 minutes I've already spent with each one.
PREVIOUSLY ON THE WORLD'S UGLIEST CONDO:
• Introducing the World's Ugliest Condo
• The World's Ugliest Condo: Scope of Work & Budget
• The World's Ugliest Condo: Finding That Special Contractor
• The World's Ugliest Condo: A Glimpse of What's To Come
• The World's Ugliest Condo: My Ballad of Renovation Woes
• The World's Ugliest Condo: Now We're Cooking
(Images: Dabney Frake)
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Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
Thank God you've got the slobbering Bloodhound to keep you company while you wait it out.
I had a similar experience with an Ikea kitchen and (handed off to a less than stellar local contractor) countertops. Call Ikea, let them know what's going on. They were fantastic and lit a fire under the countertop guys. Good luck and hang in!
You need to write for AT. You are a hoot! But I'm sorry for all the BS you've gone through. Time to set the hound dog on 'em!! If he doesn't bite the sh*t out of their butts, he'll slobbering them to death!!
Hang Tough.
Ugh. I'm sorry. Hope it is all water under the bridge soon. What a pain. A "C" on Angie's List huh? Way to go Ikea. That's annoying. I had a pretty good experience with a Home Depot contractor but I guess it is just luck of the draw. You should have released the hound on the contractor, or at least threatened to :)
I've had the same contractor problems with Home Depot and Lowe's. The Lowe's guys didn't get the required building permit, broke a stack of antique blue and white plates and an antique vase and wouldn't call back when I called to ask about insurance coverage.
Obviously these big chains hire local cowboys. Now, I've located a local contractor I like very much, and he does everything I need or refers me to local, well-qualified tradesmen he is willing to vouch for.
Our landlady hired locals (rural PA=UGH) to do siding and a door. They did the sloppy siding job fast enough. Though the drop ceiling on the one porch had bird poop and footprints on it and they left it that way! Then they forgot the door. Now it's been a month since they said they would be back to do it with no word. Contractors.
Ok that lead in picture, Who else thought professor Honeydew, or at least john hodgman, Professors Honeydews son.
Actually that first picture scared me for a second; I was expecting a face behind the glasses and saw none.
I love what I can see of your bathroom. It's very pretty. Good luck getting everything fixed. Don't let them talk you into accepting something that's not right! Stand firm! They screwed up the template for the countertop and they need to fix it (or give you a huge discount).
I wouldn't accept the positive reveal either - think of how much time you'll spend trying to get that tiny bit of sink lip clean. Re-cut!
Our contractor cut our countertop with a positive reveal (F*$&) and I wasn't balsy enough to say anything. Good for you for saying something.
I hate it.
it's sort of comforting to know that i'm not the only one with terrible experience working with contractors...
i'll be sending you good juju.
I redid a kitchen with Lowe's...the cabinet contractors were wonderful, the counters were a nightmare. Missed a Thanksgiving deadline and then didn't get them in and right until after the new year. I think contractors used by these big stores are are hit and miss proposition!
don't blame yourself! unless you've personally worked with a contractor before, what you're going through is always a possibility... even if they're highly rated and come with glowing recs from your friends. all you can do is cross your fingers and hope to get lucky, and if not then take charge and keep on every detail as you're doing now. good luck!
What is it with countertop contractors? When we redid our kitchen, the man they sent was late to our house and then took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to do the measurement. The GC and I were both just staring at each other and at him, shaking our heads. Then the countertops were delayed almost two weeks. The only thing good about no countertops is that it is easy to access the silverware.
This seems like another universal confirmation of the "Good, Fast, or Cheap" theory. You can sometimes get 2 of those, but never all 3. I agree that you should alert IKEA to the issue - they should not be handing their business to sub-par contractors. I would think that there are plenty of contractors who are hungry for business right now. Best of luck in getting this resolved quickly.
Sorry to hear about the countertop f***-up. What a nightmare. Seriously though, if the contractor cut the opening in the countertop too big, shouldn't they cut a new countertop? I understand that they probably don't want to do it but why should you have to accept a bigger sink? And if they can't get the bigger sink, then they definitely have to produce new countertops.
I feel you - I drove many times from close to Toronto to Chicago with 2 or 3 dogs in the car so I know what you are talking about. Although your drive was even longer.
Hang in there! I hope the end is in sight.
Umm, I meant to say "I feel for you". Gotta proof before posting!
Another one here feeling sorry for the delays/annoyance. I also hope you'll come back to write regular posts on AT, I love your posts !
I've had a fantastic experience with Ikea countertops, but in a minimalist way. We ordered wooden countertops, and here in Lille (north of France), they cut it themselves, in their store. We came home, checked the dimensions, made the necessary adjustments due to uneven walls, cut the sink and burner holes ourselves, and everything fits like a charm. If you don't ask too much of them, they are great. Then again, it's easy to cut through wood, but impossible to cut stone.
Definitely give your IKEA a jingle. They should be able to help you out, and give you a leverage boost in getting this resolved. Also, they need to know about issues like this. If this is a regular pattern with this stone place, they should be aware so that they can find a new supplier if need be.
Plus, if IKEA can talk to them, they might be more willing to speed up the process. After all, I would presume that these guys get a lot of business from IKEA and wouldn't want to lose it.
We just did a kitchen project through Lowe's thinking it would be easier to do both countertops and backsplash through them. NOPE! Although we didn't have any major mess-ups like you all, the whole experience was quite unpleasant. The Lowe's people "coordinating" the project had no clue what they were doing, and then Lowe's takes a HUGE cut. The guy that did our tile backsplash was great, though, and gave us his info if we need other jobs done WITHOUT Lowe's. He told me what he got paid for the job and it was significantly lower than what we paid Lowe's (I am so irritated with Lowe's I'll believe what he told me, plus we saw the contractor vs. total pricing for another part of the job and the percent cut was comparable.) Basically you pay Lowe's an arm and a leg and they don't do anything but call you to see if YOU have been coordinating with your contractors.
We replaced our flooring several years back and used a friend-of-a-friend local contractor and it was much better. We will never do a project through a big box store again!
I can't put all my frustrations on Lowe's, though: I called my mother during all this frustration because she has remodeled and restored her old house many times with her long time trusted local contractor and she said it is just always painful for one reason or another.
I seriously don't know how you weren't screaming bloody murder at all of the screw-ups. Absolutely don't let them get away with getting you to just accept the positive reveal. They're avoiding you so you'll just give up and take it that way.
I had a nightmare contractor last year install my floors... Strangely, he waited until the job was 95% complete to start acting like a jerk. I had ONE transition that was splintered that was pointed out on the final walk through and he said he'd send someone the next day. No one showed, and he would not answer the phone or return my calls or emails. I finally gave up after a month of constant attempts and gave him lower marks in a review. He called about 3-4 months later claiming that he'd thought we'd already been taken care of (um, no. He was the only contact and supervisor!). I updated the review, gave him the benefit of a doubt about being overworked, and praised the rest of the work done and upped my score... and then he started harassing me for not giving him a perfect rating since he did (eventually) make things right. Seriously, he started pulling things out of the air about how he did this and that for us that he hadn't, and then started saying he would not honor the 5 year warranty if I didn't raise his score. He blew us off for 3 months - and deliberately lied about things!
Had to do a smack-down on him that if he sent me one more email, I'd ZERO that mother, call up a lawyer to file harassment charges and make sure to go to every single review site out there and post his emails he'd sent to me and make sure everyone knew that he was trying to blackmail me into giving a better review. I told him it wasn't me that was hurting his business - poor customer service is HIS fault and I was more than nice in my review about how he was so busy and we must have fallen through the cracks but the overall job was beautiful... I was actually too nice considering. JERK.
Sorry, didn't mean to hijack, but uuuuugggh, I hate bad contractors! :(
Oh, and I've had work done from both Home Depot and Lowes, and it's really a hit or miss kind of thing. I'd make sure to ask them who they will be contracting out to, and do the homework on THAT contractor to make sure they're good.
I've had good luck lately with my door and gutters through Lowes - both contractors were rated very highly and did great work.
Raise hell with Ikea and make them replace them all til they're perfect. Ikea needs to do a better job of screening their subs and they won't do it unless people make them realize there's a problem. Their countertop prices really aren't cheaper, even with the 20% discount - I shopped around and ended up with a guy I found on craigslist who had good reviews. Way cheaper too.
Re: positive reveal. I was told by the countertop guy that "That is always how it is", so that there is no goopy dark area for gunk to accumulate. I wonder why I never noticed it anywhere else...? I hate it too.