Stage 2.1 Can you Believe the Nerve!

I have to just give a quick update on the challenges that transpired today!  I had promised my wife I would call the original cabinet company that we thought was being a bit shady and let them know we weren't going to be using them...that is where it all started to go wrong! 

Well first let me take you back a bit to the time before today in a land where crazy people run cabinet companies.  This company, which is in Alexandria Kentucky, shall remain nameless as they don't even deserve their name to be referenced on the web.  As I had blogged before, they were the ones who had brought to our attention the damage to the base of the cabinets and the damage done by the water abatement company to the top of the cabinets.  For that we are grateful.  We were fully planning on using that company, but as you may recall this jerk wouldn't provide the detailed information that the insurance company wanted and then threatened to accuse us of fraudulently trying to cheat the insurance company.  This would all be kind of funny if it weren't actually happening to me!

OK, now back to this story.  As the dutiful husband that I am, I picked up the phone to call the hardwood flooring company today and let them know I wouldn't be using their services for the cabinets.  The phone rang and it went to voicemail.  I left a very cordial phone message thanking them for their help, but informing them that we had decided to go a different direction, and then hung up the phone.  

A few minutes later the jerk calls the house. I was on another confernece line so I couldn't answer, but he calls right back again.  I guess he wanted to get through!  The meeting had ended by this time so I picked up the receiver.  The voice on the other phone began to berate me and told me that I had better come up with some money or he was going to call State Farm and turn us in for attempting to defraud the insurance company.  I argued back that we weren't trying to do any such thing and that we had told the insurance company already about the crap they were trying to pull.  He repeated his threat to which I told him to go ahead and informed him that I too would be calling the insurance company and the Sheriff's office as well, and hung up.

I called my agent immediately!  Have I told you how awesome she is?  She suggested I leave a message for the claims agent handling the case, and also suggested I submit a complaint to the Better Business Bureau.  I took her advise and did both. At the same time I called the Boone County Sheriff's department and spoke with Detective Watson, who told me that if they continued to call to let them know that they have crossed the line into criminal harrassment.  She provided me her direct line in case I needed to pursue it any further.  I called my wife and gave her the update and told her to not take any calls from the cabinet guys.

In a few minutes my wife sent me a text letting me know that they were, in fact, calling her repeatably. That was it!  I picked up the phone and dialed the company number again. This time the guy answered the phone, asked who I was, and when I told him he told me "You better come up with $500 or I will call you every day until the end of time", and then hung up on me! The funny part is what happened next!

Maybe 20 seconds later the phone rings, not from the office of the company, but from a cell phone. The voice on the other end was all too familiar, but something had changed.  This jerk now claimed to know nothing about what was going on.  He then proceeded to completely display his complete and aboslute knowledge of everything (which was funny because he was the one calling every time!  He must think we are absolutely stupid)!  He told me that "we are just upset that we did all this work and you are going a different direction", and then said "we did all of that work for you, and we don't think that $500 is too much to ask".  What??? If you have no knowledge, how did you know about what was said?  What a looser!  He further went on to argue the fact that he didn't feel that he needed to tell us that there was a design consultation fee of $500 and that we should have known that all along (What? some kind of implied contract?!?!?).  Of course, I went off on that!  I told him in no uncertain terms had we agreed, discussed or otherwise contracted with him for any fees!  I told him no one charges fees for the planning part (just go to any big box store).  He challenged me to find anyone who doesn't charge a design consult fee!  He absolutely must think we are the most ignorant and simple minded people he has ever come across!  Of course most companies don't charge a fee!  They make their $$ on the sale, not on the planning; besides they hadn't done any designing! They came out and measured. There was no documented plan...no design...nothing but an estimate.

The coversation looked as if it was coming to an end when he then claimed to have called the insurance company, which I said was great.  I informed him of my conversation with Detective Watson and that I wanted no more contact from him or anyone else associated with his company.  Whew! That's over!

But wait! He then pulled another Dr Hyde on me, as if his scharade was working and I believed that he was someone else other than who he was.  He said he wasn't aware of anything that had transpired and that he wanted to get to the bottom of it. Then....wait for it....wait for it...he had the nerve to ask me if we would give him the job anyway and that he would ensure that we worked only with him directly!  What a lunatic!  I told him there was no scenario in which I let him anywhere near my house.  I reiterated my demand that he no longer have contact with me or my family and hung up the phone.

The only thing I am sure of at this point is that this is not over!  I am sure I will be dealing with this jerk for some time.

And the drama goes on...BC

Stage 2 - The Design Plan & The Bank

Now that we had decided this was a DIY project, we got busy picking out our cabinets and finalizing our flooring. We decided that we would, in fact, do all of the flooring on the first floor now.  It would take us over the funds given us by the insurance company, but in the long run it would be the right decision for resale value.  We had already decided on the Tobacco Road hand scraped flooring from Lumber Liquidators so I went online and placed the order only to find out it was back ordered.  It would be at least three weeks before the floors were shipped. 

As part of this decision to do it ourselves, we decided to loose one of the upper cabinets no one can reach anyway. We would replace the current cabinet with built in range hood for a stainless steel range hood that would set off the cabinetry and add visual interest to the kitchen.  I found it on one of the big box store websites, but ordered it online for a discount because I was unable to find the ventless conversion kit on the site; and no one from customer support would answer the phone.  After 30 minutes on hold, I hung up and purchased the exact same one with conversion kit from another online site for less money. Who says customer service doesn't matter?

Focus now turned to selecting cabinets and of course counter tops.  We visited a local showroom and found a KraftMaid cabinet that we liked.  It was a raised panel door that was more in the craftsman style and a dark finish called Kaffe that would offset the teak flooring and make it all pop!  We decided that we should get a second estimate, so I got an appointment with the designer at Home Depot.  Our designer Randy was absolutely a pleasure to work with. He guided us through the process and actually listened to what we wanted.  We selected the same cabinet door style and color and then proceeded to layout the kitchen with a bump out here, and a pantry there until we had created a great floor plan.  Randy printed out the cabinet inventory, which included the total cost of the cabinetry and my heart sunk!  It was almost the same amount as the total cost for floors and cabinets installed by the creep that tried to extort us!  As I sat there in sheer frustration, Randy informed us that the price did not yet include the special incentives that were currently going on.  He typed here, and clicked there until a price showed up that was much more tolerable.

We then focused on counter tops. We definitely wanted a granite product.  The counter tops were priced by the graded scale of the stone with A being the least expensive, B being the next higher, and so on.  We saw a stone we liked in a B scale and in a D scale.  Randy quickly did some math on the back of the papers he had printed and indicated would could get the D scale slab for around $4K. 

It was now time to go off and figure out what we were going to do.  We had to find a way to trim some of the cost off of the cabinets to get as close to our budget as possible. I went through the parts list, line by line.  We decided that we could loose the glass doors on the butler's pantry (this was previously a desk that was never used between the kitchen and family room).  We also could loose the fake door panels that would be attached to the back of the peninsula.  Just taking out these couple of items would save a couple thousand dollars.  This was great because it had cost us nearly twenty-five hundred dollars to go with all plywood construction on the cabinets.  This quality wouldn't be seen, but it sure would pay off in durability.

We had until the following Wednesday to take advantage of all of the pricing discounts so I made an appointment with Randy to finalize our plan.  We sat down with Randy and removed the items I identified.  We then found that we were less than $100 below what we needed to spend to get to the next level of discount, which was a $500 difference in discount.  My wife, found a slide out set of shelves for one of the base cabinets, and viola $500 in additional savings! When Randy printed out the updated parts list, included the counter tops and applied all of the discounts, we were at a total price that was only $1,000 less than what the insurance had finally given us for the entire project.  It was disheartening to realize that we were not going to get cabinets, counters, and flooring for what the insurance had given us, but we also realized that we were investing in better quality products that in the long run would pay off.  

We took the plunge and ordered the cabinets. Randy indicated that it would take 5 weeks for the cabinets to be manufactured and that KraftMaid would contact us with a delivery date.  We would need to schedule the granite company to come measure once the cabinets were set, and then we would get to go out and select the slab for our counters. 

So here we are 2 and 1/2 months into it waiting on flooring and cabinets, and already into this for several thousand dollars over what the insurance has provided us.  Yes, it is an upgrade, and yes, it still hurts!

Oh yea, I forgot to mention the Bank.  The insurance company issued us a check for the amount the adjuster had given plus the cost to replace the Formica.  The check was made out to both the bank and me.  I signed the check and off to the bank I went to deposit the check (keep in mind this was before I spent nearly all of the amount on cabinets).  I got to the teller window and was informed that I would have to talk to the bank manager.  It seems that since the bank had a vested interest in my home (they hold the mortgage), and the fact that the check was for an amount greater than $10,000 they had a policy that they would hold the check hostage, I mean hold it in escrow and pay only upon the satisfaction of specific criteria

• I had to sign an agreement to the terms (like you have a choice...either agree or they won't sign the check)
• I had to supply the estimate from the licensed contractor (no contractor, now what?) 
• I had to provide the contractors W-9 number (again no contractor)
• I had to have progress inspections done by the bank, oh and I had to pay for it out of the insurance money or pay it directly

Once I satisfied all of these criteria they would issue a progress check (middle and end of job) not to me, but to the licensed contractor.  Wow this is what it is like to be totally messed over!  I was dumbfounded, and very upset.  Why didn't my insurance company prepare me for this?  How was I supposed to know the bank would do this.  I had already ordered my floors and needed to get the cabinets ordered immediately or face loosing thousands in discounts.  I called the loss claim office of the bank, which manages the program and waited for them to answer.  No answer...it just rang...and rang...and rang.  I hung up the phone and dialed back.  This time a very pleasant woman answered the phone and asked how she could help me.  I wish I could remember her name, but she was so very nice and helpful, and I would like to thank her.  I presented my case to her and let her know that I wasn't using a general contractor because the difference between what the insurance was paying and what it was going to cost us was too significant.  I further told her that I would be installing both the flooring and cabinets myself with the help of a gentleman from my church who is a contractor.  She assured me that this would be no problem at all and that I just would need to get the inspection at the end for them to issue the balance of the funds directly to me.  No problem! So off to Home Depot we went.

So now that we had cabinets and flooring ordered focus could turn to the backsplash.  What would we do? Would we keep it painted or go with a tumbled tile? What would look good behind the new chimney we would install?  After a trip back to Home Depot and some web research, we decided on a stacked stone backdrop to the chimney and some tumbled tile.  We purchased the tile at the store, and I found what appeared to be a stacked stone mosaic on the website.  I ordered it, but when it arrived it was anything but stacked stone.  It was a faux stacked stone 12 X 12 tile that looked awful, so back to the store it went.  We have since decided to go with a Centurion faux dry stacked stone that will look awesome with the counters and cabinets.  It will take some work as the walls have to be prepped with backer board, metal lath, and a scratch coat, but it will be so worth it.  We have also decided to use this same stone to surround the fireplace wall to tie the two together visually as if they were there from the time the home was built.

The Concept

I think we have a plan...and now we wait!  More to come...BC

Stage 1 - Abatement & Estimation Hell

With the advise of our insurance agent in hand, I quickly called the water abatement company to come deal with the water that was obviously still under the floor.  Let me diverge for just a second here.  Our agent is the best!  She has continued to stay connected and has been an outstanding liaison between us and the corporate office.  Way to go Sandy!  Now back to the story. 

The water abatement company arrived to survey the damage and immediately began ripping out the floors.  The technician informed me that I was to pay my deductible directly to them, which I did, and the demo began.  They pulled up the majority of the flooring and under lament in the room, exposing the sub flooring and leaving a sea of staples sticking up just high enough that you are unable to walk in the room without shoes.  They put down around a half dozen huge fans in both the kitchen and basement to dry out the floors.  They also put a large suction pad in the laundry to pull the water through the tile grout.  Then they left us with the loud drone of fans.  A couple of days later they returned, and informed us that they now needed to remove the base cabinets as the floor wasn't drying adequately and they needed to raise the temperature in the laundry room to 120 degrees to help dry out the sub floor under the tiles.  If they couldn't get it dry then the new tile I had installed only a few weeks prior would need to be removed.  So out came the counter top and cabinets and drying continued.  A full week and a half later the abatement company gave the floors a clean bill of health. As I surveyed the damage, I took note that the abatement company had failed to remove all of the screws while pulling the counter top, completely destroying the tops of some of the base cabinets.  Geez, this just keeps getting better.

 

Now that the floors were dry it was time to get estimates for the insurance on getting it all back together and replacing the floor.  We contacted the general contractor that the insurance company recommended to come over and give an estimate, and my wife contacted the flooring company to see about getting the floors replaced.  We knew that we would have trouble getting the same flooring so our assumption going in was that all the flooring would be replaced.  This shouldn't be a problem as the abatement company had pulled all but about 100 square feet up anyway.  The representative from the general contractor shows up, and begins walking through the kitchen and taking notes while talking out loud about what all will need to be done.  I assumed he was doing that for my benefit, but now that I look back, I think it was his way of using his fingers to count.  He starts talking about placing back the original cabinet bases.  Of course my earlier discovery of the damage from the abatement company; the staining of the sub floor, which suspiciously looked like the early formation of mold; and the fact that on close inspection of some of the base cabinets it was clear the base of the cabinets were ruined by the water, led me to start asking questions.  I asked about the need to replace or at least find a way to repair the base cabinets and if the sub floor needed to be replace.  His response was that if that was needed the abatement company would have identified it as such.  It was obvious this guy was both an idiot and totally devoid of the ability to see for himself.  How he ever became a general contractor I will never know.  In fact, I had to point out to him that he hadn't considered that he would need to reinstall the stove top, to which, he said there would likely be a lot of things he would discover as they did the work.  I took that as code for "we are going to screw over the insurance company with overruns, wink wink".  There was no way this guy was touching anything in my house!  I asked him about the water running into the register and he indicated he would make sure a furnace specialist did an inspection, which did happen with a clean bill of health. This was great except for the fact that less than a week later the fan in the furnace went out in explosive fashion.  Thank goodness we have a good friend that is a heating and air specialist who was able to drop by, order the part and fix it.  Clearly this general contractor was a fraud!  At this point we had no idea if our base cabinets would be repaired, reset or replaced.

My wife was faring no better. She had contacted the flooring company that the insurance recommended, and had a consultation at the house.  The good thing was that the show room for the flooring store was near my wife's work in Blue Ash.  The bad part was they were not focused on our best interest.  Yes they has plenty of flooring options that were beautiful, but what they wanted to do was to sell us something very expensive that we didn't want under the guise of that would be what the insurance money would cover.  It was obvious to both of us that this sales person was only interested in maximizing their profit.  We did find a flooring that we found acceptable under the pretense that we had little choice, but it was not a selection we would make under normal circumstances.  I insisted that we look at Lumber Liquidators for flooring as I believed we could get a better floor at a much cheaper cost.  There was one near the flooring store so I suggested we go over there right away.  We told the lady at the flooring store that we weren't interested and thanked her for her time.  It is funny how suddenly the factory was running a special at 50% off and that they were going to throw in some additional discounts to get us the flooring in our house with "no money out of your pocket".  We were too through with them.  What a sleazy practice!  

Off to Lumber Liquidators!  It was amazing how quickly both my wife and I agreed on the flooring choice.  We saw it almost instantly. A 5" hand scraped teak called Tobacco Road.  It was perfect, and better yet, it was cheaper by almost half of what the flooring store had tried to force on us.  Cheaper and better flooring for our dollar.  Now we were cooking! I didn't want to have to order it from the store on the North side of Cincinnati and haul it home, but I had been unable to find the Lumber Liquidators that had opened in our neighborhood. I decided to call the local store and get directions.  I believe it was the next day that we finally found the local store and visited.  The salesman was very nice and funny.  He gave us some samples of the flooring to take home and he arranged for a local company to come measure and give us an estimate for installation.  We had decided that we would find out what it would be to install the same flooring throughout the entire main floor.  The carpeting in the dining room and living rooms was shot and if we were ever considering hardwood, now was the time.  

I think this is a good place to throw a different twist into the discussion.  During all of this, my poor wife is left to deal with the majority of the issue as I am on site at a client in Chattanooga Tennessee and unable to assist in the coordination of all of these activities.  I have to tell you, my wife is a saint!  She is the most awesome life partner God could have ever chosen for me. I am in awe of her!  Thanks Honey!

Now back to the drama!  The flooring install company arrived at the house to measure for the Lumber Liquidators flooring install. The gentleman was quite nice and took one look at the cabinets and let my wife know that the cabinet bases were shot, and that the entire set of cabinets had to be replaced. He also informed her that he had a cabinet and flooring company and would be willing to give us an estimate on replacing the entire cabinetry as well as the flooring.  He said he could give us new cabinets of better construction (full plywood construction) for less money as they had a manufacturer that built only three types of cabinets.  The key was that you had to choose what they produced, no customizations were available.  For us that was worth a shot to get better cabinets, so we agreed to check it out.  We drove out to the cabinet shop to look at the styles that they had. We found some cabinets that we probably would not have picked ourselves, but were beautiful and would work very nicely with the flooring we chose.  We also looked at granite counter tops to replace the Formica that was originally in the house.  The salesman assured us that he could put in granite for the cost to simply replace the Formica.  A couple of days later, my wife received the estimate. 

My wife informed our claim agent that we had an issue with the cabinets, and that we had gotten and estimate.  The agent indicated that they would need to send out an adjuster to confirm that in fact the cabinets needed to be replaced.  An appointment was set, and the adjuster arrived and confirmed that, in fact, the cabinets did need to be replaced; however, the adjuster did not agree that the counter tops needed to be replaced, but could be reset onto the new base cabinets.  We of course, disagreed and were not about to force fit an old counter top onto brand new cabinets.  I contacted both the claim agent and my insurance agent to push the issue. The claim agent agreed that they would replace the counter top, but that the prices the cabinet company offered in their estimate were way too high.  They were over $6,000 apart between the cabinet maker and the insurance adjuster.  My wife went back and forth with the cabinet man who insisted that we could push the insurance for more, and was unwilling to budge on his price. The last straw was when he threatened my wife. He said he would contact the insurance company and tell them that we had tried to have him inflate the prices to sneak in granite.  He was incensed that we would not fight for his price...after all he had gotten us new cabinets. He also said he could have easily just called the insurance company and had them issue him a check directly and then we would see.  Wow, what a crook!  Obviously he wasn't getting our business.

Now, what to do?  We don't have a flooring installer. We don't have a general contractor. We don't have cabinets. Do we start over?  We now needed to chart our next course.  We decided that we were going to take matters into our own hands. We would be our own general contractor, and flooring installer, and cabinet installer. I would do all of the carpentry work myself.  This wasn't a big stretch as I had done flooring, and cabinets installations before. I hadn't wanted to do it as it is time consuming and with my travel schedule I had no idea how I was going to accommodate it, but now there wasn't a choice.  If this house was going to get repaired, we were going to have to do it ourselves. 

Keep in mind we are now at 1 and 1/2 months without a kitchen to cook in. The bathroom has become our dish washing location, and the grill our main resource for cooking.

The chaos that was the kitchen

The only room not affected

This is now the kitchen sink!

Stage 0 - The Great Flood of 2011

The Culprit

The Great Flood

On June 1, 2011 we experienced a kitchen disaster of epic proportion.  I had left the house to run errands and as any good husband, I started a load of laundry before heading out.  It was nice to use the new washer and dryer we had recently purchased at a great price from one of the "big box" stores.  We had paid to have them install the washer and dryer and to haul away the old worn out machines. When I returned home, I was shocked with what I found. The kitchen and breakfast nook area floors completely under water.  There was a trail of water flowing from the laundry room through the kitchen meandering through the breakfast room and disappearing into the floor register on the far side of the room.  Come to find out it is a pretty important part of the appliance installation to zip tie the wash machine drain hose to the faucets so that the drain hose doesn't come out of the drain.  Who'da thunk that there would be enough water pressure in the drain to pop it out of the drain.  Too bad the "big box" store installers didn't follow the installation recommendations of the manufacturer!