Updates

Sorry I haven't written here lately, but you can catch up on all the kitchen news on my regular blog. I'll try to fill this blog in at a later time. Lots has been going on. Finally I can use the kitchen again, but I'm having more problems with Home Depot.

I've got running water...

in the kitchen again. The plumber was here today. Four valves need to be replaced, however. One is leaking slightly. So the plumber has to come back. Meanwhile he put a towel and a bowl under the drip, so the new cabinet won't get damaged. Needless to say, the city inspection scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled.

A cabinet guy is coming back first thing in the morning to cut a hole into the inside of the cabinet by one of the valves, so the plumber can do what he has to do. Right now the valve is practically scraping the side of the cabinet, and it would be impossible to affix a handle to it. (And they don't make special handles for that situation. I asked.)

I'm also getting ice again. The plumber re-connected the water line to the fridge. He also connected the water lines to the dishwasher, but I won't be able to use it till the electrician comes back and finishes his work (after the inspection). The plumber also installed the new disposer, but I won't be able to use that either till the electrical work is finished.

Before the plumber got here, someone from his office called to ask whether the elevators here are on the inside or outside of the building. She said the plumber is afraid of heights. I told her I was too, and that the elevators are on the inside. And if the elevators had been on the outside?

The new faucet, by the way, works like a "fine precision instrument." There's also a built-in soap dispenser on the other side, which I filled tonight, and used.

So I can now do my dishes in the kitchen--rather than the bathroom (mostly glasses and silverware these days). (When I eat here, I use paper plates.) Looking forward to being able to use the stove and dishwasher, too. Maybe by Thanksgiving.

I'd not had any running water in the kitchen since July 2.

Close-ups

The faucet is not connected yet. It has a pull-down sprayer spout. At the right is a built-in detergent dispenser (not fully installed yet). The sink is large and deep.

This is a little dark, but I'm trying to show the pattern of the Silestone ("Yukon Blanco"). Click to enlarge a bit. It's off-white with random, white dappling or mottling throughout it. There are also little dark specks in it. It's subtle but interesting. Very beautiful. Certainly beats the ceramic tile and laminates that were here before. Also, Silestone is virtually indestructible as far as counter tops go.

The counters go perfectly with the bright white cabinets. I can't wait to put up the colorful iridescent glass tile backsplash.

Almost there

(Yes, it's been that long since anything's been done in the kitchen.)

Counter installers here today.

Now the electrical has to be inspected and finished, and the plumbing hooked up.

Here (and at top) you can see the brackets I bought and prepped.

This counter has a nice bowed shape. All have bullnose edge.

Before the counter guys got here, the cabinet guys were here to add the overlay to the spice rack (top right) and adjust a shelf for me. The cabinets then passed their final inspection.

The drywall guys came next and repaired all the drywall. Remember how bad it was on this wall? (See here.)

Shenanigans update

Didn't hear back from Home Depot today (after my calls on Friday), so at around 3:00 I called the counter company to find out something. They still hadn't heard from the kitchen expediter at Home Depot about the "verification," the "final P.O." I immediately called the Home Depot lady in Atlanta and explained the situation. (I'd already explained most of it in two messages I left her last Friday--today she acknowledged receiving them but said she'd been out of the office and apologized.)

She said she'd call the kitchen expediter herself. (She had somehow been under the impression that there was an installation scheduling problem, and I told her that it appeared to be a fabrication problem.) Sure enough, the counters have not even been fabricated yet.

Not long after I talked to the lady in Atlanta, the counter people called back, asking me the name of the color of the counters I'd ordered (way back when) (I'd actually forgotten the name of it and, at the time the measurements were taken for the counters, asked them to call Home Depot, apparently to no avail). (But I since ascertained the name of the color and told them today.)

Anyway, apparently Home Depot called the counter company back this afternoon, after my call to Atlanta. The counter person (same person I talked with on Friday) was obviously very concerned about getting the order in right away to the fabricators. Now it will take 10 to 14 days for the counters to be fabricated. So the kitchen expediter at my local Home Depot has set this project back another week at least, due to her failure to respond to the counter company. (I'm glad I sicced the lady in Atlanta on her and mentioned her by name--again.) Such glaring incompetence.

Then the counters will have to be installed, along with the sink, faucet and new disposer, and the water line to the refrigerator reconnected; then the drywall people have to come in and repair the drywall; then the electrical work has to be reinspected and then finished (including installing the outlet for the stove, etc. and installing the ceiling fan), at which point I can use this kitchen. Also, I'm still waiting on the overlay for the spice rack cabinet. I've put off the cabinet inspection until this has been installed.

After all that, I'll put up on some cool tile the backsplashes. And the kitchen will be done. A friend of mine said it would be done by Thanksgiving. I think that sounds a little ambitious at this point.

More shenanigans

On Friday, I called up the counter people to see how hunky-dory everything was with my counters. The lady I spoke with said she's still waiting on a fax from Home Depot--Home Depot's "verification" and "final P.O." for this project--and that it had been a week already since the lady first requested this from Home Depot. She said she would call Home Depot after we got off the phone (it was a little past 4:00). I told her to call the District Services Manager and gave her his phone number.

I immediately called up the Home Depot lady in Atlanta and left her a message about this.

I then called the counter people back (to get the name of the person I spoke with before). I was connected to the same person (got her name). She said she had called Home Depot and left a message (with the kitchen expediter, who appears to be my nemesis), and said she would call the District Services Manager if she didn't hear back from the kitchen expediter within 10 minutes.

I then called the lady in Atlanta back and relayed this information (again, by voice message). I never heard anything back from anybody that day. We'll see what unfolds tomorrow.

Update

This morning I called the Home Depot lady in Atlanta and explained the latest wrinkle. I was pretty distraught. She was very nice as always and said she'd look into the situation and get back with me.

A little after 3:00, I got a call from the contractor who will be doing the drywall. They wanted to come in next Tuesday. I told her I'd talked to the kitchen designer over the weekend about putting a strip of molding beneath the bar counter where it sits on the half wall. (The designer recommended it.) To back up a minute, two weeks ago when the drywall guy came here after the cabinets were installed, he asked whether I would need such a molding. I told him at the time that I didn't know. So the drywall guy does the moldings, too. Anyway, I told the contractor today that perhaps they should hold off doing the drywall and molding work until the counters are installed, since the bar counter will have to be in place before they can add the molding. She said she'd talk to the drywall person and call me back. Sure enough, they'll come in and do this work after the counters are installed. I'll let them know when that's done.

An hour or so later, the District Services Manager called about the counters. Notwithstanding what I'd heard yesterday from the counter people (and I mentioned I'd got "riled up" over it), he assured me that the counters are coming along fine. Maybe they're coming along fine as of today when someone took some action, but that's OK, too. Along as things are moving along, I'm fine.

P.S. At the beginning of the week, I primed and painted the wooden brackets that will support the bar counter top, so I'm all ready to go here. (Photo shows brackets sitting on the half wall, atop which an arc-shaped counter will be installed.)