I finally got busy and selected my Christmas presents - new refrigerator and stove. I also selected a corian top for my cabinets. Boy was that a joke. They gave me a quote of $1700 installed price and I said lets do it as that was the quote I had gotten 2 years ago for redoing the formica. Oh, and that was with a free $480 sink. Ha! Ha! When I went in to actually order and pay for it they came up with just a few extra charges that had not been mentioned before. After all the added charges were included like $109 for re-hooking up the dish washer, and $8 per square foot for tearing out the old cabinet tops, oh and $200 for corian where the "free" sink would be, the final real bill was $3340. What a rip. I told them to forget it.
I selected a gas stove that I just loved. Oops - I didn't yet have gas there in the kitchen. I called one plumber and he couldn't make it till Thursday. Thursday came and went. I called again and he said he couldn't make it till Monday. Monday came and went and he still didn't make it. He gave me a name for another plumber. The new plumber said he couldn't make it till Friday late but he would definitely be here Monday morning. Monday came and went with no plumber. I called and delayed delivery till Wed. Tues here comes a plumber finally. Boy he wanted this job. I told him after five minutes if it was upwards of $600 I would not be doing it. He continued to look and speculate where the pipes might be. Said it would run about $1000 and he would have to make a whole in my ceiling and poke his head up there to see if it could really be done. Finally he said that some contractors routinely put both gas and electric behind the stove when they build the house.
I kept my hopes up and Wed. morning when the carpenter arrived I waited with baited breath while he tore out the floor cabinet under the old stove. Alas, no gas. I quickly ran to Lowes to change to an electric stove. Of course they could not deliver it until Friday so I got a delivery company to go get it for me since the carpenter was taking out the door jambs to get this stuff in the house. The guys from Lowes took the old stove and refrigerator away just as they said they would but refused to take the carton that the stove came in b/c they said that was the responsibility of the guys that delivered it. I said it had Lowes name on it and I bought it there but they wouldn't budge. Oh well, I have new appliances. Now I will work on the formica.
I can't imagine doing a whole house remodel or even building a new one. People just don't show up when they say they will.
