Seems to me that a lot of contractors, KDs and other "professionals" either don't know what they are talking about, or will say anything to make a sale. I have experienced several of these, and I've noticed other preposterous statements that have been related by others on this forum (such as someone recently posted that her KD said there must be a filler between every frameless cabinet; a while ago someone said not to put plywood under granite because it could warp and cause the granite to buckle; etc.)

I thought it might be interesting to start a collection of such comments to give us all a good laugh, and provide a warning to newbies. Some of my favorite "unbelievable" statements are:

-- Granite installer: when I asked if it had been sealed, because I was concerned that water was being absorbed, he said that was a GOOD THING. "If it absorbs water, it means it has been sealed properly!!!" Obviously, it just means I have a porous granite and need to reseal it several more times.

-- When getting a quote from one KD and I tried to verify whether it included full overlay drawers, his response was "what is full overlay?"

-- And of course, there is the famous "I'll get right back to you" and "I'll be there tomorrow." We all know what that really means!

I'll be anxious to hear others!

This thread could be here for a long - long time.

The representative from the brick company after looking at 1/2 of the front of the house with splotches of the wrong brick.

Didn't I tell you that the last shipment would have to be "worked in by the brick layer" because they didn't match? Told him "That dog won't hunt". I want the brick that I ordered and was listed on the shipping papers.

He then suggested letting them stain all the "wrong" brick after it was all up. Told him to talk to my wife and if he could fly that by her then fine with me. That would have been fun to watch.

My electrician said that my halogen undercabinet lights could not be put on a dimmer switch. Wrong!

This is the same individual who did not know what a pendant light was!

Kelly

a slide in range is one that's slid into place to install

Got a call from a GC yesterday who wants to give us a quote. He said that he direct orders manufactured cabinets and also has a custom cabinetmaker he works with. I told him that we want frameless cabinets - He said "Frameless? Is that a brand or a type?"

* a kitchen store guy told us not to buy f&p dd - "because that tub is made out of plastic and will warp at high temperatures" LOL

boy, how many times we were told that 'fillers MUST be used between cabinets'... what they really meant was that they must add (and charge us) for fillers so that they could fit their very $$$ cabinets because they only had these so-called 'custom' cabinets in a limited number of sizes.

Then there was one kd from Brooklyn, who disagreed with every item on our wish list, saying 'Don’t buy this sink/fridge/oven etc – “because I do not like it'. He did not like granite, glass doors, metal frames. He was also the one who told us that a 20” wide sink cannot be installed into a 24” cabinet.
We decided that the kitchen we were paying for was ours, not his and so we ran. Though he seems to find customers who either have no opinion of their own or don’t mind his attitude, as he now opened his 2nd shop near abc carpet in nyc.) go figure :)
Needless to say, our new kitchen includs everything that that guy did not like – and we love it !!!

My first architect said that bumping out one half of our Kitchen as Pathway four feet would give us room to go around each other.

The last contractor we got a bid from said, "I know it's high..." (Yes. $80,000 HIGHER than the bid we went with. What planet was HE from?)

I was told it was "ok to place both the ovens in the panty as they did not need to be part of the work triangle and really all you do is put stuff in it and walk away".

lorieanne

Linda,

Thank you for starting this thread. That was me with the "you must use filler between all of your frameless cabinets"!! I almost posted that as a new thread, but this one that you have done is much better as a compilation of all the wacky things we've been told by various "professionals".

Just to get the whole story on here for those who might not have seen my original post under the "beware--premier at hd" thread, I"ll repeat it here. The HD KD (OK, consider the source here) told me all cabinets with full overlay doors (frameless or framed) must have at least 1/8" filler in between each and every cabinet or the doors and drawers would scrape. She was just nonchalantly adding this to my design, and I noticed it and asked about it. Luckily, I've been hanging out here long enough to know that it was highly unlikely that this was true. So I said, "No way!" She proceeded to call over a cabinet installer to back up her statements. He said, "No way!" He is a former cabinetmaker who has frameless in his own kitchen!! Boy, she was PO'd, but she took all that filler out my design.

I was actually sitting there thinking, this is gonna be a good one for the forum! And at the same time really thankful that I knew enough from lurking here to balk.

Our KD kept telling us "you won't even notice it" when referring to additional costs for options and whatever.

After she said it a dozen times, we noticed it - to the tune of a couple thousand dollars.

Who the heck doesn't notice a few hundred here, a few hundred there?

Our first contractor wanted us to go with laminate cabs and laminate counters even though we told him we didn't want that. I'm really glad I didn't give in because I love my cabinets! He kept insisting that no one would notice the laminate and it's cheaper, but I notice! And it's my kitchen. :) Can't wait to see my Caesarstone counters too. I still wonder if he had some conspiracy going with the makers of laminate products. I was very uninformed at that point too so I'm glad I went with my gut.

Mizzou ~~ I'm going to be LMAO over your post for several days ~ as will the guys at work. Let me guess...he couldn't make it fly, could he?

This is gonna be a fun thread.

I made an appointment for a quote from a kitchen shoppe (that's how they spelled it) that dealt with midprice and higher priced cabinetry. He came to my house and measured for cabs, listened to my explaination of how I wanted a platform built to extend the kitchen into the lower room next to it and a new staircase built. Some major changes here, we knew it would cost money. So I am asking him about trim and what to do about stained and cracked ceilings and he says to patch the ceilings ourselves and that I would want to simply paint over the exisiting trim rather than replace it with maple to match the cabs because, "it will cost too much." What did he think we were planning on? Didn't he see the potential for a BIG SALE here? The guy didn't even want to sell me crown molding! Was he judging me by my (or the house's) looks and decided that I did not have enough money to do the job? It turned out that this fancy kitchen remodeling shoppe could not do carpentry and drywall!

Tile store salesperson: "What do you mean by 'subway tile?'"

Granite person #1: "Blue Bahia is so expensive because it's mined under the ocean."

Granite person #2: "The green spots in Blue Bahia are algae."

Elizabeth B. - No!! - He never got the chance to talk to her. Doesn't know how lucky he is. I told her about his "solution" that night and she laughed. Then said in that tone of voice that we all have heard "I wish I-I-I-I had been there".

Mizzou ~ Sometime people like that deserve to talk to people like your wife, like me and a few others. He'd have gotten "The Look" along with the voice, I'm sure.

We are putting birch built in bookcases in the family and asked the cabinetmaker if he could use red birch. He said there is no red birch only white birch.

legallin,
As far as granite and plywood goes, it won't cause the granite to buckle, but it can cause the granite to crack if the plywood warps. Oh probably a year ago, when there were some very qualified granite contractors participating in the forum, this was one of the warnings. That is why some fabricators use plywood strips instead of full sheets. At least that is what I have heard, but you are right, LOL, granite CANNOT buckle! ;o)

This is a great thread! I don't think they know who they are dealing with, LOL! This forum has made us some of the best informed consumers out there! I think we know more than many of the people who we work with in the industry.

Thank you Spike for this great forum and thank you to all of my forum friends who have helped me, made me laugh, and kept me sane!

I love the one about the FP DD -- that is so funny! It amazes me what people don't know about what they sell! No red birch, eh??? Interesting!

cloudy_christine, Great to see you posting again! Wow, those divers must really have some high tech equipment, lol!
Kathy

This one is from my KD who I otherwise really liked. We had originally thought we would use Corian as the countertop. We liked engineered quartz but this particular design shop only installed Zodiac which was too expensive. After going to a home show and getting a quote from Silestone, we decided to go with them. My kitchen designer said the reason the Silestone quote was lower (by 30%) from the Zodiac was the Silestone contained only 70% quartz and was much lower quality. Well, by then I had done much research and Silestone and Zodiac are comparable quality. So I just smiled and nodded and said we had decided on Silestone!

I am having a house built in NC. This week, some of the tarpaper blew off my roof. The roofers were just going to put the shingles down directly on the wood without replacing the tarpaper so I complained. The foreman said they were doing everything right and the tarpaper wasn't necessary because "The tarpaper is just there to keep the decking dry until we put the shingles on".
Huh. And I have oceanfront property in Kansas.

2nd cup of coffee - memory cells slowly waking up!

I also remember the flooring saleman we had been working with for SEVERAL weekends saying - "Oh you don't need a per square foot price for the tile and wood in each room - just wait until it's time to install it and we'll give you a lump sum figure to do the whole house".

Yeah! Right! I said "Well OK if that's how you work why don't I just leave you a blank check and let you fill it out when you're finished".

I haven't been scrd too many times in my life but I'm smart enough to know when it's coming. Found another floor person.

cloudy_christine, - that's too funny

silver in blue bahia will rust when exposed to water ... - as told by an owner of a popular granite shop in stamford, ct... those slabs carried by poor divers from the bottom of the ocean must be really rusty ... LOL

One contractor did not see anything wrong with an estimate of $26,000 to install 10 IKEA cabinets. he was asking that much just for installation - no other work to be done, just cabinets. Which was about $25,000 over going rates.
Just like Nancy_in_Mich we were judged by our house. The contractor saw a fancy building and assumed we would foolishly pay him.

GC, in kitchen remodel: 'This countertop area would be too hard to fit tile into, so we're going to use aluminum. Well, it's got a white coating, so it'll look fine. Well, ummm, yeah, it might scratch after awhile . . . ummmmmmm, yeah, it's aluminum house siding... OK! TILE!!'

Contractor: 'Well, if you put the sink over here it'd be a lot easier for me to make the cabinets work. The sink would extend through the wall into the dining room just a little bit . . you wouldn't notice it. You could put something in front of it.'

Appliance salesman, as we were looking at the SubZero/Wolf/FP dishdrawer display: 'Don't look at those, they cost too much."

House designer: 'No, I don't think you should have an arch there. I can't make my software design it right."

Whew! Finally a place to tell all these stories! Kate.

All that happykate, and yet you're still happy!! Thanks for the laughs.

Nancy in Mich - Don't you love those places that spell shop with 2 p's and an e.

Literal translation of "shoppe" is BOHICA.

For those of you not familiar with the "Language of the South" --- "Bend Over - Here It Comes Again"

We're completely remodelling our house. Our architect was a nightmare! In redoing the master bath, we wanted to add a large window [there was only one small window and we are tripling the space]. She didn't. First she said, "it's illegal and dangerous. The glass would break and fall into the tub." Answer: Use tempered glass. Her: "It's against code and your neighbors will be able to see into the bathroom." (This is in an upstairs bath that faces no neighboring houses.) Answer: Use opaque/glue chipped tempered glass. Her: I wanted to tile that wall. The window will be ugly! Answer: Put the *&#*&$#*&$ window in!

She also refused to add a skylight that we wanted, saying that we would hate her if she did. I finally told her I hated her already and put the skylight in.

Yeeesh! Whose house is it anyway?

Dani

Oh Mizzou that is TOO funny! Never heard that one!

Thought I already posted this, but:

The guy I bought my windows from mismeasured every dam* one. Seriously. Anyway, some did end up working but on one of them he told the installers to take something (not sure what it was but it was obviously meant to be there.) off the window frame so it would fit. Riiiiigggghht.

Also told them to cut into the header and jackstuds/kingstuds to make the doors fit. Riiiiggghhht.

Installers refused (bless them!) and I sent the stuff back (thank G*D I had not paid him everything up front!). I ordered the correct items from another company.

After work on our heater during construction, our carbon monoxide detector went off. We called in the fire department and then the gas company to check it out for us. The plumber who had been working on the heating system repeatedly told the gas man "I could smell something all day yesterday -- it gave me such a headache! I could definitely smell it." The gas man had to inform the plumber that carbon monoxide has no smell. Duh! The plumber had piled so much crap around the heater, it could get no intake air. Thankfully, he is no longer our plumber.

Mizzou> Yeah! Right! I said "Well OK if that's how you work why don't I just leave you a blank check and let you fill it out when you're finished".

Yeah! DH and I had the same warm feeling when we were trying to get a quote from a fancy (we were determined to give fly-by-night companies a miss this time) K&B design shop to handle a small bathroom redo. In his favor he did give us their per-hour labour rate which was not bad - not cheap, but just not outlandish - but ABSOLUTELY no idea on how long it would take. Said that the the labour per hour rate was sufficient estimate.

We asked them to leave the sink and vanity we ordered through them on the doorstep and bid them fare-thee-well.

I was glad to see your post 'coz DH and I were wondering if this is par for the remodelling course - if people really do plan to go in with no estimate of the job it would be.

-ls

I like this thread! You guys have some really good stories. :)

My first KD (an independent, friend of the family) did a design where she had the water heater moved to a new spot and crawlspace access would be covered up. Her response was that it won't cost that much to relocate the WH and as far as the crawlspace access goes she said, "Oh, you can put that ANYWHERE." When I balked on the WH relocation she said, "but that space is perfect for the refrigerator!" She and I didn't see eye-to-eye on alot of things.

Great thread!

Went to look at a local kitchen store. Noticed they sold Heartland appliances (the ONLY appliances they sell). Asked about them and was told to return the next day to speak with the "expert" who handled that line. Returned the next day and asked said expert about the dual fuel range. He told me I was looking at it. I told him, um, no, that's a gas range. He said, "Yes, and it can be converted to LP." He thought dual fuel meant it could be NG or LP!!

Oh these are all too funny, and oh so familiar. GC told us that "no one" could provide red birch flooring in our area without "Having it shipped from New York City or somewhere". Hmm, we live in VERMONT where lots of birch trees are commercially harvested. When, miracle of miracles, we did find at least 5 places that would provide red birch flooring, he said "You won't like it. Just go with oak". Finally he said "We can't put red birch down on the stairs. It doesn't come in pre cut stair treads". Well, pardon us for thinking you knew how to use those tools that were laying around our house for 4 months longer than you said it would take to do the remodel. Even though it cost us more $$, we hired a sub to install the flooring and stair treads.

It's easy to laugh about now, but last July I was ready to KILL.

Liz

Here are some recent ones:

When looking for a contractor one person came out to give the quote and after 20 min she told me it would cost $120K. After my head spun entirely around, I said, well, that is a bit much and she said "How does $100K sound". I politely asked her to leave and she said "well, we really should stick to such and such area where people can afford it!"

I was getting cabinet quotes and was interested in this one shop, one day I came in with a very old coat and old clothes etc (I guess sometimes I dress like I can't afford much!). Anyway I guess they decided I couldn't afford it and just never returned my calls. Too bad for them.

heating guy said "I need to go get a longer drill bit" and we have not seen him in 3 weeks!

Of course the famous "cabs will be in by Dec 2nd", well we are still waiting and it is 2 months later. Now he is telling us they will be in next week.(knock on wood). The thing is, it is damn cold here (wind chill to 15 below) and I have small children. We are wearing our coats in the house, this truly is baaaaad.

Susan

At a fairly upscale kitchen design place, during a preliminary, "try-us-out" discussion, I explained to the KD that we would probably not be going with their priciest cabinets. (In fact, we ended up with IKEA.) I asked about their middle-of-the-road cabinet line -- a brand that had certainly been included in the general comment offered the previous day by another employee: "Oh, we can do almost any kind of kitchen. We have good cabinets in all price ranges."

Well, apparently the cabinets I asked about were not QUITE good enough. (And I began to suspect that the KD makes most of her commission on cabs.) Because the KD told me that I wouldn't really like these mid-line cabinets. They weren't well made. High potential for dissatisfaction, etc., etc. I longed to ask: "Well, then, why does your upscale shop carry these cabinets? Is it your policy to sell outright cr**p?"

Then there are mother-in-law's proclamations. (No, she isn't a KD, but surely some of the rest of you will indulge me in this corollary...) My very favorite was her announcement that we "couldn't" use the tan/beige "Sahara Gold" granite that we had selected. It was "yellow." (Has anyone actually ever seen a YELLOW granite? I have not.) And, she said, as if this were a well-known problem and a universal phenomenon, "Anything that's yellow makes me think of urine."

(Is that loopy, or WHAT???)

Brilliant idea for a thread! We'll be on "Part Two" within days, I think.

Happykate: Aluminum siding ???????? What did they propose putting on the floor? Left-over roofing shingles???

LOL - LOL - LOL --

-- Nean

I went to the local cabinet makers to price out my kitchen. Their KD was so snotty she only called me back after my contractor called and bawled her out for not returning my calls.

So I sit down and tell her what I want, which was pretty specific -- including stainless steel countertops. She plans the entire kitchen and sends me the cad drawings. But I notice she has no estimate for the countertops.

When I call and ask her about the countertop estimate she says "well, no one around here has stainless steel countertops and I don't know of anybody who can make them!"

Months later she calls the contractor to ask why she hasn't heard back from me.

Well, this isn't about kitchens, but it just happened today...

The pool repairman came out to fix a leaky filter. I wasn't home at the time of the repair, and when I checked his work, I saw it was still working. I called him, and he said it was my fault for not finding all the leaks FOR him.

This thread is heartwarming--only because I know I'm not the only one dealing with morons. We're in the middle of a real and true nightmare kitchen renovation that I swore would not happen to me because I did all the research. Sound familiar?

GC does all the wiring with electrician signing off, of course. We notice when microwave/refrig/downdraft vent are on, the lights and everything else dims out. This after an elec upgrade to 200 amps. Call electrician in to show circuit overloading and the fact that all GFI's in kitchen (5) are not properly wired. GC who is standing there says "Oh, its probably just a wiring thing." Ugh!

Kathy

Brought one of the members of the contracting team around the outside of the house to see how poorly the new siding on the kitchen addition (several months old) was looking. The painter had primed sloppily, never painted, and then winter came.

Contracter's response--gee it is amazing how badly weathered this part of your house gets!

Fatlester - was that a cabinet shop or "Shoppe"?

Contractor gave me a brochure for kitchen cabinets from a place that sells to the trade only. Lots of pretty pictures, no construction details. I say to the contractor, I assume they're particle board, since it doesn't say. "No! particle board is junk'. I went out to look at them - particle board, and not MDF or industrial fiberboard - particle board. And only 1/2" thick at that.

Sigh!

Tile guy: "Coefficient of friction? Porcelain?"

Kohler dealer: "yes we have contractor's discounts, but we won't tell you what they are without your plumber's permission.

Plumber: "Well, It's hard to tell what the discount is. You have to order the fixtures first."

Me: "Are you saying that people order 5.5 bathrooms worth of stuff without knowing what they're going to pay for it?"

Plumber: "Well, the list price is pretty close."

Me: So long, Kohler distributor. Plumber can stay, but I'm buying my own stuff on my own terms. I don't even care if it winds up costing me more. I HATE kickback schemes!

Me: Why are those nails sticking down from the ceiling?
Company Rep: What do you except? These installers are either on drugs or drunk! It's hard to get good workers these days.

Yes, that is what he really said....

Thank You so Much!!! for this thread!! I needed a good heartwarming laugh that I am not the only one. Sometimes I think.... Is it just me?? Did I really just heard that??? and yes... They said WHAT!?!?!?

Thanks again,
Faith

From my custom cabinet maker:

As I'm thinking of hiring him--Dec 2002: "3 mths lead time"

As I pay my deposit-Jan 2003: "got 2 other big jobs yesterday, 5 mths lead time now, 5 1/2 tops"

When I call to check progress-"I'm running a bit behind, the big jobs added more stuff & are trying to get in, install in July"

...then August, "I'm dedicated to completing your stuff"

...after more hysterical ranting by us: "definately by mid September, everything completed & installed"

In mid sept, hurricane isabel devastated the area--"I'll need a couple of extra weeks, I have shop damage due to the hurricane, I'm committing my time to complete your job"

In Oct-"I'm only working your job". In the shop are other people's stuff

In Nov--"I'm solely working on only your cabinets now--base cabinets will be in to allow countertops/plumbing before xmas". At a meeting (he set) we had on site, near the end of the day, he says he needs to leave vs. talking about the one last room. "I promised my girlfriend I'd take her to feed the ducks before dark & will have just enough time to get there--we'll do this next week".

In Dec--"I'm building a entertainment center & some furniture for xmas presents", when I visit shop. "I'm about done". was told what day he can install, to work around polying stairs, shows on different day, fires up a skill saw 10' from the stairs just tacked & ready for final coat of poly, when asked "how long are you goint to be cutting" has near physical fight with him, stair man leaves & works on xmas eve to make up the day lost.

In Jan 2004, cabs installed with drawers, no doors. "I'm working on the doors now". I ask about the trashcan under the sink looking like it will hit the bottom of the sink & having no room for the basket, drain pipe, etc. "The plumber can work around it". in reality, the plumber says I need 5 more inches than I have. I lose the trash can under the sink, specified from the beginning, & have no suitable place to put it.

sep2897

I don't understand how many of you didn't just step out the back door and shoot yourselves in the head!!! LOL.

Absolutely unbelieveable. Every day I am eternally grateful for my handy hubby....

Vivian

How do you know who to trust??

One of the hardest part of doing a renovation is recognizing when somebody is giving you false information. I am not an expert in the various trades, so how would I really know to question the supposed experts. For instance, I had a well recommended house inspector look over my house to tell me the things that really needed addressing. My front stairs were concrete that had settled badly causing cracks between the top landing and the first stair. The inspector said it would be very expensive to remove the concrete stairs to build new so we should just have it patched up and painted and it would be fine since the house is so old (1929) and probably not settling anymore. I decided to ignore his advice and got my contractor to remove the stairs and build new wooden stairs with a slate landing. Once he removed the stairs he found that the wall of the house which was hidden by the stairs was almost completely rotted out and it was just a matter of time until we had major structural problems. We had no way of knowing this. So we got rid of the rotted wood, beefed up the wall and I now have a beautiful set of stairs. But I could just as easily have followed the inspector's advice.

There is a show on HGTV in Canada called Holmes on Homes. He is a contractor who goes around fixing up other contractor's botched work. Invariably the homeowners trusted their initial contractor and the result was disastrous. Holmes comes in and shows all the horrible shortcuts the shoddy contractors used and fixes the problem. On one show he says something like: "all the builder had to use was $10 worth of ductape to do it properly and now it's costing the homeowner $10,000 to fix." Probably an exaggeration, but still. My point is that these poor homewoners didn't know to question the contractor's methods. And I don't think it is because the homeowners were stupid, I think it is because they truly don't know. So that got me thinking. My cousin is a developer. Right now he is building a building that will house a number of condos. As far as I know he is not well versed in the details of construction. He hires architects and GCs etc... So I asked him, how do you know that these people are giving you quality work and that they are not taking shortcuts that will come back and haunt both the new condo owner and you? He said that he only works with people that have been in the industry for years and who have a good reputation. Well, correct me if I'm wrong but somebody can have a good reputation and still do shoddy work and nobody will know different until something goes wrong. I think that the big problem is that the construction industry is filled with people who either don't really know what they're doing or don't care about quality and are more interested in turning a profit. It's sad.

One more point. How do you, as a home owner know when good enough is acceptable versus following the instructions to the letter. Again back to my stair example. The concrete pad at the landing had to cure for something like 21 days. By that time, according to the slate people it would be too cold to install the slate. My contractor said no problem we'll just use heaters. I was skeptical. He said don't worry, I do this all the time and have never had a problem. I didn't like the idea, so I said, no let's wait till the spring to set the slate. We did and I was happy. I love my contractor because I know he is not out to rip me off and when I get picky he goes with my decisons. But as far as he is concerned he has real life experience and he knows when to push the limits whereas I tend to follow instructions to the letter in my uppity woman's way.

So my point is that you can think you have a good bullsh%t meter, but ultimately unless you are an expert in house construction or kitchen construction, how do you really know that nothing questionable is getting past you? You don't. Ultimately you have to trust the people you've hired. And if you're lucky, that trust is not misplaced.

You cannot know who to trust 100% save someone you have a history with unless you know the field. Obvious morons aside...the really dangerous fools are more subtle and get you to hand over money and trust.
I am a RN...I cannot tell you the medical horror stories folks bring to me when they did not have anyone around who was "in the know" I also work with computers and build them and do tech support for a living...I again cannot tell you the victimization of folks who are computer illiterate etc.
Anytime you do not know the trade/topic...you are vulnerable.

That's why word of mouth, seeing other people's work etc helps. Even that though is not 100% protection.

I had a lot of problems but my carpenter/GC is a gem. An honest nit picking man...I would have shot myself if not for him.

Dorothy

There's not too much you can do other than talk to a LOT of references and consult something like Angie's List if they have it in your town. We're a really tight community, so we pass around names of contractors, builders, painters, hairdressers, trainers, decorators, dog sitters, you name it. The providers KNOW this, so they know it's definitely not in their interest to provide shoddy service for anyone -- word would get around like lightning.

BUT. That doesn't mean that we don't get the occasional weirdness. Here's mine:

The first designer I talked to was recommended by our best friends, who are very particular and who had been satisfied, so I didn't even schedule appointments with anyone else. He came over and we talked about what we wanted. He took copious notes. One of the only things I was very sure of was that we did NOT want an eating bar at the island. He said, "Oh, I agree!" and we talked for a good ten minutes about the pros and cons, and how it was really important to our family to eat meals together as often as we could, and definitely facing each other around a table.

You can just see it coming, can't you?

I couldn't wait to come to the showroom to see his floor plan. This was going to be great. This guy had a super reputation.

I looked at the thing and saw a cool-shaped island, but no markings for cabinets on the "far" side. "What's over here?" I asked. "That's your eating bar!!" he cried, with a big, excited grin on his face. "Okay," I thought, as I observed the capital letters spelling "NO EATING BAR!" on his notes, "It's hard to believe he forgot something we talked about at such length, but hey, he works with a lot of people. Everyone forgets things." I was all set to overlook that until I noticed that ...

There was no stove in the plan. No range, no cooktop, no oven.

We thanked him for his time and moved on. Forgetting about the eating bar was one thing, but if he forgot to put a STOVE in there, who knew what else he'd forget? I wouldn't have slept, worrying that he'd forget a gas link or something! (It turned out that in our friends' home, a new build, the architect had already laid out the kitchen; this guy just did the cabinets, counters, appliances, etc.)

Not a contractor story but a new neighbor story.

We are involved in a very ugly legal dispute with our neighbors over utility lines to our (now) 90% built home. For a year before we started building we were in constant contact with them about the plans for our home. Every single time we went out to the property the neighbor would ride over on his 4-wheeler for updates on "how much longer till we can all be neighbors." We even discussed site placement to lessen the impact of our home on their view and thusly moved our home 40 feet and rotated it slightly. Our homes are far apart (we're on 100 acres & they're on 40) but we can see each other so we wanted to be sensitive to their views (and ours.) Everything was very pleasant and they were quite friendly (a little nosey but friendly none-the-less.) Until that is, the day the power company received a letter from their attorney disputing our utility easement. Our home was 80% complete and this was our first inclination that they had an issue. Everyone except the neighbor (including the power company) agrees that we have every right to utilities and our easement is valid, but the neighbor's letter to the utility co. caused hook-up to come to a complete halt until we get an injunction so we had no choice except to sue.

A few weeks ago our attorney told us that the neighbor's attorney said, Bill (the neighbor) is surprised at our reaction. He thought we had a good rapport." What? Our reaction surprised him? He pretends that he's happy to have us as neighbors, watches the home go up for 6 months and then has an attorney try to stop us from getting power to our home. He has cost us tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, slowed construction considerably and he's *surprised* we're suing him? What did he expect? Christmas cookies? Some people are dumber than a stump! Thank God for generators and big trees.

I brought our new house plans to a kitchen designer at a Woodmode/Brookhaven shop. We gave them the complete plans designed by an architect and pictures we had for the look of the kitchen. They took several months to come up with the estimate, and the design was nothing like the plans, so we asked if he could redo them. They wanted $1500 up front as a retainer at this point. When I mentioned that I might not want to go with them when I see the new estimate of the cabinets, he was silent. Needless to say, I did not return nor did I give him $1500.

We are acting as our own general contractors, and besides a bid for the foundation that was retracted when we accepted it because they decided it was "unprofitable", we have had only great subs! But, we only have the foundation in. To get there, we have used an architect, soil engineer, surveyor, structural engineer, excavators, concrete men and we have had a well and electricity put in. I am keeping my fingers crossed that everyone we use will be this good.

I went into HD to buy a light bulb for my outdoor floodlight. The salesperson said I couldn't use the 300watt bulb ........drum roll.......because I only have a 110volt outlet!

I was looking for a piece of 1/4" all-threaded rod,they said they didn't have any.......I looked down and next to where the sales person was standing was a "bucket" full it! Oh.......that threaded rod!

I went to the Lowes(open 1 year now) and asked for a granite counter estimate(they had a big display),they said I was their first customer......no one bought granite counters!!!!! Wouldn't I like to look at corian?

It's a DIY nightmare out there!!!!

:0) :0) :0) :0) :0) :0) :0) :0)

In checking prices on granite--

"Our prices are lower than anyone's, I guarantee," says a guy who answers the phone "rick" with no company name.

I'll be able to choose the slab, right?

No, we don't do it like that.

Then I'm not interested.

I think we can do it like that.

You do the installation?

No, we just sell the stone and sub out the fabrication and installation.

Who's the fabricator?

I can't reveal that information...But it someone who's been in the business a long, long time.

I see. Goodbye.

When I was still searching for the perfect cabinet I e-mailed my the list of cabinets I wanted to a kitchen place that had a web site. The web site listed several lines of cabinets, including one that was frameless. I asked for an estimate for the frameless cabinets. I got an e-mail back saying that he didn't recommend frameless, and didn't like to sell them to customers. Being new to all of this, I asked why. I got a response several pages long. I have never had anyone try so hard to convince me not to buy from them. One statement was that if you throw a frameless cabinet and a framed cabinet out a second floor window the frameless will smash to pieces. I did not order from him, why carry cabinets you don't want customers to buy? A couple of weeks ago I finally got my beautiful frameless cabinets. I am still waiting for them to get up on their legs, run upstairs to the second floor and throw themselves out the window.

Nietza I am so glad I read all the way to your post. LOLROTF! I have new framed cabinets, but if they ever run upstairs & throw themselves out the window I don't expect them to survive.

The first GC we talked to sent us to a kitchen showroom with Crystal cabinets. He told us to ignore the salesperson's estimate and we would pay only his price which was 70% off. When we got an estimate for $45,000 for cabinets, we asked about the 70% off and suddenly nobody knew what we were talking about. The price we were given was already discounted (except we could get an extra 5% off).

We moved on to independently checkout cabinets at several other kitchen showrooms. Our architect recommended a KD who we eventually called back to say we'd like to work with her -- shortly thereafter the GC where she co-built a showroom locked her out and kept all our measurements, magazine photos, and files. The GC wouldn't call us back and wouldn't return our files. The architect called us on behalf of the GC and tried to convince us to go with the GC's new KD and leave the KD she recommended to us! We asked "why would we want to work with somebody who won't even call us back?" The next day the GC's secretary called to tell us the GC would call us but he never did.

Then, to our amazing luck, a hometown friend of my husband's decided to start working as a GC in our area again. His crew is topnotch - mostly all guys from the same hometown - two are carpenter/perfectionists. The KD we decided to work with opened a new showroom and started to represent Cabico cabinets. We've had several glitches but nothing that has made me lose faith with the GC. The KD is at the mercy of her suppliers (everything is late) and shipping companies that have damaged two cabinets and a sink. The only thing that's come on time are the items I ordered over the internet - faucets, drawer pulls, toaster!

After this phase, we will be working with a local cabinet maker to make an old-fasioned pantry and some built-ins in the living room . . . and when we ask about timelines he says he "has no crystal ball." When pushed, he says, it will take 4-6 weeks from when I start making them. When will you start making them? He says, I can't say but I can let you know when I start and you'll know it's 4-6 weeks out. Sheesh. If we didn't love his work . . .

Karen

Had "expert" from Consumers Kitchen and Bath in to measure kitchen in newly purchased house for remodel. We then went to the store to have it all laid out on computer. Perfect, all set - kitchen full of 30" cabs with a foot or so of open space above - always wanted that. Then a thought came to me - stove is on an inside wall. Vented? Filtered? No mention of it by the KD, so I thought I'd better check. Called the homeowner (we have not closed on the house yet) and asked. "Sure", she said, "vented through the upper cabs" (hers go to the ceiling). Called the KD and told him obviously we can't use 30" cabs, need 42" cabs (muttering under my breath that these guys should have known this) and he chastized me for "changing things" when he was all set to place the order - maybe he'd like to lie up there and camouflage the vent pipe over the 30" cabs for me. Pardon me for "changing things"!!!

This is a nice one. When I asked our builder what price range tile I should be looking at to stay in budget, he said it didn't matter. It's the labor that is the highest cost. I finally pressed him to give me a number, because I did not want to make multiple trips-he said about $3 a sq. ft. Good thing I asked, because I was loving the $30 per sq. ft. tile. Weh I told him the tile I liked best was around $10-$20, he said he had never heard of tile that expensive before.

We went to a lighting store yesterday - this was our second store, so we already had an idea of what we wanted. We told the woman that we had seen a halogen ceiling fixture that had 300 watts and we really liked it. She said there was no way you could have a halogen ceiling light with that much wattage - "it would just blow up". Needless to say, we went back to the first store and bought the light.

LeslieW,

We vented our stove through our 30 inch cabinets. My husband boxed in the vent pipe above the cabinets with drywall and I painted it. Looks fine, but 42 inch might have been nicer if we were redoing the cabinets.

I'm a newbie, but feel like you're family!! I can't even begin to tell you how much I appreciate ALL the threads!!! Especially this one!!! :-)

I went into a fairly high-end cabinet shoppe* :-) last week. Okay, I will admit I did have on my fave jeans with the hole in the knee. :-)) I explained what I was looking for - The KD marched over to some really awful looking cabinet doors and said "Well, in your price-range this is what you'd be looking at". (I hadn't mentioned a word about budget or price :-))) I said "What about these over here?" She said "Oh heavens, you don't want to look at those! They're $900 a linear foot!!! These are only* $400 a linear foot!! Surely you don't want to be spending 3 times that, do you?" LOL

I honestly had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out-loud!!! :-)

Angelight/Louise :-)

Here is another non-kitchen anecdote, about our very first home, which was a split level. One day I was running down the stairs to answer the door. It was one of the very rare times that I did not have my infant daughter in my arms. She was definitely "mama's girl" back then, a whole different story at 16, but I digress.

So I was running down the stairs, and the railing came off in my hand! I was thrown off balance, but I caught myself before I crashed into the front door. Imagine if I had been carrying the baby!

So I called the builder (whom I have come to believe is Satan), and he sent some guys over to fix it. As they were reinstalling the railing, they said to me, "Well, it's not our fault; the studs were put in the wrong place."

Excuse me?? The studs were put in the wrong place?? Was he that stupid, or did he think I was that stupid?

Well, there were many other things wrong with the house, including an illegal second mortgage scam, so bankers went to jail, lawyers were disbarred, and many young families were scr**ed. The builder, however, did not go to jail, claiming that a learning disability prevented him from understanding the contracts he signed. Honestly.

He is still building homes, but we live elsewhere. In fact, before we hire anyone to work on our home, we ask them if they've ever worked for him.

Happy in our third home,
Lionors

When we were looking for our black fridge, the store we visited didn't have any in black. When we asked if we could get one, they said, "Oh no, nobody is making black anymore. You won't be able to find one." Obviously they wanted us to buy what they had in stock, which was white. My husband merely told them, "You are seriously misinformed." And we went elsewhere.

I can't believe that in about 6 hours, this is already down to page 3! I've never seen so much traffic on this site---must be that weather!

We are in the middle of a kitchen addition right now. On the very first day that our builder was here to lay out the new addition there was a problem. The builder taped out the new roofline on our existing house, and found that the cathedral roofline would go right through the middle of my upstairs bathroom window. When I called our architect to ask how this mistake could happen, he replied very calmly,
"These things happen".
We had our architect come up with a new plan, but we wouldn't have been able to use the curved eyebrow window we had our hearts set on, so we opted to keep the roofline as originally designed, and replaced our bathroom window with a smaller one. This cost us an extra $1000- to get a window not as nice as our original one!
"These things happen" has become a catch phrase at our house when anything goes wrong.
A week later a good friend told me her husband, a doctor, was being sued for malpractice. Apparently an elderly patient died in surgery. She said, "These things happen"!!!
It put our bathroom window problem in perspective.

One Tile Shop:
Subway Tile? Never heard of it!

And this one annoys me the most:
Granite is the next hardest thing next to diamonds! I can't tell you how many times I heard that one.... I know better, I'm in the jewelry business...

Used a KD at an appliance/KD store. They had 2 cabinet lines available: Dynasty and Merillat. While showing me and DW the differences, I asked about full extension drawers and she said Merillat doesn't use them, not even as an option. So I said then design it all in Dynasty because I have to have the full extension drawers, even if the cost will be higher. As we were sitting at her desk, she went to grab a brochure from a sample cabinet and she said the cabinet was from a new line they were selling, but to NEVER use that brand because it was nothing but trouble for them and poor quality (you can see where this is going!). Got the design back after 2 weeks of us calling and sure enough it was is the brand she recommended we never use. Turns out the brand was Merillat Masterpiece which is the same as Krafmaid.

I went to Merillat's website and you can actually download the entire cabinet book that the KD's use. When we went in to revise our design ( BTW she measured wrong!) and I asked about a lot of optional items that I saw in the catalog(pull-out trash, bread box, etc) She says the don't make them! So I grab her book and have to show her that do in fact make them....incredible!

The best part was when we asked for a cabinet above the built-in fridge and she says "you can't fit a cabinet above a fridge, there is no room" We proceeded to take her to the display in their store and show her that you can, indeed, and that all their displays have one. When we got the 2nd revision of our plan, lo and behold, no cabinet above fridge, because she told us (again) "you can't fit a cabinet there"! And, of course, the measurements were still wrong.

I called the owner to ask for my money back (it was supposed to be a non-refundable fee) and he just referred her back to us and she can't understand what wrong, even though her plans are 2 feet longer than our kitchen and she never designed in the brand I wanted. Eventually the owner gave us our money back and we went to a custom cab shop and got exactly what we wanted.

When we asked for our design fee of $300 back she said

fecollier,

"She said..." don't leave us hanging!

Just had one of these things happen yesterday.

The countertops were templated about 2˝ weeks ago. I had been told no later than 2 weeks so, of course, I called to see how things were going. After being on hold for a little bit he(I'm assuming the office guy) came back and said that they got backed up at the shop. That's understandable but then he added, of his own free will mind you, "Yeah I guess Mike wasn't paying close enough attention..."

You would think they wouldn't want to sound so unreliable, and he said it with such a disappointed tone...I'm hoping they are paying close attention to the countertop fabrication at least! I'm scared now...:P

Years ago, when building a new house, the roof trusses were made incorrectly, so the builder bought them at a big savings to build himself a pole barn. I had ordered special ceramic door knobs and cabinet pulls worth about $800. One day at the site I noticed that they were missing. The builder said he remembered them sitting on a certain box in the kitchen because he accidently kicked the box they were sitting on and it all tipped over. Well the box they were sitting on had a toilet in it, and I knew it couldn't "tip over".

So, I called the police to report a theft. The cop came out and immediately knew that it had to be the builder himself who took it all, because he had arrested him before. But we couldn't prove anything at the time.

A year later, the news story broke that the builder had been caught with tons of new stuff that he had taken from job sites. And the best part: he stored them in the new pole barn he built with our trusses.

We now have the most fabulous crew of subcontractors--live and learn. But in our state, I can go online and access criminal court records and before any sub comes to our house now, we check his background. Usually I am relieved, but recently discovered one of the drywall crew had just been arrested for dealing cocaine. He was uninvited.

Sorry,
she said that she had been a KD for years and that whatever was wrong she could fix, if we would let just let her know again, because she misplaced her drawings!.

I'll tell this as a counterpoint to angelight's story. I got 3 quotes for some Brookhaven cabinets. KD 1's shop is fairly high end and located in my town, and KDs 2 and 3 have shops that are 50 miles away. KD 1's quote was the first quote that I got and when she presented the quote to me she gushed about the good value that I would get for my money if I bought the Brookhaven cabinets from her. Then I got quotes for the same cabinets from KDs 2 and 3 and their quotes were $9,000 LESS than the quote from KD 1 (actually more than $9,000 less because their quotes included more stuff). I told an interior designer friend of mine about this and she talked to a KD designer friend of hers about it. Her KD friend told her that KD 1 uses a unique pricing system that isn't based upon the cost of the cabinets but on what they think they can get a customer to pay for the cabinets. I guess KD 1 thought I looked like a chump who would pay an extra $9,000 for nothing, although she knew I was looking at Plain & Fancy too so maybe she thought that that was the only quote she'd have to beat. I say wear raggy jeans when you go to a shop so that you get a fair price. Although I did wear some not so nice clothes to another high end shop to ask for a quote for Plain & Fancy cabinets (I really wanted those cabinets too!) and it's been 4 months+ since I first met with the P & F KD and I'm still waiting for that quote, so maybe that doesn't work either.

Collier

Wierd, because I worked with that same designer (or her clone) here in Ontario!

We saw the firm's display at a home show, met the nice friendly designer and drove straight to their showroom to check them out. Got shanghaied by the crummy designer who had been left minding the store.

The first frustration was the vent hood. We told her (and she saw when she came out to measure) that although we did intend to centre the cooktop between two windows, we could not use one of the trendy chimney-style vents because the furnace chimney ran up the wall outside so something would have to camoflauge the vent stack dodging sideways.

Three times we had to correct drawings that showed a chimney-style hood.

The desk was ordered at counter-height (it went back). There is a wall cupboard I can't use because it runs into the corner abover our corner sink and I'm all of five feet tall (she should have measured me!) She put in 13 50-watt recessed halogen fixtures. It was so hot and bright you could have done surgery in the nude until we hunted down 35-watt replacements.

But the best was the pantry cupboard that we told her 47 times we would be using for city-issued recycling bins (big tubs). Our version of the final plans showed it as agreed, but the day before the contractors installed the cupboards I noticed their copy showed a divider down the middle of that space. I asked the boss to call me when they had opened the boxes. Sure enough, divided cupboard. I SAID SOMETHING EXTREMELY RUDE.

He said, very calmly, "Judith, don't be shy, just tell me how you really feel."

He was a great guy who almost made up for all the frustration.

A lot of people seemed to have problems with their KD here.

Our KD drew in 2 x 15" drawers instead of 1 x 30" drawer - we wanted to have less wasted space. So we got 2 drawers in the end. We didn't want to fight on that since we had other more important issues at the time. She also failed to order the dishwasher panel together with the rest of the cabinets and now it is has a different hue from the rest. This hasn't been resolved yet.

She also did the rest of units in the building we moved into and these were to say the least disastrous. Every one of them had missing pieces. In one of the units she measured, she failed to note a STRUCTURAL POST!! in the kitchen and put cabinets in that location. She told the builder "That [post] was not there when I measured!" - this was when the dry wall was up!!

Last I heard she was seeking other opportunities ie. they fired her.

I just wonder are KD a special breed of people? and how they become KD, do they have any training at all? Given how complicated a kitchen is, don't one need to have supreme attention to detail and understand customer requirements???

Okay - this is not a "They said WHAT!" It's more of a "They DID what???" In our house there are a few additions to the original 1925 structure, both done in the 70's. I think this is more proof that everyone was on drugs in the 70's. One of the additons is a den. There are two features in this den I particularly enjoy. First - there is a light switch IN THE CEILING! This is used to turn on the HUGE INDUSTRIAL SIZE LIGHT outside. This light is so bright it could signal ET on his home planet. Why is the light switch in the ceiling? I couldn't even begin to guess. Perhaps the previous owner was very, very tall. Second thing I really enjoy - the original house had a bathroom window that looked out into the backyard. When they enclosed the patio to make the "den," they just left the window. So now the bathroom window looks out - into the den. Every contractor who's come to give us a bid walks into that den and says "Ah! The 70's!"

Just auditioned a GC today who looked at me quizzically when I asked about wiring for the dual-fuel range; turned out he'd never heard of a dual-fuel range...

Love this thread...

My best quotable comes from kitchen appliance shopping. We visited the bankrupcy sale of a high-end chain. No orders, they were selling off their on-the-floor stock. We were immediately chatted up by eager salespersons while we poked around trying to look despite the constant eager chatter. There were some good deals to be had; I kept circling round a Dacor 5-burner cooktop, but was also looking at some rangetops they had. I was poking at the Dacor and noticed that the rings for the burners were missing. Odd. I asked, and the salesperson said she thought she'd seen some in the back. She disappears, and comes back with the rings. We are seriously contemplating snapping this up, but wanting to make sure--no returns, so we're talking it through. A different saleperson comes over, doesn't say anything to us, lifts up the grates and looks like he is about to remove the rings our saleperson just put back. I ask him what he is doing, tell him we are about to buy the cooktop. He says in a clipped voice, oh I'm just checking something, with a very odd look on his face. He leaves, our salesperson comes over, we make some comment about the odd and rude treatment we've just received, and she says that if we want the cooktop we should probably hurry up, giving some strange reason. We tell her we do want it, she goes away to check on something. THEN, a customer comes in the store. After a bit, he comes over and TAKES THE RINGS OFF the cooktop while we are standing there. I ask him what he is doing. He says he is taking the rings. I said, but we are buying this. He said, you haven't bought it yet; I'm taking the parts, some were missing from mine when I bought it. The other salesperson (who'd sold him the cooktop sans rings) had sent him over to do the deed. I am flabbergasted at the rudeness of it all. I figure out that other customer was missing rings, called store. His salesguy went to the floor model, removed rings to set aside for customer. Our salesperson saw that we wanted remianing floor model, went and took rings back from where her colleague had set them aside, and, voila, replaced them on the floor model. Wherupon customer shows up to snatch them back. Nobody filled us in on any of this!!! Figure the substantial savings is NOT worth dealing with these people, or this company. We begin to leave. Our salesperson starts to beg. Says she can get the rings replaced from Dacor, no problems, says she will take even more money off the price, says don't we want to save $600? We thank her for her help, tell her she has been very nice, but that we really don't feel comfortable doing business under the circumstances. Again she begs us to think about it. We say we will go outside and talk. We go outside, and decide we will sleep on it. We might well come back the next day; they do have the cooktop we want, and it is 600 cheaper than we'll get anywhere. But there's no way I'd buy it then and there. I go back inside the store to fill her in on our decision. She tries to change my mind. Follows me out to the parking lot, sees we REALLY are leaving, wherupon she starts yelling at us--YOU"RE F'&$^%# ME! I'm the one getting F'*&^-ed by all this! I'm working straight commission and you're F*&%($# me!

Unbelievable. The whole scene, from customers to salespersons. But that last scene just was over the top. We laughed the whole way home. It was the first time I'd ever been in that store, I leave without buying something after about oh, 30-45 mins, and the salesperson runs after us SCREAMING that WE are F&*(&^% her!!

It's a jungle out there!

And, that's why we didn't end up getting a Dacor after all.

Linedry,
I just checked to see if this occured in New Jersey, I thought your appliance salesperson may have been our auto saleswoman about 20 years ago in NJ! No, you are in Ontario, so it is not likely.

We were looking for a particular car a the end of a model year. We only wanted a 2 door model with no luxury add-ons (except air conditioning). I had located one car, but did not like some aspects of it, so tried calling around to see what was available elsewhere. No one would talk by phone. So DH and I went to a local dealer, told them exactly what we were looking for and asked if they had it. The saleswoman made us walk all around their huge lot - in the hot sun. Refused to tell us if they had the car, then admitted they did not when we got back to the showroom. We started to leave and she insisted that we let her try to talk the boss into giving us the upgraded version at our stripped-down price. We said, "no, that is not very likely, don't bother asking, we will just go." She insisted, and so we sat there and she disappeared in the back. She came back a half hour later, giving us a price quite a bit higher than the price we had already arranged for the stripped-down car. When we said no and got up to leave, she was furious! How dare we be so unreasonable! Why would we expect to get the car with all the options for the price of a stripped-down car? We said we never expected to, and could not understand why she insisted on wasting our time trying and walked out the door. She (like your appliance dealer) followed us out yelling obscenitites at us! We got to the original dealer as they were closing and saw someone in "our" car. It seems that when they cleaned up the car for the scheduled test drive with us, it attracted the attention of another buyer and they sold it before our scheduled appointment! We ended up buying a demo from this dealer. We decided that the ploy at the dealer who did not have the style car we wanted was to keep us there long enough to make us miss our test-drive appointment (how were we to know we should not have told them what time we had to leave to go see the other car?) at the original place. It almost succeeded! We did lose the car, but the demo was an okay substitute.

okay maybe people have some serious stress going on at work, but how in the heck do they think it will help them get a sale, or maybe return business, by screaming obscenities at people? I just don't get it. Some people are just not too smart or very unstable, which is scary.

Mother...I think it is just that many today feel entitled to _____________ (fill in the blank)....entitled to the sale, entitled to receive something...entitled to have others do for them.

OMG ~~ am I letting my political colors come through here? Shame on me!!! But, that's what I think of when I hear stories like that or witness things like that happening. Some people just need to expand the horizon of their universe.

Wow, and after that rude woman got a sex-xhange, she moved to Kentucky to be a plumber. We had a garbage disposal added when we remodeled our kitchen. The plumber (whose family has owned this plumbing business for something like 75 years) installed the garbage disposal, and as he was working I saw that the instructions were still in the box. I asked, "Don't you need these?" and he ROLLED his eyes and did not bother to answer. Then he finished and I looked and noticed one trap (the U-shaped pipe) and a T-connector over to the garbage disposal, while the instructions clearly shiw two traps. I politely suggested that maybe there were supposed to be two traps. He rolled his eyes and in his most patient and patronizing voice told me he had installed thousands of "them things" and "ain't none of them never needed TWO traps, since that would be a waste of his time and MY money." Right after he left I noticed that anything I put into the disposal got shredded and then hurled up out of the drain of the other side side of the sink. Hmmmm. Call plumber, he comes back after endless discussion. This time he has brought a tool to do a quick repair in our basement in additon, something we had discussed earlier. He was very polite at this point, but then went down to the unfinished basement and stated screaming at the TOP of his lungs thinks like, "I HATE MY F******** LIFE! AAAAGH! MY LIFE IS S**T! EVERY F****** DAY It's the same...." You get the picture. this tirade goes on for like 20 minutes!!!! After all is quiet, I meekly call down, "Is everything okay down there? And he politely calls out, "Sure, fine, almost done." He had been yelling so loudly that the neighbors came over to make sure I was okay! And the houses are not that close! THEN he comes back upstairs to look at the disposal, and informs me that the problem is that I have a disposal at all, since he hates them and would never have one at his house, since they are S***. I was so shocked I just stood there and said nothing. He started to get angrier and angrier, saying they are the worst invention mankind has ever made, and then even saying the problem is that I have a strange sink, that it is not normal to have one bowl of the sink so much smaller than the other. (HUH?!) Then I calmly asked him to put a second trap in, and I had called the mfr who had faxed me over another set of instructions since the plumber took the others even though he did not use them! He gets bright red and starts cussing again. He is cussing out the disposal, it seems. I escort him to the door and calmly (!) tell him he has done enough, and as soon as he leaves I call his saner brother to come finish the job. The brother does and we have had no probs since them, but whaaaaa? I switched plumbers. My three-year-old repeated the F-word after the crazy one left! Ugh!

This "gem" didn't come from a "they" but my "DH". We have been having serious computer problems (could not boot the computer no matter what), I have been on the phone all day with tech support, and tomorrow they were sending a technician/repairman over. I fell asleep on the couch. My "DH" comes over to tell me that he "fixed the computer" but he "can't find any of our files or programs." You got it -- he totaly ERASED AND REFORMATTED THE ENTIRE HARD DISK filled with 2-1/2 years of data, pictures, records, etc. (which, of course, had not been properly backed up).

Lots of funny things here. I DO have to say....being a Contractor, Some of the things are way out there, but some....in a way are understandable. You all are not all always right in your explanations/stories. I would suggest that you listen closely to what you are being told. I have no doubts that at least some....if not most, of these people have a totally different version of the stories. I read them all w/a grain of salt. Been there, done that. Communication.....it takes two.

This is not kitchen related but I thought I would throw it in. About 10 years ago a friend of mine had a PC help line. One day one of her customers got a dialog box on the screen she just couldn't figure out how to respond to. So she called my friend. "HelpKey. May I help you?" said my friend. "Yes. You know I have tried and tried and looked all over the place and I just can't find the "any" key." She didn't realize it was hidden under the space bar! ;-)

Linedry,

Sorry for OT, were you talking about the Home and Rural bankruptcy sale? I've always left their stores with a negative feeling but that is a sureal!

Reformatted doesn't mean gone. FYI. If you care enough, it's salvagable.

sep2897,

ROFL when I heard about feeding the ducks!!!

These are great tales of woe! Glad they aren't mine.
On the same line, I always suggest to anyone building or remodeling to get the video called "Mr.Blandings Builds His Dream House". It's an oldie: 1948, and stars Cary Grant. But, boy oh boy, the stories haven't changed a bit!

A quote from another thread, that deserves to be here:

"I love the look of granite countertops. However two KDS did not reccomend it. One said the seams are almost always obvious, the other said since it is porous it will "soak up" odors."

posted by Sparkle_KY

Kirsten-- I love that movie! Hilarious. Though I have to say I saw it BEFORE I was a homeowner....not sure if I'd laugh harder or cry now!!! LOL.

alexmisc-- yup, you guessed it, Home and Rural. It was the first and last time. What got me was realizing how those two salespeople were backstabbing each other--who knows how long that lovely working relationship had been going on...

skaitero-- Too, too funny. Thanks for the laugh. I love that when you called down to the basement-maniac in your home he replies "sure, fine, almost done!" RIIIIIGHT! And your 3 yr old doing an imitation, that's priceless. Glad that you survived that plumber!

linedry

My cabinet maker supplied the height to the electrician to bring the undercabinet wires out of the wall during rough in months ago. He installed wall cabs last week & moved the wires to INSIDE!!!! He drilled a hole INSIDE about an inch from the bottom. He would then drill another hole in the bottom (thank god he hasn't yet) & pull it through underneath.

When I freaked, he said he usually pulls them through underneath but he did it because I'm so detail oriented! He did it just for me! He thought I'd rather not see the cord underneath & I wouldn't see these unless I opened the door! He took the liberty of doing all of this without asking (I live across the street from the new construction now--very accessible).

Well, it's awful, hideous & it violates code. He says he'll build a 1" w x 2" h box inside the cab to fix the code violation of exposed wiring! I asked --well, what about when I go to put in a dinner plate & it won't fit because there's a box in the way? He said "just put the plates somewhere else"!!!!

The electrician is going to pull them back out where they belong & I'll have to find some way to cover/paint the 3/4" holes.

Sep2897--Have your cabinet installer to reskin the back panel of cabinets, that he incorrectly drilled access holes through. The skins would be only 1/4" in thickness, and thus would not/should not, interfere with your plates. Another alternative, would be to use an 1/4" thick x 1-1/2" wide batten molding, that matches the cabinets interior finish. Been there and done that, going behind a new installer for us, who did just what happened to you. I would NOT accept him putting the thick trim inside at bottom, you're right to think it would most likely interfere with your plates.

Best!!....David

Funny, funny stuff. This thread has kept me entertained for awhile. I bet the stories will go on and on . . . . .

Wanted to get some replacement windows for one part of the house, and add some new construction windows elsewhere. Went to a window and door showroom, where I assumed the staff would be more knowledgable than a home center. Was asking the saleswoman about what companies made wood replacement windows, and she responds "there is no such thing as a replacement window, that just means it is replacing a window you already have"! The funny thing is, the showroom did sell both new construction and replacement windows in wood.

nailbender / david--
i can't believe another cabinet maker did that! well, i'm glad to learn from your mishap. on your suggestion to have him reskin--they're already on the wall obviously--would he have to take all of them down for that? or just take out the shelves & reskin from the inside? the thin batten molding would probably be fine--no glass on the messed up doors to see in. the cabinet man says he can "putty and paint" them --the holes are 3/4" d--I'm skeptical....thanks for your help! i appreciate it so much
sep2897 (by the way the cabs are painted)

This thread gets my vote for most entertaining! :)

Our KD, you know I feel funny calling her that, she's an employee of HD in the kitchen department. Very nice, but slightly clueless. Thank goodness I had analyzed my design to death before ordering, even so, there were still goof ups. I could only imagine how many more if I wasn't as involved.

We're going over the plans and I tell KD that I wanted Premier's base cabinet with 2 pull out trays. She completes the layout, we take it home to review and I see that she intends to order a regular base cabinet and add on pull out trays (noted as *field installation). We go back to see her and I tell her no, this is the part number I want. She types it in, sorry they don't make that. I said I'm giving you Premier's part number right out of their book. She types it in, nope sorry it doesn't come like that. Now I'm getting a little huffy, look they make it, go look it up. She whips open her book and viola, there it is.

Then I go back to change the layout from 30" cabs to 36" ones. Thank goodness I looked over everything closely as she still had some items from the last layout that she never deleted and some cabs were not 36"! UGH!

And finally, now that we have our cabinets, our GC advises us something is wrong. KD ordered an asymetrical base cabinet which should have been 33" to the left and 36" to the right. What we received was the reversed so we contact KD and explain. She says oh 'Walter' (the other KD) caught my mistake so we're taking care of it and will get you that 36" cabinet. I said, um, no we need the asymetrical one. She says no its 36". I politely say noooooo, we have a 33" space there. Silence. I can tell she's confused though she had the drawings in front of her supposably. I said you see the drawing where is says 33", that's what we need. Still dumbfounded. Okay, let me see if I can make this clearer I'm thinking. I said you ordered the wrong cabinet, the 33" should be to the left and what we got was to the right. Ooooooooh okay she says. Gosh that was painful. So now we're waiting for the replacement. Idiots at HD didn't put it under the old order number which wouldn't have taken as long so now I'm waiting 4 weeks for the new cabinet.

There were a bunch of other errors she made along the way that I caught thank goodness.

regarding the resurfacing of your cabinet interiors: I personally would HATE to lose 1/4" of space in my upper cabinets. I'd investigate whether an iron-on veneer sheet would work. Or I'd fill the hole w/ wood filler or an epoxy something.

The "they" here is not a contractor but someone who was kindly referring (?) a cabinetmaker friend of his.

"Call Bob and let him bid on your cabinets. Well, he doesn't actually bid... he works by the hour. He's been working on one big job for two years."

Ummmmmmm, no thanks.

I love this thread. Shall we keep a "Part 2" going when this hits the limit? I've always thought that the *average* appliance salesman comes up with the most doozies. But this thread has shown me that those clowns work everywhere!

I could now add one on.

I was visiting my architect friend at her home. For those of you who may remember, I stupidly hired her for help with my kitchen and bath and it turned out she really had no clue, so I had to stop working with her for the sake of our friendship (and my sanity).

Anyway, her granite countertops are Black Galaxy. I have been considering some variant of a black countertop, and this was one of my choices. I asked her how she liked it and told her I was considering it for my kitchen.

She warned me "Be careful. I think this is a manmade material." She was serious. She wasn't trying to discourage me, like another woman who might end up wearing the same dress. She really thought it was a manmade material like Silestone.

I don't get it. This woman has worked for high end homes in NYC and the Hamptons. I have seen her portfolio and the projects on which she worked. Maybe she spazzed out on my project. Maybe other people have been carrying her work for her, and she never told me she had other people working on her projects.

She's worked for about 3 or 4 firms in her 10 year career. She's never had a problem getting a job. In fact she is very well paid.

Maybe firms are desparate for any architect? I don't get it.

That said, I agree with Fairegold. I think we should continue onto part II. Reading these have helped people out there at least feel like their not alone in dealing with these idiots.

While remodeling our kitchen, I told contractor I wanted under counter lights that could be independently turned on and off after turning on the main wall switch. "Can't do that, it all connects to the main switch." All three of the lights had switches on them, so this made no sense. Luckily a friend, who is an electrician was there and pointed out that all the contractor had to do was to install independent wires or some such thing. (I'm no electrician, can you tell?) Contractors's remark? "Really, I didn't know that." Scary!