Week 4 - Progress (pics) but Granite problems

16 years ago

We actually had hopes that this might be the final full week of our (somewhat) minor kitchen remodel. That was a mistake. On Tuesday, the GC advised us that the granite fabricator (see earlier thread linked below) had found some fissures in our granite slabs. I can certainly accept this, as we all know that can happen. Their initial response was to look for other "similar" slabs as substitutes - without ever checking with us. For better or worse, they did not find any, and have said that they can deal with the fissures they have.

As of yesterday morning, the GC thought that there was still a chance the granite would be installed either yesterday or this morning for sure. However, later in the morning the fabricator let him know that it would be Tuesday morning next week. The GC had already lined up a tile setter with a busy schedule to start on the backsplash on Friday. Now, that's off.

Also, yesterday we were expecting one of the contractor's crew to be working at our place from late morning on. He never showed. We were never called. We are unhappy (and talking in terse sentences). He promised that he would have a crew of two there this morning to address our high-priority tasks, especially finishing the pantry, so that we might have a chance to put some of the kitchen back together over the weekend.

All of this after we had a meeting with the GC yesterday to discuss our unhappiness with the texturing of some new drywall work that just doesn't match the existing. We think it's too late to fix it, and we're negotiating some other form of compensation.

In the meantime, there has been some progress. The painting is done! Also, some of the lighting has been hung. Our cabinet maker has been re-installing the refinished fronts on our cabinets, and they look great. We want to clone him to do the rest of the work. He knows what we want to achieve. When he gets to a point where there might be a choice (finish, or wood detail) he will actually make it possible for us to make a choice, and he goes from there.

Here's some pictures:

This shows some of the refinished doors. Actually, the cabinet on the left had a lot of steam damage from the cofee pot. He took it down, and refinished it beautifully.

From Kitchen Remodel

Here's a closeup of the doors, and our new hardware:

From Kitchen Remodel

Here's the two new Hubbardton Forge pendants over the island:

From Kitchen Remodel

The plan is to have the rest of the cabinet work, including the sub zero panels, and the door to the pantry done tomorrow.

Here is a link that might be useful: Granite templating post

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Comments (5)

John Liu
16 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Looks good!

Hey, you modeled the new kitchen thoroughly using Sketchup. I remember how detailed your models were with colors, textures, etc.

Can you address - either now or later when the kitchen is done - how useful, accurate, misleading, helpful, not, the modeling turned out to be? What would you do differently, in the virtual world?

Thanks!
hgluckman
Original Author
16 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Johnliu, thanks! My first recommendation for Sketchup or any other modeling tool is to back up all of your work. Along with everything else going on, the hard disk on my laptop crashed, and while I did have much of my modeling backed up, the most recent changes may be lost forever.

I know that isn't what you wanted to hear though. I can say unequivocally is that it was a hugely valuable experience to create detailed models of our project. Without going too deep into SketchUp technique, what I ended up doing, and would recommend, is to make individual models of each major component (and for me, that included cabinet hardware and lighting fixtures, as well as the individual cabinets). When we're done, I'll post some pictures comparing the models to reality. I think you'll see that they're very close.
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julie94062
16 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Sorry about the delays with the granite. Grrrr. Especially when it affects the tile installation. Very frustrating, but, boy, that granite is gorgeous and will be worth the wait! (love the pendants, too...that copper is perfect)

Hope the guys showed up this morning and things are moving along!
hgluckman
Original Author
16 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Julie, Thanks for the good wishes. They did show this morning, and there was some progress. However, it seems as thought they used the wrong sealer (or at least went down wrong) on the tile that we put in the family room. They'll be fixing that tomorrow.

Tomorrow, the pantry shelves should be done (fingers crossed), and the cabinet maker will be installing the remaining cabinet fronts. We were kind of counting on having the granite in for finishing the island side panels, but I think he can work around that. I know he really doesn't want to come back.
hgluckman
Original Author
16 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
We had some progress at the end of the week, but we're officially behind schedule now. On Thursday, I spoke with the GC, and said that we absolutely had to have the tile floor in the family room sealed, and the pantry finished by Friday. This would allow us to start getting the kitchen put back together prior to the granite getting here next week.

The tile was sealed, but the finish ended up to shiny for us, and streaky. They will try again next week. The pantry is about half finished. They are coming today to complete the pantry, so we might still be able to put a lot away this weekend.

Anyway, here are some pictures. The cabinet fronts have all been refinished, and rehung. These are the new drawers for the island riser.
From Kitchen Remodel

The cabinets on the sink-oven wall
From Kitchen Remodel

And the new star of the show is our Sub Zero all refrigerator (note the microwave in its new location to the left):
From Kitchen Remodel

Today, maybe the pantry gets done, the cabinet guy is also coming to finish up most of his work, and an appliance mover is coming to move the freezer up from the basement, and into the pantry. Then, it'll be our turn to start loading up the pantry, and the cabinets.