Archive for April 2012

i'd like to be able to tell you that we have our counters installed... but we do not. they were able to get the 2 remaining slabs from the same bundle that we have, but now things seem to be moving slowly. i went last weekend and looked at the 2 options. neither one is perfect (not as light as the piece that we have that is broken), but i think we can make one of them work. i go back and forth on my feelings about the fabricator that we're using. some days i feel like they actually are making an effort to make this right, and to speed up the process, and other days, not so much. lately i've just been having issues reaching their customer service rep and i feel that we are losing days because of this. while there is some finish work that we could be doing on the cabinets, waiting on the counters is holding up many other things in our kitchen project. i'm hoping to hear from them today with an update.

hope you all had a nice weekend, i know that ours wasn't long enough!

i thought i'd come back and give you the update from last week's post.

the counter installers left the counters at our house, which has been nice because we have been able to use our kitchen again. we're in the process of putting everything back together, but i thought you'd at least like to see some pictures, even if they are blurry iphone pictures...

if we can find a matching slab, this long counter and the little counter between the stove and the fridge will stay. there is nothing wrong with these pieces, but i didn't want these pieces to be attached until we can make sure that we are going to get a matching piece for the new sink portion. otherwise, i have asked the counter place to re-cut all 3 pieces so that they match.

the sink slab is the piece the broke. you can't see from the photo, but there is a large crack in front of the sink opening, and it carries through to the area behind the sink. last week they came back out and temporarily installed the sink in this broken piece, so we were able to hook up our dishwasher and faucet. i have never been so excited to do dishes!

the counter company also called me at the end of the day on friday to inform me that they had located 2 slabs from the same bundle that our slab came from. but the 2 slabs were out of state. they are in the process of having those pieces brought to st louis for us to review, they should be here by the end of this week. i'm hoping that one of them will be a good match.

meanwhile, i have been fighting another battle with the counter company. do you see the rounded inside corner in the photo above? i had asked for all square corners, edges, etc. i think at one point i even said "if you have a question about the finishing, the answer is going to be as square and minimal as possible". so i was surprised when the counters arrived at our house and there was this rounded corner. i asked them to fix this when they remake this piece, but they keep telling me that it is not possible due to their machines. the installer that came out to put in the sink said that he thought it could be done by hand, so now i'm hoping that he'll talk to the headquarters and get this worked out. the other solution is the put a seam in the corner, but that is not ideal either.

while i am disappointed that we have to re-make on of the counter pieces, i am very happy with our choice in the super white as a counter material. the counter company is also back on my good side now that they've come up with a few solutions to try to fix this problem.

our replacement range hood also arrived on friday, and appears to be in good shape. and, i called to check on the status of our microwave and i think it's in the st louis area, just waiting to be sorted so that we can go pick it up.

and because every post is better with puppy pictures, here's a recent one of murphy and cooper. murph is still loving people and/or cooper. he's funny - he'll play for a while, but as soon as he's ready to rest, he'll find cooper and practically sit on top of him. he looks really big in the photo above, but he's not as big as cooper yet. he's still mostly legs and is a skinny dog. he's been a great puppy.

just in case you thought our kitchen project was progressing smoothly, here's how the last few days have gone.

the range hood: on saturday we took the range hood (that has been sitting in our dining room for over a month), fully out of the box. i had opened the box when it first arrived. it appeared to be packed well, and the front looked good. i should have known better and taken it out of the box then, because we discovered a dent on the side. so back in the box it went, back to costco, and now we're looking at another couple of weeks before we can get the replacement range hood.

the microwave: we ordered our microwave online 2 months ago. yep, still waiting on that to arrive. when we ordered it we were told it could take a little while to get in, but i didn't think it would be over 2 months. it's just a small microwave, nothing fancy or special.

the counters: oh the counters.... installation was schedule for monday. if you've been following along, you know that we went through several shipments of superwhite until we found the perfect slab. i drove 45 miles away to the fabrication warehouse to do the slab layout. and we waiting (impatiently) for 2 weeks while the counters were fabricated. and then, during installation, the biggest piece by the sink broke. it was horrible... i saw it happen, it cracked when they were carrying it in. it was an accident (nothing the installers did wrong), and i am glad that no one was hurt and that nothing was damaged. so what does this mean? well, they are looking for another slab so they can re-cut the broken piece. yesterday they sent me a picture of the one and only slab of superwhite that is in the area, and it looks nothing like our slab. so they are still looking. the positive in all of this is that they left the broken slab at our house, and are actually going to come back out tomorrow to temporarily install our sink so that we can have semi-functioning kitchen while we continue to try to find a new slab.

so that's the update for now, and the reason why i haven't shared counter photos yet. don't worry though, we've been keeping busy while waiting for these issues to be resolved, there is still plenty of work left to do on the kitchen!

it's finally counter installation day... which also means we should have a fully functioning kitchen sink within a few days!