Dogs and Jen: Home Edition

When Cabinet Guy was here last time, he lost a piece of cabinet trim. I had three pieces all in the “someday the kitchen will be finished” drawer. When he left, there were only two. He, of course, said he had no idea about the trim.

As I was insulating the dishwasher, I found this missing piece shoved in the back of my cookie sheet cabinet. I’m sure they moved it and just tossed it in somewhere.

With this piece found, I was able to finish putting up the trim that has gone undone since May 2008. It makes a surprisingly big difference. Now the only two things left to do are to fix the end panels that Cabinet Guy messed up (Contractor Sal will do this during his next visit) and to get the right freaking doors. I’m still trying to make Cabinet Guy understand me on that one.

Here’s some before and afters!

Before

After

My kitchen doesn’t have a heat vent. There are no walls where one could go but, more importantly, there are no ducts that run near the kitchen. The only way to solve this would be to rip part of the finished basement, run more ducts, and then probably take out a couple cabinets.

I do not need it. The room is pretty much fine, though it gets a bit chillier in the cold part of the winter. Earlier this month, I noticed that it was especially chilly by the dishwasher. I probably missed this before because the dishwasher is near the door and I don’t often stand there unless I’m letting the girls out and the door is open.

There’s not really a draft, but it’s a LOT colder under there. It makes sense since the dishwasher backs to an outisde wall and  there isn’t much of anything under the dishwasher between the outside wall and the main kitchen area.

I decided to insulate this. I went to my local True Value. They were very hesitant to give me any insulation. I don’t know why but I had to finally tell them to take me to where their limited selection was so I could decide for myself. I ended up buying an insulating water heater blanket, cutting it up, and stuffing it in to a few gaps on the sides and into all kinds of spaces underneath.

It seems to have worked pretty well. I don’t feel the cold over there like I was. Better yet, I beat the dorks at True Value who thought my idea was a bad one.

Cabinet Guy responded today. Here’s what he said:

there is a strip that goes on one of the doors to hide the gap. Those are the correct doors for that cabinets. I said if you find it necessary to get new Qdoors[sic] that I will do my best to work with the manufacture to make custom doors if all possible. Sal was going to install a strip between the doors that would have resolved this problem.

The thing is, he told me to put this strip in before and I said “No, get me some damned doors without a gap between them.” Contractor Sal took measurements for this and those are the measurements he gave to Cabinet Guy last spring. I informed Cabinet Guy of this, but it looks like we’re back where we were in January 2009.

Contractor Sal won’t be able to save me, either. He broke his foot and is out for 2 months. Perhaps we should take bets on whether or not  I’ll have the doors by August.

My friend Dana passed me a link to ModWalls recently. I was looking through the tile pictures and saw this called “new leaf”. I really love it and it’s made me reconsider doing the bathroom in green instead of blue.

I figured it was time for a Cabinet Guy update. There isn’t much to update since the guy has not made a peep in a long time. Today, I decided it’s time to resolve this once and for all. I sent the message below to him and to Contractor Sal. Monday’s project: find a lawyer.

Dear Cabinet Guy,

Last spring Contractor Sal gave you measurements for the doors that I am still missing in my kitchen. If you’ve forgotten, there is  a set of doors on the cabinet that was ordered/shipped incorrectly that have a big gap between them. You promised to order the correct doors along with trim because some was missing and the touch up paint (which you claimed to have in your possession over a year ago). I have yet to receive any of this or hear about it.

It’s been 20 months - nearly TWO YEARS - since I started this kitchen project, and I cannot fully express the magnitude of my anger that it is not finished yet. Please let me know this week when the new doors will be in along with the trim and paint. If I do not hear from you, I am going to start pursuing other means to force you to take care of this problem. It has dragged on far too long.

-Jen Golbeck