I met with 4 different cabinet people in the area, showed them my drawings, my list of non-negotiables, and my list of "these would be nice, but not fully necessary" things. And my budget of course.
I sat with Dave for about 45 minutes going over what I wanted and left him with my drawings of exactly what I wanted and where, as well as my lists. We discussed that I had purchased 6 large pieces of butcher block that he assured me he could work with, that we would just need to get it to his workshop. We discussed having a large spice drawer next to the stove, he talked me in to a "fitted drawer insert" that would accomplish the goal and be significantly cheaper. We discussed making all cabinets with roll-outs. He knew up front that I wanted a larder cabinet, and an end-cap cabinet with file organization and a bulletin board. To which he all stated he could absolutely do. We hired him because when all was said and done, he landed about $2k cheaper than everyone else. We had also commissioned him to build a small countertop in our laundry room to fold clothes on and put in a mud sink. So we paid him $18,900 in full.
When i had contacted him a few months later he said "oh, yeah! I forgot about your project to be honest.". Weird thing to say to someone that gave you nearly $20k up front, but OK. When he did finally send the drawing he made it had nothing in it that we had originally discussed and I said "where is this that we talked about? Where is that that we talked about?". Oh, that'll be another almost $5k. For things we had already discussed and were on my non negotiable list.
Whatever. I was in the beginning stages of starting my own business and having zero free time to pivot, I had already paid him, so we went ahead and wrote him another check. He had to make multiple drawings before we got it right and he included everything I had asked. He is an extremely difficult person to communicate with.
When he went out to the property to get measurements we placed the sink we had purchased for the kitchen (an apron sink) and the sink for the laundry room so he could measure them. He calls and says the sink we purchased will not work, it is 3 inches too big and it won't fit the cabinet (that hadn't been built yet) and you apparently can't do an apron sink with butcher block, according to Dave.
Okay, buy a different sink that he approves of.
The kitchen eventually gets put in. At first glance, the kitchen looks great! It didn't take a long time to realize all was not well. The rollouts we had paid for were not put in. He behaved initially like it was going to be a huge pain to put in, but at that point I was kind of like, that's not my problem 🤷♀️ I paid for it, put it in. The file cabinet I had sent him examples of is half decent, but is not functional. The files are far too close together and we are going to have to modify it to work.
He had also installed the laundry shelf, which looked great, but had no hole cut for the sink and when I asked Dave multiple times when he was going to cut the space for the sink- the question was entirely ignored. What was the point of measuring the sinks, Dave?
Then came the big issue - when we discussed counters, he behaved like we had never heard of butcher block in his life. Surely, in the $24k we have now paid this man, included was the labor for doing the counters. Nope! He stated he couldn't work with them, the end. I repeatedly asked for an itemized statement which I still have not seen. Just a "we don't do that" and a call stating "oh I see here I charged you twice for something and owe you $1300."
The spice insert DOESNT WORK. You can't close the drawer when put spices on it. Nail holes are huge. There are spots that aren't nailed down. We ended up having to pay someone another $4000 to fix his mistakes and finish the job. He also called me the wrong name for 8 months and sent me someone else's invoice twice.The kitchen is beautiful at the end of the day, but it was a frustrating experience and I think Dave has major memory issues or just doesn't do custom work. Do...
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