Kitchen Cabinets

I went to the kitchen cabinet store in the Richmond district to tell them about the vent issue. There is only one lady in the store. She saw me pulling in with my car to the driveway and went into the store from her warehouse. She recognized me since I went there before twice, once to get an estimate, and once to order the cabinets. She said that they sell 3x8 panels for the cabinets and that those panels can be used to hide the duct inside the cabinets. The contractor would need to drill a hole on the sides of the cabinets in order to pass the duct though them.

I informed Damian about this and he is OK in doing that. So problem solved! I was surprised he didn't mention that he was going to charge me more. I think the reason is because other work in the kitchen ended up being easier than originally planned for, so this might compensate for it. For example, the partition wall in the kitchen was a true partition wall that was not holding any weight, so there was no need to put a beam and studs on the sides. The only other thing with the cabinets is that I have to find a moving company to deliver those cabinets. :) This store doesn't deliver the cabinets. It's kind of odd that they don't. And the contractor said that their trucks are not big enough to get all the cabinets at once. It would require them to go back and forth a few times and it would take half a day to do so. So he got angry and said that it would cost $500 for him to pick up the cabinets, which is over the top. I can probably find furniture movers who can move the cabinets for about $300. No problem.

Talking about my contractor, Damian, I wish he was a little more cooperative and that he would view things from my point of view sometimes. I think he thinks about himself only. Every time I ask for something, he threatens me that it will cost more, even if it is a small change. Also, we have a leak in the building. The association asked to get an estimate from him. He gave an initial estimate to just open up the garage ceiling that has rotten wood. His estimate was on the high side I think, taking into consideration that it was just demo work and clean up. In any case, I informed the association about it and they didn't want to go forward with it. They said they have another handyman but then they never hired this other guy. So now, I have to push for fixing this leak issue because it might affect my condo. It would have been so much easier if Damian gave me a lower estimate that the association would accept. Alas, nothing is easy!

When I was looking for a contractor, I made appointments with five contractors for estimates. One was a no show. One was 45 minutes late. And three were on time. I got four estimates, all of which were quite expensive in my opinion, but two were lower. Maybe I should have used another source for finding contractors. I used Yelp.com, except for one who was a referral. If I had a few more weeks to select a contractor, I would have maybe found someone who is less expensive. But then again, you never know. Maybe they will take longer to finish the work and they would have been unreliable. I have to say that I am glad that Damian is dependable. He always does what he says he will do and he and his crew are quick and always clean up. It's been only 2.5 weeks since they started and they're about half done. So let's wait until the end to see how it goes. Fingers crossed!