Sleepless in Dunedin

What was supposed to be a day of great joy turned into a day of deep disappointment once again.  The first great disappointment of this summer was when I could not have the white cabinets that I wanted for the kitchen.  In hindsight, I should have said, "Thank you very much for your time," and dismissed that contractor.  I didn't, and in the end I now have cabinets that are honey-colored but acceptable.

Monday the granite people came to install the kitchen countertops.  We were told that since Dunedin is 30 miles from St. Petersburg, where the store is, that we would be their first customer of the day.  Millie, the daughter of the company owner who schedules all of the jobs, told us that since the workers would need time to load the granite and drive to Dunedin, they probably would not arrive until somewhere between 10 - 11 a.m.  OK, no problem.  By noon when they still had not arrived, I called the company.  We learned that they were delayed at another job and would not be to our house for another hour.  That "hour" turned into two more hours as they did not arrive until 3:20 p.m.

The new countertop.  We are not sure of the color with the floor.

The stove is straight.  Note that the right-hand top of the
backsplash curves inward!

They worked hard, but we grew concerned as they started to do things that we did not like.  The sink seemed misplaced and when I questioned losing so much of the undermount sink under the countertop, the installer ended up cutting into the plaster wall at one end of the countertop to position the granite correctly.  Rick warned him that he had to triple-check where he was positioning the template so he could drill the holes for the faucet.  He seemed to have a "good enough" attitude which resulted in him drilling all three holes incorrectly, chipping the expensive cast-iron Kohler sink in the process.  Two of the granite pieces were cut wrong, so one installer tried to grind one down. The result was a backsplash piece with one very crooked side.

The granite itself is beautiful... but something other than the
installation still is not right. 

After they left at approximately 7:30 p.m. with the promise to return tomorrow with the other pieces cut correctly, Rick and I continued our inspection of the countertops.  We found seams that were incomplete, places that were not level, and caulking that looked terrible.

Rick could not sleep and got up at 12:45 a.m..  I could not sleep and got up at 1:30 a.m..  We talked until about 4:30 a.m., and I told Rick that I wanted the company to come in and to remove all of the granite, that I would rather have a cheap plastic laminate top than to keep the granite installed the way it was.

This morning we called the granite company, told them to put our job on hold, and that we were very displeased with the results.  I hate the granite and the job that they did.  What was supposed to be the crowning glory of the kitchen turns my stomach as I walk into it.

The owner of the company and his daughter came out to our house.  He ordered us a new kitchen sink to replace the one that they ruined, and he offered us three very fair choices.

• He could remove the granite and give us a full refund of our money.
• He could replace or repair the granite that was bad, making design modifications as we requested with no further charges.
• He could remove all of the granite and start from scratch with new granite and installers.

I am not sure what I really do not like about the granite beyond the poor installation.  The color, in the evening, seems to go yellow and really fight with the color of the cabinets.  The owner's daughter thought that the granite fought with the terrazzo floor pattern.  A neighbor came in and immediately said, "That blue wall color really clashes.  It has to go."

After he left, I took a manila folder and put it next to the kitchen wall. The granite immediately looked better without the blue (which really was designed to go with the white cabinets that I do not have). We went out, got some paint samples of tans and off-whites, and tried a few on drywall sheets. We think that we have found one that might work, but we are not going to do anything until we see the granite people tomorrow.

We are going to the granite company early tomorrow to look at other samples for the kitchen.  If I do not find any that I think will go better with the cabinets, I will stay with what we have.  Perhaps the change in color will be enough to draw everything together.  Perhaps we need to move on to something different.

We have a time urgency right now because we only have four more days in Florida.  We fly home this Saturday to become immersed in our "other life" in Green Bay.  The granite people are doing us a huge favor by taking care of this problem without charging us more money.  I really do want some kind of granite; in this climate, it will not rot or get eaten while we are gone, and it even holds up well to water should a hurricane try to give Gladys swimming lessons.

I told Rick we are not going to do anything else this summer as it really seems to be jinxed.  I have to remind myself of the myriad of things that DID go right-- or were easily corrected.  Last night I was ready to throw in the towel and to put Gladys back on the market.  That, of course, would be foolish in so many aspects. I hope that after a good night's sleep tonight, the sun will shine on us tomorrow and give us a better day.