Peter drove to Home Depot and picked up the cabinets we had ordered. And he managed to get them home all in one piece, no thanks to Home Depot.
Now, we are big supporters of Home Depot, supporters in the sense that we have paid many an employees salary in the past couple of years. Though I did mention to Peter that we must not be buying enough stuff there any more because we aren't getting the just-checking-in phone calls anymore. previously we would get a phone call like this.
ring...ring....
Me: hello?
Person on other end of phone: Hey Melanie, it's Mike, how are you?
Me: I'm well Mike. How are things going?
Mike: Oh, you know, same ol', same ol'. How are the kiddos?
Me: They are busy, getting into mischief, the usual.
Mike: yeah, I bet! They sure are cute though! I remember when mine were that age and then before you know it, poof! they are off to college! Hey, is your hubby there? I have a question for him.
Me: Sure, hold on a sec
Me: Peter, Mike from Home Depot is on the phone for you!
See, what I mean? You know you spend to much time at a store when the employees call you to chat.
Anyway, back to picking up the cabinets from Home Depot.
When Peter got there to pick up the cabinets this very-short-very-pregnant-employee said she would go get the cabinet. Peter tried to nicely explain that she was not going to be able to bring out this cabinet, that one of the cabinets is 7 feet tall and solid wood. But she went anyway.
After waiting about 15 minutes she came back out and said that she had located the cabinets but that "they were too big for her to bring out". At this point my dear hubby is muttering under his breath something about "no sh*t sherlock" or something to that effect. Then the very-short-very-pregnant-employee went in search of some taller-non-pregnant-employees to bring out this cabinet.
According to my husband there were several strapping young men wearing orange aprons and standing around talking but apparently they really weren't employees, they appeared to be a local group that met to discuss sports.
Eventually, the cabinet made its way to the front of the store, either with someones help or under its own power, I am not clear on that point.
Peter told the group of orange-apron-wearing-sports-junkies and the very-short-very-pregnant employee that he would load the cabinets in his truck all by his self. But one of the sports junkies decided to help and grabbed the big cabinet, plopped it off of the cart and started dragging it across the floor.
At this point of the story the details get rather fuzzy but there was something about my husband yelling at the guy in the orange apron and telling him to "quit dragging his $1300 cabinet across the floor" and something about the guy saying he was just trying to help, and something about my husband saying it isn't helpful when you damage the merchandise, etc., etc.
It was not a warm fuzzy customer service moment but we have been back to the store since and there does not seem to be any animosity towards my husband. They probably just chalk it up to "man-that-has-been-working-over-2-years-on-a-6-month-project-syndrome".
The good news is the cabinet arrived at our house with no obvious damage, perhaps racked a wee bit but nothing serious.
Peter had asked a neighbor to help him unload the cabinets and help set the large one in place. My job was to keep the kiddos from tripping the men or getting crushed by a falling cabinet. It was a little tricky getting the cabinet inside, unwrapped and moved into position, this being complicated by the fact that the cabinet is approximately one half the size of our living room. The smart, builder men were having trouble getting the cabinet back against the wall. I suggested a different way and Voila...it worked! I really should charge for these moments of brilliance.
Once the cabinet was standing upright our neighbor left us to finish the fun part, getting the cabinet level and attached to the walls.
For awhile all seemed well, we were making great progress, got the cabinets level, installed securely, got the doors hung straight with the proper amount of reveal showing. We were with in an hour of being finished, all we had left was to install the trim at the ceiling.
I know you can see this coming......it didn't fit.
The cabinets were too tall, by one centimeter.
We stared at it for a little while, said some bad words and then started discussing our options.
a. forget about the trim -
pros: problem solved
cons: it won't match the other cabinets
b. chisel out the Sheetrock to fit the trim -
pros: don't have to un-install the cabinets
cons: obvious
c. hire someone to fix our mistake -
pros: we could drink beer and watch someone else struggle
cons: costs money
d. we could un-install the cabinets, trim off 1 centimeter and reinstall -
pros: the cabinet would look right
cons: it would be a pain in the a$$
We choose 'd'.
And because the construction gods have been frowning on this project since the beginning, it didn't go well.
(the spell checker keeps telling me "un-install" isn't a word. Ha ha spell checker, it is in our house! It is a very important word with regards to this construction project!)
I am going to summarize the next two days, yes, you read that correctly...two days. Basically it went something like this.
There were screws breaking off as we tried to un-install the cabinets (this resulted in nasty things being said about products made in China and I fear it eventually led to some hateful things being said about all things Asian, including stir-fry - which is unfortunate because we normally love stir-fry) That led to holes having to be patched and then later re-drilled to put new screws in. A measly one centimeter was cut off of the bottom of the cabinet, the cabinets were once again installed, doors hung, aligned, etc.
Wow, another frustrating part of this great big frustrating project.
We should have had our 3 year old measure for us the first time, probably would have saved us some time.
Yay, they are installed! From this distance you can't even see the trim that caused us so much angst. Just take my word for it that it really was necessary. We will notice it even if no one else ever does.
I am in love with the tall cabinet on the left. For the first time I have a cabinet big enough to use as a pantry, now I don't know what to do with it.
One more thing done, many more to do.
'til next time...
