Day 4

Today the granite fabricators will be visiting to make a template of the counters. I walked Steve through my specifications on the contours around the sink since I had decided to head to work and not miss another day. We also talk about leaving an inch or so of the counter behind the gas range, to make it look good.

Steve came running into the house urging me to call the appliance store. As it turns out, the hardware to attach the garbage disposal was really necessary for re-use and he let it go with the old sink. Thankfully the appliance store was able to track it down in their yard and retrieve the item. Steve will pick it up on monday.

Around 10 AM, I give instructions for Steve to call me before he heads out for the day, along with how to secure the house and head out. He has torn apart the flooring and subfloor in the kitchen, exposing the base boards, ready to install the new laminate flooring.

That evening, I head back to Home Depot to return one of the cabinet doors that I had extra and exchange another door that was missing a couple of parts. The associate at the returns counter was rather rude. The more I deal with Home Depot, the less I like them. They are a monopoly and this is probably why they can get away with such a poor customer experience - (a) poor tracking of delivery items, (b) can't give ETAs on special order items, (c) poor at scheduling delivery even after special order items arrive, (d) bad customer experience at the counter. If these guys get their acts together, the stock would be even more valuable.

Day 3 was short

Day 3 started with Steve removing the remaining counter, dismantling the sink and retaining the garbage disposal. I noticed that the garbage disposal's attachment hardware was still on the old sink but I figured Steve knew what he was doing. I didn't point this out to him which you'll see later turned out to be a mistake. Now that the stove and sink were loose, the appliance guys can haul them away later in the day.

Next, steve leveled and installed the cabinets and their doors. Meanwhile, he tells me that he might get called in the afternoon to unload cabinets at another project and he might take the rest of the day off. That is fine with me since I needed to run a few errands. Finally, he removed the vent hood and the cabinet above the vent. Arnold's appliance delivered the gas range and sink and hauled away the old stuff. Around noon, Steve left for the day.

I went over to Home Expressions to make the next payment installment, now that the job has started. We talk about my time off from work and Ken suggests that I really do not have to be around the house when Steve is working. Perhaps I can cut short my leave and head back to work starting tomorrow.

That evening, Home Depot calls me to say they have two doors ready to deliver. I can't imagine how they can run a business like this - they didn't track the fact that the two doors have already been delivered, along with the kitchen cabinets. I gave a piece of my mind to the guy on the phone and he apologized that the system periodically "gets confused" and drops tracking. I suspect there is a bigger problem with their tracking process. With such a voluminous amount of paperwork for every damn thing, how can they fully track every item? Based on my previous experience with another associate in the doors section who wistfully complained about the amount of paperwork for special orders but then added "who am I to be commenting?", I knew nothing would get done based on my feedback. Home Depot doesn't seem like a place where employees make a difference in operational improvements.