The Story Continues

You may be curious why our kitchen remodel is taking so long. We’ve asked ourselves that question. So has our insurance company by now. The answer is this:

Part 1: The first three months were spent waiting for our insurance co. to finalize the number they were going to pay for the damages. We went back and forth with Robert (all names are changed), the restoration guy, acting on our behalf, with the adjustor our insurance agent sent. Robert had plans to do the entire job, but we discovered he wasn’t a licensed contractor (he was just planning to hire one). We also found out from Robert’s bill to our insurance, that he not only acquired the profit he got from each of his vendors that he hired, he added 10% profit and 10% overhead on top of the bill. All this while complaining constantly he wasn’t making anything! I can see making profit on one end, but not on both ends. That just sounds wrong. Needless to say, that is the reason we found a contractor to do the entire job once we had the insurance settlement. My advice, restoration and contractor should be two separate companies.
Part 2: Okay, now we’re still 6 months in and cement kitchen. What’s up with that? I’m going to chalk it up to a bottleneck at the 1st stage of our design planning with our contractor. The Owner is the one to work on design until he gives the job to a Project Manager. He told us it takes 3 weeks for design. We thought that seemed long. Ha! 3 weeks dragged into over 2 months. Good for him that he’s too busy, but bad for us! He was difficult to make meetings with; each time we had a cabinet drawing done or any cabinet changes, it took days or a week in between. The project just dragged on from weeks to months.
Part 3: We also had a retaining beam and post to deal with. While the design was still going on, we had to get an engineer to design plans, get the owner permit, and hire the plumber and our contractor to frame our ceiling for strength. Now the cabinets are finally in the building stage with a project manager. Our electrician asked me the other day why I am still “happy” when he found out we’ve been without a kitchen since April. There have been problems along the way (see upcoming posts) but I have confidence that we will have a beautiful kitchen when the project is finished. That’s why I still have a good attitude.

BAGEL VS. BAGEL
Before home remodel we rarely went out for breakfast, and never for bagels. Now we’re searching for new breakfast places all the time. We discovered people love bagel places. Lines out the door! We went to the closest one – I Love Bagels. It was alright. Then they closed for about a month until they relocated. We were forced to find a new bagel place. We found Bruegger’s Bagels. It was much farther, but the bagels were soooo much better! Even when I Love Bagels opened again, we gave it another shot. That day was a disaster… I was waiting in line at I Love Bagels, and our dog, Powder, was in the car with my family. They had just gotten the Starbucks drinks. Powder got excited when our neighbor and his niece pulled up to say hi. Powder's nails went through our Starbucks coffees while they were in the cup holders. David saw in slow motion, the coffee squirt up like it was Mount St. Helena. The lids flew up and coffee squirted into every electronic crevice in our car. We rushed to get wet towels to clean it up, but I don’t think it will ever be the same! After all that, the bagels were just too hard on the outside. They tasted day-old in comparison. Bruegger’s, in Aliso Viejo is worth the drive! Plus, you can watch them make the bagels.

NEXT POST
Check back next Monday for more restaurant stories and our kitchen remodel progression! Scroll down for the photos.