It’s been about a month since our last update.
Boy, time flies.
When we first tore out the kitchen island, I was hoping to share our final reveal post around this time. Clearly that was a little too ambitious (what’s new, amiright?)
Circling around to the last update – here’s where we left off:
And here’s where we’re at today:
To state the obvious: Most of the appliances are in, with the exception of that giant, gaping hole where our oven should be (the full story is below).
The other big change is the addition of can lights and cabinet hardware – doesn’t the black look ah-mazing?
Getting to this point has been quite the journey and we’ve no shortage of hiccups, delays and surprises.
Ready for the full story? It’s a long one, so buckle up. 🙂
Way back in November (the 22nd to be exact), Brett and I spent upwards of two hours at The Home Depot in Woodbury purchasing our new appliances. We had a very nice lady helping us out and everything went really well. We originally had planned to have the appliances delivered right away but she said that we shouldn’t unless the kitchen was move-in-ready.
We asked why and she said that they have to be installed within 48 hours or else the warranty will not cover them. Then, she said the delivery guys had to install everything or else the warranty won’t count either – because it has to be a qualified professional.
So, we pushed the delivery date as far back as we could and knew we’d hustle to get the kitchen move-in-ready for the appliances.
The cooktop and oven arrived mid-February (we had to reorder the fridge since the original was too big for the space) and when the delivery guy walked in, I asked him if he needed me to take the drawers out to get better access to the gas lines for the cooktop. He looked at me like I’d grown a third head and said, “Oh. We don’t install them.”
Ummm, what?
Well apparently since electrical is involved, they don’t install them. They also wouldn’t disconnect our old oven to haul it away because again, they don’t do electrical. Thank God my dad was there (Brett was down in Kansas) to help with the disconnection of the old oven or else I would have been completely lost.
So, after they leave I decide to call the Woodbury store and talk to someone about the fact that we were told they’d be installed and they weren’t. I ended up getting transferred to the store manager and he said, “I have to check out a few things. I’ll call you back in about two hours.”
Friends, that was at 12:30 on a Wednesday afternoon and I still haven’t heard anything from him (it’s been a full month). I have a feeling he won’t be calling me back. Great customer service, huh?
Fast forward two days and it’s the delivery date for the refrigerator. They do install fridges (don’t worry, I double checked on Wednesday) and it went well.
Morale was up and after Brett got home later that afternoon, we decided we could tackle the oven installation right away the next morning.
Well, after an unsuccessful attempt at lifting the oven into the cabinet, Brett takes a step back and realizes something just isn’t right.
Turns out the oven is about 13 inches taller than the opening in the cabinet. He called the Woodbury location (where we bought the appliance) and they say they can’t do anything because it’s past the 48 hour return window AND they didn’t help us with the kitchen design.
So, he calls the Coon Rapids location and speaks to our kitchen designer. At first she questions whether or not we gave her the right information. We assure her that yes, we gave you the exact model number because we had bought said appliance a few weeks prior. After looking back in her notes and realizing she made the mistake, she apologized and said they can put a rush order on a new one and Home Depot would cover the expense.
Great! Only a few more weeks without an oven. No problem at all.
Fast forward a week and half, and I get a call from the kitchen designer. She confirms that the cabinet will be delivered to the Coon Rapids store and they’ll bring it up to our home. I then confirm that it’s happening that upcoming Friday, since that’s when the two-week mark would be. She gets flustered and tells me she’d call me back.
An hour later, I get a call from someone else entirely saying that the cabinet won’t be delivered until March 26. I asked about the two-week timeframe and she said that’s definitely not going to happen.
Since there really isn’t much else we can do, we wait. Our biggest frustration is having to say goodbye to our favorite, go-to meals of pizza or chicken nuggets and french fries. 😛
On the positive, we’ve decided on a wall paint color: Hazy Skies by Benjamin Moore (I had it color matched at our local home improvement store, Menards). It’s the cream color to the left in the picture below.
We also decided that the blue color you see above is going to be the color of our pantry door. It’ll be a fun pop against the neutral walls and wood cabinets.
In terms of flooring, well it’s kind of back to the drawing board. Because of the issues with our appliances, I’d rather not do business with Home Depot. Brett, on the other hand, really likes the wood tile sample we picked up back in January so we’re still mulling it over.
Either way, we can’t install the floor until the oven cabinet is installed.
So, it’s time to put the focus elsewhere.
Also, we are ALL stuck in our home for the foreseeable future, so it looks like we’ll have plenty of time to knock out other projects.
Brett’s been keeping busy with the living room (updates coming soon!) and for me, I challenged myself to 30 days of blog post writing, plus Witt and Company is picking back up again.
Another bright side is the weather – it’s finally getting nicer out and we have a TON of work to do in terms of splitting wood and building wood piles, all in an effort to get ready for next winter. We definitely didn’t anticipate going through as much wood as we have, so we’ve got our work cut out for us there.
And with that, enjoy the day!
All our best,
