Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[Gator6x4]

There comes a time in a home building to step back and say, "No Way". As to the cabinets in the kitchen, I would obtain a filler board, all cabinet makers have them, for the right side. Use the filler board to force the right cabinet in to the window, leaving about a one inch reveal from the window. Move the left cabinet in also leaving a one inch reveal from the window. I don't think no amount of adjustment will correct the warped drawer. Oh yes, tell the contractor to tell the galloping hormone charged 25 year old to either get his hormones in control or just go play with the girl friend. Their are to many, way to many finish carpenters looking for work to have some hormone charged individual doing finish work in a house.

What is your mother going to do with her mixer, coffee maker, etc. Obtain a coffee maker, place a board on the cabinet top to simulate the counter top and call the builder and galloping hormones over and bluntly tell them they have one chance to slide the coffee maker under the cabinet. Some people do not understand being nice and equate that with someone that can be taken advantage of.

 

[dave1949]

<snip>

So far it seems that as issues are raised they have been taken care of, some sooner than others, but taken care of just the same.

Frankly some of the critical posters are getting really old, there is no need for negative cheerleading. The OP seems fully capable of figuring out what he wants fixed and getting the contractor to do it, which is the way it should be.
<snip>
Mr. HE

I think "issues being raised" is the entire point of the criticisms. Yes, Peter is fully capable of dealing with it, but the salient point is, he shouldn't have to. Since when is the owner the quality control foreman of every detail? Suppose Peter's Mom didn't have Peter to look after this?

The 90 days goal and such have not a lot to do with it. The same mistakes would have been made in double the build time IMO. It's the people doing the work, not the 90 days. Would you, as a house builder/sub/whatever, slop stuff together and call it good because the owner is in a hurry, and be proud to put your name to it? Nobody is forcing anyone on the job to do poor work that has to be redone.

The most perfect house I know of is one of my cousin's. It was built by two very talented guys who sub out very, very little of the work, if any. It took them two years, the house is a medium size. The two years was not an issue for the cousin's situation, but suppose you could add four or six other very talented people to the project, the build time would be drastically reduced. How many people have worked on Peter's project?

 

[PAGUY]

The bottom line is that a "90 Day" build is a joke. The saying is "You get what you pay for" seems to also be the bottom line. I think Peter has legit complaints about shoddy workmanship and in the end it will show in the final cost. There were a lot of suggestions in this thread that Peter had to pick and choose from. He evidently has a good relationship with the builder but we must also realize it is a business that requires expenses to be paid and a profit made in the end. No one would stay in business if the lose money on every build they complete.

 

[Gudor]

Glad they are changing to 30" wall cabinets... With the 30" wall cabinets, you should have enough room for something like a KitchenAid thumbsup: my standard for distance from counter to wall cabinets)...plus room for a nice piece of under-cabinet molding/skirt.

It has been asked and commented a few times about the brand of kitchen cabinets...I would bet a lot of $$$ that those cabinets are from China (or similar market). In Seattle, we have a bunch of stores selling what appear to be EXACTLY the same cabinets as you got (style is Shaker Maple). They are, in fact, much cheaper than IKEA (price-wise). Dead give-away (maybe) will be what appears to be all plywood and hardwood constructions (no press board) - however, the panel of the cabinets doors are press board...plus absolutely the crappiest finish ever (can be dented with a tough finger nail)

That said, I use them (and understand what I am paying for) but you really need to be careful on install (which can probably be said for any cabinet) to make them look correct. I think the actual quality is decent (much better than Depot off-the-shelf stuff, at least a few years ago, as they used press board everywhere they could)...the quality is probably very similar to IKEA (although IKEA probably has more options). If they are indeed Chinese-like, then I would bet you have about $2500-$3000 in cabinets in your kitchen.

Of course, the company's website says, "...Marsh Furniture remains one of the largest independently operated and family owned stock cabinet manufacturers in the United States." If the cabinets are of high quality and American made, my apologies...but if they were sold as such, then maybe I shouldn't be the one apologizing.

Did you think you were buying Kubota/Deere and got Jinma? Those cabinets look like the cheap stuff.

 

[FairfaxStu]

Jinma? Too funny. Heck, Peter has a Ford tractor with a Japanese engine. While a bit upseting at first, if it is quality, I really don't care where it or its components are made.

Now back to the cabinets, and this is for you, Peter. One of my GC's lead carpetenter's was over today putting some final touches on my door project so I decided to show him the pictures of your Mom's kitchen. Since he built my kitchen, I am pretty darn sure he is qualified to comment.

The quotes from him are: 1) If you are not doing good enough work to avoid scrutiny on a web forum then you are not doing good enough work. 2) The company he works for charges a bit more than average for the work they do, but they stand behind it 110%. The uppers should have never been installed because they do not meet minumum code requirements in VA which he said was either 16 or 16.5" above the lowers including countertop.

So what I take away from this is that good quality contactors do good work consistently and I applaud them for it because it is not easy. However, there are times that us pesky homeowners want something different than we envisioned once we see our dreams become reality.
-Stu

 

[Gator6x4]

Marsh Cabinet or Furniture Company is located on the S. side of High Point NC. A large industrial complex. They make cabinets from the low to high price. Marsh Furniture Company - Kitchen & Bath Cabinetry.

 

[murphy1244]

Well the extra tall top cabinets now explain why the switches and receptacles were so high. No need to move them now.

 

[Pixguy]

To each his own but my wife would at least want the 36" uppers and then lose the soffits. But what your mom wants is most important.

 

[pclausen]

I don't recall the exact amount, but I want to say that the cabinets had an allocation of about $10k, where I could have done them for around $3k using Ikea cabinets. Too bad I didn't think about that up front before the contact got signed, but as I mentioned before, that would have been even more work for me. I'm pretty pressed for time as it is.

30" upper cabinets were ordered today, and the ones flanking the window will be a little wider to fill in the gap. Granite templates were done today and will be installed Saturday.

The final inspection has been scheduled for Wednesday of next week, so we are pushing the move in date to that weekend (Sunday the 2nd of June is the target). Mom is checking with the movers that work for them (the company works 7 days a week).

I finally got the generator all done and have the gas company scheduled to come Wednesday to fill the tank and connect the generator and install the pressure valve to the house gas line.

Here the wiring on the generator side (I still need put a RJ45 on the Ethernet cable, but I'll wait and do that then I get the computers going inside the house)

Transfer switch side. All I have left is to pull the load shedding wires for the relays, but no rush on that. That's why there is still pull string in there. The control cable connector between the generator and transfer switch has been put on backwards when it was made. So I had to cut off the keys and plug them together backwards in order for the wires to line up. Glad I caught it, or something really bad would likely have happened!

Conduit between generator and transfer switch. I had to redo the small conduit from 1/2" to 3/4" as there was no way I could fit the 3 control cables in the 1/2" conduit. So I had to go buy a unibit to enlarge the hole on the generator side. Yes, I know the 3/4" conduit exiting the transfer switch is a little off, mostly due to being pulled all the way to the wall at the bottom. I don't like it, but I'll get over it.

The 1/2 conduit going into the ground is the phone line, and the black wire laying to the left of it is the low voltage wire for the driveway gate.

Control panel inside the house. Standby mode is off until the gas gets connected. I'll set the system time/date once I get Ethernet connectivity.

Outside they completed all the landscaping, except for fill in the steps with stone and moving/spreading out the dirt a little.

Garage door was installed today

There are 3 places like this I don't like. I don't know if the rubber will recover on its own and be tight against the door?

They installed a filler strip on the deck, covering the Trex profile. Not quite the picture frame look, but this will be ok.

They completed all the 1/4 round today.

And the kitchen was torn down some and the tall cabinet cut for the dual oven.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've never heard of 36 inch upper cabinets. My only experience is with 30 inch and 42 inch upper cabinets. I've only seen the 30 inch ones used on older houses that still had soffits, or with crown molding at the top and a 12 inch space above the cabinet for collecting dust. This kitchen is the first time I've seen a soffit in a new construction in well over a decade, maybe two decades.

42 inch upper cabinets touch, or almost touch the ceiling on 8 foot walls, or get crown molding with a 12 inch dust collecting space on 9 ft walls.

Counter height is always 3 foot, give or take a bit depending on what type of counter is used and flooring. 18 inches, give or take, is the standard from the counter to the bottom of the upper cabinets.

Eddie