I definitely wish I would have gone with a big box store. In October of 2016, I set out to remodel my kitchen. I came across European Granite Design in the local penny saver and called them out for an estimate to build cabinets and provide granite. The meeting in my opinion was a waste of time, the rep only came out to talk about services they provide, he then referred me to his colleague, Melisa and said that she would be able to meet with me in three weeks to take measurements and create a design.
Melisa and I met to discuss the design options for my small kitchen remodel project. A week and a half later, I saw the design and was thrilled...I picked out colors, design, granite, sink...contract signed.
Calm before the storm...
I come home from work and the cabinets are in my living room. They are gorgeous, top quality, just perfect. I'm in love. I speak with my 16 yr old son who haphazardly tells me the delivery guys left the cabinets in my front yard and he had to carry them inside of the house. *Insert confused face here*. I call Melisa to query what could have happened. The delivery guy claimed there was no room in the living room to place the cabinets. I'm thinking this has to be a joke because there's no furniture, materials or anything obstructing space in the living room. I discarded all of my furniture weeks prior as my home was undergoing various remodel projects. Nonetheless there was no resolve for that blunder...I moved forward.
Time for installation. Things seem to be going well until...the contractor notifies me that the wine rack and 9 inch wall cabinet does not fit in the space closest to the window. Hmm that's odd. We looked at the designs and the pieces together and he's correct, it doesn't fit. So here's yet another call to Melisa now about another issue. She immediately states that I'm mistaken and that there isn't a window in that area *questions: how sway*, then she told me we agreed to place the 9 inch cabinet on the opposite side of the window *Scooby doo face*. We had no such agreement, it wasn't even in the design, and why would someone awkwardly position a cabinet in such a fashion? Several pictures sent to her later and she has yet to take onus that a mistake was made on her part re these off measurements. So at the end, the contractor had to shave down the window trim to fit in the wine rack. Unfortunately, there was no way for the 9 inch cabinet beside it as originally designed. Melisa's suggestion was to take the cabinet back and provide me with a credit. I decided to hold off on her idea to see if I could potentially place it elsewhere in the kitchen. I was told for my trouble I would get a free slab of granite to go on top of the 9 inch wall cabinet if used as a base cabinet.
Straw that broke the camel's back... My appliances arrived, yaaaa! The drawer wouldn't pull out because of the stove handle...Noooooo. This deserved an in-person visit to the office and demand for the owner to come to my home, these avoidable errors were becoming ridiculous. Melisa insisted this was the installers mistake. No ma'am Pam, the design measurements were off by 4-5 inches. Melisa and the owner, Emre came out...two and a half hours later we came to an agreement. That 4-5 mis-measurement impacted not only the inability to pull out the drawer but also the positioning of the double sink and subsequent alignment with the window and the rough-in plumbing pipes. This was an inconvenient and costly nightmare. But oh ya (read: sarcasm), Emre gave me a $250 discount.
Granite guys came and they were fabulous. They were in and out...well I'm sorry I just remembered, they weren't because *dun, dun, dun* yet another issue as a result of off measurements. The 4 inch back splash on one of the walls over-ran a pre-existing socket. Anguish, yell, cry, pass out...how could this be happening. How could I now have to pay an electrician to re-position a socket that should have been taken into account when Melisa did her measurements! Emre offers $100 credit.
Back to the 9 inch wall cabinet. Well I decided that bc it doesn't have a proper base to keep it off the floor it wouldn't suit well as a base cabinet so instead, I had it installed on a wall. I asked Melisa for a deal on ordering a base cabinet, in consideration of multiple issues during this project. Melisa tells me $425, I think its outrageous to charge me full price so I counter. It's now been three weeks since our last discussion and I had no response until a few days ago after again texting and calling the office. At this point I would just like to have the free granite for the cabinet and my cutting board which I never received. I plan to have another company build a base cabinet to go with the wall cabinet.
Update: I never received the granite, cutting board, or baseboard unit. The owner reigned on his promises. read more