Reno Woes

And so it begins.

Has there ever been a home renovation project in history that has gone smoothly and according to plan? I think not. And true to form, ours has gone off the rails before it has even started.

Our project - gutting our old kitchen and enlarging it - was meant to begin in early October. My stint in hospital in September obviously delayed things by a couple of weeks. Then, we had a major problem. The contractor we wanted - a guy we have worked with before - announced he was no longer available. Due to poor communication between him and our designer, he thought we were no longer interested in having him do the work, and so he took on another job that would keep him busy through to December.

We decided that we really wanted this guy to be our contractor, and that we would wait for him. We agreed upon a new date of January 2nd, to begin the work once the holidays were over. And in many ways, this was for the best, as we spent October and November doing stuff that should have been done over the summer - except that we could never get a hold of our designer. I met with cabinetmakers, ordered the sink and tap, priced countertops, and decided on a lighting plan. Things were going very well.

Then today, we got the rug pulled out from under us. A. called the contractor, only to be informed that he has decided not to take on our job after all. He cited continued communication problems with our designer, and said he felt he'd not been treated with respect. So instead of contacting us earlier with these concerns, so we could resolve them, he decided to walk away from the project, three weeks before it was due to begin. He did give us the name of a colleague who was willing to take on our job - but even still, we are pretty shocked at this turn of events. We really trusted this guy and it was the last thing we expected from him.

Anyway, the project will go on. A. seems resolved to act now as project manager himself, and do as much work as he can. He'll take a few weeks off work in January, to get on with things. I suppose the silver lining to this cloud is that this will probably save us a bundle on labour fees, which would be a good thing. But still, we could have done without the aggro. Gah.