Kitchen - oh, boy...

Mr. Jones was here a few minutes late, but he called; so it wasn't by much. He was fully equipped with paper pad and pencil and tape measure. Asked detailed questions of how did I want this or that, things that I hadn't quite worked out the details on and had to make some quick decisions. He wasn't interested in offering any design advice, but would tell me if I was trying to put something somewhere it wouldn't fit. He didn't give the impression that he's a real big company, and even commented on how slow his life is usually as compared to now, post-Rita. But I suppose he'll be okay. He left with his paperwork and measurements in hand and said he would call me in a couple of days when he gets a bid worked out.

He left right at 11:00 and then Bob called asking for directions and was soon here. He brought his wife, Diane, with him, which was good considering how I met him - at Lowe's looking at cabinets. Now, this guy is something else. He sat there and drank coffee, had no tape measure, and listened to my ideas and commented about how this is done and so forth. He made sure I knew he was extremely good at what he does! There is absolutely no quivering in his opinion of his own abilities. Even his wife wanted to tone him down a bit. Anyway, they have moved here from Waco, planning to live here a few years, bought a building to serve as business and home up in Silsbee. Once we finished going through the long details of what I wanted, wall for wall, he threw out numbers on some paper that I furnished him, $1,000 for labor to put in the cabinets, $1480 to make the walls ready to accept the cabinets (trailers do have really cruddy studs, they're not 2x4s like a normal house), and then $680 for a doorway I thought maybe I would move out about a foot to accommodate a certain design idea. That's $3268.00 and no materials, no cabinets, no countertops or sink or floor or anything else.

He noticed about my level being off and I retorted, "Don't even talk to me about leveling!" He looked at me kind of funny and I told him the story of Layfield and Wright's Mobile Homes being totally incompetent. So, Bob said how I got ripped off, how he knows exactly how you have to do this, how my house will be pulled apart if I don't fix it. How much? $1800! Even his wife choked! I said that was crazy. In Southeast Texas you don't keep a level more than a year if you're lucky anyway. "When I do it you will!" HA! Where have I heard that before.

Then we walked out back and he said he wanted $1800 to put back my patio cover and told me what a shoddy job James did on my roof, that the overhangs were done wrong, et cetera, et cetera. Why do these guys always have to put down everything you have, make you feel like everything you have is total crap and they're the only person who can do it right and proper.

I don't think I'll use him. He might be God's gift to carpenters, but he's too cocky and didn't even bother to calculate anything, just grabbed numbers out of the air. She said she would talk to him to get prices better for me and call me back about dark. I haven't heard from her yet. I did ask her while they were here if they had references that would confirm he's as good as he says he is. Somehow the conversation got diverted and she didn't quite answer.

So, I called Mr. Jones back, left a message on the answering machine that I had altered the plan for moving that door and I wanted to discuss the leveling. Granted, the leveling really needs to be done. The little cabinets in my office are shimmed up in the back to make them level. So, it's pretty obvious that the cabinets would have to be shifted and shimmed to get them right, as well.

All afternoon I've been playing with a floor plan on BobVila.com that let's you draw in your walls and your cabinets and appliances and do very limited atering of colors and things. My kitchen is so complicated. It's not a basic square. The opposing walls don't match up, and it's a dreadful plan - correction - there is no plan. It's like it was an afterthough - "Oh, we need to stick a kitchen in here somewhere." I haven't got a good handle on manipulating the little program where it looks like it was done by an adult, but I suppose it's better than 'nuthin to try to get a visual. I think Lowe's can plug all this into a computer. So, I think I'll go back and try to get a definite quote from them.

I finally got my job to do, which I'll do it tomorrow. Last night I watch The Ring. It's a halfway decent ghost movie. I think I'd like to see The Ring Two sometime, if I ever get around to getting it.