6 Reasons why the Wall Units are Still Not Right

1. Fuse box hanging out (pic in previous post)
2. Gap at back of unit (pic in previous post)
3. Big gap between units as shown below - you can also see how the wall sockets were left in this pic. The cornices also have slight gaps. There is a plastic seal left unused from the cornice boxing.

4. Door does not close properly

5. Handle on ill-fitting door is loose; this is down to a faulty product and Fitters4 have said they have added the item to the reorder list.
6. Internally, the units are slightly misaligned to the frames so the bottom shelf looks out of skew.

Sitrep
Email: IM is waiting on delivery info for panel, then we will get dates for Fitters4 to come back.
No mention of delivery of replacement handle.
It's now 2 and a half months since the kitchen install began.

Reinstatement of wall units

The wall units were put back up on Thursday. They look smart but then again the wall itself is a better backdrop now anyway.

BUT...

when I climbed up to see on top of the cupboard, I found that the fuse switchbox for the extractor, although now out of sight, was just left lying on top of the cupboard with about 10 inches of wiring trailing out of the wall like the entrails of a ritual sacrifice. And the wiring for the extractor which now has a decent socket on it behind the extractor, had been fastened to the fusebox wire with a bit of yellow tape. I'm not a leccy but that just doesn't look right.

The Fire Officer who did the home safety inspection today (Monday) basically said that if the electrics had been left like that in his home he'd play merry hell. Natch.

There is also a gap between the back of the end wall unit and the wall - I can fit my fingers in behind it. The wall just isn't flat. Fitter4 said they'd order in a wider end panel and tailor it so it does give a smooth finish... They wouldn't have said anything if I'd not mentioned it. This is my point. None of these fitters has been proactive in resolving snags before we've mentioned them. That could be down to either laziness/apathy, policy or pressured adherence to work schedules, who knows. The plasterer who last week assured me that the wall was now flat is himself an ex- MFI fitter's apprentice (Fitter3 to be precise) who had decided to specialise in plastering rather than fitting.

We are waiting to find out when the fitters will return to put right the base units. If indeed they ever will. I suspect they may have changed their minds: they expressed concern last week at how exactly they are going to do the worktop jointing. This is a good example of the gap in MFI between design and capability. If it is not possible to effectively joint a worktop where a sink has been designed in, then the designers should not be designing plans that have sinks at integral joints.

As the customer, we were promised a sink in that corner and that is what we expect. With a professionally finished joint. We have, after all, already been missold on the wall units which do not meet our brief.

Arrangements to put it back together

And now the FOURTH set of Fitters is about to descend.

As predicted, we were backed into a corner over the sink problem. The IM rang early this week to say that Fitter3 would not be coming back as he did not have another slot until end of August. She had a couple more guys (hereafter referred to as "Fitters4") though who could come in Weds & Thurs this week. However, I was not going to be available during Wednesday and although she did offer to 'house sit' for us, we were both reluctant to allow tradespeople in without us being here.
Especially given the history up to now!
So we negotiated for one day only - Thursday (yesterday, more on that later) - in order to at least get the wall units back up so we could put stuff away.
We will then have to sit and wait for a slot to get the base units done. A very on-the-hoof way of doing it, and I'm resigned to the irony that if we'd waited for September when Fitter2 was available then it probably would have been sorted quicker. Ho hum.

On top of that, everything now has to be reiterated AGAIN to more fitters.

It's also not escaped our attention that the IM has finally accepted that the work can be split up into bite-sized pieces. There was no need to insist on everything being done in one slot with all the kit having to be here.

That Sinking Feeling

Blacksheep rang to tell me that the sink had been delivered but it was the wrong colour. AAGGHHH!!! they'd been sent a black one, not champagne. I'd started to get nervous about it yesterday as I'd been expecting a call on Tuesday to confirm delivery.

I asked them to do me a favour and drop me an email so I could send it on to MFI. Otherwise the IM will probably think that I never placed the order and am now stalling. They said they would, and took my email address, but no email arrived.

I rang Fitter3 and told him about the sink. He said that he would come back next Thursday then, instead of tomorrow, to start on the base units.

On a separate note, the plasterer did not come back today. He did say (plenty times) on Tuesday that he'd nip back to finish the corner today so we could paint by weekend.

I texted Fitter3 (didn't want to overdo the Hassle By Phone) to find out when the plasterer was actually going to come back and finish the corner, but there was no response.

That's it then. Sit back and wait for the sink whilst trying to manage a household using a kitchen that is mostly packed away in cardboard boxes or spread across 3 rooms.

The remaining installed worktop that is not to be replaced has been covered in plaster to the extent that it could take months to get all the bits out of the textured grain finish. Why didn't they cover it, or at least come and ask me if I wanted to cover it myself. Took me ages yesterday to clean the f*g kitchen floor, too. I could've put newspaper on it in no time if they'd said. And the windows and remaining units are all covered in f*g plaster splashes and, even worse, huge swathes of whitewash effect where they wet-wiped the splashes into the grain.

PHOTO: I should've taken more pics before I cleaned up; basically the place looked like the opening titles of Saving Private Ryan. Like the high tide had come in through the hall, washed over the kitchen and swept out down the drive again leaving a trail of debris reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina.

Personal reflection
A day of tears. If it were not for being a mother, I would have got on a train to god knows where to make it all just go away. I am so sick & tired of half-a-job harrys doing every little f*g job wrong and having to do it all over again or get it put right somehow with little or no chance of it ever being put right in any f*g case. And it's not just this kitchen. It's every f*g thing I ask any tradespeople to do. The house roof. The decorating. The wardrobes. The cleaners. The conservatory roof. The carpet fitters. The builder who moved the downstairs door. The idiot who did the chimney. I'm not bossy, maybe I'm not assertive enough. I thought that being polite and respectful to people was right and proper. Seemingly not so, because it obviously gives them carte blanche to write 'doormat' in huge invisible letters across your forehead.
Jeez I'm so fed up. I don't sleep at night because I'm too wound up. I don't perform well the following day because I have no f*g motivation left in me. I'm getting migraines, mood swings the like of which could start an international incident, and barely feel like eating anything until at least midday. Just walking into the f*g kitchen is enough to put me off food.
I'm frightened that if this misery continues, there is nothing to ground my thoughts and rein my depression in. I am just grateful that I at least have a sense of humour, and the sense to remain reticent, and that I can exorcise my mind here!!! :-P ;-D

The Walls are Done.

Emptied the wall cupboards last night and cleared the kitchen ready for the fitter today. Strange feeling of deja vu.

Fitter3 turned up this morning - with his apprentice, the plasterer (who was actually Fitter3's previous apprentice), and the plaster's apprentice. I didn't realise it was a block party. The kitchen is no bigger than a small caravan. And here's me with only one mug between the 4 of them. ;0)

By the end of the day my house once again resembles a re-enactment of The Somme, inside and down the drive. Even my black car has not escaped being dowsed in splashes of plaster. But, bless them, they did try to clean up a bit - even asked for a mop! which unfortunately I had tidied away to some forgotten remote recess a long while back. So they did their best at wiping down with an old wet tea towel. My new car did not escape the wiping and has some scary streaky effects down the side now.

The wall is looking good. Very good. If walls got invited on chat shows, this one would be on Parkinson. Impressed so far!

Later on, I noticed the partially plastered-over electrical joint on the newly plastered wall was hissing intermittently, after they'd all gone. Thought "that can't be right" and rang the IM to get Fitter3's mobile number. IM was on voicemail. Coincidentally Fitter3 rang up anyway to see how the plastering was looking; by then the hissing had subsided and he said it had probably just been a bit of water off the plastering that had got in there.

They'll be back on Friday he says; the plasterer will finish a bit round the pipe boxing so we can decorate over the weekend, and Fitter3 will do the base units.


Somewhere in a Regional Office far far away...
Plasterer spoke a little bit about an internal shake-up within MFI to expel the bad fitters. He spoke of a new regional manager overseeing the shedding. He didn't say whether the guy walked around in a brown hooded cloak and carried a luminous wand which hummed when he waved it.

Agenda Morphing.

I got an email from the IM last week asking whether Fitter3 had contacted me with dates for this week. I answered No, and said I needed to know. I need to plan around it accordingly. Ok, leave it with her.

Then in some bizarre turnaround, she rings me Friday asking if I've got the sink and when I say no, it'll be Tuesday, she says he's not coming until the sink's here. WTF???
He doesn't need the sink here to come and take the blasted units off the sodding wall and smooth it over.
Allowing the plaster to dry before it's even ready for an undercoat will take at least 3 days!!!

How dare MFI back us into a corner and hold us to ransom against him starting on the wall. In fact, he could have done that already by now, sink or no pigging sink! It's been TWO MONTHS, FFS!

Can you sense a distinct edge to my tone at this point. :-P

Anyway, Fitter3 rang last night (yes, Sunday evening 8pm) to say he'd come Tuesday for the wall, then return probably Thursday to start the base units.

I should jolly well think so.

"How very dare you" ! ! ! pmsl

Still waiting.

Do you remember the bits in The Battle Of Britain where they're all sat around waiting for the scramble? It's eerily silent today.

Yesterday another wall unit arrived by courier & swathed in bubble wrap. I've marked everything 'unchecked' and not opened a thing; it's down to them to ensure it's all present & correct.

Hopefully I can collect the sink from those Very Nice People at Blacksheep in Macclesfield soon. They have been fantastic, a veritable beacon in a stormy night.

The installations manager asked me via email yesterday if we'd heard from Fitter3 re dates for next week. Fitter3 has not rung. Er, so that was a big fat No.

What's arrived, and what's not.

The replacement worktop arrived from those Very Nice People at Blacksheep in Macclesfield yesterday. They must be made up.

Phone call from installations manager yesterday to check Saturday's delivery; I told her what had arrived and she agreed that it was short by a unit and a base door, the latter of which is not available for another 9 days (so, she said the larder unit will have to be done on a 'nip back' basis but as it involves the completion including foot plates of the larder unit I would expect it will take a bit more than a 'nip'). A voicemail from her later confirmed that the missing items (except that base door) will arrive by courier tomorrow.

Also rang Trading Standards and got a reference number. They will add the details of my call to the MFI branch case file.

Now awaiting Fitter3 to give us a date to come and remove the wall units & skim so we can get some proper base coats put down.


Thought
Why wasn't the floor to ceiling unit designed originally with all base units, instead of 500 wall units stacked up? It's not right - using wall units means there's uneven spacers down the front. So that's another thing we were missold on.

Fitter3 Prepares for Action.

Last Saturday, Fitter3 came & surveyed the required remedial work, identifying that the original replacement list fell short and an additional unit would have to be ordered on top of what the IM had listed.

He said he would strip the units off the wall and get it skimmed, then allow a couple of days for us to decorate before he put the replacements back up.
He said he would contact us this week to let us know a date.

No-one's rung this week.

Today we had a delivery of a few items - looks like it falls way short of the mark in terms of what should be getting replaced.