ROBINSON CUSTOMS

This company might do very good work, but their plan did not seem appropriate for our situation. We wanted to modernize our kitchen -- replace dated cabinets, replace formica counter top with granite. We paid them $300 to put together a plan ( I don't object to the charge for the plan -- only a fool thinks he isn't going to pay for a "free" estimate, as well as those for a few people who don't buy, when he pays the final bill) but the plan involved major structural changes which, if my wife or I had mentioned at all, we mentioned with no clue how expensive they would be. The plan involved tearing up the floor slab and moving the plumbing, moving (and replacing) windows, for something like $50,000. We later found out (but the contractor should have told us then) that's way more than we could hope to recoup when we sell the house. We later did the renovations we originally wanted for about 1/3 of the Robinson price.

I was not involved in this process but I have to use this kitchen he designed and the prior owner told us what she paid and showed us invoices in an effort to get us to offer full price. ----the cabinets and knobs are hard oak but he used machines screws not wood screws causing cabinet knobs to come off, hinges to pull out, etc. We replaced all with woof screws. ----some of the cabinet doors are not even, sag and don't match up, leaving an obvious gap. The hinges were not the right size to bear the weight of the heavy oak. We replaced. ----power connection for the disposal was boxed into the frame of the dishwasher so the disposal wasn't installed although it was on list. We installed a disposal and when our electrician cut into dishwasher frame to find the connection he found the wire had been cutoff so low that it could not reach and could not be used. We had to rewire that wall. ---an alcove was designed and built using hard oak for a refrigerator. However, it is not standard height and only the shortest fridge made, which does not much capacity for the average person and does not have an ice/water door option. We have a 2nd one in the basement for overflow.the other option was to take out the entire one piece alcove and dismantle all on that wall. The previous owner was ripped off but we are hsving to deal with it.