CARPENTER'S CUSTOM CABINETS

Don has been very helpful all through the process with picking out the style of cabinet, wood, stain, etc. I was able to borrow the cabinet door sample several times while looking at granite for the countertops, door knobs, and sink. The project started and finished on time. The cabinets are gorgeous! Don did a great job. He also coordinated the install of the new countertops and sink. He was able to leave the old sink connected right up until the countertops were installed. He came early the morning of the countertop install to remove the old countertops and sink.

I am writing this review as honestly as I can, telling the good, the bad and the ugly. This is a long read, but worth it. I employed Carpenter’s Custom Cabinets to reface my kitchen cabinets. My cabinets were originally white and then painted over with a faux gold color. Don’s bid was one of the lowest so I decided to go with him. My first encounter with Don was disappointing because he had no samples of the stain that I wanted which was deep cherry. He told me he does not keep samples because he has no room for them in his shop. That was surprising because you can go on line and order many, many different samples of stains on many different types of wood for a dollar or two a piece and they are only as big as a 3 inch by 4 inch sample, so I don’t know why he would not have room for that in his shop. I just think that when you are in the business of staining wood, you need to have samples. Expecially if you have been doing it for 30 years!! So, because he had no samples to show me, and after I told him I wanted a deep cherry stain, he offered to make me a sample, but he was unwilling to bring the sample to my home because he lives some where on the very, very far west side of Tucson and I live on the East Side so I had to drive across town to meet him to see the sample that he made for me. I cannot express how wrong the sample was. It was not even CLOSE to a deep cherry stain. I was shocked that a man in business for 30 years did not know what a deep cherry stain was. He told me that in 30 years of business, no one had ever requested that type of stain. I find that hard to believe. On HGTV, almost every modern kitchen they show has dark wood kitchen cabinets!!! So, I told him the sample would not work and he indicated that he really didn’t know what I wanted. I ended up going to Sherwin Williams (can’t say enough good things about the guys who work there. They were extremely helpful and friendly) numerous times buying $75 worth of stains and driving across town to meet Don on his job site several times to get samples of the cherry wood to put the stain on because he would never come to my house. During this process, Don did make one more attempt to find a stain that would work for me. He foolishly bought a an entire gallon of this particular stain which did not work at all and then he proceeded to tell me at least 4 times that he had paid $40 dollars and then mysteriously the price went up to $50 a gallon on a stain that he probably would never use. It was clearly meant to make me feel guilty, even though I had already spent $75 on stains which I told him I had. I finally figured out a combination of two stains that made a lovely deep cherry look and gave him the stain to use on my cabinets. The choice of the top cabinet crown molding was limited to only two choices. I did not care for either one, so I chose the lesser of the two evils, which was very flat and not what I would call quality crown molding. The job took 3 days and every day he played his portable radio very loud in the kitchen and I had to listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hanity all day long. I find them both very offensive. He played the radio so loud that I had to retreat to my bedroom to watch TV because I could not watch it in my family room which is open to the kitchen. I turned it down a few times and he would just turn it up later. I just don’t think I should have to tell a professional that it is not acceptable to play political talk radio all day long. After he left on the second day of the job, I was surveying his work and I noticed that one strip of the veneer had very noticeable bumps. I pointed them out the next day and he seemed irritated with me. I told him he needed to fix them and he said that they would mostly be covered when you shut the cabinet door. Later in the day, he told me he did his best but he could not eliminate the bumps. They were lessened, but still noticeable. I decided that I could live with them because as he said, they were mostly not noticeable when the doors are shut. But just tonight, I noticed on that same strip of veneer there are now two short slits that look like someone cut the veneer with a razor blade that have erupted that were not there before, it is very disappointing. Also, I had to pay Don extra to cover the bottom of the cabinet over the refrigerator which was totally white and completely visible. When I noticed that he had not covered the underside of the cabinet, he said that he never covered that part of the cabinet as part of a total cabinet refacing (even though it was white and TOTALLY visible!!!). How crazy is that??? How can you consider it a complete job when part of the old cabinet is clearly visible? After having said all this, which is all completely true, I will say in all honesty that I love the overall look of my cabinets (minus the one strip of veneer with all the defects). I can also honestly say that had I known all the crap I would have had to go through to get my beautiful cabinets with Don, I would not have gone with him even though he was inexpensive. There was another bid that was just as inexpensive as Don’s but I picked Don because the other guys personal hygiene was not good. Note to self: Do not pick a contractor based on personal hygiene!!!