MEDITERRANEAN CUSTOM CABINETS

It went great all the cabinets were built very good.

I thought they did a very nice job at a very reasonable price. Their price was comparable to other companies I had looked at. They were very good at designing and coming out to look at the space and giving me suggestions. They were accommodating about the space they were working with. I was very happy with 90% of their work; I was just unhappy about two things. The installer had put in the ceiling molding upside down. I did not know about it until it was done. So, it was left that way. Their shop was not air conditioned. They had made the cabinets in summertime. So, the wood contracted during the wintertime and there was a line where the staining showed. It looks fine in summer, but during the winter time it does not look so good. They did not have climate-controlled shop in order to accommodate that. I was not happy with that. I will use them again in the future.

Cathy Nichols was fantastic. She came up with a great design, took our suggestions, and has a wonderful eye for detail. She was also patient when we added a window at the last minute, which meant removing and redesigning a cabinet. She also redid a few smaller, architectural details when we didn't like the finished look. We were totally satisfied with Cathy. The price was great. Other kitchen stores in our area wanted 50% more than Mediterranean, for cabinets of the same or lesser quality. Mediterranean builds their cabinets locally (vs. other places that import them from Canada or wherever) so that's a plus also. The installers were pretty good. The initial visit was OK:They put everything up well and made a few mistakes. Fixing those mistakes was a long process of follow-up visits: they'd show up and do the work, then we'd get home and discover they'd done only 75% of what we'd asked and made 1 or 2 minor errors. Repeat this a few times. They were also late several times. Eventually it all got done. I'm told that the installers were super-busy (overbooked) so perhaps some delays were understandable, but still, the facts are the facts. My only real issue was with the owner, Harry. At first he was terrific, negotiating the price, showing us proudly around his factory (which was really interesting, by the way), and so on. As the job went on, he became a bottleneck on a few of the fixes, resulting in long delays. ("Harry still hasn't gotten back to me on that.") I do appreciate that he personally came out to take care of final fixes, but every time I'd point out something, he'd get defensive. For instance, I indicated a cabinet where another contractor had scratched it and asked if he could "fix the ding on that cabinet." He immediately became bad tempered as if I were blaming him (which I wasn't), even though I'd said I was happy to PAY for these kinds of fixes. (I just wanted the cabinets to look their best.) Eventually he took a paintbrush and literally slopped paint onto the "ding", which looked like crap when it dried. This kind of behavior happened several more times on that visit. Maybe he was having a bad day, because in the beginning of the job he was fine, but as a result I had to fix his sloppy paint job myself. Overall, we love our new cabinets, the price was reasonable, and the designer (Cathy) was great to work with. I would use them again.