Current mood:	irate
Entry tags:	kitchen, renovations

The kitchen debacle

The new kitchen has become an absolute debacle. It was finally delivered on Wednesday (21 May) afternoon (keeping in mind that we ordered this kitchen in early February). Fine and good...until we discovered that no appliances were delivered with the kitchen and the wrong handles were delivered (despite Alastair and I telling them on TWO separate occasions which handles we wanted).

We paid a visit to Queanbeyan Auctions yesterday to follow up the issues with the kitchen. Here are the issues and the responses:

• The wrong handles were delivered - the right handles will be available in three weeks. They promised to call us when it arrives so we can come pick up the right handles. They refuse to hold the right handles for us when it arrives so we just have to try our luck and hope for the best.
• Appliances were not delivered - the appliances include stove, cook top, sink and range hood. We also discovered that despite taking our credit card details over the phone for the range hood, it wasn't ordered. Fortunately they had one in stock.
• The oven is badly damaged - when they brought the oven out to us, the box was badly damaged. They assured me that the oven was ok. Well, it wasn't. Pictures below of the damaged oven.

To make matters worse, we can't get hold of the recommended kitchen installer despite calling and leaving multiple messages.

So instead of having a nice new kitchen installed, we have bits and pieces lying around. Very very unhappy. This, on top of all the other issues going on (having my car broken into, losing my expensive Tablet PC etc), is just terrible.

I'm not sure what is going on. The owner, Simon, was just fabulous. He was really helpful and provided lots of advice. His staff on the other hand, were not as interested in the business. They did try to help, but it wasn't as professionally run as expected.

Fingers cross that everything will work out!!! I still have (some) faith in Queanbeyan Auctions. We've been big supporters of them ever since we discovered them years ago. We've spent thousands of our hard earned money at Queanbeyan Auctions over the years.

Anyhow, on to the pictures.

New cupboards in our formal lounge area



New pantry and cupboards



Damaged oven box



Another view of the damaged box



Damaged front of the new oven



The very damaged front of the oven

Many thanks to our friends Caronne and Nigel who helped us out of a tight spot - Nigel drove out to Queabeyan Auctions to help us take the oven and other appliances home. Thank you to Caronne and Nigel for being such fantastic friends!!