Northwest Cabinetry & Design

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• By Doreen J.

  November 28, 2015

  kitchen cabinets

  $27,000

  270 days

  Totally Inept

  Terry Waddell, the owner and Greg, the cabinet maker who works with him, did natural walnut kitchen cabinets on referral from my contractor, Dave (Bainbridge Builders) who was so over budget, he offered I hire them w/o his oversight/contractor markup. I provided plans, appliance and sink specs and approved changes. Install began 7/10 but due to many mistakes, all drawers/doors were not in until 10/22 (still not most of the toe kicks, b/c they mismeasured). Terry asked for payment in full in July, I said no - there was still so much left to do. He said to pay the rest minus $1000. I'm sorry I did, as after that, there were mistakes he agreed to fix and others he refused to. They ended up not even fixing much of what they agreed: On 11/13, they quit, suggesting I keep the $1000 to hire someone else. After venting to Dave, he said, "Every single job I've done with Terry had mistakes" and that if only I'd hired them under his auspices, he would have made good, but now didn't have to.

  The contract said "grain matching." Terry gave me a dark brown walnut sample w/semi-gloss, saying that's what the cabs would be. The installed cabs were dark to light brown to red walnut. Another cab maker later said that putting a little oil on each section of natural walnut prior to fabrication is essential to ensure color match and our amount of variation is not even considered grain matching. When I complained about the variation and told Terry about the oil, he said "We don't do this."

  Countertop guys couldn't template over the farm sink, because Terry hadn't made the cutout. He said I should tell them to come back. I told him the lead time for countertops was 2 wks, they came from 2 hours away and there would be an added trip charge. He said, "I can't come today" and never offered to pay the trip charge his mistake caused.

  The doors under that sink stick out 1.5" beyond it on each side. The plans had them flush. Terry later emailed this excuse: "Sink cabinets are always wider than the sink. You never want to get them exactly the same width or you will have problems installing the sink." Google "farm sink"- this is clearly untrue. Dave was there when Terry came to install the filler pieces he'd made for the farm sink, and Terry repeated what he said in that email. Dave told him that wasn't true, that he has a farm sink and it's the way I wanted. He asked Terry which way it had been on the plans. Terry shrugged. (I showed Dave later the plans had them flush.) Oh, and the filler pieces - even Terry had to admit they were far, far darker than the doors they were supposed to "fill."

  Another cabinet, a bookcase, stuck out 1.5" on each side. On the plans it was flush. I had them rip it out and cut it down. The appliance cabinets were much too proud of the sink countertop because "99% of customers want it this way." I did not and the plans I approved did not have it that way. They ripped those out and cut them down, too, resulting in the subzero sticking out of its cabinet. I heard Dave on the phone: "But Terry. The whole point of a subzero is to be flush with the cabinets." Dave's guys had to uninstall the fridge and cut a hole in the wall to fit the fridge and while doing so, asked Terry if he was going to pay for their labor. He said nothing.

  Greg said the appliance cabinets were not the right size because "manufacturers never give accurate specs." When I later asked Terry how appliance manufacturers stay in business expecting cabinets makers to wing it, Terry blamed me, since I wanted the sink cabinets cut back. When I said that was because they had not followed the plans in the first place, he said nothing.

  The fridge's walnut panels didn't fit. Terry agreed but, "Since subzero doesn't give specs for panels, it's not our fault they're wrong, so it will cost you $300 to redo them." Of course there are panel specs on subzero's website. Weeks later, Dave said, "I told Terry he shouldn't charge you for the panels." The next time I saw Terry he said, "I told Dave I wouldn't charge you for the panels. I can admit when I make a mistake," making it sound like it was his idea not to charge me, and implying this was the only mistake he made. The new panels fit, but are uneven. (A subsequently hired cabinet maker showed me how they were not installed properly.)

  There are 5 visible seams in a panel above the fridge, 2 not even grain matched to each other, let alone the panels underneath. Terry ran his hand over it (the seams are easily felt and seen) and declared, "those aren't seams." Later, another cabinet maker said those "open seams" should have been discarded. He also wondered why Terry hadn't made that panel at the same time as the fridge panels (this panel was actually installed after the 2nd pair of fridge panels) so that it would all match.

  When the cabinets were first delivered, doors had scratches, two especially bad (a subsequent cabinet maker told me one of those was actually a dent. and should have been replaced right away). They promised they'd replace/fix them. The day they quit, Greg told me the worst scratched one wasn't scratched when delivered. The same day, I complained the outlet boxes at ends of island stuck out 2 1/4", so were not flush as is standard (and as drawn on plans by Terry) because they hadn't left enough room. He blamed me, "You were the contractor." That was the first I heard I was the contractor, or that they felt they needed one to do their job. I asked about another mistake. Greg said Dave told them to do it that way. Why? Greg shrugged. If I'm the contractor, why listen to Dave, especially without understanding/asking me? Most people do kitchen remodels without contractors, ie that's all they're doing. If Terry and Greg need a contractor's oversight, they should have said so from the get go and I would have had Dave oversee, or hire someone else.

  Gaps between doors/cabs should be a standard 1/8" (real artisans do 1/16"). My cabinets are supposed to be Euro-style, very streamline. The gaps Terry and Greg have in my cabinets aren't even uniform and range from 1/16 to 1.25". Manufacturer specs for the gap between my 2 stacked ovens is 1/4". They made it a full inch more than that.

  When they quit they dumped the remaining toe kicks, 2 stacks of 4, 9 ft wood boards taped together, on the porch. It was raining. I'm an almost 60 year old woman, home alone, and had to lug them into the house.

  Cabinet makers giving bids to fix their mistakes are appalled at their work. The $1000 doesn't even begin to cover it all. I can't post pictures to this review, so see my review on Yelp.

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