Remodel job from hell

Maybe that's getting a little extreme - I've been saying, "well, it's an old house, and there are always surprises when you try to remodel".

But tonight I'm just kind of pissed.

The fact is the kitchen in my dining club house has been out of commission for a week, and I don't know when I am getting it back. It seemed like a simple job - cut a window between the kitchen and the dining room, to make it easier for cooking classes, and socializing. Get a new stove without a backsplash, so people could see through the window. Add two small cabinet units, for more counter space and storage.

But when the carpenter cut through the plaster on the kitchen side last Tuesday, he discovered heat vents running through the wall. We've been waiting ever since then for the proposal from the HVAC guys - and I have said that if it's too expensive, I'll just have the carpenter close up the hole, and at least I have the new stove and cabinetry - and deep disappointment. I really wanted my window.

It's just all round frustrating - what I have heard communicated from the designer of the HVAC guy's plan sounds ridiculous - I'm not an HVAC guy, but I am sure there must be an easier way to do it. They want to move the ducts around a bend, about 2 feet, and box them into the front of the chimney (it runs through the kitchen wall, too) - plus they included a bunch of bullshit little things like replacing the wooden dryer vent in the basement window with metal, and relining the chimney - which makes it all sound like the proposal's gonna come in sky high, because they don't really want to do the job.

The really sad part about it all is that I think we got in this mess because one of the head guys at the construction company is my friend and I think he was trying to do me a favor - at the start, he only had the designer come out and look, but he never sent any one to look at mechanicals - trying to save me money, putting less people on the job, keeping it simple ...