The “Bare” Facts about this Kitchen Remodel

Kitchen remodels are a very popular service we perform for many of our clients.  A great deal of time is spent with the client before any onsite work is performed.  There are onsite meetings, design meetings, consultations at showrooms to assist in material selections, flooring and counter top selections, informational meetings about the best appliances and appointments for cabinet selection and layout.  We take our time on the front side of the project so we can provide the dream kitchen for our client.  When the onsite work begins, we first start with removal of appliances, cabinets, counter tops, flooring, etc. so we basically only have the 4 walls of the kitchen remaining.  The project starts with a clean slate.

At Wheeler Painting and Restoration Services, we pride ourselves on outstanding and regular communication with all our clients.  When a project is put on our schedule to start work, we have ensured that our schedule matches up with the client’s schedule, since our work can be very disruptive to someone’s regular routine. By the time our team of professional carpenters are onsite, there has been an abundance of communication with the client.   It takes an average of 2-3 months from when we first take a call from the client to when the actual kitchen remodeling work begins.  During these first few months, most often a client is removing contents, cleaning out cabinets and getting prepared to have the existing kitchen taken completely out.  In most circumstances our clients are at work when this type of project is going on (complete demo of the kitchen) or some even opt to move out of the house for a few weeks while their kitchen undergoes a complete remodel.   In these circumstances a client will provide us with a key for access and the key is kept on site in a lock box attached to the exterior of the home. 

It is our company policy that before entering a home, key in hand or not, that the job foreman rings the door bell, knocks on the door and waits a good 3-5 minutes before entering to ensure we are not disturbing a client’s routine.  Understanding the amount of communication with our clients and our entering process into someone home in the morning (extensive knocking), it is very rare that we find anything but a quiet job site waiting for us when we arrive.

You can only imagine the surprise of the crew when they entered the home of a client for the first day of onsite work for a kitchen remodel when they found the female client completely naked with a towel on her head in front of an open fridge, drinking orange juice from the container.  She screamed and made a nose dive behind the existing kitchen island for cover.  Our crew was completely flustered and ran out of the house without exchanging words with the client.   The flustered job foreman stood in the driveway with the rest of the crew and made a call to the office to explain the situation.  The office advised that the crew wait outside and at some point the client would come out, fully dressed and at that point work would move forward.  

Sure enough within about 30 minutes; a fully dressed, very embarrassed client came out of the front door and deeply apologized for the awkward start to the project and said she had lost track of time while getting ready.  In an effort to ease the awkwardness of the situation the client stated “the whole reason I’m moving forward with the kitchen remodel is for a larger kitchen island, because I never know when I might need to duck and cover.”  She gave a wink and headed off to work.   The crew stood there speechless for a few minutes, waiting for the shock to wear off, before everyone burst into laughter and headed into the house the start the project.

We do our absolute best to cover all situations and discuss all possible issues that might come up on a project, but nothing in our previous experience prepared us for the naked client in the kitchen that morning.  We now know that we might need to cover naked… regardless of what needs to be covered on a project, we pride ourselves on doing an amazing job, on time and on budget.  Let us know if we can be of service with your next project. 

Until we share another funny story; be well and do good.