Enter Kitchen Designer No. 1 and the dreaded "I" store

As I said before you need to know you place in the DIY partnership.  The next important step is checking reviews on people you hire, appliances you buy, etc..  My husband lives and dies by Consumer Reports and the BBB.  I venture further out, I look at all sorts of opinions.  BUT, when I need a handyman, plumber or something to do with the house, I contact my real estate agent Stuart.

I first met Stuart in 2004 when we were in the midst of selling "Death House 2004."   It was not a pretty time in the Havens household.  Brave soul that Stuart was, he ventured in the day I was scraping 20 years of grease off a counter top and eventually sold my parents' townhouse.   So, when we were looking for our house in Dallas, we hired Stuart as our realtor.  AND, if you want a good realtor, leave me your email and I'll send you his way.  He's British with a great sense of humor (he had to have one - considering what he was working with in 2004 and again in 2005, when we looked at 25 houses in one day).

His "concierge list" has helped us find numerous folks to help us out.  So, I thought what the heck, I'll email him and see if he knows a kitchen designer, explaining that Paul and I were looking for someone to just design the kitchen for us.   He did (sort of).    

So this guy, let's just call him Al (because I don't remember his name) contacts me about designing our kitchen. Bear in mind that at this point, I am just gathering information and am not ready to sign on the dotted line.  I don't like pushy people, I run away from salespeople that follow me around.  Let me look and get my bearings and then I will come back.  Al, bless his heart was pushy.

After about 3-4 emails back and forth, I turned him over to Paul.  I decided maybe I was a little prejudiced and I'd let Paul see what he thinks.  So Al comes over and talks to Paul.

Not only was Al pushy, but again bless his heart, he wasn't a true kitchen designer, he didn't have CAD which is the drawing software.   What Al had was a vision about going to a store that lives up north and sells Swedish stuff and using their software to design the kitchen.  Now I don't know whether or not you can mention names of stores in a blog, especially if you don't care for them.    I am NOT a Swedish Modern girl, I am a traditional, eclectic girl.  I have never been to this store, but I have seen their website and it is not for me.  It could be for you.

It's probably a good thing I wasn't there when Al was, since I might have ripped his head off about the Swedish store.

I still trust Stuart with his list though, just not about Al.

Next post, true Kitchen Designer enters the scene.