Changes? We don’t need no stinking changes!

Apparently, if I order all of the cabinet equipment and plan on installing it myself, Lowe’s doesn’t care much if I screwed up dimensioning the room. However, if they’re going to install it, they need someone to come out to my house and verify my dimensions.

Here’s how the process is supposed to work: I give Lowe’s my sketch and we spend 5 hours designing the new kitchen. Then the installer comes out and re-measures my kitchen, and we spend about an hour going over the “new” dimensions, hypothesizing work-arounds, discussing installation quirks, gaps, mis-fists, part re-ordering and modifications. Then, the installers give the information back to Lowe’s, we adjust our order accordingly, and then sign for it.

He was supposed to arrive at 11:00 this morning and be here ‘till noon. He was late, and I had to wait until 11:08 for him to get around to showing up. He got his tape measure out, measured out the space for each new cabinet, scribbled all over his sketch, and finally said, “OK, I’m not used to this. Your measurements are spot on. First time this year.” He said he would turn his drawing back into Lowe’s and that he would call when the cabinets came in. He was out by 11:15.

So is there anything really mystical and magical about a tape measure? I wouldn’t think that crappy measurements were that much of a plague, but apparently I would be surprised. The only thing that confuses me about a tape measure is how one can own five of them and not know where to find one when they need it.