REVIEWS FROM OUR CUSTOMERS
Dear Pat, Ryan, Eric and Crew,
Now that the final invoice is paid, the engineers are satisfied, and the work is complete, I wanted to take a moment to share with you how much this kitchen project means to me and my family.
First a little back story... In the spring of 2018 Beth's mom (Nonni) was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Nobody knew what to expect, but we most certainly did not anticipate having her with us 3 years later. Each additional day is like borrowed time, and the future is not to be taken for granted.
Two years ago Beth's mom gave us a rather large Christmas gift and said something like "I can't force you to spend it on a kitchen..." but she knew it was something Beth would really like and I would never want to pay for. We dragged our feet for a while, and by the time we were ready to get serious Covid came along and added all kinds of uncertainty to our lives. So we put the project on hold. At the same time, Nonni began to need more and more medial attention and trips to the hospital became a normal part of our routing. After a few scary incidents towards the end of last year we began to think she may never see the outcome of her very generous gift. This little reality check prompted us to restart the project despite the still crazy times.
During construction I watched in awe as everything took shape from the ground up, one day at a time. Each night for the last 15 minutes of my day, I would pause and stare, noticing every emerging detail as I thought to myself "I can't believe this is our house!" We will not miss the green cupboards, fall-apart-in-your-hand hardware, crummy dishwasher, even worse disposal, delaminated countertops, rot and mold behind the faucet, hard to clean floors, poorly designed pantry, shredded drywall, dirty paint (even the ceiling somehow) , and nicked up baseboards. There is only 1 thing that I really liked about our old kitchen, the barstool counter for family pancake breakfasts, a feature that has served us well over the years!
Now that the work is done we are thrilled to make our new kitchen a central part of our family life again as we begin the hopefully long and slow process of making it an old kitchen! It is truly the most utilized room in the house, the place we come together to prepare meals, share pizza with our friends, start our weekend on a Saturday morning, unload all our groceries, play board games, host our Christmas party, check homework and more. And not only is it stunning to look at, it is by design the most robust, sturdy and functional components and construction that we could afford. We call that a win-win!
But the best part of this new kitchen has little to do with the hardware, craftsmanship or attention to detail. The best part is that Beth was able to show Nonni what her gift provided for our family. And those 2 important people feeling happy makes me happy too! We don't know how long Nonni will be with us, but whether it is a month or 10 more years, she will be part of all our "kitchen experiences" as long as we live in this house. And unless I can convince Beth to move to a cabin at the lake, we will probably be serving our grandkids pancakes on our new barstool countertops someday.
So thank you to McNeill's Cabinetry, REM Installs, and all your excellent crew members who did great work and treated our house and family with respect. It means so much more than you would ever know.
Josh & Beth
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