I posted last month about our selection of a new stone once we found out our original selection was out of stock and no longer being manufactured. You'd think that would be the end of the difficulties, but as we're finding out, simple equates to a single headache. I'll save my migraine worthy A/V update for another post, but the stone story didn't end with the re-selection. Pop an Advil and read on.
Once we made our selection, we new that we'd have to pay extra. The mason gave us the new upcharge, which was roughly $2500 due to the type of stone (real vs man-made for one) and a higher labor cost since this stone was more fragile. After much deliberation, we just felt like for such a permanent and visible aspect of the home, we had to go with the superior look. So, we said, go for it.
Everything was good. The mason started putting it up on the exterior chimney and wow, it looked great. (pics later...after I make you feel my pain) We had no regrets.
Let's say that was a Monday. The next day (after the mason has started the job), we get an email (yes, an email) telling us that something went wrong and the actual upcharge was roughly $5000 (actually, the amount they told us was more than that, but so as not to confuse anyone, the extra amount was for some extra stone we were thinking about applying in the kitchen). Anyway.... I'm pretty sure the reaction was something along the lines of "Whaaaaaa!" followed by silent cursing and steam coming out the ears.
After stepping back and considering an appropriate next step (throwing and cursing just didn't seem like it was going to do much more than momentarily make us feel better), we gave a call to MOC and said, explain, please. Mike assured us the dollar amount was right, but he didn't know all the facts yet. We agreed to wait.
Well, after waiting (think Friday by this point), we find out that the mason assumed he was getting a discount from the stoneyard (and actually wasn't) and the stoneyard mislead the mason with pricing on "corner" pieces (twice as much as the mason thought). And to top everything off (if you hadn't grasped this already), the mason started to install the stone before the change order pricing actually got to us. Oops!
In that conversation I had with Mike before learning all this for certain, he understood his mistake on the timing of installation before communicating the true price difference (what, was the mason going to start taking the stone down?!) and had also said that the best solution was probably a compromise. I agreed, but only to an extent.
In the end, we ended up paying $3000 vs the $2500 originally quoted. The mason and MOC basically took a hit to the point of earning nothing on that part of the job. The stoneyard also supposedly took a hit, but I'm suspicious as to what. If I would have dug my heals in, I'm sure I could have stayed at $2500, but in the grand scheme of things, it just didn't seem worth the fight.
What really gets me though is that the stoneyard gave Ann and I pricing that showed the corner pieces at the price the mason thought. Shouldn't the stoneyard totally eat it on that? (Wow, I felt 17 again for a moment there). And because of my quest to understand all, I had called the stoneyard during our selection process to understand their pricing and they told me they didn't give anyone discounts!!!!! Unbelievable. Grrr, the whole episode still chaps my hide. But maybe that's because we just found out we've got a similar situation with our appliances. I'm not giving in this time!!! HA!
OK, sorry, you wanted to see how great the stone looks. It's just the chimney, but it gives you a feel for where things are going. You can imagine the stone on the corners of the house and by the front door.
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