Dewitt Designer Kitchens

My experience with DeWitt Designer Kitchens has a mixed rating. Dewitt Kitchens created the design/kitchen plans to remodel my kitchen, as well as, provided the implementation of their design: floor, cabinet, counter tops and backsplash instillation. The kitchen design was beautiful. Dewitt Kitchen?s instillation of their design was very problematic: with very poor oversight by the two designers; limited follow through; and installing, removing and re-installing the north cabinets, south cabinets and floor. The kitchen remodel began in August 2012 and did not finish until DeWitt Kitchens re installed the kitchen floor in November of 2013. The principal designer, Elina, was identified to me in June of 2012 as the co-owner of DeWitt Designer Kitchens. She is a very talented artist and kitchen and bath designer. Her plans are exceptional. You can see her talent as an artist, and her experience in the entertainment industry is evident in her ability to design ?staring? and ?supporting? aspects/elements of your kitchen. Elina is one of the few designers who truly understand lighting, which can transform your kitchen from ordinary to sparkling. Ms. Katsioula-Beall?s kitchen designs are unique, artistic, beautiful, one of a kind and will not be dated. She is an exceptional designer, but in my experience neither Elina nor the co-designer Ms. V-A managed or oversaw the kitchen remodel project effectively. See below for the numerous instillation problems. My numerous problems with DeWitt Designer Kitchens began with the implementation by DeWitt Kitchens to install the cabinetry and floor. The problems I encountered in my very small kitchen had to do with what I experienced as a lack of monitoring the work of the cabinet and floor installers, poor to no oversight, lack of follow through on known delays and missing materials, and what appeared to me to be a limited supply of installers and craftsmen, and a turn over of co-designers. When I had my kitchen plans drawn up in 2012 there were three co-designers besides Elina. One month later when my project started, one designer had retired to Palm Springs, the second left, and that left just one co designer, Ms. V-A, to work with Elina. I have had past working experience with two different interior design companies and had experienced much better project monitoring, meeting time lines, and customer service then I experienced with DeWitt Kitchens. The problems started from the beginning of instillation. The cabinet and floor installer began to argue who had to level my kitchen floor. Neither wanted to do the leveling because they both indicated that there had been problems in the past on a previous DeWitt kitchen?s floor leveling. The cabinet installer ended up leveling the kitchen floor with a second piece of sanded plywood. The floor installer came and installed the floor. The floor had to be redone 11 months later because, depending on the weather, every board in the center of the kitchen floor squeaked. Floor instillation problems often take a few months to appear. My house inspector and the person recommended from Provenza Flooring Company came to look at the floor and they both said the floor squeaked due to faulty floorboard instillation. The installer came back and wanted to nail the floorboards down and fill the nail holes to solve the squeaking problems. Unbelievable! But, Mr. Meurer, the president of DeWitt Kitchens, decided to have the center floorboards pulled up and new floorboards glued to the plywood subfloor. So be forewarned, the floor is the foundation of your kitchen and it should be leveled before any cabinets go in. My floor was leveled only between the installed cabinets and the floor instillation was done improperly the first time. The cabinets had to be re-done. The north cabinets were installed too high and had to be removed and re installed lower (there was no room for the marble counter top). Six weeks later when the Think Glass counter top arrived the south cabinets had to be removed and made two inches shorter to fit the glass counter top. All this was done at DeWitt?s monetary expense, but it coast me a lot of aggravation, dust, dirt and months of delay for a very small kitchen to be finished properly. From my experience, neither of the designers, Elina or Ms. V-A, oversaw the project in a satisfactory, efficient or customer friendly manner. Materials readily available were not ordered nor delivered on time for instillation: the flooring finishing/reducer pieces took five weeks for DeWitt Kitchens to pick up from their local supplier, but only after I fell and complained did they secure these; some items were missing for the glass counter top instillation; and the tile installer had to wait three hours for the co-designer Ms. A-V to bring the Vihara Glass mosaic tile for him to install in the service area, after previously being told that all the tile materials were at the job site. What was good: the two very talented and professional craftsmen, Federico, the hood and counter top fabricator; and Molise tile and marble fabricator and installer. I appreciate that Bill Meurer, the president of DeWitt Designer Kitchens, stepped in after the second cabinet re-instillation to oversee and remedy the ongoing problems of my kitchen remodel. The comments above come from my experiences, observations, conversations, photos, and e-mails to and with DeWitt Designer Kitchens. Due diligence: before contracting with DeWitt Kitchens, I looked on the State of California Contractor?s web site and saw nothing on DeWitt Designer Kitchens. I also checked the L A Superior Court and did not find any litigation against DeWitt Kitchens. There were no comments on Angies List back in 2012 and only one post on Yelp after I had contracted with DeWitt Kitchens.