Nuevo Granite Bar

Well here you go folks, my granite bar top has been installed. If you have the time to read on you will get the feeling of how difficult things are here in the DR and how diligent you need to be. . They were supposed to get here at 10:30 in the morning and I needed to remove the old wood bar top before they got here. I asked Diego who owns the hotel if he wanted the old bar top. I said he could have it just for taking it away. I told him I needed the person in the Restaurant at 8 am to get this done as the new Granite top would be there at 10:30am. . Sounds simple, right? Uh Uh, nothing is simple here. I get here on Monday morning promptly at 7:30 am in anticipation of the guy being here at 8am. Of course he isn't there by 8:30 so I go to the desk and ask the woman there if she could call Diego. Well 15 minutes later I am told he will be here in half an hour. I come back at 9:15 am after having breakfast and he finally shows up.

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If you look at the pictures this guy Knocked out with a hammer fake wood that looked like it was supporting the bar. Dori my partner came in and I didn't keep my eye on what the guy was doing because I was talking to Dori. Now I have holes in the bar because of this jerk. I said why did you do this? It wasn't necessary and now I need to do more work. He said it is only a little concrete. You have to keep your eye on these people every second or everything that they do will end up costing you more money. They have absolutely no respect for what is right. Then the moron says he is leaving because I complained.

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Dori and I removed the bar with no more damage by 10:28 am which was 2 minutes earlier than the new top was supposed to arrive.

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Of course the granite doesn't get here. I call up and they say that they are on their way from Santiago. I call up an hour later and they said they would be here soon. They finally get here 2 hours later and unload the Granite and ask me to sign. I say WHOA, you are supposed to install it. They say someone else is going to do this. Ok, I call up again and they say they are sending the people now from Puerto Plata. I call back an hour later and ask what is going on. She calls me back and says "they stopped for lunch". It is now 3:30pm and I said "if you would have told me I would have eaten also". She says "you can go to eat". I go to a takeaway and then take it to a bar nearbye and order a beer to wash down my Dominican meal. As I sit down to eat the guy that is installing comes over to me to say he is ready. It is now 4pm. I have been there since 7:30am.

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They set the first piece of 5 and go around the bar. The bar is now pointing in the wrong direction. They cut an angle off the granite to make it point right. The granite is now missing 4 inches in the middle. I had to cut off the bar at the end in a angle to make the short piece work. Of course the woman is going to come in to take a look on Tuesday to see what is wrong but of course she doesn't show up. She doesn't show up on Wednesday either. Man you have to keep your nose to the grindstone here in this country because there isn't even a apology coming when they screw the pooch in their work. I had no choice but to make this work so I could open up the next day.

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Welcome to doing renovations in the Dominican Republic. I do have to say that it cost a hell of a lot less than in the states but I still for the life of me can't understand why these people don't take more pride in what they do. It isn't like it is a lot more work to do things in the right way. Just a little more effort is all it takes.

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Hasta Pronto!