Kitchen woes...

As some of you know, I've lived in my new house for almost 2 years now... When I bought it, it needed a lot of work done, including a new kitchen as the original one was totally falling apart.

So I did what you do and visited several kitchen stores and ended up making a good deal for a very nice kitchen. So far so good. Of course the kitchen needed to be installed as well and the store where I bought it recommended an installation company.

In the beginning all was well... Two nice chaps who seemed to know what they were doing and even helped me out big time when they discovered leaking water pipes in the space underneath my house. They also helped me get a new refrigerator when the one that was delivered by the kitchen store turned out to be damaged.

Now, two years later, I'm faced with all the things that didn't turn up quite right:
- electric outlets installed right above the sink
- a dishwasher, freezer and gas stove that aren't quite the quality I would have liked (do not ever consider buying anything from the Spanish label Fagor, I really cannot recommend it!)
- the transformator (sp?) for the spot lights broke and is hidden somewhere I don't know so I can't repair it
- and just last weekend the electric ignition for the gas stove broke, so I'm back to using matches

The worst part is that the installation company has disappeared and that I'm too much of a 'let's just all be nice to each other' type of person to complain to the kitchen store. I know I teach conflict management classes, but with these types of conflicts I definitely take the 'avoid' approach. I wish I could be as assertive with these types of people as I can be in other situations! I guess I'm just really annoyed with myself for not getting my act together and do something about this.

Having said all that, I still like my kitchen and my new house :-)