Category Archives: Off-the-Wall Remodeling Stories

Mike Kuplicki is the Director of Sales for Alure Basements and Sunrooms and has been in the Remodeling field since 1975. Read more of Mike’s remodeling stories here.

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Way back when I had my own remodeling company, we were adding on a small addition to a home in Oceanside, New York . The extension was off the kitchen and the homeowners had packed up everything they could in the living room - including a “rather loud” Cockatoo. The clients were both teachers and had left us alone in their home while they were at work.

Time spent in any business seems to generate anecdotes about experiences and situations that are just too funny to be true.  After 36 years in the remodeling business the stories have begun to pile up.  Some of them are serious, some funny, all of them true with something to be learned.
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It never ceases to amaze me the lengths some people will go to deceive someone. I often wonder how productive these people would be if the same amount of creativity and energy were put forth in a positive manner. This is a story that takes “seeing is believing” to a new level.

Recently, an old client of mine happened to walk into the Alure showroom. We stared at each other and both cried each other’s first name. I couldn’t believe it had been 25 years since we had last seen each other! When I was remodeling the client’s kitchen and windows, she told us that we were her favorite crew to work with and had fondly talked about us over the years. I remembered her fondly as well and one of my favorite stories is about her remodel…

The kitchen counter top was a mica top that my partner and I made. A couple of days later after the installation, I got a call from Cathy telling us that there was a serious defect in the top near the dish drain area of the sink. You can imagine how concerned I was that I could possibly have missed seeing a defect so we got in the truck and flew down there. Cathy was pretty cool to us and she pointed out the “dimples” in the mica top close to the sink. We saw them and could not believe that either of us could have missed that! Cathy had her son (at 1-1/2 year old) on her hip and while we were discussing the top and how we were going to have to take it out and redo it, she put him on the counter top.

Time spent in any business seems to generate anecdotes about experiences and situations that are just too funny to be true.  After 36 years in the remodeling business the stories have begun to pile up.  Some of them are serious, some funny, all of them true with something to be learned.
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My remodeling career has afforded me the opportunity to experience various aspects of the business world.  When I had recently graduated from college, I started in the contracting business as a salesperson.  Sales was not a career I would have chosen at the time but I’m glad I did. I became proficient at designing and selling bathrooms for a local plumbing contractor who had begun a remodeling company as well.

Time spent in any business seems to generate anecdotes about experiences and situations that are just too funny to be true.  After 36 years in the home remodeling business the stories have begun to pile up.  Some of them are serious, some funny, all of them true with something to be learned. This is the first in a series that are truly “Too True to be Real.”

Many years ago, I was doing a kitchen remodeling project on the North Shore of Long Island. At the time, we did not use garbage dumpsters on the job but rather collected the debris in the driveway and called a company at the end of the project to clean up the site.  As normal, we had removed the existing cabinets, countertops and appliances and began remodeling the kitchen. The project went smoothly, especially considering we were working on an existing Mexican Terracotta floor that was extremely uneven.