Well, things haven't been perfect with the new house, but in comparison the issues we've had up until now have been minor. The exception being the tile in our master bathroom, where they used the wrong grout on floor and walls, and then missed a row of decorative tile. The builder is still dealing with the tile vendor, and I know he'll stay on them until things are right.
What I'm incredibly distressed about right now is my kitchen. We spent months (as many of us do) looking for the right granite. It was something we'd been wanting for years but it's exotic and really required a large island to get the full effect. Now, finally, in this new house, we have a very large island that would show off the granite. We searched all over for the perfect slabs, mostly because it was a difficult granite to find and every slab we saw was different. And we needed multiple (three!) slabs, so not only did the distributor have to have a slab we liked, they had to have at least three. Finally found the slabs, spent a really long time with the fabricator, someone the builder hadn't contracted with directly before, but who had worked in a previous house he built (fabricator contracted directly with the owner at the time). The builder said "He does good work, but he's a pain in the ass to deal with because he's terrible with his schedule." Okay, nothing new, scheduling with all these vendors has been painful. But good work, that's important, especially since we're looking at expensive exotic granite.
Contract detailed out in a long 3 hour meeting. Specifications detailed out, fabricator says only HE (the owner) will cut the exotic granite because it costs so much. All is well, builder signs approved contract. Fabricator sits on his butt, doesn't get the granite in his shop, so we're behind on the schedule. No big shock. Finally gets the granite in his shop and we go to do the layout with him. This guy is a pain, he's a know-it-all, and can't answer a yes or no question in less than 20 minutes. We discuss how we want the island laid out, and he says he'll do it in one slab. Says it will be tough, but it's a beautiful piece of stone and deserves to be in one big slab. He'll do it, he says, because it's "art". We okay that, and we spend time looking at the patterns and veining on the granite to figure out where we want the cut-out for the sink. The fabricator thinks it should go on one side, but we want it on the opposite side. We're looking to show off certain areas of the granite that we like. He sort of disagrees (20 minute diatribe) but says he'll do what we want. We mark the area for the sink with tape with a big + sign. At the last minute, I ask DH to take a picture of the granite because I want to show it off to people. Pictures taken, we move on to talk about remnants for the master bathroom. As we're talking, storms are coming in, power goes out, boom, end of meeting. Not a huge deal, we stand in the emergency lights and talk about overhang and edging for the bathroom. Power doesn't come back on so we leave.
Roll forward a week, builder says "come on site tomorrow to approve where faucets are going". So off we go today, and we're excited as hell. Big beautiful slab of granite going on the island...cannot WAIT. See it coming? Do you? I can't even imagine.
Yes, he did the island backwards. Cut out the sink where HE originally said it should go, and completely denied that we wanted it the other way. Yes, the slab is in one piece, which is kind of a miracle and we were told it was a beast to do. But now the areas we wanted to show off are either cut off or hidden under where the bar will go (and behind the sink), and the area we DIDN'T like is now front and center. Literally, I walked in the door from the garage, through our short mudroom and into the kitchen, and I wanted to weep within 10 seconds. I saw it right away. I was devastated. The fabricator was out of the room and I told the builder immediately it was wrong. He smiled like I was joking, then his face fell when he realized I was serious.
The fabricator argued with me briefly, but I whipped out my camera and showed him the pictures. He denied initially that what I had was the "final" marking, but there were FOUR of us with him at the shop to template, and we all knew he was wrong. I walked out and called DH, who was equally as upset. We paid a lot of money for the granite and it was wrong, and I couldn't deal with it the way it was. We could have paid 1/4 of what we did and gotten a nicer end result because of the pattern that was left on the granite.
When I told the fabricator I expected it to be redone (in between phone guys doing repairs, builder telling me we had more lighting issues, DH ringing through on the phone over and over), he got upset. Told me he would do it, but he would not do it in one slab again. He refused, even though it was something he promised. My builder explained the guy didn't want to take a chance ruining a 2nd slab that he would have to eat the cost of. But it's not MY fault he has to eat the cost of this slab. He messed up, he didn't take appropriate notes or whatever...
And we're not even sure if he can get another slab of this stone, he won't know until MONDAY. And when we picked this slab for the island, we had four to choose from to select the nicest piece. Now we're going to get whatever the distributor has, which could be not nearly as nice. No choice, just "plop" here it is. And he now is going to put a seam right across the center of the island.
Should I be requiring him to do the island in one slab again as he originally promised? We're paying a lot of money and should be getting what we paid for. We did due diligence, went to templating, reviewed contracts, used a known quantity...and it's a disaster. I'm not even all that thrilled with work he did on the perimeter with the seams and such, but I was so devastated by the island--the center piece of the kitchen--that I couldn't concentrate on anything else.
The fabricator spent probably 20 minutes with me telling me he tried to do good, look at the beautiful edges, look at the back splashes, look at the seams (which I thought were just average)...and how he WANTED to do the island in one piece to make us happy! Like HE was the one being wronged. I had to go deal with the phone guy and when I got back, I found out the fabricator got annoyed, and actually left the site, leaving his guys behind to drill the holes for the sink on the perimeter and in the master. He actually left without saying anything, just kind of stormed off.
Sorry, sorry, guess I needed to do more venting than I thought. The kitchen was supposed to be the center-piece of the house...we budgeted and spent the majority of our allowances there, sacrificing elsewhere for it. But really, anyone? Should I just let it go and allow him to do the island in two pieces? Do I force him to follow through and do what he promised, knowing if the second slab breaks that we'd be screwed?
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