What grates on you?

in some cases if you know that later you are going to laugh at the whole situation or laugh at yourselves for getting into a tizzy, you can just decide to laugh it off right now.

in some cases if you understand that no visitor will ever notice it, you can afford to let it be as is, regardless of your intent. Seeing it this way is very hard when you have no experience "being someone else" and entering your newly finished kitchen as if you were a fresh new visitor.

in other cases you must take action... big or small.

You have to realize it is all a mental game. Hot stones around a fire were good enough for billions of people. When your mind tries to say - "I should have" or "I wish" then firmly but gently go back to the thought "I did an excellent job."

I am sure that there will be things I'd want to tweak after I see my new kitchen, but hopefully, I will be able to focus on how much better it works and how much prettier (the old one could not have been much uglier/boring, lol).

The saying that someone will always be richer or thinner helps put things in perspective. It is impossible to have a perfect kitchen. We should strive for awesome and leave perfection to those who want to make themselves nuts.

I think you should focus on all the wonderful elements of your new kitchen and try to let go of things that can't be changed. And do not point out every little "flaw" to people who come visit you. That's one of my shortcomings, but I plan to NOT do this when my new kitchen is finished. I have a couple relatives who would take pleasure in knowing my new kitchen isn't perfect! So I'm not going to give them the satisfaction by mentioning things I might not be thrilled with.

You may just be feeling tired after all the work and stress of renovation. Most likely once you are back to using your new kitchen you will feel more satisfied with it. If not, and something is still grating on you big time a few months down the road, you may be able top go back and change it. If you can't change it (usually because of big expense involved), you may be able to come up with an idea on how to make it work in your favor. I'll give you a couple examples.

After building our last home, I didn't like the fact that our bathroom had no window. Also, because the house was adjoined to a large airplane hangar, I had a wall in the main part of our house that was hugely vaulted. To make things worse, the walls were painted white. Stark white. It felt like a hospital room.

Well, when looking for some floor tile a couple of years later, I met a lady who had some lovely murals painted on her walls. I contacted the artist, and long story short, I re-painted my walls a soft buttery cream, and she painted garden scenery. The high wall had a wisteria "tree" painted on it with the flowing flowers "climbing" on over a large double set of sliding glass doors in the great room. The bathroom had a large arched "window" painted over the bathtub with a beautiful scene looking "outside" the window.

I went so far as to have her paint on a laundry scene on one long laundry room wall where nothing else ever looked right. It was a backyard scene with birds and flowers. In the yard was a clothesline with wash hanging on it.

When we put the house up for sale several years later (to get out of the subdivsion), my realtor, though she loved the house, was worried about the personalization of it. I refused to paint over the murals, as it was STILL MY HOUSE, and I loved them. The house sold the day after we lowered our price a bit. A couple who had looked at the house loved it, but it was a bit more than they could afford. They called two hours after we lowered the price and said they were making the drive the next day to buy it. They did, and they love it now as well.

You'll find a way to make the things you don't like into something unique and wonderful.

Sandy

Part of the perfection quest is feeling let down when the
project is near the end. The Reno Rollercoaster Ride.

Could have, Should have, Would have....

You are being too hard on yourself. Take the magnify glass
away and start looking at the trees not the leaves. Let go.
Tonight before you go to bed, remind yourself how far you
have come. Maybe you need to get your before pictures out
and look at all those things you did not like about the
old space. Remind yourself what you wanted to change
and pat yourself on the back. You did great!!! You just
did a renovation. Hooray for you. Of course it is not
perfect, if it were perfect you would find something not
perfect about it to pick it apart and start all over again.
That is the difference between a rollercoaster reno rider
and someone who just lives with it.
You just finished a reno break open the Champagne!
~boxer

"This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections."
Saint Augustine quotes

Thanks everyone. I needed perspective.

Island, you asked what grates on me. Already I see "grates" is too harsh a word. It's down to "bugs", and I imagine will be forgotten soon enough.

What bugs is my sink. I originally wanted a Cambria product and there's only one place to get that around here and they don't do the more skilled stuff like drainfields. Then I changed to Caesarstone and the contractor stuck with the same supplier b/c one that did do the drainfield would be $1600 more (1000 more for the base job and 600 for the drainfield). And she was right, I don't want to pay $1600 for the drainfield. But I might have chosen a sink with an integrated drainfield. Now the sink looks smallish and I really , really used that drainfield in my old kitchen, it was about the only thing I did like in the old kitchen, so I will really miss the functionality.

The other thing is that I didn't really notice that all my drawers are one of two depths: silverware depth or big pot depth. I wanted a bread drawer near the toaster, and where I thought the toaster would go also won't work because there is a shelf above it.

I thought I worked out every last detail!

But, my old kitchen was dysfunctional with a capital D and ugly as sin to boot. And the new one is amazingly improved on both counts.

So I will re-read what you all said every time I get that nagging feeling.

Thanks so much.

I too had things that bugged me when our renos were done. (And we did a whole house reno so I had A LOT of things that bugged me). But what I did was I kept a picture of the old kitchen handy and every time I started to doubt a decision that I had made I would take out that old picture of that ugly dysfunctional kitchen and I would feel better about what we now had.
Part of my problem is kitchen envy whenever someone posts their new kitchen. Why didn't I think of that?... Oh that is so pretty, I wonder if I can include that?... And now someone has started a thread showing modern kitchens well, now I am really doubting my choices so I have to get out that picture of my old kitchen.
WRT sizes of drawers etc - you will probably reorganize your kitchen 2 or 3 times before you find the best way that works for you and your family. My DH just said - you can reorganize all you want just don't move the breakfast stuff without telling me.
This will all work out and those doubts are normal. At least I hope so.

I'm sure some regrets are perfectly normal. Keep the pic of that old ugly kitchen handy! My advice is to relax and enjoy! Your new kitchen is lovely, and remember how long you dreamed about it and how much research and planning you put into it!

I always say, "If they expected perfection, they shoulda hired God."

Florantha! LOL!!!!

I am sorry, I feel your pain. I am obsessing over every detail and everything keeps going wrong. The latest is a 12 inch fissure in the granite, ughh. To say the least, I can't wait for it all to be done so I don't have to stress or think about kitchens anymore for a while LOL! I need a vacation haha.

I often feel exasperated about a long, very changed course of renovation-events. But the fact of the matter is, while we are living in boxes and suitcases still without a kitchen for months, really years without our stuff (not all due to this renovation), we are all healthy, with (too much, if less than optimally healthy) food in our bellies and a very stout, waterproof roof over our heads. That's all that does really matter. Every, every other little thing, grating or irksome or otherwise, is simply gravy. It is sheer luxury to be irked by all of this stuff.

So that's the answer for me: be grateful for the opportunity to be bugged! Darn it ;) ....

Doesn't matter what you do, there will always be something you wished you would have done! I have built many a kitchen and everyone of them, the owner wished they would have done something different. Now I am building my own house and trying to incorporate all the things I saw in the other kitchens that I want and it is an impossible task! I have decided that is will be best to have it fit the house and my lifestyle and if I can't get everything, it will just have to do! Guarantee you, after it is done, I'll wished I had done something different! Que Sera Sera!