DON"T get me started....:>) Count your lucky stars! I mean it! Count em, right now! :>)

What edge did you finally go with?

oh no....yes, everyone has snafus. everyone.

LOL, I am counting them. Thanks. I ended up with bullnose in the kitchen and a stacked radius in the bathrooms because of the water drip-off concerns I had. Bullnose is his preferred edge so no upgrade, if I was to change edges in the kitchen there would be a significant price increase. I am crossing my fingers all will turn out okay regarding the granite because I don't know if I am second guessing myself because of snafu's or actual concerns.

Snafu's doesn't even describe it ;-)

it will turn out fine! and second-guessing is part of the process, it seems. it is esp. hard after you're a few weeks into the process, living with people going in and out, dust, temp. kitchen....
if you haven't, go read (and post in :) )my thread for mid-remodel people -- it is full of snafus. :( but i think we're all better prepeared to amange them hanging out here!

explain on the molding issue too - how did they mess that up??

yes everyone has them. And the ones you described don't seem like big issues. If you really dont like the crown then send it back. It can be finshed later with out impacting other work.

Yes - EVERYONE

Snafu's? Sigh...

We built a CUSTOM home that we GC'd ourselves. The "JOKE" about it is the FACT that we did NOT get what we had originally contracted subs to do for us, so our house, does not look like what was designed.

The brick mason had detailed drawings. He must have toked on something a little too long because when I came home, he had bricked the entire front of my home when I was supposed to of had the bottom three feet or four feet or so bricked. The brick stayed and it cost more to brick and pay for the labor.

Electricians forgot to mark where they put the smoke detectors and couldn't find three. I have three not wired into the house. They also switched switches, didn't hook up switches, put in too big of light switch panels and all had to be redone.

Cabinet maker screwed us big time...ended up in court. Made cabinets too large, too small, ordered wrong door profile, shoddy paint job (shiny lacquer, like Asian shiny black lacquer, except in white on some cabinets), etc... made a square range hood when an arched hood was ordered, and so on...

There are so many errors, I try not to think of it. It just grates my nerves when someone says something like, "Oh, I wish I could build what I want one day, too!" I ususally say, "So do I."

Snafus? That's a much nicer word that I've called 'them'. This is what it's like in the life of a builder or remodeler.

Hang in there xoxosmom- hopefully that will be your ONLY snafu, someday you will look back on it and laugh. I only say this because I actually laugh now when I tell people about the 100 year old tree that fell on our brand new roof, and hit the plumbing vent pipe in the wall for our kitchen that was only up and running for 4 days. We had to cut a hole on the outside of the house to repair the plumbing, because the soapstone had just been installed. You better believe I was crying when it happened-- but now I can laugh at our terrible luck!
Sherilynn- sorry to hear about your experience- now that's bad- I hope it all ends well for you.

Yes, everyone has them. I had one with the cabinets over my hood and just today I had one with my beautiful new dual fuel range. I feel lucky that we haven't had more. Just roll with the punches and try to find a solution that you can be happy with. Sorry you are disappointed. That is the worst feeling.

our kitchen is DIY. My DH and FIL put our crown molding on upside down. I call it a happy mistake, it still looks good and I will have to live with it,things happen. Im sure it will look beautiful when all is done. It's hard to see the final picture sometimes when your in the "process" but hang in there. (thats what i tell myself anyway ;)

Um...yes, everyone has snafus...just look at mine :-(

I think it's happened to everyone!! I am so close to being done, but I laugh at the way Murphy's Law pops up exponentially more often as you approach the END!!!

For example - This just happened to me TODAY(!): I had ordered glass door fronts on two wood cabs, but the insides came white so about three weeks ago I reordered the same cabs with wood finished interiors. Today I received one cabinet that was fine but the other had it's 24" width dimension transposed (not by me) and the cab was 14" deep by 42" wide!! So, the cab folks are cutting it down and putting it back together for me and it should be taken care of in the next day or two (instead of three more weeks). Also, back in January I ordered 5 sets of door knobs from a company and today I finally received my order, but it was pretty botched - I received 4 knob sets total: three of which I had only ordered two of, one of which I ordered two of, and I didn't even get the fifth one! I was on the phone 45 minutes tonight fixing that one and now have to wait another 2 weeks for replacements!!! I just have to keep smiling and laugh when these things happen because the reality is, they WILL happen, you just have to roll with it and figure out what the next steps are to fix it. Sometimes "they" have made a mistake, and other times it was me that made it. Just try to stay positive and maintain some perspective, that is what I have concluded, at least...
Hang in there!

Yep - as far as I know everyone does. I had issues with my moulding too.

How it goes from there depends on your contractor. For me I just had to nicely say it was not waht I wanted and it was fixed - no complaints. For my coworker that was doing a remodel at the same time his contractor would argue with him and try to charge him extra. It was so rediculous that in his case the electrician cut too big of a hole (cut for a 3 switch box, only needed a two) and so put in a switch that controlled nothing - and then they refused to fix it! It was a $125,000 remodel and they fought him on swapping out the box and fixing the drywall!

Expect lots of issues, mostly little, but still enough to keep you at a semi state of stress for almost the whole remodel. :)

OP, sorry for being slightly off topic, but still building snafus from the electrician.

Mysterymachine, you wrote it much better than I did. It was so rediculous that in his case the electrician cut too big of a hole (cut for a 3 switch box, only needed a two) and so put in a switch that controlled nothing - and then they refused to fix it!

This is EXACTLY what our electrician did to us, too. When I wrote "put in too big of light switch panels and all had to be redone," well, in my master bath, I still have one of those switches left. The electrician did not center the light over the tub and he literally had it almost where another light was to be installed and it was stupid. Absolutely stupid. I told him to 'tie' off the electricity over the tub and not install the light. There was plumbing in the way, so he could not move the light box above the tub. LITTLE did I know he was still hooking up a three way switch at the light switch. He COULD have put in a two switch box, but he didn't. Had I noticed this, I would have called him on it. As it stands, I have a stupid looking plastic panel where the other switch would have gone.

One day, this will be fixed. I am just wondering 'when'.

I've had so many "mistakes" that I can't think of anything that was installed without a problem. What I've learned is that it pays to be neurotic (if it can go wrong, chances are it will), questioning all my decisions borders on obsessing to normal people, and even if I think I've covered all bases, doted every i and crossed every t, there are still some things that can and will go wrong.

Doing this remodel it seems there are just some things that are beyond the control of mortal man. At fist I thought I would have a drink after each "mistake". But I've come to the conclusion that if I did have a drink after every problem, I'd have a serious drinking problem when this remodel is finally done!

Hang in there!

Karen

here's our snafu - it turned out that there had to be a beam that ran over our cooktop, so there's a soffit there. This meant that we couldn't use the custom cabinet that we ordered, and we also couldn't return it. It made me absolutely livid at the time (2 months ago), but now I don't care! My kitchen is awesome! Good luck with yours - hopefully soon it will be a distant memory...

Oh yes, everyone has them. Mine is a 6x9' laundry/pantry room that turned out to be just short of 6' so I couldn't use the stock cabinetry I wanted in there. It would have been so nice and symmetrical and easy.... Now I have to change my plans.

Absolutely! Murphy's kitchen laws. Here's my dilemma:
We're at the half-way mark. Half finished and half crazy. Cabinets & floor are in. I ordered the cabinetry for my fridge to have the built-in look, and a cabinet on top that goes to the ceiling, once the molding is in. I SUPER don't like it. It's enormous, and I never realized in any of the planning that it cuts off the far wall, and makes the kitchen look like it stops. I want the contractor to remove the cabinet on top. I don't have any where to use it, so it'll be yard sale fodder or a ritzy garage cupboard. And I want him to saw down the panels that make the fridge look built in.
I know he can do it because he "re-designed" another cabinet for us that I "mis-visualized."
Would you do that? Saw off and throw out money that we waited 14 years to have? Thanks, Guilty roberta

Roberta, I would leave it for the time being and see if it grows on you. If it doesn't in a few weeks, then let it be gone. I'm thinking the cabinet and fridge surround will grow on you. It did for me.

OP, I am only trying to encourage lightlystarched and anyone else if they have problems and see that you're getting something installed that you did not authorize and end up in court, like we did...just what some of us have to go through to try to make chicken salad out of chicken $$it.

Oh yes, everyone has them. Mine is a 6x9' laundry/pantry room that turned out to be just short of 6' so I could not use the stock cabinetry I wanted in there. It would have been so nice, symmetrical, and easy.... Now I have to change my plans.

lightlystarched, you can modify those cabinets. I did it in a couple of places and it is not that hard, especially since it will be abutted against a wall. I had my trim person modify SEVERAL cabinets, now that I think about it. They take all sides apart, cut it shorter, and then reassemble. It is not rocket science. Even DH could do it after he saw it done. Truly, it CAN BE DONE rather easily and fast.

To give you an idea, I'll use this older photo of my kitchen cabinets next to my hood. My kitchen was mucked up by a shoddy cabinet maker. He made what he wanted and left me high and dry. NOTHING FIT in my kitchen. My arched hood was rectangular and there was no arch. CabfiascoGuy built cabinets that were right up to the edge of the range and got hot when you cooked. I HATED MY KITCHEN. It looked nothing like we had planned. (And still doesn't. My entire kitchen is an improvisation.)

What did I do? I had to cut back the cabinets and try to create an 'illusion' of an arch, so to speak. See what I did.... and am still doing very, very slowly after hiring several people to finish and I hated what was happening, so I'm doing it slow as a snail, but soon to be done.

Built This:

Mid-Modification:

Almost done:

I need to add another snafu *cries*. This one is more than cosmetic. When I was dozing off the other night. I woke up with a start and realized that my drawers will not function with pulls on them because they are right next to each other in a L. I won't be able to open them fully and pulls are absolutely needed because these are substantial drawers with no edges. The subtop is layed and all we are waiting on is the granite. Until I call the contractor that is and explain the problem. I hope there is an easy fix.

Sherilynn - you are a doll to let me know about your cabinet modifications. I was planning to just plug Ikea cabinet boxes (no doors) in the pantry but now we've decided to install open shelving instead - and I can have a much more space efficient layout. I think this snafu is gong to actually work out for the better.

And I have to admit, having a 36" door to the back patio will be better than a 32" door.

xoxosmom: make sure you get it fixed! It's happened to plenty of others. So don't be too hard on yourself for it. But hopefully, there is room to add a filler on one side or the other. Otherwise, you might have to change out one of the two drawer bases so that it's short enough for a filler.

xoxosmom, don't lose any more sleep. I saw a post from someone else (sorry, have no clue who it was), and they had the exact same problem. They put ring pulls on their drawers. When they posted that they had to have ring pulls cuz their drawers were in an L I didn't get it; (brain freeze), she even posted a picture- but as soon as you explained your problem, a light went off in my head!

Hopefully, that solution would work for you too, and that you can get ring pulls that coordinate with your other hardware.