I will let the pros answer this, but, to me, it looks like some pieces are not installed in the same direction. You have lighter marble, meeting darker marble, and it looks very bad to me. I would rip it out. Just my opinion, and I wouldnt use him again. You may have to purchase all new stone too.

OMG. That guy's an idiot. He's cutting an opening for an outlet box. Those are standard sizes! He should know what size a single (and double and triple) outlet box is and cut to those sizes only (unless there is something special). That's very different from measuring for custom cabinets and allowing for wall variations--it's a standard!

Having said that, there are oversized outlet covers that will cover that (decorator-y ones, House of Antique Hardware, etc.), but they won't match the rest.

yes, I wouldn't be opposed to making it work, but its a bummer to have to make it work when it was just done wrong :) That said, that particular outlet is close to a seam, so the installer had said that that caused the problem (i.e. he couldn't actually cut it in, he had to use the seam as the side), but from my perspective, he planned where all the seams went, so that seems like it could have been easily planned for

Who approved the template? Do you have a kitchen designer?

I never saw a template (so it was never approved) and I do not have a designer.

also, based on some of these problems, i feel like they did this with measurements and not a template--i've had marble installed in other homes where I know they used a template and this process seemed different and the results were much worse

Yeesh. This looks bad. Did you already pay him the balance of the job? If not, get him to rip it out. He should eat the cost of the stone and I would use the contractor's fabricator instead because this guy is out of his depth. Good luck.

He made you the sink?

You are going to trust that the whole thing won't leak and/or fall apart when you put a large full heavy pot in it?

Sometimes you make a mistake in a project and you have to take the loss and start over. This is probably one of those times. You might rethink your stone. If that marble is truly soft, your counter and sink edges will look awful in a few years.

The sink is reinforced with another marble, but no I don't trust that it won't leak, I think it seems poorly built and at the very least, I would rebuild the sink. And if I started from scratch, I would use another marble--I like marble and its patina, but I would go with a more tried and true marble.

I did a quick search on that marble. There are a few with that name. It said it was medium hard and easy to work with. idn I don't understand how the sink isn't centered on the window or the base cab. Everything else can probably be patched up to look pretty good. One point of a template is to avoid math mistakes and plan for outlets and sinks. Since your guy made the sink, I'm not sure there would be a template for that and it makes sense you would have to measure and mark that. So looks like you need a bigger sink.

Aside from the overall installation quality, I don't understand why that receptacle box wasn't set flush with the marble face. Didn't the electrician know that you were going to install a marble backsplash? Now you need box extenders.

And that sure looks like a round cornered handy box. Those are for exposed mounting. Who installs them in walls?

An oversize plate will probably cover that gap, but I'm not too thrilled about it anyway. IIRC, there are code requirements for gap between the box and the wall around it. Maybe our resident NEC expert Ron Natalie will post on whether the fit between the box and the drywall will be enough for it to pass.

As for trying to get the marble itself corrected, you're in for a frustrating time, I'm afraid. You may need a lawyer for this.

On the other hand, if you got the deal of the century and paid this guy, say, half of what such a job would normally cost, maybe you should chalk it up to experience and live with it.

The next time you do research for choosing a tradesperson, I suggest NOT doing it on the web. That worked until about 2003-2005, when it started to dawn on them that their customers were talking about them behind their backs on the net, and they jumped in themselves.

Today, regardless of what they claim, there are no review sites where the scores aren't gamed up by tradespeople and their friends, and gamed down by competitors and their friends. Most or all of the sites will also make negative reviews vanish, or at least count less, for tradespeople who advertise with them.

None of the review sites is trustworthy. IMO researching contractors on the net may even be more hazardous than picking one at random, because it gives you misplaced confidence.

The safe place for research now is back to what it was before the internet -- among your friends, relatives, and co-workers. Best are the ones where you can personally inspect the work that they've had done.

Good luck. I hope you find some resolution.

2nd time in a few days I've seen poor work hired via great reviews....

Almost makes you wonder who did the actual reviews........................

"The next time you do research for choosing a tradesperson, I suggest NOT doing it on the web. That worked until about 2003-2005, when it started to dawn on them that their customers were talking about them behind their backs on the net, and they jumped in themselves.

Today, regardless of what they claim, there are no review sites where the scores aren't gamed up by tradespeople and their friends, and gamed down by competitors and their friends. Most or all of the sites will also make negative reviews vanish, or at least count less, for tradespeople who advertise with them."

This is absolute nonsense. Sure, there is the occasional gaming of the system, but it's hardly systemic. I speak from nearly 13 years experience on HomeAdvisor. I worked very hard to get those customers to say those nice things about me (4.63 rating out of a possible 5) and I'll be damned if I'm going to listen to anyone tell me they're faked.

Due to their complicated policies, I've got one idiot to whom I can't respond on Yelp. Talk to me some more about gaming the system please.

Once again, Joseph, your experience is very different from mine. I'm a consumer, you're a contractor. I'll let the reader decide whose experience is more relevant. But thanks for commenting.