The counters look pretty good. see of pro's chime in. But the 3rd photo not sure about, kind of looks like the counter didn't go flush to meet the wall there and it's filled with caulk? In that same photo, I suggest you remove the moulding under the counter and replace it with a better fit trim to clean it up. In other photos not sure what all the gunk is on the cabinetry, did they do that and not clean it up? Time and again lately there are stories of shoddy work, I am so paranoid to hire anyone these days. Sorry for your displeasure with this workmanship. Good luck!!

Minus the seam not matching up it looks good to me as well. And from the pic of the seam they did a phenomenal job on matching it. Only way to tell there is a seam there is to look closely at the pattern. And if there had to be a seam anywhere that for sure is the best place to have one. Probably could have a tighter fit, but the caulk still doesn't look bad. How often are you going to be laying on the floor looking at it from the underside?

The bath repairs do look like crap however. If they damaged it then I would ask for a discount of some sort. Probably not a lot that can be done for repairs. It could be made to look better than it does at least.

If the seam in front of the sink is the worst seam you have, that's pretty good. The seam is narrow and looks level on both sides. After all, with a large pattern you're not going to get perfect seams. Agree with jackowskib, you can replace the molding on the end wall, maybe trim the whole corner. Your walls and cabinets don't look brand new - so they could be a bit uneven. Are those chips from the counter installation or from removing the old counter? Are they up under the edge where you'll never see them?

uh, no, this isn't industry standard. I hope you haven't paid in full. the seam on the sink looks good. The gaps, not so much.

If the owner does crappy work, then he should have told you upfront, "we don't charge as much because my company does sub-standard workmanship"

For an owner to say, " If you want perfection You should have paid for it" is ludicrous. Yes, please show him all of these comments.

Are the cabs solid 1/4" oak base? they look a little cheaper made and that's prob why they cracked. Did he mention that to you? the patch job is really bad, but you prob can't see it from normal height.

(I have to ask why you're putting modern, brand new quartz counters on obviously very used and old (over 30 years) cabinets that aren't even a solid wood base. )

was that white molding base already there? it seems very poorly done (holes/painting)

So this piece of poo here. did they not measure?

the caulk is poorly done and way too wide. I wouldn't accept this.

Why didn't it go to the wall? Did he say? Oh wait, because you didn't pay for it or proper measuring.

If they mismeasured, tried to fill it w/half a tube of caulk, and then bully you because you won't accept it, that's asking for perfection? I'd tell the manager to shove it and fix it on his dime.

Show him a lot of pictures of countertops where no caulk is used and advise him that you expect quality, not perfection. You certainly didn't pay for mistakes and cover-ups. I'd blast social media w/all of this, including his comment.

Here, show him mine. This is quality. they made a mistake and they fixed it. They would have had to replace it if they didn't do such a good job.

can you see where the seam is? for some reason, they cut this end too short while on site. about an inch or so. would your guy have used caulk? I've actually seen some done like that.

I had them take the piece that was cut and epoxy it back together. I knew that corner wasn't going to be very visible, but they did a beautiful job.

was there no plywood base on top of the cabinets?

can you take a picture from regular height, further back?

The seam at the sink as well as the general stone selections are beautiful- the seam goes up the backsplash and across the raised counter for example. The gaps at the wall aren't great but you can't judge it from that close- the caulk could have been cleaner certainly. Is the counter bound by three sides or two (three sides means you have to cut it shorter for 'wiggle' ) The bath cabinet is unfortunate but those furniture board cabinets are brittle especially as they get older. Should have addressed it with you...

I am a fabricator. I am astounded that a fabricator would say "if I want the job to be 100% perfect, then I should have paid for that". Good quote for social media. did he tell you up front the price you got was for half @ssed work? The seam in the sink rail is well done; the rest is poor or horrible. looks like the huge gap (1/8" is typical max) is because the splash was cut too tall. If the fit on the other end is perfect then this problem should have been pointed out at the field measure. Good repair on the botched cut and you are more understanding than most to accept it. The cabinet damage is inexcusable. I hope you haven't paid in full. Fabricator should pay for a professional (meaning not noticable) repair of the cabinets.

Thank you everyone for commenting. I will try and answer all of your questions

@jackowskib: Correct counter is not flush with the wall and the remaining space is filled with caulk. The "gunk" on the side of the cabinet is the guest bathroom, the undermount clips broke through the side and they tried to glue it back together, which is why it looks so gunky.

@P Banos: My house was built in 2002 so definitely not brand new but I wouldn't say super old either but most certainly can be uneven, if that was truly the case, I would have liked better communication that certain things could happen and turn out a certain way instead of just being blindsided. If the chips you are referring to are on the white trim I am honestly not sure when those occurred. If you are referring to the guest bathroom chips that look gunky, then yes those definitely occurred during the install, while they are not easily visible, I'm more concerned with the integrity of the clips and being able to support the undermounted sink than the look of them.

@Beth H: I have not paid in full, only half, $3700 roughly. I'm honestly not too sure what the cabinets are made of, the cabinets are 20 years old, I'm not an industry professional so I don't know if the difference of 10 years is huge. As for why, I didn't think my cabinets were THAT crappy haha, nor did it ever seem to be a concern from start to finish with this company, so that answers your other question, he never brought up concerns. The molding was already there but I'm not sure if the dings and holes were there before hand. I know molding like that can be easily replaced so that I'm not really worried about. The poo was definitely not measured correctly, the owner was the one who came to my house and did the template originally, he even quickly mentioned that "he could have accounted for a little extra". When asking if/how these things could be fixed he kept reiterating how beautiful of a job it was and was basically telling me he didn't see a need to fix anything. It was just me at home with my toddler, my husband was at work, so I let myself be bullied for fear of confrontation. He asked me if I wanted a discount or if I didn't want to pay in a way that almost seemed as if he was trying to trap me in scenario where he could tell me something specific...if that makes sense? I told him I didn't want either of those options, I just wanted to be satisfied with the work. On another note if you think ALL THAT is bad, he started insulting the rest of my house, told me to polish my fridge with wd40 and then kept referring to my son as my daughter...even though I've corrected him on multiple occasions that my kid is a frickin boy, it was like he was doing it purposely to mock me. One of the reasons why I actually really liked him at first was because we connected over the fact that he has a grandson just about the same age as my son and he just seemed family oriented and trustworthy. There was definitely no plywood base on top of the cabinets. I will included a picture taken further back.

@HALLETT & Co.: Thank you, I absolutely love the stone selection as well, I can learn to live with the seam, but I had asked him when the counters were cut at the fabricator if the pattern is taken in to account. He replied with "I don't have an answer for that" which as an industry professional. I feel like he should know his fabricators process. I'm also curious to know if the customer is allowed to see or even has to approve how the slab is being cut in certain instances? My kitchen is an uneven U shape with the stove being in the center of the U. So I am going to go with its bound by 2 sides? although where the sink is the shape is kind of like... \__/ (that would be a top down view and the angle would be much wider, I'll include a photo). the bathroom cabinet IS unfortunate and it's understandable not being the best quality, but agreed, it should have been addressed with me as to not be blindsided by such an issue.

@Granite City Services: LOL, no he did not tell me the price he gave me was for crappy work, if I knew there was another option to pay a little more and get better work than I would have done that, hahaha! The cost of the job came to roughly $7400 and I've only paid half, tbh going back and thinking about it he never really gave us any options at all...like if we wanted a certain style of edging or a particular corner radius, the only thing we really seemed to pick out was the stone, in hindsight it all just feels so rushed. In total I believe it was just under 100 sq ft of countertop as well so I'm not sure what kind of deal I got. We also had our master bath done and the counter looks AMAZING, not one bad thing I could say about it, so I don't know why the kitchen took such a horrible turn for the worse.

[photo 1: before the counters were installed]

[photo 2: the larger gap end but further away]

[photo's 3-5: just to show the layout of our kitchen, sorry for the dog photobomb, I also just took these right now and it's 11:30pm so I didn't want to turn on the super bright kitchen lights]

Lyn, thankyou for taking the time to answer. and thanks for the complete photo

I'm quite surprised to hear that you were charged 7400 and it came out looking like it did. for that price I would expect near perfect! is that one slab or two?

one slab would roughly be in the 2300 dollar range. fabrication is usually 2-3K depending on amount of cuts.

first off, tell him to knock off the patronizing tone and trying to convince you that his mistake was not a mistake. It was.

Feel free to show him this entire thread and have him read these comments. show him the pictures of similar tops/bar tops that are done without that giant gap. And then tell him to stop insisting that you're being unreasonable and that his work is acceptable.

have your husband or some other male relative or friend there with you.

The bar top looks nice, but this gap is his error, 100% (I'd remove that molding and do something else. we can discuss doing something diff w/that wall face altogether if you like)

Ditto that baseboard molding. check back later if you want ideas.

here are similar cut pieces that have no gap at all. Show him these and ask why he doesn't have the skill to do this.

look at how nicely done this was. perfectly cut. for 7500 bucks, you best believe yours should have been done like this.

perfectly done. just like it should be.

beadboard wrap w/baseboard molding at the base

same, w/a bit more trim pieces around the edges. check out this cut. no gap!

it should look just like this, flush w/the wall end. (and notice the trim pieces on the wall at the bottom and under the countertop. much better like this. YOu could add an end panel to your cabinets, like this, and a flat trim piece to the countertop, and hide the gap (c below)

So yes, he did bully you. I've seen other posts w/lone females who have had the same thing said to them.

Ask for a discount. a good discount (otherwise he would have to redo that entire countertop, and he doesn't want to do that. That's why he's trying so hard to convince you it's fine. But it's not fine. And he knows it's not fine. If he berates you enough and backs you into a corner he figures you'll just relent and accept it.)

So take a steep discount and tell him it's either that, or he eats that counter and brings in a new one that is measured CORRECTLY!

Have him redo the caulking so that it's nice and smooth and matches the same color white as the quartz. For sure that needs to be redone, on both.

After you get the discount, you could face that wall from your cabinet, all the way around to the front panel with some type of wood trim work, board and batten, shiplap, or even have the drywall skimmed a bit heavier.

it's hard to explain, but something along this line. youre basically adding some trim to that end post support, and covering up the drywall portion, effectively hiding the gap.

you see how this is trimmed on the front panel? you'd take it and wrap all the way around to where the gap is.

or, you could wrap the shiplap around and do one of these angled corner cap pieces where that gap is. it should hide a good portion of it.

does this make sense? it's hard to try and describe.

or, you could fabricate something like this on the end, and put a piece of veneer trim over that drywall portion, concelaing most of that gap.

Do you have any plans on painting the cabinets? If so, you could trim out that side panel

this is a very rough photoshop just to give you an idea

I think if you did them white like these pics, it would look great

this is like yours. see the molding piece? you can redo that and wrap it around the side.

too bad you didn't see this prior to getting those countertops. you could have taken down the bar top and done this overhang.

https://bella-tucker.com/2017/10/two-tier-kitchen-island-update/

it should have been cut like this first

and then that backsplash piece templated to fit perfectly in that spot.

but you see how there is no gap at all? That's why I know it was his goof up but he just doesn't want to admit it. If he admitted it, he'd have to redo it, or give you a steep discount. I'm convinced that's why he is insisting to almost the point of intimidation towards you.

I'd be pissed! I'd call him out on his bs and tell him to fix it, replace it, or he isn't getting the rest of his money. Tell him you want it done just like all these pics I've posted (I added a few more above)

here are some other pictures you can show him so you both know how it's supposed to look

Beth you have so many great ideas! My husband and I went back and forth on whether or not to take down the wall and just go straight out but we were concerned with losing the outlet so we we just kept it as is. We actually do plan on painting the cabinets white lol, they won't be stark white but kind more of a warm neutral white. I haven't decided exactly which colors yet but I'm torn between Behr's poetic light or crystal cut. I purchased Home Designer Pro to kind of mess around with ideas and this is the general look that I really ended up loving for the kitchen. We are also getting our current floors replaced with LVT (enduromax aruba collection in the color island retreat). We bought our home as a foreclosure in 2015 and we are now just finally getting around to upgrading it, the counters were the first part to actually get done and it's like it just soured the whole process.

glad to hear you're painting. I've listed some links for you. please read the first two. she is dead on in talking about how to paint oak cabs. I've done 3 sets of them and can vouch her method and advice. sanding and priming are two of the most important steps, so don't skip those. and make sure to mark where your doors go!

you may want to remove a center panel and put in some glass. it's not difficult to do.

also, do some simple trim work on your side panels and the front panel of the bar. gives it a finished look. lots of tutorials for that one too

Behr paint isn't meant for cabs unless they have a special wood paint? The link talks about which primer and paint to use. Don't use a regular latex wall paint. it won't last.

this is the complete how to

https://www.evolutionofstyleblog.com/how-to-paint-your-kitchen-cabinets-like

tips for oak cabinets.

https://www.evolutionofstyleblog.com/tips-tricks-for-painting-oak-cabinets

this is one of hers. BM Willow on the island, and SW Creamy on the others

Kayla has some good info too

https://www.paintedbykaylapayne.com/are-you-thinking-about-painting-your-cabinets/

https://www.paintedbykaylapayne.com/kitchen-cabinets-in-alabaster/

you don't want to choose a white w/too much yellow in it or it will look dingy next to your quartz.

get some samples. prime the end panel w/white primer, and test out a few color samples

I also don't know how many slabs were used, Below is a picture of the itemized invoice. There is a $350 discount on there which was always part of the price, I didn't ask for it, he just did it to be nice I guess? saying that he essentially was doing our guest bathroom for free since it was so small. I took that offer with a grain of salt because he could have added that cost back in else where. When he stopped by this morning he kept mentioning how he gave me wholesale pricing but I'm not exactly sure what he means since he actually charged more than the msrp on all of the sinks. I found this guy on Homeadvisor and he had pretty great reviews, yesterday I looked at the google reviews and they weren't so great. There was a woman who posted a review 7 months stating he did exactly what he did to me, to her. I read that review before he showed up and I honestly thought that must have been like a 1 in a million chance interaction...but apparently not. I know its not your job to tell him how to fix his own problem, but how would you expect it to be fixed? What wording should I use? He told me the only way to fix anything would be to rip off the counter and redo it and he didn't think that was necessary because of how great of a job he did. -.-

The behr paint I found is called cabinet and trim enamel. I'm not dead set on using them if there is a better quality paint (I'm sure there is) but color wise those were the ones I liked and fortunately colors can be matched pretty easily.

No invoice showed up.

show him this thread and what all the other pros are saying. show him the pics I posted.

Tell him he's trying to intimidate you and bully you into accepting something that wasn't done correctly.

and it's not just the countertop, and the completely lousy caulking job, it's the cabinet he busted too. can't believe he didn't use a plywood base for those.

He doesn't think it's necessary? lmao. of course not. he will lose money.

Look, he knows he did a sh*^ job. trust me. He doesn't care. He's hoping you'll back down.

I would be pissed and tell him exactly what i've told you here.

it's up to you if you want a replacement or a steep discount. He knows he'd have to replace the entire thing, so taking a steep discount is the best option for him. 500 bucks? hell no. maybe 2K?

It's going to cost you over 500 to hire someone to trim out that wall to cover it.

is it a name brand quartz or a chinese knock off? If it's a knock off, it cost him next to nothing. prob less than 1k. He's upcharging you another 1-2 K.

Want to see mine for 4200? It's Silestone quartz (the gray one)

cost me 4200 for purchase, install/fabrication. the entire thing. (island was another price)

now tell me what he did was more difficult that he hould charge you another 3500 bucks! granted, you have a bar top. but I have a step down w/a desk top.

what he did still wasn't worth that high price tag. what do you think is fair? 5K? 6K ? then stand by it.

Tell him you're going to have to hire someone to redo that wall w/the overhang so that it covers up that gap. It's going to cost YOU money.

get someone who can stand up to him and call him out on his bs. I'm serious. do not feel bullied by this guy.

He made a mistake. and if everyone keeps letting him get away with it, he's going to keep doing it.

Maybe if he has to eat his profit a few times, he will actually learn how to do it correctly.

I'm an idiot, I didn't attach it. It's almost 2am I should probably go to bed, lol!

see if he can redo this caulking job so that it's not just glopped in the gap. ask him if he'd accept this in his home and actually pay someone for this level of work. if he says yes, he's flat out lying!

so you paid 6100 for the countertop. deduct the amount you think is fair from that amount

btw, this Lazaro quartz looks to be a knock off for the Calacatta LAZA from MSI (unless they just renamed it to sell as their own)

here's the Laza

go to bed. see what you think tmrw. reread everything then.

Your kitchen is amazing!!!! love love love love. Everything looks like it was installed by people who actually gave a crap about the details. I checked out the blog links, super helpful. I was already looking in to getting a paint sprayer and how to fill the grain. It's going to be a hell of a process but I know it will look great once finished.

@tozmo1: Thank you for the kind words! We have already paid half for the floors, and I really don't want to wait to have them installed because of one horrible experience. Maybe a good install will turn it all around and make this project fun again.

@Beth H. :Having the time to think about everything and seeing all the photos you've posted and words of encouragement I'm definitely going to attempt to defend myself today and either have him fix it or discount it. I removed the caulk and the gap just looks so gross. I also quickly photoshopped some paneling on the the end to see if this what you meant in terms of covering it. I was wondering how one would go about making the cutout fit perfectly and came across a tool called a contour gauge? Is that something you would recommend and if so any particular brand? Also the paint sprayer we were planning on purchasing was the Wagner Flexio 3500 Handheld HVLP Paint Sprayer. What are your thoughts on that?

[photo 1: idea for end cap]

[photo's 2&3: caulking removed]

not familiar w/the sprayer, (I have an earlier wagner I believe. turbo. but to tell you the truth, I prefer to paint by hand) but just practice with it until you determine what the proper dilution amount is for that particular spray nozzle. it's a bit of trial and error. test on a cardboard box or something.

I think that molding will look good. again, not familar w/the tool you suggested, but if it gets you the results, I say go for it.

Yes a contour gage should help get you the correct shape. It's better to err on the side of removing too little and then file off the rest. You may be able to get your local store to cut the trim to your template.