That's a bummer. And I'm sorry.

Oh, I'm so sorry that they messed up that cut. You worked so hard for this, and it stinks that they blew it.
Can you keep the cutout piece and use it for something, say, a small tabletop, lazy susan, etc. ? Or maybe you wouldn't want to be reminded.

I hope the rest of the remodel goes just perfectly.

Cj

Oh man! I'm so sorry! You sound so calm. Heartbroken, but calm What on earth did the fabricator say? Surely he realized how important this was to you after you'd invested so much time n it. I'm sorry :( I hope the rest of the remodel goes well.

Your post is meaningless without pictures...Come on now, don't hold out on us! :)

You are welcome to vent. I do admire your attitude -- it's clear to me that you will get over it. What a bummer for now, though. ((hugs))

"Heartbroken but calm" - yes, I agree, you sound so mature about it I totally admire you, and also grieve for your small but special lost dream. Maybe you can just keep venting here for a while, if it helps. And it sounds like you love your kitchen so we'll all look forward to seeing it someday.

Have you shown this to your fabricator (leaving out the parts of this about how you are accepting it anyways) and asked him what he can do to ease your pain???? Like $$$$$ at least?

Awww...I understand exactly what you mean. You sure are handling it better than I would. Hopefully you'll get some words of comfort here from the TKO crowd.

Just echoing previous poster...did they knock off some of that extra money you put in to make sure everything was perfect?

I'm sorry it happened too - you just need a bit of time to greive, and then you'll go on with life.

We all know it's only a little thing in the big picture of life, but it's perfectly acceptalbe to acknowlege this loss for what it is, and go one.

I get frustrated with people who come back with "well, it COULD have been wores". We all know that, but it does not mean the little hurts don't still hurt.

The key is to not let the hurts and disapointments become all you see when you walk into the room, and that is an internal mindset we can all work on. I think very few of us could not go through our kitchens and point out the things that didn't turn out like we had dreamed. Even when you DIY - things happen, sometimes mistakes and sometimes things just can't be done like we wanted.

I hate when the laws of physics won't change to my liking!

Boy, not me!! I'd go BALLISTIC! How do these things happen???

When you're right in the middle of it, you just want to scream... At least I do. That 'sigh' has my total admiration.

Because I know going around the bend isn't the right answer, and I do calm down eventually (don't get me started on the realtor who sold us our house six years ago and we still aren't quite sure what the square footage is... among many other mistakes she made... six... years... ago).

One thing I will tell you - a month has passed since my 'small' kitchen reno ended, and I have totally moved on. I love my kitchen. I don't see the flaws anymore. So take heart, take a deep breath (go out back and scream) and, I promise, this too shall pass.

Unfortunately $hit happens and people do things without thinking. That said, I admire your attitude in the face of it. I hope this ends up being a disappointment with a short life and that you discover other facets of your counter that you love in ways not imagined.

Spilled milk. As others have suggested, a price adjustment for this blunder would be in order.

I too admire your attitude and, to me, venting is a way to insure that it doesn't eat away at you. Personally, I do feel that you are entitled for some sort of monetary compensation considering that you paid extra to make sure that these sorts of things didn't happy. It would be different if you went with the cheapest guy in town, but you didn't so I feel that a little bit of a discount is completely appropriate. I would assume that (since they do charge the higher prices for their work) they value their reputation enough to understand your disappointment, especially knowing how involved you were in the process. Good luck and I can't wait to see pictures!

Aw, you poor thing. That sucks!

I've been following your soapstone saga as a fellow Canadian with limited options - I can so understand your pain.

At least you know it was not your fault, you did everything you could have. If that makes it any better. I remember you saying before you aren't one to live with regret so this will pass and you'll love your soapstone and your kitchen but right now, well it just sucks.

((())). (I think that means cyber hugs)

I totally get where you are coming from and won't even say, "don't think about it" "It still looks beautiful" and all that. You are entitled to feeling a sense of disappointment, and to, well, not a "grieving" period, but you know what I mean. You are handling this very well as your post seems to indicate, but take all the time you want to be annoyed, sad, PO'd, whatever.

Many of us have had similar things happen--we try and try to do all the legwork, and take every precaution possible to end with things being done correctly, or just how we want them to be done. And yet....!

DH and I went through two stacks of travertine saddles to choose just the right one to use between the existing travertine in our guest bathroom, and the new (different) travertine in our adjoining FR. We found a saddle that we liked, and had the woman mark off the end we wanted cut off (the end we wanted to "lose" had a spot/blemish we didn't like, and the movement in the stone at the preferred end provided a perfect transition between our two travertines). When we called the woman with the go-ahead the following Monday (after confirming the dimensions with our tile guy), we reiterated that we wanted her to make sure the fabricators knew exactly which end to cut, and which to keep intact. Would you like to guess which end they cut?

Yes, it looks fine. Nobody would ever look at it and think that we should have looked for a nicer or better "matching" saddle (I mean, it's just a saddle, after all) but we know how much time we spent searching through all those saddles, and we know what "could, and should have been" and it did really annoy us for a time.

Sorry they "screwed it up" on you.

I am very sorry that your best laid plans went awry, and admire your perspective about it. If it is any consolation, the pain will fade after a bit. I had instructed my flooring person about not using boards with knots. I had spent extra to purchase excess in order to make it happen. So... exactly centered in the walkway between my kitchen and laundry room, there is a big dark knot right at the end of a board (could have easily been cut off.) Like you, I was sad and frustrated. Not worth pulling all of the adjacent flooring up to fix it. I thought it would scream out to me every time I walked over it for ever and ever. It has been more than a year, and I don't even notice it anymore. It sounds as if taken as a whole, your island is a beautiful dream come true. So let's see the photos.

So what does one do when a contractor does the exact opposite of what they were told to do? Does it make a difference if this was a verbal discussion or you have something in writing?

As I've discovered for myself, failure to spell things out is one thing. Being inattentive is another. But when you say, DO THIS and they DO THAT, what is your recourse? Esp. when they eff up something unique, like a vein on a piece of soapstone.

Are we expected to be philosophical, forgive, move on, get over it? And pay the same amount as if we got what we demanded (and they said they'd deliver)? In the big scheme of things, that will probably happen. Nobody died and, from my own experience, everything pales in comparison. But we're not fools. It's our money and our house. The disappointment of the wrongly-cut soapstone or the knot placed centrally in the knot-free floor, surely something needs to be done to help ease the disappointment.

I had hand surgery the exact day my kitchen reno began (okay, it wasn't planned that way, but the contractor started two weeks late... should've been a red flag right from the start, but...

My point is, before I went into surgery, a nurse asked me which hand and made a mark in pen on my left hand. An hour later, the anesthesiologist came in and asked me which hand, and made another mark on my left hand. My surgeon came in after that. He said, "I know it's marked here, but I just want you to tell me which hand." And he made a third mark on my left hand.

Any contractors out there listening?

I also hope they compensated you in some way and you got to keep the piece they cut out as a trivet or to be used somehow.
I expected screw ups or miscommunication to happen when we did our reno/extension, but the particular things they did wrong that either made no sense or that I know I was clear about doing differently, still floor me. I had so many "what were they thinking moments" that I lost count. They'd ask me about things that should have been obvious or I didn't care about and then use their own "logic" on other things they should have asked about. All I know is I had to go through so much spackle moving things that should have been placed differently and/or repainting, that I wanted to strangled someone. What may be considered to be common sense seems to be rare. I can only imagine how it went for homeowners that were not there for the installation of things. I was lucky enough to be home most of the time and able to be consulted. The thousand big and small decisions amazed me at the time. The one time I did not involve dh, who always said to do what I want, was when I chose to put the faucet to the side on the back of our oval vessel sink in the master bath. He hated it and said it needed to be done over with a new top so it could be centered. With money so tight, I convinced him to give it a year and we could change it when we have more cash on hand. I bet he doesn't even notice it now. I had logic on my side and to me it looks better my way, but he just plain hated it. I felt it would be too close when opening and closing the medicine cab and would leave the other side of the sink looking empty in the corner. I am glad he was not around to make the decision his way, in hindsight, lol. It is one thing if a partner wants it a different way and completely different when a contractor either decides for you or just plain messes up instructions.
Now, go be mad about it and then move on. If it can't be changed, you need to adjust to it. I'd make sure for some restitution, but privately focus on the next thing to be done. Like others have said, you won't even notice it in the future. Using the new kitchen will be enjoyable and other things will take precedence in a good way.

My cabinet painter was going to paint around my existing range hood. I told him that I was going to replace it in the near future and what if the new one wasn't the same size? He went, oh yeah, good idea!

With drawings and tape and the word "sink" spelled out, I am curious how this could have happened! Did they offer any explanation?

Thanks to everyone for your kind words of support and cyberhugs. I'm almost ready to post photos, I promise I will in the next couple of days. In a new thread so this one can loose steam.

I am generally a calm person (I have to be in the midst of the three whirling dervishes I live with, DH, DS and DD!) and not prone to stay upset about things that are really small when one takes the bigger picture of life into consideration. My family is healthy and both DH and I have relatively stable jobs in the midst of these economic times of turmoil. I will get over it and love my kitchen when it is done.

That doesn't mean I am a push over, however. So far the fabricator has apologized for the mistake (I was half expecting to have to fight for them to admit it was a mistake so that is at least a plus) and we are working on finding a solution. Meanwhile they have only been paid the initial deposit and it will remain thus until we can reach some sort of agreement. DH is the fiery one, and he is all fired up about it already.

As to the comments about keeping the cutouts, fortunately I had arranged to keep the remnants from the beginning. Because I had paid for the two entire slabs that I used which were from an external supplier they were happy to oblige and all the cutouts and bits of excess worth keeping are sitting in my garage. I wanted to keep some to have something to practice on in case I ever wanted to rehone it (in part because they are still a granite company and I was preparing for the worst). That's being prepared thanks to what I've learned on this site! And I'm sure I'll find something fun to do with the rest. Bed warmers, a hot rock fondue or baking stone, ice cubes, trivets ...

So again, thanks for hearing and understanding my disappointment. I promise not to keep you hanging too long before I post some photos.

Oh man. I am in the same world of researching my soapstone, so I can appreciate how you dotted your i's and crossed your t's. I'm like that too, and even though I am prepared for the unforeseen in our reno, that kind of error would be tough to swallow.

At my wedding, after I walked down the isle and met my now-husband at his side, I whispered to him, "is the video guy here?" to which he replied, "no.". And because we were expecting the video guy, the regular photographer only took two or three photos of me and my dad walking. We have the whole day captured in photos except the walk with my dad!!! I was furious and so sad and...there wasn't a thing I could do about it. Of course the rest of the day was fabulous, but my precious walk-down-the-isle with my dad remains pretty much only in my memory.

As much as we plan to make things as perfect as possible, there's always human error. Our video guy was given the wrong time. It wasn't his fault. Your counter guy made a mistake. He certainly wouldn't have done it on purpose.

May you keep the peace that you seem to have. There can be beauty in impferfection...and the unplanned...

Oops! I just read my post. It's aisle not isle!!!!!!