Bless your heart. It's too bad that these kinds of scenarios play out WAY too often during construction (new and remodel). I think we can all feel your pain. Hope things turn around and you're back on track in no time :)
Monica

Eventually, everything gets done.

On the backsplash, maybe you can use a contrasting stone. Or it's very popular now to have a tile backsplash come all the way down to the counter top.

David

I would be very upset. You wonder how some contracters stay in business. Some take on more jobs then they can handle.
Hang in there and be thankful you can afford such nice things. It will be beautiful when its done.

Every project has days like this, no matter how much you planned and how skilled and honorable the craftsmen are who you hired.

Checksplay is right: eventually everything gets done. They go away, it all looks great, and a few years later you see a post like this and remember, "Oh, God, I remember the day..." Until then, you'd forgotten all about it. Really.

Hope you have a better week...

You really need a new granite fabricator. Please don't *reward* this guy's lack of professionalism (seriously, he could have at LEAST called you to say he couldn't make the appointments and why!) with your business. There's really no excuse for him to treat a customer that way. If you've paid a deposit, GET IT BACK (have the credit card company rescind payment if necessary) and go elsewhere with your money.

Businesses who treat their clientele so poorly and with so little respect don't deserve to stay in business.

Thanks everyone for your feebacks..I feel better today as it is just a "bathroom". It has been a very long and frustrating experience for me. The contractor is a nice guy and did a great tile work, but didn't seem to know the code. My husband had to do tons of research to help the contractor (he came highly recommended by couple other neighbors)to figure out the plumbing issues. We probably should have fired him long ago...he started out strong, and had personal problems (who doesn't??) for couple of weeks. Then, he had to finish one other job (even though he promised us that he had finished all other jobs before starting ours)...the problems just go on and on...as you probably know, it is very difficult to fire a contractor half way through, and hire someone else to take over..

When it came time to hire a fabricator. I checked out reference and reference...Then, this guy had a piece of Caesarstone large enough to do my countertop..I provided the measurement, and he assured me that it was large enough.
I also told him that I would pay him extra to get the job done in a week...then he stood me up TWICE. I asked for explanation why he didn't bother to let me know until the morning of day (after 10 calls) he was supposed to delivered. He had no explanation, but promised to find another piece to match the countertop. What are the chances for him to find a small piece (4x78)as backsplash?
The fabricator is a licensed fabricator, but just a lousy business person. We have five people sharing one bathroom now, it has been very difficult...
I will have to find someone else quick to get the countertop done this week...

why is it so difficult for the construction works (in general, good people still around) to stay on schedule or communicate the problems with the homeowners?

Once again, thanks for listening...

Oh, gowelch, just know that you are not alone. We are 7 months into a year long whole house remodel and I have had many of this type of day.

When you find the contractors that show up when they say, do good work and are reasonable in price, treat them like GOLD! They are worth every penny and then some!

Glad you are feeling better. Hang in there!

Sandy

I hear your pain. Unfortunately there are stretches like this in any renovation. Cry if you need to (goodness knows I have done so MANY times during this nightmare renovation), then dry your tears and move forward. Figure out if you want to have your granite guy continue on the backsplash search or if you want to carve that out of his contract. Figure out your contingency plans if you relieve him of the backsplash - are there other granite people or tile people who could do the work for you? Figure out also if you want to get rid of the tiler now and have someone else pick up the work. Crunch the numbers, measure your stress level and see if it's worth it. We've fired three trades mid-project and drove another to resign, and it can be a bear, but you gotta do what you gotta do to complete your project. Sometimes that means a midstream change of personnel.

Why some contractors can't/won't communicate remains a mystery to me. Grow a pair, pick up the phone and tell the truth - you messed up your scheduling and can't be there as promised, but give a firm date when you can be there and then show up and work. It ain't rocket science, just basic customer service.

I completely understand your frustration. We are doing a whole house remodel and I seem to have more bad days than good. It's seems there is always something going wrong or not as expected. I had the carpet guys coming to install berber in the master bedroom and the threshold in the ensuite wasn't in. I called the tile guy to come and put it in, however, he had loaned out is water saw, so he cut the tile with a grinder. Needeless to say the cut was a little crooked. The carpet went in and it's too late now to fix. You have to really look at it to notice, but it really bothers me. My husband says it will cause too much damage to try to fix, so I have to let it slide. It's really frustrating when you are paying someone and they don't put the same level of care in your house as they would in their own.

Focus on the end product. Be glad you are not married to me. My bathroom has to be perfect and I have come to the conclusion that most contractors do not take great pride in the customer's project, They may have great skill for their home but yours is where all the short cuts will be taken.

Before I start any job I visit Barnes and Noble, the library and Home depot to research all Tech Date, Codes, Compare costs. I found it cheaper to purchase or rent a tool and do the work that the contractor is too lazy or un trustworthy to do.

Doing the hard work for me.. turned out to be very time consuming. My wife has no bedroom and often times we sleep in the living room. My wife has cried many times and I assure her that I am doing the perfect job to code or above code because "I LOVE HER" On the plus side when the contractor comes by for the easy part of the job and sees my tools and realize I really don't need him. I get great labor rates.

My wife now had a billion dollar bathroom with the best of everything that all works perfectly. I am now a super hero to her. I think if our house were to be invaded. My wife would be upstairs showing the thieves the bathroom before the jewelery. Please... what matters it that the workmanship beneath the glitter is perfect and the end product is beautiful and perfect. Quick work is usually botched. And if quick work is perfect, You'd be too wealthy to make it bother you. cheer up it will be over soon.

I feel so bad for you... I completely understand. I am looking for a new contractor because the old one is so uncooperative. Here is a list of my rants. My NEW architect (another long story) came to meet the contractor for the first time. I leave work at lunch time to meet both. I ask my contractor "when should I buy plumbing supplies". He says "last year, *giggle*, 6 months back *giggle* yesterday *giggle*". These are his giggles BTW. I sigh and my architect says "he needs 1 week to do the demon so get them by the end of the week". Ok. He then argues for small things and tries to show that he is a man of his own mind. Then he lights his cigarette, and I insist that I don't allow anyone to smoke in my house. He refuses to listen and smokes.

I ask him "so you are going to order the tiles like we mentioned in the contract" and he starts laughing loudly. WTF. I call him later that day and ask him details about his fabricator. He gives me his cousin's number who is the fabricator. I ask him another question and his rude response is "how do I know".

DH and I call him over the weekend to confirm demo on Tuesday and go over the contract one final time. I put $xx towards the sinks in the master bathroom, and I tell him that we are spending a third of that amount so the bathroom cost should be low since he was providing the sinks. He says "are you crazy, you put $xx towards the sink bowls? What is wrong with you? You are crazy" and starts arguing. He says "you guys have the wrong contract. What are you talking about". Turns out he doesn't have the signed copy of the contract or ANY of the cost structures that we discussed.

Anyway, I tell him on the phone that I have never come across a more unprofessional contractor since he kept shouting and calling us crazy. He hangs up on us. Then my husband takes over the conversation. He comes to our place and we go through all the documents and about how the numbers are not adding up. We tell him "you said you would match the price we got from marble.com. So we save $6,000. How come the total price has not come down?" His response "I am providing the master bath door which costs $3,000". I know it doesn't cost $3,000. We tell him "give us a breakdown of your costs. Material costs $1,500 and you are charging us $15K - does labor cost $13.5K? What is the breakdown?" His response "If I give you a breakdown, I will have to charge you more." He is too lazy.

He has been too lazy to find prices of anything. I had to find out prices and spoon-feed him and he still acted lazy. My architect said, "he has too much control which makes me uneasy. He knows the job is his so he doesn't care". I HAD IT!!! I decided to take my money elsewhere to someone who shows me some respect in my own effing home. If I don't want someone to smoke, he will not smoke in my house. No more arguments. So here I am interviewing another highly recommended contractor tomorrow. Sigh! Sorry for the long saga, but it helps to get it out of my system :). Thank God for my new architect - the old one screwed me over.

oh my goodness! this is terrible! I'd be sure those guys don't EVER get a good word from me after they're done.

if they haven't started, I'd get rid of them.

I know when my stuff starts it'll be hell on earth... my 'contractor' for most everything will be my dbf. I think I'll carry duct tape around with me and put a piece on my mouth when he screws up or ticks me off...he'll know he's on thin ice.

since i'm not 'hiring' him, I can't fire him either.

I'm trying to figure out why they patched the broken tile rather than remove it and put in a new tile. After one of our showers was tiled, we noticed a tile, right at eye level, that had a "pop" in the porcelain. The tile guy came back, removed the broken tile and replaced it with a new one. I couldn't tell you today which tile it was. You can't see any difference. This also happened in our kitchen, too. When you're doing a remodel, anything "patched" tends to stay in you mind. Now, after a while you probably won't notice it, but if you paid for a good job to be done, you should get a good job done!