"I must ask, Mascara. If it is hours away, and apparently a hassle and lots of effort for you to get to London, why would you expect the mom to take your message of offering to take child to treatments and/or babysit for an evening out seriously?" To answer this, as I said before I offered this before the transplant. She only lives 5 minutes from me, they are only in London at the moment because it is one of the only hospitals in England with transplant facilities. "Mom considers you a 'Teenage Babysitter' person. You want full 'Pseudo-Parent' status. (Now - recently) Dad hasn't taken a firm and public position about your role. Bottom line, you can't 'move up' to Pseudo-Parent status until Dad insists on it and Mom allows it." This is what upsets me the most. Firstly, when she was my age she already had a 2 year old child with a young boy she practically forced into conceiving with her just so she could have a baby. Yes I know he had his own mind but he wont say boo to a goose and he has never been able to stand up to her. She then moved, stopped him from seeing his child and only spoke to him over the next two years to throw abuse and obcenities at him. Suddenly, she realises her son will not get a kidney through waiting on the list so conveniently decideds that daddy needs to be a part of his life again, "oh and by the way I need your kidney." Now I admit that I have been selfish and I have been immature at times. But I have never ever ever been that selfish, so what right does she have to judge me by my age when this was how she was behaving at my age? I have already said to him that she wont want me playing a part in his life if she doesn't think I'll be in it for long, so he needs to talk to her and make her understand that this is something we are in for the long run, and all I get is, "I didn't have a chance," "I'll get round to it" etc etc. Now as I said, he is a bit of a pushover, but he has no trouble saying what he thinks to anyone else but her, he just gets so pathetic around her. And if he does ever say no to her - for example, she has asked him to last minute come over and babysit and he has a prior engagement - she has a very clever way of manipulating him by making him feel guilty that he missed the first part of his life when it was her that cut him out. He says that he doesn't want any conflict with her because she stopped him seeing his son once and he thinks she will do it again. Now no matter what I think of her as a person, she is a wonderful mother. She raised him from birth on her own and he is one of the most kind and polite children I have met. She would never again stop him from seeing his dad because she knows they love each other and she knows it would come back to her in the end. I also explained to him that she has no grounds to do this on anyway so if it did come to that he could get a solicitor. But he hates confrontation, so our relationship ends up with the conflict because he refuses to have any conflict with her, no matter what the situation. I feel like I've now done everything I can to make this better and it keeps getting worse, I literally feel like I'm trying my best and I cannot do anything right.

I appreciate everyone's feedback. Unfortunately I don't have the dimensions of the slab as that information was not provided to me. The slabs were selected a few months ago so it seems there has been ample time to have realized a second seam was needed based on the layout. I didn't select the fabricator - it is who my contractor uses. I obtained bids and interviewed several contractors. I had glowing recommendations from multiple people. The contractor raved about the fabricator and showed me several examples of their work that were very high quality. I started to feel less confident when I arrived for the mapping and felt rushed through the process and they could not provide an explanation as to why a second seam was necessary. I recognize that sometimes there are considerations that the average homeowner might not take into account, so I would have liked it explained to me with sufficient time to change to something different if necessary. If I hadn't insisted on attended the mapping, I would not have known of the second seam until installation. If the countertop was fabricated with one seam as originally planned, the largest piece would be 7'6", which doesn't seem unusually large to me, but there may be information that I don't have. Thanks again for the feedback. It's been a tough process and I spent alot of time planning and researching and am upset to think of being disappointed in one of the most visible parts of the kitchen. Thought I had done adequate due diligence and planning.

P.S. I think my old name was spearboy or something.

I was born and grew up in Frankfurt, Goethe was part of my learning & my environment. The story of Faust, somewhat simplified, was one of the tales Mother told her children. I read the quotes early this morning with my coffee, butdidn't comment then - had to go out and water and other outdoor work was needed. Having a serious heat-wave, it's 105 right now.