Fortunately for you, most of this is easy to address.

Tell him you need the following:

1) a longer, matching chrome tailpiece (12") to replace the short pieces. Even home depot has them, so getting one is not an issue.
2) pop-up drain needs to be adjusted because water doesn't drain.
3) If you're happy with the steel braided lines, fine. But if it's really bothering you, you can replace with chrome-plated copper supply tubing (with matching steel compression nuts where they connect to the shut-off valves). Smooth and shiny result.

(BTW, centering the drain is not an option at this point.)

Thanks for your quick reply. It is so helpful to be able to raise these questions to folks who have solutions.

We haven't even tried to use the shower yet, but it is already dripping!

you *can* have nice looking plumbing underneath.

first, go look at the geometry of the braviken bathroom sink to see if you want to have the P trap be located near the wall.

Here is a link that might be useful: braviken bathroom sink + compact drain pipes

if the sink has an overflow hole, it should drain efficiently.
Without an overflow, the sink can drain slowly; water can take a long time to go down the drain. It also depends on the pipe geometry underneath.

Why does the overflow hole affect draining in ordinary use of the sink?

it lets a little bit of air move out of the way when gravity pushes water down the drain. This starts the flow of water and helps set up a current (exchange of air and water). Otherwise the drinking straw effect can remain for a long time. In a drinking straw, water is held up on a pillar of air, and the water can only go down the straw if air is removed. In a pipe (much wider than a straw), air and water have to trade places so there needs to be an internal current inside the pipe, where water and air slide past each other on opposing sides (walls) of the pipe. An overflow hole on the side of the pipe an inch below the drain guarantees that air will escape under the pressure of water + gravity. Water, once moving, continues to move; this is momentum, or dynamic inertia. So the moving water forces more air out of the pipe, below the overflow hole.

So what is the function of the code-mandated venting of the DWV system?

the long description i gave was for the portion of pipe that is not inside the vented portion of the DWV system . B bus_driver, before asking for even more clarification, wait while you sleep on it. wait a time period while you give it all some thought, and post once you have had time to let it all sink in. No point polluting someone's thread with queries that you could resolve on your own. i mean it IS obvious to one and all that DWV Venting exists only after the P trap, not before. DWV Venting is with sewer gases. In the description above, the air i mentioned as being in the pipe is Room Air, prior to the P trap, and not on the other side of the P trap. Hope this is clear.

So the overflow aids in venting? The lower end of the overflow intersects the drain system how far below the stopper of the sink?