I just finished a kitchen project and narrowly (very narrowly) avoided two major mistakes during the project. Thankfully, I was able to put some elbow grease into getting out of two things that would have bugged me forever 1) After the kitchen was designed, ordered, delivered and cabinets were being installed, I noticed that sure enough, the fridge surround cabinet (deeper counter depth) partially blocked one of the pocket lights in the ceiling. I have an 8" ceiling and the cabinet went all the way to the ceiling. It would have rendered the light not only unusable, but impossible to change the light bulb. When I asked the kitchen planner, his response "Why didn't you measure everything and tell us about this earlier!"?? I thought this was his job. Had to make an emergency trip to get a different fridge top cabinet that was inset in line with the upper cabinets. It changed the design a bit, but my fridge is so deep, it was sticking out way too much from the deeper cabinet anyway, which would have looked worse than the regular upper cabinet above the fridge. Atleast the light is open. 2) The night before the backsplash install, I casually notice that since I changed some of the dimensions (went from a 30" drop in cooktop to a 36" slide in range top, now I had a GFI outlet that would end up smack dab behind the middle of the range top. Since I was getting a bluestar with open burners, immediately my mind went to the fictional horror scene of melting outlet and electrical fires, not to mention it was going to look ugly. Of course, once the backsplash tile went up, it would be nearly impossible to change it. I got into gear and opened up part of the wall, re-ran the electrical cable (got a little lucky since the stud spacing was just right), and was able to move the GFI to (barely) out of the way of the cooktop. The dry wall mud was barely dry by the time the installer started putting up the tile. In the end, it worked out really well. Can't complain. *picture of the GFI issue attached :) Imagine the GFI about 12-18 inches to the left*

Yes, they put in an extra piece of plywood because I chose such a thick edge, but we actually factored in the extra 5/8" plywood when we designed the height of the cabinets too, so that the final counter height was the height that we wanted--I am only 5'2" so my counters would usually be shorter but I designed them for a taller (average) person so they have a finished height of 37.5".

Did you find out any information? I am considering doing a 3 inch on the island, but was not sure what to do on perimeter. My designer suggested 2.5 inch all around, but I was thinking 3 inch looked a bit better.

GC agrees and is fantastic - I use them on every project. My post was to get some objective viewpoints because after looking at it for a week straight, I've lost perspective on the two options. Faced with an option to just "accept it and move on" as live_wire stated is appealing on one hand because we are several weeks behind schedule (COVID supply chain issues) and without even basic use of the kitchen for 10 weeks now - so the thought of just plowing forward and getting this done is enticing. However, we did pay a premium for an upgraded feature from a reputable and experienced fabricator...having to look at something that is "a solid B" when that isn't what we paid for nor were promised, and doesn't match the quality of the rest of the project will probably irk me to see each time we walk into the kitchen. Again, was looking for some perspective on if this is acceptable or poor from professionals or people with more experience with mitered edges than myself. The chastizing over the inherent pitfalls of renovation and "overdone fad features" really is just white noise - this isn't my first or even 10th reno, but I'm also not a stone fabricator. But then again, who doesn't enjoy armchair quarterbacking other peoples' projects from behind a keyboard? 🙂