Oh dear, Lmcal, You are being too hard on yourself. You are not complaining or being too picky. You sound realistic. Tomorrow you are going to take a deep breath and remind yourself you are paying for this new kitchen. And with a firm, calm, direct and powerful (not agressive save that if things get ugly later) and kind voice you will figure a way to communicate what you expect from these people you have hired. You can do this. I think for women (like me) this can be difficult to try to be kind but yet firm. Don't be afraid to do this. There are different ways to approach this depending on the other person. You can do a casual kind but firm approach. Something like.. "Wow, I can not wait until you are finished. Those nails sticking out just iritate me. When you are done it is going to be amazing! I am just so excited about this new kitchen. Why just the other day I noticed the marker mark on the back of the wine rack. But I know this will all be fixed. The tiles will be so beautiful when they are smoothed out. I am thrilled. Thank you for your good job. And I look forward to seeing the corrections. " It is sort of a backhanded compliment. I know sneaky but it gets your points across. The other way is direct. Simply say. "I see there are few things that still need to be done. I want to take pictures of the progress. Should I wait until you have them corrected ________? There are definitley some issues that I looking forward to being corrected. Do we wait for the walk through or should I mention them now?" This sort of gives him an annoucement of what you are going to annouce. Giving him time to save face, or respond to your direction. And the third option. And I am so guilty of this is getting my DH to step in and speak for me. Often this is harder as DH is non confrontational. Thinking of you and hoping you know you are NOT too picky. Be strong. ~boxerpups

Thanks! I'm cleaning it right now with acetone and layers of black are coming off. The amazing thing is that what looked like brown stones are now beginning to look like natural turquoise! It's like a gem hunt!

Hey folks, I've been trying for a long time to find somthing that will get completely rid of "devil's spit" AKA "sticky4ever" AKA "modern, intentionally undefeatable label glue". I hated having a nice item with the label removed, but not being able to pick it up without having to pry it loos from my hand in order to set it back down. I'd tried several of the items/methods listed above and several not listed, and none of the ones I'd tried worked. Even steel wool and soap leave a thin glue residue behind. I was going to try Goo Gone, lighter fluid, WD-40, Ets, then somewone mentioned Pledge furnature polish. I didn't have any of the others but thought there might be some Pledge. No luck, but way in the back of a shelf loaded with odds and ends I found a bottle of, Old English Red Oil Furnature Polish. The bottle was half full and looked like a design from the earley 1950's. Anyway, what the heck, I tried it, it worked. With some rubing it removed every trace of glue from the fancy can I'd been trying everything else on without success. When finished, you couldn't tell there'd ever been anything sticky on the unmirred surface. So it looks like at least some furnature polishes do the trick. Of corse, there may be more than one kind of "Sticky4Ever" used under the labels.

I thought I was losing my mind - I replied on another forum LOL -- here it is C & P --- Well \- alot of us that glue glass to glass use "GE Silicone II for Windows and Doors." It will hold great \- ( and it's clear ) but you'd either have to glue the item laying down so it won't slip \- or if you have to glue it vertically \- you'd have to tape the cups in place till it dries. The best thing about using silicone \- is when you are tired of it and want to change it \- a razor blade will scrape the whole thing off. Those pictures are just awesome ... such wonderful decorating ideas !