The one that I have right now!!! (today, see post below re: dropped ceiling problem...tomorrow, I'll repost with a new one.)

For me it was our contractors installing radiant floor heat in our kitchen. Worked fine on the test. Then they put in nice mahogany floors. Radiant stopped working. They had to rip out half the wood floors, tear up the cement to find the problem in the heat wires. Fixed them, redid the floor. Turned on the heat and the system blew again. What a nightmare!

I think mine was making my appliance choices first and buying them in advance to take advantage of a good deal. Lovelovelove the look and function of the Electrolux range. I love the function of the Asko dishwasher and Samsung refrigerator. However I would love to change the look of the dw and refrigerator. I would panel the dishwasher and get a cabinet depth refrigerator. I think it would enhance the look of my kitchen. But I made the choices before all my cabinet design/style decisions were made. Ah well, live and learn.

I'm so sorry about your floor!

For me, it is the 20+ inch crack in my soapstone counter. I'm getting used to it though. It doesn't make me as mad as it used to.

That is the worst thing about the mistakes: how they make you feel inside once you start living with them.

*hug*

Francy

hug to you too Francy. I think of you often.

LMAO oh so many to choose from...

Well I'll go with the "today" problem and leave out the tile guy who installed the tile (travertine) that had to be removed twice...it's not been paid for yet. Then the plumber who droped my toilet and broke tiles in the marble floor...then there's the one who cut off the toilet in the only working bathroom. Then there's the guy who kicked off the valve for the lift station and flooded the first level with sh*t..literally.

So today I found out my granite and marble slabs (which were paid for and had my name on them) were sold to someone else. Nifty :oP

Wine anyone?

Removing the side fins and rerouting the gas line on my antique Smoothtop stove so that I would be able to install it flush against the newly installed fitted cabinetry. Because that 85-year old range was not up to such dramatic tampering, it then protested by sprouting multiple gas leaks. Along with other wear and repair issues, those leaks convinced me to retire the grand old dame and to replace her with a brand new range of a totally different size and power requirements. That then caused me to have to do a whole new redesign of the kitchen, including major new rerouting of the gas line, installation of a 240v electrical circuit, and the addition of hvac duct work for an exterior vented range hood. Perhaps the biggest jolt/joke of it all is that, after the fact, when I broke down and hired an ID to help me with the redesign, I learned that my attempt to force that antique stove to sit flush against the cabinetry would never have worked. Indeed, as it was explained to me, a range like that was designed to be a stand alone in a kitchen of unfitted cabinetry. (Which was pretty much the kind of kitchen I inherited when we bought this old turn of the century house 20 years ago and which was in place when I first got the "brilliant" idea to embark on a fitted kitchen remodel). Ya live and ya learn!

We planned a 6" oil pullout near our range. Stupid cabinet guy would only proof our cabinet order by looking at his 20/20 program, NOT an itemized list. Cabinets showed up, and the 6" cabinet is a plain hinged cabinet, not a pullout. When we reported the error, he directed the GC to install it and that he'd order the pullout for it.

Weeks later, after that cabinet is installed in the middle of the run, stupid cabinet guy said that he couldn't get a pullout retrofitted in that cabinet, and couldn't even find a pullout that could fit. I found one though...at a cost of $300+, but the cabinet guy refused to pay for it b/c we "paid for a regular 6" cabinet and that's what (we) got". Well thanks for scewing us over stupid cabinet guy.

I already have vertical storage over our fridge and ovens, and have no need for a tray cabinet. If anyone has any bright ideas for this &%$! cabinet, I'm all ears...

Hi,

I'm so sorry you had a bad day. Things like that really stink. If it helps you feel better, my funniest snafu was when the new water heater wouldn't fit in the closet and the contractor asked if I wanted him to widen the door so it would fit thru the closet door or find a slimmer water heater? That was a sign of the mistakes to come!

I have a bunch of costly mistakes (wrong tile installed, wrong color paint, the electrical outlets & switches in the kitchen were put in the wrong places, sold my piece of granite, special order French Doors were measured wrong and didn't fit the openning, etc.). Both cost me additional time and money.

But the problem that caused me the most aggravation was when the fabricator went to install my 3rd piece of granite. The faucet and sink wouldn't fit in the cabinet or within the parameters for the granite. Since the cabinets were installed and the granite was purchased, it was either the faucet or sink that needed to be changed out. I loved the Brizo faucet and decided to find a smaller sink ASAP as they were ready to install the granite. I was furious at my KD and felt this was something she should have known and advised me accordingly. Whenever I look at the sink and faucet, it still gets me mad. But hopefully with time, my anger will lessen.

Wishing you smooth sailing from her on in and hope the days ahead are much better!

Karen

Hey- there is another California Dreamer on this board?? I thought I was the only dreamer in California!

alku- sorry to hear about your 6" snafu-
We had a similar 6" section that couldn't be made into a oil pull out because it wasn't standard depth. So I use it to hold my cutting boards (it's in my island right in my prep zone).

My biggest and costliest snafu was changing my mind about my counter tops after they had been purchased and picked up by the fabricator. I chose soapstone slabs but the yard would not let me oil them before purchasing them. They sprayed them with water and I thought they looked good.
Thankfully I went to the fabricators to see how the templates would be laid out. We oiled one of the slabs and I realized it had a lot of green veining. Not at all the look I wanted in my kitchen.
I fretted a great deal and ultimately exchanged the slabs (with a 25% restocking fee- ouch!). I wasn't able to find quiet soapstone so I went with my second choice, pietra de cardosa.

My other major $$ snafu was ordering a window that didn't look good when installed. So I had to eat the cost of the window and pay to have it removed and a new one installed.

Overall, I guess in the big scheme of things those are pretty minor issues (and completely my fault). My project was a pretty extensive whole house remodel so I guess I can't really complain if that's the worst of it.

WOW - there are so many things that can go wrong! This remodel stuff is really hard work - even when you have a decent contractor and you think you have all your ducks in a row, sh*t happens, (sometimes literally, as igloochic noted!)

I posted my problem on the flooring board, but I think I am going to try this board, too, in case someone has some decorative solution to make it look like I planned for this "feature".

Thank you for making me realize I'm not alone in my frustration. I'm trying to be happy I have a kitchen, and that I have $$ to remodel a kitchen, well, I did, - who knows what that total bill is going to be?!?!?

Just curious, california dreamer, what part are you in? Sacramento here.

Good luck to all of you in your endeavors!!

Only ONE???

Actually, I have to say that despite all the problems I've had, everything, in the end is really turning out BETTER! Can you believe I said that!!! :-O

• Venting Issue: Yes, it caused a 9-week stop work order and forced us to go with an outside plumber to move a shower drain pipe...but it also resulted in:

  • We ultimately replaced all our polybutelyne water pipes that no longer meet code b/c they get brittle and crack over time (and they were 13 years old). We originally said "No" to it, but the long wait gave us time to think about it and we realized that the last thing we wanted was to have one of the many water pipes in our kitchen ceiling spring a leak and ruin the new kitchen PLUS it was less expensive to do now b/c the ceiling and walls were already opened up AND most of the drywall work is already included in the remodel.

  • A new hot water heater! Can you believe it...we had all the water pipes replaced and the next day our hot water heater sprung a leak! (Nowhere near where the work was done w/the water pipes). It turns out our water heater is under warranty until 6/1 so we got a new water heater for just the cost of labor...AND since standards have changed since we bought the defective one, it's a much better one!

Measuring error on the cooktop wall: We originally had two 9" standard cabinets (no shelves) flanking our cooktop. We were going to use them for tray storage since they were too small for much of anything else...even though we already have more tray storage than we need over the ovens & refrigerator. BUT now that we have the 6" fillers on either side and they're PULLOUTS, we now have better storage for that location...mostly spices. [My only disappointment is that Omega's filler pullout...which btw CAN be retrofitted since it's one piece...does not have adjustable shelves...so no room for oils there...but that's OK...one side will be spices and the other side will be baking things like colored sugars/sprinkles..still more useful than those extra tray cabinets!]
Message Center: B/c of the measuring error on the sink wall that forced us to have a smaller pantry and eliminated our future Message Center for good, we got a niche in the pantry wall now for our Message Center. The future one was going to have to wait a few years until we had saved enough AND had made other, more pressing changes. OK, we won't get the full Message Center that I originally wanted, but I will have something now.

Wait a minute...there are a couple of things that did not turn out better...

• Our smaller pantry...but I guess I can live with it since I am getting that Message Center Niche

• Very narrow aisle b/w the peninsula and refrigerator

Now that my cabinets are going in and I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, albeit faint, I'm able to look more positively at everything! (You know that saying "every cloud has a silver lining"...!)

alku05, I was about to post my snafu when I read yours about your 6" non-pullout cabinet: "If anyone has any bright ideas for this &%$! cabinet, I'm all ears..."

Well, my snafu was the 4-inch cabinet where I planned to store my step ladder. My cabinet guy was absolutely wonderful about communicating with me, and he did everything exactly like I asked, including my stepladder cabinet. When I asked for a 4-inch cabinet, I meant a cabinet with a 4-inch opening, but that's not what I said. I said 4-inch cabinet. Well, he made me a 4-inch cabinet, but the opening is less than 3 inches and, with the hinges, the usable opening is only about 1.5 inches. Well, try finding a ladder that can fit in there. Actually, I did find one that fits, I just need the "Jaws of Life" every time I want to get it in or out of there.

Oh! To top it off, it didn't occur to be that all the examples I saw of ladders fitting in little cabinets were in standard depth cabinets. Mine is in a run of 18" deep cabinets, which makes finding a ladder to fit even less likely. If I can find a good ladder that would fit in the 18-inch space, think I will ask the cabinet maker to remake this for me, probably opening to the side instead of the front, and obviously at my expense. Thank goodness this was my biggest blunder!

So, alku05, my suggestion is to use your luxuriously wide 6" cabinet (that is also probably a luxurious 24" deep) to store a step ladder! :)

We got the stain for our cabinets. Tested it, liked it, bought quantity to do the entire run. What we didn't realize was that the big can was a "high pigment, low VOC" formula. The color was way off but we didn't realize this until too late. The cabinets are OK, but SO not the color I wanted. For a few weeks I wanted to cry every time I saw them. Sometimes I still do.

Fortunately with age the color is mellowing some. Also, Hubby got the first coat of stain on our new floors and that color is helping to tone the cabinets down. I still don't like how they look with our granite, though.

This week has been too amazingly bad to fully document. After seeing the process first hand, I'm still optimistic that refacing can be done well and look good. But not by the guy that was in my house. I have a ton of pictures, but won't be posting them. I actually feel bad for the company that this one guy has caused so much grief. See my refacing thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: Refacing

igloochic, good grief. You went through all of that without killing at least one person?

Mine is the contractor I hired. I am ready to strangle him. I want him gone! He is so busy telling me what a perfectionist he is and I have yet to see much of anything done with perfection. He also likes to tell me WHAT I LIKE! I know what I like and that is what I want.

We are talking tomorrow.

For me it was the painting... the paint job was awful and they got paint on the carpet and on the cabinets. Its one thing if something hard has a mistake but the painting was not difficult and just plain sloppy - and expensive. It made me mad that I just didn't take a week of unpaid leave from work and do it myself - would have ultimately cost less and been a better job.

Alku05 - how big is your actual opening now? I've seen some rev-a-shelf pullouts that are only 5", I've seen spice pullouts that are only 3". Not sure if these wouldn't work because you have slightly less height now. What about a pegboard pullout - you can fit a lot of utensils and and smaller pots with just a 4" wide pullout. There were a bunch of posts about a custom pullout from an Ikeafans site that someone did DIY. Also like holligator's idea.

You people are scaring me.... I'm just about to order my cabinets. Thanks to all of you, I am checking and rechecking everything I possibly can! I'm sure I'll be posting the bumps in the road along the way.
Barb

my biggest snafu was ordering an island countertop from cambria. $1500 mistake! There's one big orange blob of resin right in the middle. We're pulling it off and replacing it with granite.

You can't check the drawings enough. I learned that here and yet here I am ... Less than 24hrs after the cabs arrived and there is already trouble in paradise. The cab for the drawer MW is totally wrong. On the drawings the proportions looked wrong. We repeatedly brought it up. KD agreed and reassured us that she had entered in the correct model number. Well, here we are, MW won't even fit in the opening. I easily downloaded the builder's specs off the Sharp website. Measurements are all wrong. Anyone know how long the typical wait is to get another cab built?? It's only 830am...where's my wine glass.....

My granite installers measured wrong - the countertop just barely fits on one end, and they bashed it into the wall and made a hole in order to make it look like it wasn't their fault that the slab didn't fit - like the wall wasn't plumb. These things can be hidden with the backsplash, but it's infuriating that I paid them in full! But I'm over it - it was 4 months ago, and I love my kitchen :)

I'm sorry about your floor...that sounds very annoying. But hopefully you, too, will not notice it in four months.

Well, that would be paying an architect around $24K for plans, then finding out that he mis-measured and didn't discover that our (old) kitchen floor had a 2+" drop over 7 feet. Wouldn't that be pretty obvious to an architect?

We were tying a kitchen floor into two other rooms and ended up having to, OMG, I don't know what they did but it was a tremendous, concrete-y dusty mess and cost us a pretty penny extra. I thought that was why we had an architect in the first place.

Then he had the gall to bill us for the time his helper spent re-measuring. I never paid that bill.

Waiting two years, without a kitchen, made me real unhappy....BUT other than that....
Amazingly enough, I have only one teeny tiny snafu, compared to everyone elses problems, I am almost embarrased to mention it. The soap dispenser hole is too close to the faucet... That's IT. I really can't believe how smoothly our kitchen installation went, but we have made up for it in other major new house build problems.
Hang in there everyone someday we can look back on all this and say. "It was worth it".

First big lesson - hope that your contractor doesn't find a new girlfriend right after start of remodel. That means that he starts showing up late and leaving early. I estimate that the girlfriend slowed my project down by at least a month. And the whole relationship only lasted for 6 weeks anyway !

Second big lesson - don't select exterior paint colours based on a small 2'x2' patch painted on the house, it looks nothing like the entire house in all it's glory. The nice blue turned into Yankee Doodle Dandy after the first day of painting, which led to a panicked stop work order and new paint selection, performed in the paint store at 6 o'clock the next morning. It's OK, but I don't love it. That was a $1k mistake. Anyone want some ugly blue exterior paint ?

Third big lesson, and the one I am struggling with now ... photocopy your contractor's driver's license and get detailed address and backup contact information for him and his subcontractors. My contractor has disappeared. On 03/31 I got a voicemail from him telling me he has "lost his sister" and that he would be gone for three days, he sounded really upset. I texted him to say fine, do what you need to do, keep me informed. Haven't heard a peep since then, despite me leaving messages every day. I don't know where to find him ... all his tools and supplies are here and I have not paid him more than justified to this point, but the house is barely livable, no functioning kitchen, barely functioning bathroom, a complete mess. I am furious. I had to cancel my soapstone installation appointment for this morning because he hasn't made adjustments to cabinets and sink that were requested.

I have locked the doors that he has access to, so he can't get in to remove his tools without me being here. I am so angry with him for his lack of communication that I am not sure I can be civil to him if/when he shows up.

Mary,

How long does it take to get a new cabinet built? Well, our cabinets arrived in October, 2007 (first batch), cabinet for over the fridge was wrong depth, 12" instead of 24". DH designed, and KG turned the cabinet inside out to build a display shelf/alcove cabinet for the OTR MW- turned out great- that was in before Christmas. Then KG built me a new cabinet for over the fridge, didn't fit... finally decided to hire a carpenter - Date today- April 11, 2008, still waiting for the cabinet for over the fridge. So pantry is just standing there, not connected to anything... actually that reminds me, must phone carpenter today to inquire as to the status of my remaining cupboards, shelves, doors...

As to which snafu made me cry? Probably the granite. When they arrived in the dead of night one dark November Saturday evening, I was all excited. As the frost thawed, and I could see the granite more clearly, it was obvious that the peninsula didn't match the counter- grain ran at 90º to each other. Also on one side of the stove. Nobody said anything, and I was intimidated by a kitchen full of strange men...anyhow Monday Morning (after not sleeping well, and spending hours on the Stone Advice forum) it was clear granite needed to be replaced. Guess what, they're installing it Monday- fingers crossed! And like Buehl, it may work out better... they're using the old granite to make me two windowsills for my garden windows, backsplashes for those and behind the stove, and they'll supply a granite backsplash (exact height to be determined- please help with my BS quandry in my other post)for the rest of the kitchen.

Here is a link that might be useful: Need help with my backsplash :>)

Mine would have to be when the contractors flooded our (previously finished) basement on the second day of the kitchen demolition. Had to rip out the carpet to prevent mold and everything has been torn up ever since. That was back on August 3. We're in the midst of having it re-painted now and hopefully new carpet will be installed in a few weeks.

I guess the good news is that the contractor's insurance funded about half the cost of an unplanned basement renovation.

Most of our remodel went well. I also learned to check many times the cabinet measurements and wall measurements and fortunately caught a major error.

Our most maddening problem was the front door which was measured by the building company that we orderred the door of my dreams from. First doors came and were rejected by building company because of bad staining/finishing job. Two months later second set of doors came. When they were delivered, wise carpenter said let's measure this before unloading off the truck. Good thing because new doors of our dreams were 6 inches wider than space. Time is running out now because GC is almost done with everything in this extensive project. Dream doors aren't available in our space. Building company suggested not as nice replacement doors from a company that is quicker in filling orders. These darn doors don't fit right now. We can see daylight over the area between door and frame (not a good thing in WI). They said "Don't worry. This can be fixed by weather stripping." All attempts to fix it have resulted in us still seeing light. Building company has been paid and could care less about the situation.

Smaller things that went wrong: Bad grout job in 1 room which meant it had to be done over. Plumbers cracked new tile when drilling (learned if you have porcelain tile, people need to use new expensive drill bit and go very slow). Utility company couldn't accurately mark location of electrical line which had to be moved. Result: husband dug 4 foot hole and no line. Had to pay Utility Company $1,000 for some guy to come with more refined equipment and to dig. He found it in an hour. We made him fill the hole when job was done (which he hadn't planned to do).

Holligator, using the 6" cabinet for a step stool is a great idea, except that we already have a stool cabinet! We spent a long time here planning very carefully.

Chefkev, the opening of the cabinet is 4 3/4". All of the revashelfs inserts are too wide. There is a Hafele that would fit, but it's big bucks and we'd need to pay someone to install b/c it would take special tools to reach back there. And the offending 6" cabinet is *right* next to a 3" spice cabinet.

Hi, Californiadreamer. Do you by any chance have a modern home? Your sounds-so-familiar-type problem actually reminded me of a picture of a lovely home that designed a wide transition piece in the floor (home too open and unfussy or transition hall or framed walls or whatever). In that case, in a serenely simple home, it was stone, somewhere around 18-30", between wood if I remember correctly, and looked wonderful while subtly fulfilling its function of changing moods and delineating spaces.

In the kitchen, my worst problem was telling the framers I needed a 36" niche to recess the refrigerator into. I'm sure I gave them more verbal detail, i.e., that it was to take a 36" fridge, but in any case, 36" is what I got and a 33" fridge is what will fit. Also, I can't say it led to real unhappiness--yet (future conflagration is a possibility), but for those setting a stove betweeen windows, a 42" wall space that looked acceptable on paper became an uh-oh,-too-narrow, now-what-do-I-do-about, in real life when I decided that I had to have a 36" stove.

For the folks with a less-than-six-inches cupboard...I have one too, and I have ordered pull-out towel bars (available in several styles from various vendors). The cylindrical rods which come in several finishes hold 2-3 towels and slide back into the cabinet.

For us the bad news started on day 1 of demo when the crew managed to dent and chip off a large piece of enamel from my less than a year old GE profile double oven. They later "fixed" it with enamel paint.

It went downhill from there....

Hang in there!

Pamela1, excellent idea about the towel rack...now if only the cabinet wasn't 12+ feet from the sink....

DH has one of the oven racks in there at the moment. I guess that will become it's use.

Hi rosie ~

I have a circa 1959 home that has somewhat been turned contemporary. I have great news to post, though - the flooring store is coming Tuesday to reinstall!!! I will have flooring that is now the proper size for the kitchen!! What a relief! It does throw my schedule off by about a week, but if all goes well, in 9 days, I will have flooring in place with appliances installed on top of them!!!

I'm not ready for another remodel anytime sooner - maybe not ever!! This has been one stressful event after another. But in reading the above posts, I am finding that is something that just about everyone experiences who undertakes a remodel. It's nice to have this forum to share ideas and reaffirm that we are not alone!!! :-)

Boy, this is a thread I don't want to have a lot to contribute to! Sorry to hear about all this horrible stuff. Flatcoat, I am livid for you! I hope your contractor reappears soon.

So far the contractors put a gouge on the dining room floor when moving the fridge in there where we have our temporary kitchen. That was about 10 minutes into the job. And they've been cutting cast iron pipes on a back patio and the metal filings have rusted and left swathes of rust stains over the patio. I'm hoping there's a way to remove that because I'm not ready for a landscaping project!

alku05 said, "Holligator, using the 6" cabinet for a step stool is a great idea, except that we already have a stool cabinet! We spent a long time here planning very carefully."

Hey, alku05, may I please keep my step stool at your house?

Sure! Come on over ;)

Wow - I'm getting a little nervous after reading this thread. We're just at the design stage so its all new. Thanks to all for the info though - I just hope we're as lucky as flowerchild. Wish me luck!