All granted, and well said. The way I saw it though, the OP here had made his or her decision of windows and installer, and was only looking to increase the chance that it would go well. One thing I will add, though, is that sometimes in an industry, the "better companies" are their own worst enemies. We hear about this over on the LD forum often too, and it actually just came up again there. They don't call back, they won't take the time to do small jobs, and they communicate badly - can only talk jargon. Less true of landscaping but more of the building trades, they have impenetrable websites if any, no advertising in the yellow pages to help a customer understand who offers what services, and no sales staff with the time to help a customer make sure they're getting what they want. No displays to help a customer educate themselves and make decisions. Open M-F 8-4, closed weekends. Offices in the industrial park. So these companies have evolved into only being able to talk to other contractors and GCs, because that is more money for less sales/communication work. For the customer who wants to go about doing that homework and research you suggest, those companies are inaccessible, intimidating and often simply won't take the time - no interest. They figure they're in the trade, not in sales. That leaves a huge vacuum in the market at the bottom end, and it is really no surprise that other companies like HD have evolved to fill it. Put up displays, be located conveniently, open long hours, with friendly staff who can talk at your level about the details of your piddling insignificant little project, and offer some element of confidence... all that, and not the actual installation, is the competitive product. Through our nearly 20-year ongoing renovation (often stalled for years at a time), I - as a now middle-aged woman, previously as a younger mom with kids in tow - have been in innumerable of these specialty outfits, because as I said, I'm not a big box fan. I go out of my way to find the "better companies," and have been treated astonishingly badly in a lot of them, written off as stupid, had my needs and wishes swept aside and otherwise discounted because "that's not the way it's done" or "you can't get that," not been given crucial information, and been outright ignored as if they think I must have come in by accident. If it's windows, for instance, they're too busy building windows to sit down and talk to me about the window I want. I've had good experiences too, but this is why people go to HD, and I don't blame them. Funny, isn't it, that it takes a company as big as HD to pay attention to the small jobs? Anyway, when you disparage people who go to HD, you might want to make sure there is a viable alternative. The OP here didn't seem to have found one. Karin L

What kind of cabinets do you have behind the range? Are they regular shelves? It seems like the cutting into them in order to put in the electrical and gas connections would be fairly minor. It shouldn't take much space in the cabinets - a few inches high and a couple of inches deep along part of the 30" of the range. If the range can fit flat against a wall, that probably means just the space for a junction box and for a gas outlet and shut off valve. So you won't be loosing much storage space. In most places, code requires having an accessible shut off valve for the gas. We found the cabinet behind our rangetop to be a convenient location for it. The GC may have intended to put in a spacer instead, but it may be better to not lose floor space to a spacer all along the cabinets and have a little lost space in one cabinet. I don't understand why you would have to cut into the cabinets beside the range - it should be possible just altering the cabinet behind the range. I also don't understand why the range isn't going in all the way now - does part of the range project in back? Normally when a range goes against a wall, the gas and electrical connection are recessed into the wall but the range itself doesn't stick into the wall space at all. So your range without the connections having been put in should be able to slide all the way in. Are you sure that the cabinets are installed square? I wonder if they are a little off so that the space between the cabinets gets narrower as you get to the back.

My husband and I paid the Marvin distributor ourselves for the windows. Our GC knows he made a mistake and is sick about it. I did not take pictures of all the windows open that day. But all windows swing on the appropriate side of the opening for the house style except these. The one set of three is a dining room wall the other set of two is our daughters bedroom. The GC thought he would have to buy new windows when we first told him and said it was his six thousand dollar mistake. Then GC called back saying he felt better because the distributor told him he could switch things around easily. But the windows have not been discussed in the 3 weeks since this was discovered and no work on the windows has happened and I became curious why. So, I decided to follow up with the distributor myself to see what they told the GC. The distributor said everything the contractor said but the distributor then decided to call Marvin to verify. Marvin stated the best way around the situation is to buy new windows. To rework the windows would be very involved and could ruin the integrity of the window. (haha...pun not intended) The distributor called the GC several weeks ago and told him. I wanted to get opinions on how others would suggest handling this. Of course I want things right but we are now in a time crunch to get this house finished. My husband is upset but thinks we should let it go. I think we are paying a fee for the contractor and this was a rookie mistake. Our GC is a carpenter by trade and does good work but has become very busy with other work and worry that our project, that has taken too long already (8month to date), will now lose out. Thanks

You're recourse would be through warranty, arbitration, and litigation should it go that far as opposed to withholding payment, however certainly some attention is needed here. I'd add that the manufacturer instructions will not address this (poor exterior finishing) either, so they would not be a valuable resource. What you have is a very sloppy install, at least based on the exterior trim and caulk. If this is a reputable company, I'd fully expect that they will fix this. Perhaps it was a new installer or something along those lines. I'd get a manager out to your home (not the installer, as they will be defensive and appear to be unqualified as well) to go over your concerns and develop a plan of action. There is not enough information to comment on the integrity of the installation itself, but again, the exterior trim and caulking are unacceptable by any standard.... It almost kind of looks like they reused existing trim and tried to sloppily caulk to it?