I am not "handy" and I installed our faucet. It required me to uninstall an old faucet which we used temporarily. It took me 5-10 minutes.

This is an easy fix, assuming the countertop hole was done well and is the correct size for your faucet....

I have that faucet (and installed it myself) and it will require complete faucet removal, which is not a big deal unless, like Jenn says, someone messed up the hole, or even worse, there are HOLES instead of hole! But yeah, that faucet doesn't need the escutcheon and you should get rid of it.

Installing a faucet in a new setup isn't bad at all. Installing it in 60 years of nasty in an old kitchen isn't so fun. :)

smalloldhouse:

It is not a big job to remove the escutcheon. Your plumber should have known better than to install it, as it is designed to allow this faucet to be a replacement faucet by covering existing holes.

Were I your GC, I would be grateful for having dodged the tile and handle bullets, so removing this shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks everyone! They did it, no complaints.

On the other stuff, I'm just trying to be zen. The kitchen is vastly improved, but I've learned some hard lessons with this. Put every last thing in writing (which enabled me to push back on the big goofs) and don't assume the obvious, as with the herringbone (it never occurred to me that someone would run it vertically!)

Doesn't it usually run vertically on clothing? Maybe you had a seamstress in the gang. :)

Pita? You are a saint.

I would have run your herringbone vertically also, seems normal to me. ...Inside of masonry fireplaces typically run that way. And no, you are not a PITA

Vertical herringbone seems normal to me too. You should post a pic of that backsplash. I just cannot picture what you mean by horizontal herringbone.

Vertical

Horizontal

Vertical is easier :)

I think I usually see it horizontal and what looks comfortable to me. Thing is, it's directional. Someone in the biz should be highly aware of that and that it's done both ways. They should ask first.

What I'm used to and think of as horizontal:

Sounds like a lot of assumptions going on over there, ie, poor planning and communication with the customer.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Wed, Jun 18, 14 at 16:48

Interesting Errant, I would have called them the other way around. As in the "arrows" point up and down, vs side to side. ....Learn something every day, even at my age ;)

I'm sure you're all correct that it can be run either way. It's just that every photo with a herringbone backsplash that I see on the internet has it running ^^^^^ as opposed to >>>>>, if that makes sense. I can't freak out over the way it played out; as I said it just never occurred to me to say anything and by the time I realized it was done. Nothing to be done about it - the tile is all out of stock, I had to hunt down 2 extra sheets to finish it off as it was.

I do think they should have asked, but compared to the other stuff, it's a reasonable mistake - the early goofs were the real annoyance, since forgetting to schedule floor installation and mis-ordering the cabinets stretched the timetable out much longer than we anticipated.

Here's a couple of just-grouted shots. I'm very happy in general, but when I see others' photos (and there have been a few herringbones on GW these past few days plus the always stellar @enduring backsplash that lives in my mind!) I wish it had turned out differently. Oh well, tomorrow the floor will be done and then it's well past time for me to stop second guessing!! Thanks so much for the advice and the reality check!

Now that I see the pics, I realize horizontal is the way I was describing as "normal" and the way I would assume they would do it too. I must have a horrible eye for such things because to me it looks like the descriptive names are the exact opposite of how they actually look!! As usual, what the heck do I know!

ETA...smalloldhouse...whatever direction they did the backsplash, it looks gorgeous!

This post was edited by dcward89 on Wed, Jun 18, 14 at 16:53

Beautiful kitchen! Love your colors and selections.

I guess we shouldn't rely on vocabulary either. Here's one like yours.

Here is a link that might be useful: remodelista - alternate bs patterns