So here we are 6 months of kitchen reno and so close but yet so far from done. July 2 will be the start of month 7. It has been taking eons of time for bits and pieces to get done. One delay after another. Then we finally had the appliances delivered and we came home one day last week to find everything installed -- except the fridge. It was sitting in the middle of the kitchen. Accckkk!! No note from the contractor so we investigate and discover the floor is so unlevel (really bad tile job but that is another story) that the fridge can't fit without some major shimming up on one side and at the back. So we rig up some gadgets on the floor to allow us to slide the fridge into its slot and be evenly upright. Ahhh yes that works! But oh oh! It is an awfully tight fit, like a millimeter or two of room to spare on the sides, it actually rubs on one cabinet panel a bit as it goes in. But its in!! Oops, my excitement is short lived. After it is pushed into to where it should be, we discover the pantry door will NOT close. We opened it before pushing the fridge in so it wouldn't get banged during the tight fitting process. We had to pull the fridge back out 5 inches to get the pantry door to close. We call the cabinetmaker who was to come and install the last two cabinet doors and my toekicks after the appliances were all sorted out and tell him the fridge won't fit. He doesn't believe us because he had the specs for the fridge and everything was double checked. He sends the installer to finish the trims and "adjust the pantry door" to allow it to close. The installer says, uh uh, adjusting that door will leave it too far out of alignment with the base drawers and anyway is NOT going to work. Thats what I figured in the first place, I thought the only way to fix it without everything looking out of alignment was to dismantle SOMETHING but thought that the cabinet maker would be unlikely to go to that huge amount of work, especially since we paid him in full a while back (like in February), never expecting this kind of problem. We measured the appliance holes and everything matched the manufacturers specs. I was so surprised when the cabinetmaker called us and said they had a plan! They went over our drawings and propose to remove the pantry and cut down the 1 inch filler strip between the pantry and the wall (put in to account for our very uneven walls) by 1/4 inch and reinstall the pantry 1/4 inch over, then put a 1/4 filler strip between the pantry and the over the fridge cabinet. They think the 1/4 inch move will give enough room for the pantry door to close and not make too obvious a space between it and the other cabinet and moving the whole unit will not put the door out of alignment with the drawers below the pantry door or leave an unfinished gap between the two cabinets. I am very nervous about this, worried about what will happen to the crown moldings and worried about whether things will get damaged during the whole process and worried about how it will all look afterwards. DH says get over it, they are trying to do the best fix they can without dismantling the whole kitchen. I think this is better than having my fridge sitting permanently too far out of its nook though. But now I am thinking about what else can go wrong. We were 97% done, but 97% is NOT done. Ack! On the bright side, I love having a range to cook on after 6 months of microwaved and electric frying pan food. So I guess for me that is a real sign of getting close to done, but it sure seems like it will never end, especially when you think its done and another surprise pops up. Hmmmm. What happened to that estimate of 8 weeks. DH claims that if I had let him do the reno, it would all be perfect. However, THAT for sure would be the reno that never ended, I am sure it would have been 6 years NOT 6 months. It may have been more perfect but I know for sure it would have been years, not months of waiting.