Geez. No, they should know that! Or they just don't care enough to learn what's standard. This reminds me of a kitchen I did once. Her GC built her a breakfast nook with bench seats. When I went out to see her finished kitchen...the bench was REALLY high. I'm about 5'6" or 7" and my feet dangled! She said her contractor was 6'4" or something like that and just built it based on his body...not any standards! Over the years, I've also seen wall cabinets hung WAY to high (over the standard 54" from floor dimension). Drives me nuts.

I would make them shorten it no matter what.

Kompy

Yep... I agree they need to fix it. I know only what I've learned on this forum and I knew that bar height is 42". At 48" the bar would be just above shoulder height for me which is ridiculous. Now Mrs. Pandy may not be quite as shrimpy but that's a huge mistake which anyone who builds kitchens should have caught. You have a 12" high backsplash area there?

Update - MrsPandy just spoke to the owner of the company, and he said that bars come in all heights... blablabla. She replied that she borrowed a neighbor's bar stool (she really did) and she was talking to him from the bar, which came up almost to her collarbone. He told her that the project manager is on vacation (the first that we heard about it - so that's why he didn't show up today!) and will stop by on Tuesday to check it out.

GRRRRRRR!

Maybe the neighbor will let you borrow a couple of stools, and you guys can all sit on them while you discuss it.

Ha! Rosie, that's a great response! Absolutely they should fix it, how frustrating. My fingers are crossed that they agree to fix it and there are no hicups during the process.

mr pandy,
i feel your pain. we demolished 11 weeks ago, this should have been a 2 week job, and we still don't have a resolution for our substandard cabinets and disastrous silestone installation. people are astonishingly incompetent, all across the board. it is just so frustrating. I am a concert pianist, i am expected to be perfect on every note and i do NOT get second chances to do things over. it is just unbelievable how people can't do their job right.

good luck and let us know what happens
LC

Another frustrated customer here. I'm fighting with my KD to make it possible to plug in my range. Here I thought when I asked him to design a kitchen that it would actually be a room I could cook in rather than using my range as a piece of artwork in the room. Its unpleasant to deal with these problems especially when we don't know all of the standards and rely on people who should. I felt the same way way you did, I didn't think it was my place to question his judgment during the design phase or tell him that the bar should be this height, there should be this much space between these cabinets or the walkway should be this width (how am I supposed to know that?) and in our case when we did question things we were assured it would work. Good luck and maybe you're like me and feel that this forum can often be useful for tips and advice, but sometimes its just comforting to know you are not the only one dealing with these kinds of problems.

no, you DO need to question, question, question, remeasure everything after them, constantly recheck their measurements, and read a few manuals on kitchen design or you will run into a lot of problems! I learned the hard way!
at least my KD is working furiously to repair all of her mistakes!

LC

Reminds me of an episode of Property Ladder where some oblivious do-it-yourself'ers built the bar too high. Classic novice mistake. You wouldn't expect it of "professionals".

Though what I'm learning is that you have to specify EVERYTHING. You would hope you could count on your contractor to put things at appropriate positions based on many years of experience, knowledge of standards, blah blah blah. Disappointing to learn that's not necessarily the case. It means *I* have to become expert at all sorts of things that I shouldn't have to. Grrrr.

Hope you get this resolved satisfactorily!!

A bar should allow you to rest your elbows on it when seated from a bar stool. Not your head! That height is nutty.

Thanks to all for your kind words. paigeysmom - I was posting a message to you at the exact time you were posting here! It's either great minds thinking alike or it's just nice to know we're not alone.

I already was quite proud of myself for noticing that my refrigerator door was not going to open properly in the location that the KD had designated. The drywall was up and the wiring was going in when I questioned it. His first reaction was, "No, it'll be fine." When I had him measure it, he realized that there was no way it would work. It was still early enough that we could rearrange all of the parts we had and make it work. If I didn't speak up, they would have installed it, realized that it didn't fit, and have to redo about half of the countertop, move several cabinets, redo the wiring, and the move the plumbing for the icemaker. Also, either the range and microwave would have had to be moved or addtional cabinets ordered. Considering this big bullet they dodged thanks to my curiosity, fixing the bar height should be a small change for them to absorb. Still, I feel a little guilty for not speaking up when the bar just didn't look right to me.

I agree that it's a shame that we have to almost be experts at the jobs we are hiring them to do if we want it done right the first time. I understand that there are so many details that it is easy for something to slip through, but I don't want those slips on my projects! :-)