How to handle when a mistake is made...

10 years ago

Our remote designer based our new kitchen on an incorrect wall measurement. The cabinet maker came to remeasure and create shop drawings based on his own measurements. Two months later, the cabinet maker tells us that he wants to add a 5 inch wall overhang so that the cabinets don't continue past the span of the wall. In his words, it would look like a mistake. We consult with the designer who refuses the extra wall space as it is not the aesthetic that he wanted. Long story short - we find out that the original measurement that the designer based our kitchen on was off by several inches. The kicker - the cabinet builder, despite remeasuring, built the cabinets to the original specifications without ever bringing up the err in the plan. Now the cabinet maker is refusing to modify (built) cabinets and is insisting we lengthen our wall.

What would you do?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

User
10 years ago
Lengthen the wall.

This is precisely why it's a bad idea to do a remote design. No one wants to be responsible for the site measurements.
neshanicguy
Original Author
10 years ago
I guess I should stress that the wall increase really is a bad design. It will be a 5" x 2" that juts into the kitchen entry way. Definitely looks like an after thought. While the cabinet frames are all built, the fronts have not been created yet. However, modifying the cabinets is A LOT of work. It truly is a no-win situation and I'm sick at my stomach about it.
Related Discussions
How did you handle old house when building new?
Q
Comments (17)
Even in the face of falling home prices, we decided to continue living in our current home and NOT put it on the market until our new home was ready. Financially, selling earlier MIGHT have made better sense but 1) I absolutely do not want to move more than one time and 2) I cannot stand the thought of real estate agents walking strangers through my home! Besides which, I'll readily admit that I am simply not a good enough house-keeper to keep my home in "showing shape" seven days a week for weeks/months on end. LOL! Being able to clean it up, paint it up, and showcase it after we move out (as opposed to showing it full of all our junk) will probably balance out whatever equity we lose due to the falling market. At least that's what I told DH and since most of the JUNK is his and he didn't want to put it in storage for 9 to 12 months AND he is no better at housework than I am, he let me convince him. Luckily, we were within a couple of thousand dollars of having the mortgage on our first home paid off before we signed a contract for the new build. (Would have already had it paid off but three years ago, when we found the land we wanted, we discovered it was a whole lot cheaper to refinance our house and purchase the land outright than to get a land-only loan.) Since we won't be faced with the possibility of two mortgages, that gave us a lot more freedom. Fortunately too we're in a part of the country that hasn't been hit too hard by the subprime mess plus we're in a university town where rentals are at a premium so, if we can't get a decent price for our current house when we're ready to sell, I'm 100% sure we can keep it rented easily enough. In fact, I've been advised that holding onto the old house and renting it out would probably be the smarter thing to do financially. I just really don't want the hassles of being a "landlord" though so I'd really rather sell it, roll whatever equity we have into the new house, and be done with it.
...See More
i made a mistake -how can i get rid of these stools
Q
Comments (10)
I think Craig's List might be your best bet; most of the buyers on EBAY will need to pay shipping which will drive down the price they're willing to pay. If the stools are still in mint condition, you could check the the store where you bought them and see if they'll take them back minus a re-stocking fee - The worst they can do is say no. Best wishes.
...See More
Mistakes made with decisions, and beating myself up over it!
Q
Comments (10)
Thank you all, it's so nice to have you to understand and be reassuring! I really appreciate the support! When I reread my OP I see it doesn't really express what I'm feeling, and it sounds petty. I really am overwhelmed with it all. I have to take it one step at a time. Today's step is deciding which boards to cut into which pieces for the face frames. It'll take longer than one day for me to figure out, because --- I don't know why, I'm just slow. I really think hormones are playing a role. I'm 52 and some days I just can't think clearly. I'm sure some of you have experienced that! Rhome, thanks for the hug and kind words! You picked right up on my tendency to see things in terms of details, and not the big picture. I have to remember it's the forest, not the trees! Kelleg, boxer, and cotehele, somehow there's comfort in knowing other people have done the same thing. Thanks for telling me about your "perfect" island and Shaw's sink that will not end up in your kitchen, cotehele. There are probably a lot of us who bought, then rejected, perfectly good things because somehow they just weren't right. Imagine the garage sale we could have if we put all our stuff together! Bmorepanic, I love ideas like that. I might try the panel approach, tho the problem is that the doors are curved on the hinge side. I visualize the edges showing on the side of the panels. I'll have to give it more thought. Malhgold, it's funny you asked that about the SS sink. Other than the commercial look, my issue with the sink involved the placement of the DW. The sink has an integral drainboard on both sides, each 15" long. The whole length of the sink has an integral counter, i.e., it's not an undermount or topmount. So the DW (which could be installed on either side) would have had 15" of the SS counter on top of it, and the other 9" of it would be covered by the marble counter. In other words, the DW wouldn't all be under one counter material. It's hard to explain, I hope that makes sense! That bothered me for some reason, it looked wrong. I never installed it, so I can't say whether I liked working with it or not. I will eventually try CL, I'm just procrastinating on that too! Thank you all again. Hope you have a nice weekend!
...See More
We've made a mistake and are thinking of ways to deal with it (m)
Q
Comments (11)
Monkeymo, I think we could put a filler on the drawer side pretty easily, but on the corner cabinet we've already got one of those kidney shaped susans installed. I checked to see if they would work if the door was moved over a bit, but I'm not sure how much play I have there. DH was pretty encouraged by the idea of a push latch (thanks bmorepanic!) but then I was worried about the drawers looking odd....pinch_me, your idea is pretty good to make both sides of the cooktop match. Here's how our cabinets in this corner are looking today: Just to investigate the idea of integrated handles further, I'm going to talk to the cabinet maker's son tomorrow morning and see if he has any experience routing out a groove like this. I also have a couple of friends who build fine furniture and might do this job in a pinch. Also our builder might be able to help. Thanks for your ideas everyone. What a great place this is - hope iVillage gets their )(*()*& together one of these days and fixes the server problems.
...See More
SparklingWater
10 years ago
To me, if your custom cabinet maker came on site and measured your space, but ignored his own measurements in favor of an off site measurement, I would have a talk with him or her.

Working together to modify that last cabinet would be my goal or the last two prior to where that 5" is non-existent.

Just my 2 cents having just gone through a re-model with some bumps.
CEFreeman
10 years ago
Why can't the cabinet box for the last cabinet be modified to be smaller? It's not like he should have to remake all the cabinets. Although I haven't seen pictures of your design.

I have to ask... what would posess you 1) to use a remote designer, and 2) go with a designer that wouldn't help modify a plan based upon their asthetic? 3) or even accept that as an answer?

This is very confusing.
I'd work with the person who took the time to be there -- but ask why the heck they ignored their own measurements unless they lost them, of course, and don't want to admit it.
Vertise
10 years ago
If lengthening the wall "really is a bad design" then it is not a no-win situation. Don't do it.

If the cabinetmaker did make a mistake that resulted in this, then maybe split the cost of fixing the problem. I say split because it sounds like an all around bad design arrangement. Not really sure what happened. But if his cabinetry work is beautiful, by all means split the cost of the error, don't put it all on him. And don't sacrifice the project by taking the path of least resistance.
dilly_ny
10 years ago
I had a similar problem. I purchased my cabinets from a cabinetmaker located 3 hours away. Difference was I sent cabinet maker the wrong dimensions for the fridge. Even though it was clearly my mistake, he offered to redo the cabinet at cost. I took him upon this. I think we both won because I ended up ordering additional cabinets for banquette.

When my architect made a major mistake that caused increased construction costs, I chose to eat it because it wasn't worth the battle.

I would try to talk to your cabinet maker and see what options he can offer to do it correctly, as you wish. I think a small cost increase is reasonable because there was an error in info provided to him. Let him know that a five inch overhang or wall adjustment is not acceptable to you.
User
10 years ago
Who is the GC on the job? That's who the buck stops with. Throw the issue into their lap and have them solve it. That's what they get paid to do.
jakuvall
10 years ago
How did the designer get the dimensions they used? Is this new construction or remodel?

How to handle when a mistake is made...

Comments (8)

User

neshanicguy
Original Author

Related Discussions

SparklingWater

CEFreeman

Vertise

dilly_ny

User

jakuvall

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

How to handle when a mistake is made...

Comments (8)

User

neshanicguyOriginal Author

Related Discussions

SparklingWater

CEFreeman

Vertise

dilly_ny

User

jakuvall

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

neshanicguy
Original Author