Like I said, if you let it. I learned this 40+ yrs. ago from a carpenter who's favorite say for people who offered reasons why not; "There are only two can'ts, if you can't cut it, you can't stay." He handed me an ACME sash balance and said there's the window, install it flush, figure it out. I had a sawsall, 3/8 drill, claw hammer, 3/4" chisel a channel locks and a set of spade bits. I market the jamb, removed the parting bead, Mortised the nailing flanges, drill a 1-3/8" hole in the 4 corners of the marked detail, cut out what I could with the sawsall, removed the blade and holding it with the channel locks removed the balance, installed the ACME, removed the area of the parting bead and installed it. Took me about an hour. Takes about 15min. now. My tools have improved.

nomoreblue - I know that you know this already but just remember that it's only a house (a vessel for all our wordly crap, really!) and we're all blessed to be able to take on these dumb projects and see them through. I stupidly went on vacation about 1/3rd through our project and right before I left I discovered that to me some wall measurements were way off - I kept arguing with my project manager that something was off and that it was impacting the mudroom and powder room. He took the path of "leave the framing details to us, nothing's wrong, we're the professionals" route which did nothing but piss me off and make me worry further (losing loads of sleep). I left out of town out of family necessity but was a wreck most of the trip. I was so convinced of problems that I brought my blue prints with me and digital pictures for a reference point. Suffice it to say, too much time was spent on the phone continuing to argue the point long distance until one day my lead carpenter stepped in and realized "lo and behold" I was right! Yes, I was quite smug and had a few harsh words for my project manager. I returned to town over the weekend and was curious what our interaction would be come the next Monday. When the carpenters arrived, they were suspiciously quiet but I figured they'd heard about the exhange of words and were keeping a low profile. Soon my phone range and it was the owner of the company - I tried to lighten the moment by asking whether my project manager was hiding from me or trying to avoid eating crow. He hesitated and asked me if I had a moment....I realized that work around me had stopped and my carpenters were all looking away...the next words I heard were "He's dead." After the room stopped spinning, I learned that my PM, who was truly a great PM and wonderful guy on whom I had selfishly unleashed my stress, had taken his daughter to the beach over the weekend, was playing in the waves, felt ill, went back to lie on his towel and suffered a massive, fatal heart attack at age 50, right in front of his 9-year old and wife. I can honestly say that it no longer mattered whether the powder room was 12" wider than framed let alone whether the kitchen would be done for Thanksgiving and the arrival of my big extended Greek family. It was a tragic, tragic situation and one that really made me step back, release all my stress, frustration, disappointments, etc and take myself and the project out of the "center of the universe" role that I had allowed it all to be! So, hang in there but keep your healthy perspective and give thanks that you can be in the position you're in :-)

Davidro1.... You are correct in that the LR/DR black granite tiles are set on the diagonal. The foyer terrazzo tiles are set 'square' to the front door. The kitchen entryway from the foyer is flanked by louvered double doors which I plan to remove along with the door trim. I plan to open up the entryway to the ceiling. The current transition is awful as I think it sits up too high and when I hit it with my foot (which I tend to do a lot), it is reminder that I don't like it. I plan to make the transition flush with both floors. As I mentioned in my original post, I was going to use a strip (two+ inches wide) of AB granite to serve as a visual transition in the Foyer/Kitchen entryway. Since I am now going to use a terrazzo tile, I don't think I need to repeat this transition in the other entryway. The Breakfast space (which is contiguous to the task area) is closed off by a swinging door (that is never used). I plan to remove this also and open up to the ceiling. The sliding glass doors (as shown in my mockups) open up to a balcony which is no longer a functioning space. We moved the doors outward bringing the space indoors gaining almost five feet. The remaining balcony 'space' is about 18 inches deep....just enough space for a few small pots of herbs. I went to three granite/tile places today looking at terrazzo tile. My one positive accomplishment....I think I am going with an 18" square, rectified tile. I had thought to use a 12" size but after adjusting my thinking and visual perspective, I think the larger tile will work - unless someone is willing to tell me otherwise and explain the supporting design principle. The color will be a lighter, less busy pattern similar to ArizonaTiles 'Torreon Stone' My design vision doesn't see to be too far off from yours. I have tentatively selected maple with stain/wash/glaze/whatever to create this sort of look. I realize I might have to change my wood species to achieve it.: The granite selection seems to be a moving target right now. I had originally selected Imperial White which is a very tight, fine grained 'granite' (and I use that term with much chagrin). It was the closest granite that I could find that had a somewhat even look of engineered quartz. I wanted a stone that was not very busy and fairly even in color which EQ provided - but I didn't like the looks of after five years of use. After thinking that this stone 'was the one', I learned via the world-wide-web that this material is actually an Orthogneiss which means it needs lots and lots (did I say lots?) of pampering. After finding this out I've done two things....1) lots of reading about sealers and 2) started looking at Bianco Romano...which I'm not really keen on the garnet accents but at least they are fairly small on the slabs that I'm considering. Imperial White not-granite slab (picture color is not accurate, only posting to show the look): Backsplash, I don't know if you saw my comment on another posting, but I credit your Clippings of reminding me that I had a solid glass backsplash in my Inspiration folder. My only conundrum is whether to paint the back ala Palimpsest or frost it and place it over a painted wall. The drawback with the frosted-over-the-painted-wall version, is if I ever want to change the kitchen paint, then this one portion will present a challenge...which I have a whole other thought tangent regarding paint colors. *sigh* There are other small design elements that I plan to add which I won't bother you with in this post unless you express an interest. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for taking the time to reply to my post! Pepper

What are you concerned about - the remedial work needed to fix the issue or compensation done to your neighbor's apartment. I live in a high-rise condo and there was somewhat of the same situation. A bathroom was being remodeled and the plumber installing the fixtures in the shower removed a valve and broke a pipe. There was a tremendous amount of damage since this was a ninth floor unit and almost all the apartments in the same stack below suffered significant damage such that the owners had to move out of their units for several months while their apartments were fixed. The impacted homeowners put in claims to their insurance companies and then the insurance companies dealt with liability. My friend lives in one of the units and so through him I know that the building was sued for having old pipes; the plumber was sued and the homeowner was sued. In the end the plumber's insurance company was the one that actually was on the hook because he had done the work and in some kind of way caused the pipe to burst. First thing you should do is contact your insurance company if there is significant damage to your neighbor because of the water intrusion. If there isn't you would probably not want to make a claim since it would appear on your record and impact future premium rates. Then as others have posted, it comes down to negotiation and who has clout. It would appear that some degree of responsibility is shared by all - the plumber knew that pipes running against studs need to be shielded so he should have put in larger enough plates to full protect since he knew the purpose of the plates and could see that the size of the plates wasn't sufficient. The installer couldn't see the studs and would have assumed the pipes were sufficiently protected - perhaps someone can offer assistance regarding whether a prudent glass installer should have made this assumption without further investigation. And since you are acting as the GC in effect, you would also have some degree of responsibility. One of the reasons a GC earns their money is because they (and their insurance) take full responsibility for this kind of issue. It wouldn't matter who or what caused the damage - the GC would have the subs remedy it - whether he paid for it or he and the subs each ate a certain portion would be irrelevant to the homeowner.