Eugenie,
That's a significant bubble displacement. Insist that the contractor you hired return and explain him/herself and propose a solution which isn't going to cost you another penny. You put your trust in the contractor because he/she was supposed to be the expert and anticipate ALL of these little details in advance so that your installation would be flawless. "Not enough money in the budget to level the cabinets"??? Then he/she should have expressed that VERY clearly at the onset of the project and priced things accordingly instead of expecting you to simply accept an inferior installation. If I'm coming across harshly, it's because I do want to impress upon you that YOU are correct to be disappointed and the contractor is obligated to resolve this to your satisfaction without additional charge, or make it VERY worth your while to accept his blunder.
Best of luck,
Shaughnn

Thank you, shaughnn, for expressing exactly what I'm thinking. We have had so many problems on this - small! - job, that I imagine my next post will be "Help! Should I Fire My Contractor?"

Fortunately, we still owe him half the money, but we also have only half the job, and it's not easy to find people to come in and fix all the little things someone else did wrong.

Am I really going to ask him to take out that slab of granite? Can that even be done? Or do I just have to live with it and hope the subway tile doesn't look just as slanted??

Any advice welcome!

The stone installer probably didn't even check for level. I know mine didn't. The cabinet installer is responsible for leveling them across the room. You want the full width of the cabinet supporting the stone, not just a shim.

If you have a GC, he knew that the cabinets were old and should have known to check for level before the countertops went in. The only way to fix it will be to lift the granite and build up the low spots on the cabinet. It should only take him couple minutes to rip some thin strips of wood on a table saw, but there is a decent chance that the stone breaks trying to lift it.

It is really important that you get your countertops level. My granite installers shimmed where necessary to make my countertops level. If they aren't level and you spill something, it is going to run that direction.

Even more worrisome than having liquid spill in one direction (at least it's toward the sink, ha ha) I'm wondering how the backsplash will be affected by the slant - will it just accentuate it? Do they follow the line of the cabs above (they're level)? Or the line of the granite, which slants toward the center/sink.

My guess is a very small strip of carefully cut tile has to run along the granite edge to create a level line that the rows of tile above will follow. But I have lost confidence in my GC to do this properly. He came very highly recommended, but he hasn't been focussed on my job at all. He has his reasons, but still...

Maybe I should chose a vertical tile, like a tile beadboard (looks a little like a bathroom, but at least it isn't horizontal).

All ideas welcome!

I have done one kit with granite and one with soapstone. In both cases Contractor and cabinet maker were present for the stone fabricators instillation. Both stone fabricators came in and put level all over to be sure they were okay. I do think a vertical backsplash would hide the issue but I would certainly want it checked to know nothing moved and everything is sturdy before I put in a BS.

This is one of those "for the want of a nail, the kingdom was lost" type of situations. The real issue here is the whole home's levelness, not the floors, not the cabinets, not the countertops, not the backsplash. Put your level on your floor and see if it all goes downhill as well. I'm sure it does, but the question is how much out of level is it? That's when you need to crawl under the home and figure out WHY everything isn't level. If it's "just" settling, and the home is done settling, then you can begin to address everything that has been affected by this condition. If your foundation is subsiding, or a beam has broken, you need to have that addressed immediately.

Once you diagnose the reason for the whole issue, only then can you attempt to start at the beginning and fix what's wrong here. You may need to jack up your floor support. You may need to remove the cabinets and shim from the bottom. It may be OK to just remove the counters and create long thin shims for the top. But you have to know what the disease is before you can diagnose the cure.

And yes, this will also affect your uppers if they are not level. You need to know that, as well as if your ceiling is level. Everything needs to be looked at with your level before you crawl under the house.

Well, this IS an old house and GreenDesigns is right - the floor isn't level either. However, I still believe it was the GCs job to make sure the cabinets were level before that big slab of beautiful granite was put in place.

What to do now? Of course I'd rather they shim up the granite and level it, but I'm not sure this can be done - it took three big men to install it in the first place.

I thought maybe a herringbone backsplash would hide the problem - but, still, I wish I didn't have the problem to start with!