FINALLY after months of asking my PB to please repair the issues of my pool, they're here. Well...one guy is here. My cracking beach entry, my blotchy colored deck, my suck en deck (because of a leak), spa steps no longer attached because of the deck that sunk and big long crack in the deck from the leak. They are out there right now fixing my beach entry. They went and got some flag stone that is the same as what I used for my coping. They are chipping away at the un submerged pebble sheen and will then put the flagstone in to replace it. I will still have my "sandy beach" colored pebble sheen in the beach, just the very top of the entry will be the flagstone. The rest of my pool is Tahoe Blue. They seem to want to blame us for the leak under the deck. They had cemented a pipe in for us, for a shower out by the pool cabana. They said from the stress of screwing in the shower pipe-head in, that it stressed the PVC pipe (3 or so feet from the shower) and it became unglued. Give me a flippin' break! That cemented in pipe has not moved! You would need a sledge hammer to do any damage. The cement around the pipe isn't cracked at all. We didn't even touch that pipe until 4 months after it was put in. They also want to blame the blotchy cement on splashing water on the deck. I know that water discolors cement but, our deck has NEVER been even or the same in color. In fact 1/2 of the deck is white. We chose a dark beige for the color and paid a lot of money for color. I don't know what they can say about the cement being so white. Like regular cement turns when it's dry. I showed them a path from the house to the pool, that a cement guy put in for us. Someone that we used, not our PB. We did not color the path and it's the same color as the white part of our deck. If I knew the name of the cement company I would call them and ask someone to come out and look at it but, I can't get the number from my PB. I've been doing a search on the internet for companies, because I remember what the site looks like but, I haven't found it yet. I've stressed quite a lot about my PB not ever coming back. They stood me up several times, told me they'll be there, blah blah blah but, never showed up to do the work. Promised me it'll be done before my July 4th party and today is the 13th. They said they were coming last Wed. I I called them...no reply, no show. I text messaged and said "are you coming or not?" I finally after a few more days got a text from them saying they'll be here this Saturday, Sun. at the latest. They didn't show up yesterday so I asked about when they thought they would be here so I didn't have to be on hold and stuck here all day....and they said (after I waited all day yesterday) they'll call me later and let me know what time they'll be here sunday. I never heard back from them yesterday so I figured they were going to stand me up again. Of course they called me from my front gate at 11:30am. No warning of we're on our way or we'll be there at a certain time. Never again will I use a pool builder (sorry to the good reliable PBs out there, cuz I know you're out there. I just happened to choose the wrong PB. Sorry if I seem to be only complaining but, this is the only place where some people will understand where I'm coming from. Despite my complaints, I love my pool. I just don't like being strung along by an unreliable builder.

My cabinets are overlay, but I'm not sure how much that helps you, because my refrigerator is installed into a wall, and not into a cabinet, so we have unlimited space to push it back. I'm fuming for you, though, because it is BS that these are made for inset cabinets, and not for overlay. They look like that because they never installed this type of fridge before, and they didn't do it right. I had the same issue with having to explain to my KD over and over that these doors are designed to be totally flush and still open. My KD also had never installed these before, and I had to keep pushing him to understand. Stick to your guns. Talk to Thermador if you have to, to get them to explain the installation. Make them fix it to your satisfaction, and I would not accept an extra piece of molding. That is not what you paid for, and if your contractor or installer has to eat some of their considerable profit to fix it correctly, you deserve that. If taking out the sheetrock will fix it, and look and function correctly, I don't see a problem with that. We had a big mess up that involved our Thermador columns and the way they were going to look in our original layout many months into our renovation, and way over schedule already. The only way to make it right was to redo the design, which required a new layout, a Thermador FD instead of columns, fridge and freezer drawers where the columns would have gone to make up for missing cubic feet of storage, and for function etc. Our KD ate a lot of the added costs. This obviously required lots of new cabinets and different appliances, which added WEEKS of delay just when we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I don't regret it a bit. I was sooo tired and frustrated, but that was a temporary condition. Had I compromised on certain things, I would have been unhappy for the next 20 years every time I looked at it. Don't give in. There is a solution that will work.

Okay, I've gone into your settings and changed everything to 'Never' so you should not get any more notifications. The only thing that I did leave on was to send you a notification if another member messages you privately. If you want that turned off, I can turn that off as well.

Thanks for checking in on our progress, patty_cakes! Unfortunately, with all of the rain we've received over the past month or so, progress came to a standstill and we are still waiting for our foundation to be poured! Construction crews all over this area are so far behind on jobs, and I'm trying to have patience. At least we presently have a house in which to live. I know that there are many who work construction here who depend on having those regular paychecks and when they stop rolling in, they really suffer. My heart goes out to them, and I'm trying to keep this all in perspective! As it now stands, our projected completion date is mid-October at the earliest. We have made all of our selections for the house, and I think I've got photos of most everything we've selected here in my "idea book." (Can you view it?) My vision was to keep things as classic and timeless as possible. We've chosen hardwood flooring throughout, with the exception of the bathrooms and the laundry which will be tiled. My kitchen will have white cabinets (with a couple of lighted Flemish-glass fronted cabinets to display my blue and white Cornishware), black granite countertops, and a glossy white subway tile backsplash. We've added crown molding throughout the house. Will have a stacked-stone fireplace in the living room (which is open to the kitchen - a concept that will be quite different than we are used to!). The bathrooms will be simply styled with white subway tile in the showers, white integrated counters/sinks, and we'll have brushed nickel hardware throughout the house. The walls will be painted a very neutral off-white -- certainly different from the Crayola box that our current house used to be! I'm yearning for simple, classic, clean. And new. Never, EVER thought I'd be saying that, but well ... here I am. :-) We'll be buying new furniture once we're in. I'm leaning towards a sectional in the main living space, and we'll need new bedroom furniture for the master and the upstairs bedroom. The little "game room" upstairs will be a space for TV watching and reading, and I'd like to furnish it sparsely but comfortably. I plan to use my paintings as pops of color, and it will be fun to figure out where to hang things once we move. I'll have to sell a few pieces, but I think I can use most of my favorites. We have already committed to plantation shutters in all of the rooms requiring window coverings, and I'm really happy with that decision. I've loved that look for ages, and am also just tired of dealing with curtains. Right now it still feels a little like a dream that's a long way off ... But I know we'll get there eventually!