Ugh, I feel for you, truly. Remodeling is so stressful. Having been through it not that long ago, though, I can tell you that it doesn't take very long before you forget about the naggy, annoying crap that delayed the job and pinch yourself because you can't believe that you have a beautiful, fantastic, and functional kitchen.

They said afterwards " you only normally shout at dad like that ".

Out of the mouths of babes, lol.

Sorry you're dealing with headaches and delays, too.

Ugh somersetlass, I hear you. I'm trying to be nice to everyone since I generally don't yell anyway. But it's getting harder. I think the GC is now avoiding me as an angry/sad stare from a pregnant woman is not what he wants to deal with. Totally a first world problem but it's the one I got. I just want to get in there and cook you know :)

Yup. At least, my kitchen is fully functional. But here I am, week 11, I think. Contractor was here for maybe 3 hours one afternoon last week with a helper, and builder did the back steps. But my floor trim/transition strips aren't in and there are a half a dozen finishing touches on the punch list... last week, GC said he wouldn't be here Monday, and he'd let me know the schedule. I still haven't heard from him. Sooo close and I just want them to come finish. Oh, and I have a huge pile of brick and concrete pieces on my back patio.

Total sympathy here. I posted a thread here when my backsplash held things up and I was without a functional kitchen for two weeks while my GC waited on the marble guy to do the backsplash. I finally lost it and sent an email saying flat out that I wanted a functional kitchen by x day regardless of whether the backsplash was ready. He ended up working on the weekend, but I did get my functional kitchen by that day. Even after that the last little things were so dragged out because they had moved on to the next job. Somehow the fact that I was holding 10k of his money as the final payment wasn't all that much motivation to come back and finish?

Is there some contractors' code that they won't finish a job until a homeowner loses it on them?

Our contractor decided we liked things a little more exact than he wanted to deal with, so he decided we could finish it ourselves, and we wouldn't owe him any more money. Actually I'm glad he did that. :)

@crl_

I don't think that's a contractors' code so much as "the squeaky wheel" code we all operate by.

I guess. But 10k sure seems like it should be enough noise all on it's own, without squeaking required.

Well, I don't want to scare anyone but our total gut job DIY reno was 99% done last September, that's September 2014 and I STILL do not have light rails installed. Yes, the kitchen is completely usable and most don't even realize something is missing. But I am short amongst a bunch of giants...my DH and his brother are both 6' 3" and they just don't see the UCL's sticking down like I do. I have begged, pleaded, yelled and threatened...all to no avail. So I guess I win!!!

Ha! I have you beat, dcward. Our DIY demo started late Sept/early Oct 2014. I still don't have my hood, my new DW and clean-up sink, my new prep sink/faucet, my walls finished, my counters. I have plywood counters, my old sink and DW in their horrible location, and lower cabinets set in place without being permanently fastened together. I have been living with clip-on shop lights hung in my kitchen since about February since DH started working on the wiring. I only have one working plug-in in my entire kitchen. What do I win? I hope it's a free GC. :)

Got a text from GC last night that he'd be here to "finish up" this afternoon. GC is always late, and he didn't say "we'll be there" he said "I'll be there" and the punchlist is long enough that I don't believe there's any way he's going to finish it himself in an afternoon... not to mention getting rid of the pile of refuse in the back yard and that it's raining and several of the punchlist items are exterior work... we'll see. I do have about $5,000 left to hold out.