The guy is not a landscaper - he's an opportunist. I would report him to any and all better business bureau type lists you have in town. If your state has licensing requirements, find his license number on his truck or your invoice and report him to the state agency that issues and reissues the licenses. 20 years experience is measured in many ways. Sounds like he has 1 years experience, twenty times...if that. He does have 20 years experience getting paid, though. That is evident in his knowledge of the written contract and with threats. You might try to negotiate with him. Make him understand that unless he makes this right, you will report him to every BBB list (there are some Internet based lists, too). What he needs to do will be very costly to him. He should remove the turf (and use it somewhere else immediately), level the soil surface, roll it down, relevel the surface, water it down, relevel the surface, roll it, relevel, roll it again, and then sod with a final rolling. I would not expect him to agree to anything like that. He will offer to roll it down but that won't fix it. What you might get him to agree to is lifting the sod, leveling with a drag, relaying the sod, and THEN rolling the grass down. That is what I would expect from a budget guy who tilled the soil before laying the sod. You might have to pay him more, but you really should have gone with someone else (probably more expensive) the first time. And you are correct in that it will be bumpy again as time goes on. In a way you would be much MUCH better off if he did repossess the sod. Then you could start over. But that timing sure sucks for the Derby.

With a marble, unless you are doing an ogee or dupont type edge, you want a mitered edge, not a laminated edge. A laminated edge is two pieces of marble stacked together with the seam in the middle of the two pieces.. It does not look good with a light colored stone with veining. The seam is very apparent and the veining does not match up. A mitered edge, a mitered frame is built around the sides of the 3cm countertop & the seam is at the top of the 90 degree edge. You don't have to go a full 6cm. You should be able to get any thickness you want. If your fabricator has done this type of edge many times, you should be okay. There have been a couple of people here that thought they were getting a mitered edge and it was laminated, and they were unhappy with the result. If it is a dark stone or a stone with a dense tight pattern, a laminated edge can be invisible. If you do a google search "gardenweb kitchen forum, mitered edge", there are several threads about mitered and laminated edges.

thanks all! hopefully it will have a happy ending. this has worn me out, GC AWK-ward tension is right, hope to never remodel again. my bathroom is in dire need but out of money and given this experience would rather hook up an outside shower in the back yard and just keep the GC's portapottie in the front yard! :) i used to think i wanted to do a full house remodel, now i know why people want to buy move in ready! i have learned a lot, it has been a good experience, i have my earned my stripes. (hey, kitties already have their stripes, how is that?!?) the GC has generally been good and actually rescued me when the cab maker screwed up so i have to keep a balanced view of the overall experience. the two cabmakers the GC uses did not have demonstrated inset cab experience so he OK'd that i find my own cab maker. so i made the bad choice on the cab maker, all my fault. it was actually the cab makers finishing sub who screwed up - so the sub to the sub. and when the GC learned of this, instead of chewing me out, his exact words were: "what can i do to get this back on track?" and they picked up the door reorder and cab install on short notice when they were not planning for it (of course there was a change order involved and it did not come cheap). i thought the lesson learned was use only GC approved subs. but then the counter debacle happended. so now i think things can happen anywhere with anyone. not sure i could have done anything different - i did quiz the GC - did the fabricator have marble experience etc and was told yes. i have seen his work at my neighbors house (engineereed stone counter) and he did an excellent job and was told he does lots of natural stone. i have learned in my research that calacatta is very hard to work with and prone to chipping and you need specific equipment. what is troubling is the GC continued to defend him and the product, epoxy patches and all. yes, my little jasmine has quite dramatic eyes. her nickname is elizabeth taylor. i never noticed she is wearing glasses but you are right! i would TOTALLY recommend getting 2 kittens. kitten love is the best, it allows you to train them the way you want (as much as you can train a cat anyway) and the kitten stage does not last very long. really glad i got 2 from the same litter. they keep each other company when i am at work and they are good buddies. the orange one dominates little jasmine though, he runs the show. they were found at 5 days old, from a litter of 5 and were bottle fed from a foster and then put up for adoption. here is a pic from last night, babushka cat lying on his matching stone... (lighting not very good, sorry)

Update on my project. All attempts to fix my problems failed. The big box store agreed to provide me with a new granite counter top from a national cabinet manufacturer. Two weeks ago, during the install, they discovered that my sink cutout was wrong and removed all of the granite. The next day they told me that they had to order more granite and it would be another week before reinstall. 2 days ago they came to install, but they only installed 2 out of three pieces of granite. Now they are claiming that they will return next week with a matching piece of granite. It's ubatuba. I thought that all granite had to be cut from 1 sheet. What's the chance that this 3rd piece will match existing granite?