dennisgli: The interior stops should be replaced, the job hasn't been finished yet. jdavis: The depth of the Marvin wood ultimate insert double hung window is 4 9/16", significantly larger than the jamb pocket depth on my originals. It's a 1906 home with original varnished wood interior trim everywhere; vinyl would have been horrendous... fusion866: I appreciate your reply, but that's not my situation here. My original sash slid down behind the windowsill, it did not rest on top of it. The outer sill edge was even with the inside stop trim. The installer wanted to cut away part of the windowsill and move the replacement window further into the house -- past the position of the original interior stop trim. This would have required moving the interior stop trim further into the room. If the window was moved in as proposed, the interior stop trim would have jut out further into the room than any of the surrounding window casing woodwork. Would not be pretty... macv: I *have* read the Marvin installation instructions. That's why I'm disappointed in the shoddy install job...

It's no doubt too late for the OP and I don't know what the cost difference is, but I'll second what rwiegand said. All the 1950's cookie cutter tract homes in my subdivision have plaster walls and ceilings (plaster board, not wood lath) and they look light years ahead of the drywall in the homes (some custom) of friends which were built in the 80's up to the 2000's. The standard surface in the Chicago area is a smooth finish without texture although popcorn ceilings were popular for time a few decades back. A couple of years ago, one bedroom ceiling developed a narrow settling crack about 5' long. I called in a plasterer and nearly had a heart attack when he got to work by undercutting the crack. He explained what he was doing even though it looked way worse. I was skeptical but it turned out great. One coat of primer and then I repainted the entire ceiling, one coat and it's impossible to tell where the crack was or the large groove he initially made into the ceiling. And I don't paint with the 'ceiling white' color that 'hides imperfections'. I use flat super-white-white on all my ceilings. I forgot the exact numbers he told me, but the plasterer's union in the Chicago area is a tiny fraction of the size it was 40 years ago. He was from a plastering company (not a side job) and their web site shows examples of their beautiful work - all the new stuff being in very high-end homes. In many ways, their repair work is even more amazing - repairing long stretches of ornate plaster cornices without a hint of where original ends and new begins.

Hi all— OP here! Thank you so much to all of you for your opinions + advice! I spoke to my contractor about some of the most blatant problem areas and they’re going to fix a few tiles that are super crooked. I reassured my husband to take a breathe and let’s reassess after the kitchen is completed and put it, having all of the finishings and appliances will help I’m sure. He’s in agreement. To clear up the oddities, the tiles that appear broken were just an illusion created by the dangling wire! The grout color, I picked from a color placard but it just didn’t translate the same when applied. It seemed darker than the swatch, but it truly is what it is at this point! I appreciate the reminder that it is all about perspective, and at the end of the day, we’ll have a brand new beautiful kitchen and am focusing my energy into being thankful for that! Hugs to you all!!

Sorry this has happened to you. Here's the long saga of what occurred when we had a botched tile job. We had to start over with a new contractor. I finally found an excellent tile professional who rebuilt everything. If you decide you need to re-build it completely, there are a couple of websites that you can use to search for a tile pro. I think these are 2 of them, but maybe a pro on here can correct me if I'm wrong on that: www.tile-assn.com Click on "FInd a contractor" and enter your zip code and how many miles to search. The tile pro I eventually hired was listed here. https://www.ceramictilefoundation.org This site has lots of information. Here's where you click to find a contractor: https://www.ceramictilefoundation.org/find-certified-tile-installers When I searched using that site, fewer results came up in my area. You've got nothing to lose by asking for your money back. Read my "Goes South" post below about how to do that and creating the right paper/electronic trial in case you ever need it. We did end up in district court, but not because we sued, We got sued by the bad contractor who said we fired them, which we didn't. But we had to respond to the suit and go through the process. Judge awarded us all money we had to spend on re-building everything, plus damages, court fees and annual interest. Still trying to collect though. I don't think we ever would have initiated a suit ourselves because we figured it was a real PITA, and it was. But maybe if you sue in small claims, and the guy is a real flake and doesn't respond or show up, you will get a default judgement. Who knows? Here's the story (Long); but inside here is some advice on record keeping and how to correspond with the contractor, asking for refunds, etc while building your paper/electronic trail. Thank goodness we did that or else we wouldn't have had any ammunition when the bad contractor sued us. https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5725013/what-to-do-when-a-project-goes-completely-south#n=66