Post some photos. It would be helpful to see the location of the fridge in relation to the cabs.

Did you call someone else in to see what can be done and the cost to fix it. You will need to have estimated costs before going to court anyway.

Often things get pretty heated when someone makes a mistake and they don't want to own the responsibility, but if you go back to him with the estimate and explain calmly that you need the kitchen to function and are offering him the opportunity to fix it or you will be hiring the next person and going to court to recover damages he may opt to fix it.

As difficult as it is to swallow, you may want to consider offering him some money for the additional time and effort to fix it as a show of good faith and a desire to not destroy the relationship he has with your family/friends.

If he is still unreasonable you will need to see an attorney and have the system solve the dispute.

...

Who did the design work on this? The designer is the source of the issue. Because contractors don’t design. And you cant have expectations for a designer to build your cabinets. Two separate roles. Each with their own area of expertise.

No one gets custom cabinets and counters for 10K. That’s less than half price of the average price of just the cabinets in a kitchen remodel. Plus all the rest of the electrical, plumbing, venting, lighting, flooring, painting, and all the other 40-60K that is missing from this 10K tale.

You had all the red flags up front. And you actually saw the layout with the fridge against the wall from the beginning. Where are you in any of this? What kind of due diligence or research did you (NOT) do? You conned yourself into thinking you could get a 100K Houzz inspiration kitchen for 10K, so you didn’t do the research or due diligence.

Get the smaller fridge. Put that one in the laundry room or garage. Immediate issue addressed. Keep saving your money to do that over with better products in a few years. That’s how long you have before junk quality RTA wears out and has issues.

"#3 He is a friend of my family, we never received a formal quote from him or signed any type of contract"

As if the other #'s were not enough You will have issues getting anything fixed.

HALLET & Co. - I have read several of the discussions on here about having extra space between the wall and fridge for the door to open. The contractor claims he doesn't use a filler space when the fridge is next to the wall, which I think is a lie. We asked if he needed the specs on our fridge and he said he didn't need them. He even came to our old house and we asked if he wanted to look at it and he said no. The specs say it needs at least 3/8" space on the sides. I agree he knows he made a mistake but he's refusing to fix it.

CDR Design - Thanks for the input! We might end up doing that!

Jennifer Hogan - We are doing what you suggested, we have some other people coming out to look at everything and give us quotes. He's only giving us those two options and refuses to do anything else. We told him that if he doesn't have the time to do it or simply doesn't want to rework everything, he could at least pay someone else to fix it. His whole attitude about the situation makes us not want to give him anymore money. He just stood there like a broken record saying, I don't know what to do. Like this is what you do for a living, you messed up so at least try to come up with a solution.

Patricia Colwell Consulting - I really don't want to have to go the legal route either, I wish he would be reasonable about all this. He's trying to strong arm us into something we don't want because he knows he messed up and he doesn't want us to take him to court. We've spoken to a few mutual friends (family) of ours about it because he ghosted us for a week. Wouldn't respond to text messages or phone calls at all, so we reached out to them to see what was going on with him. He started responding the following day.

live_wire_oak - He did the design work. He owns the business with his brother and he does the designs with a program on his computer. It was 10k for the cabinets, countertop, and sink. My husband, my dad, my brother-in-law, and myself did the electrical, plumbing, venting, lighting, flooring, painting ourselves. Trust me, we put more than 10k into this kitchen. In the rendering, there was a filler piece in between the fridge and the wall so that's what we thought we were getting.

I've been trying to post pics but it isn't working from my phone. I'm about to upload some now that I'm on my desktop.

Thanks for the input and comments :)

“...we paid 10k for these cabinets/countertops...”

Let me get this straight...you paid $10K for cabinets AND countertops...combined? So, you thought you were getting custom cabs for under $10K? You left this all up to your “friend of the family” contractor? You did not do any research on your own...making calls to custom cab makers, getting specs and pricing? On top of that, you did not insist on getting a detailed contract from the contractor? Did you check that he is a licensed contractor?

As far as I can see, this “nightmare”, is all on you.

Even when we were young, and had never renovated a kitchen before, DH and I knew to interview several contractors, and get a contract from the contractor we chose. We went around, and looked at cabinet places. We didn’t have much money back then. We got as educated as we could, to make sure we made the right choices. This was before the internet made things so easy. That was a small kitchen, in a small house. Still, we did your due diligence.

As you took the easy way out, leaving it all up to the contractor, and without protection, you don’t have a leg to stand on. You should be angry with yourselves, not him.

I know you are disappointed, and you have every right to be. Considering the hassle you face if you go the legal route, especially with a friend of the family, I'd do as live_wire_oak suggests. Put the larger fridge in the garage for extra storage, and purchase a 30" fridge, which will leave space for 4-5" of filler next to the wall. Big box stores have 30" SS refrigerators for around $800. Take a break, appreciate your family, and regroup while you think about how to ultimately solve the problem.

Having raised three kids, and now with two grandsons, I have a suggestion for the filler panel. Use it to record the height of your one-year old, every six months or so. Do shelter magazines have features like that? Maybe not, but what is now a disappointment can become an endearing part of your kitchen. Our height record is still on the wall in what was our laundry room, but is now our pantry. The rest of the wall has been repainted, but I framed the part of the wall with all the marks and dates. (My kids are 35, 33, and 30). Grandsons' heights are recorded in the playroom, which is in a new addition. If you redo the fridge cabinet at some point, the filler panel can be removed and mounted somewhere else, to continue the record keeping. :)

I believe the lesson learned here is; contrary to what is seen on HGTV, contractors are not kitchen designers. A kitchen designer will always look at the appliance specifications before they even begin to design the space and certainly before they order cabinetry.

I am not sure what model Frigidaire you have, however, according to the specs for the galley refrigerator, it is calling for a cut out width of 36". However, if you scroll down and read the fine print, it indicates that you will need a min of 20" clearance if it is placed against a wall for doors to open and drawers to pull out. Looking back, would you have wanted to lose that much space? I understand your disappointment but life is short and fighting the contractor is going to take so much negative energy. Could you place this refrigerator in the garage or basement for extra storage? I believe all parties involved have some responsibility here. Your contractor does not want the negative energy either. Maybe you can split the cost with him for a new refrigerator that will fit the space.

Post pictures. I would just have him cover the cost of a new refrigerator that will fit (maybe 33") and have him add a filler piece to the wall side. Hopefully he agrees to that.

I know it is infuriating for you, but I would buy a smaller fridge and put the large one in the garage or a similar place for overflow food and drinks. This is probably what will be the least irritating and the most immediate for you.

This said, I am perplexed by the fact this person offered cabinets + countertops for 10 K. I am going the Ikea way in a small kitchen without any tall cabinets except for the fridge one and the cost for cabinets + installation + quartz countertops will be around 10 K. So, no way it was going to be custom cabinets.

I understand you are upset as it is not what you wanted, but I think other people can learn to be weary about deals that are too good to be true and to ask for written contracts.

This issue is larger than the frig issue. We all makes mistakes, and lesson learned. In a few years from now, you will be able to laugh about this.

In situations like this, a "win/win" is the way to go. Become members of the same team. Here is what I would do

-Recommend to him that you both think about this and come up with solutions that would satisfy both of you. Indicate to him that you are willing to give a little and you appreciate that he has offered a couple of options so far.

-In the meantime, get a few contractors out to see what solutions they might have.

-Consider that a smaller frig would work. As others have mentioned, an extra frig in the garage is a huge benefit.

-Meet him again, once you have gotten ideas. Make your offer of what you want (know that you will not get all of what you want). He can offer his ideas. You can meet in the middle.

Someone who isn’t really licensed or insured, and coasts on the friend of the family schtick, likely won’t pay out more than he made on a 10K job. Because he will be a really bad businessman as well as really bad designer as well as really bad contractor.

Just one simple check on the state contractor database.

live_wire_oak - just did a search and it turns out he isn't licensed! He is definitely a bad business man, I've had a few other issues with him throughout this whole process but this one takes the cake!

mama goose - Thank you for the sweet idea <3 That's better than using the door frames! I've spent way more time than I want to admit painting all the door frames in this house lol and I don't want to mark them all up!

I don't like the idea of tearing anything out, we are already living with a bunch of other unfinished things right now and with a 1 year old, it can be challenging. I will likely end up getting a smaller refrigerator. Does anyone have any recommendations for a nice french door refrigerator that's 30-33" wide? Possibly with zero clearance doors? I'm willing to go with a french door with the freezer being in a drawer at the bottom. If it isn't going to match the other appliances, I'd at least like it to be kinda high end.

To those of you who pointed out that this is our fault (no need to be ugly about it either), we know we should have done more than what we did but this wasn't just a kitchen remodel. We have renovated the ENTIRE house mostly ourselves. The only contractors we hired were for the cabinets/counter tops, tiling the 2 showers, drywall, and new insulation in the attic. We both have jobs and were working on this house on the weekends while paying 2 mortgages. We planned on doing the cabinets ourselves too but we knew it would cost us a lot of time to plan and install everything so we opted to pay a "professional" to do it for us. He worked on my aunt and uncles house and I had heard nothing but great things about the work he does. I should have gotten other quotes for other contractors but I wanted our money to go to someone we knew who was local. Lesson learned.

I'm fine with the standard cabinets he gave us but if he knew there wasn't enough space on that wall for the fridge plus the standard cabinets, he could have just done custom cabinetry on the bench area so the fridge nook could have been wider than 36".

I would switch refrigerator and microwave, a smaller refrigerator will still be hard to open against that wall.

That last 'computer' drawing does not match the floor plan. So if it was used to do the layout, there's no way it would have worked. You would have probably needed a minimum of 6" to swing the door open somewhat. And you could/should have checked the fridge to see how wide you needed to open the door in order to get the drawers out, one of the first things I look for at the store.

If you swap cabinets, you will have to be at peace with the idea that the cabinet depths will not match across the top. You may also need a panel on one or both sides of the fridge.

BTW: that's not a french door fridge.

ugh - we've seen this issue so many times on this Forum and I'm sorry it happened to you!

It sounds like you're willing to look for a smaller refrigerator, which IMO is your best option since you don't want to rip out cabinets. (but I'm not a pro)

It's hard to look at appliances in person right now, but I'm hoping you can. In any case, when you're researching, look at the specifications for each fridge you're considering. I look for specs like the examples below. Note how much clear space is needed to open the doors past 90*.

One thing I find misleading in this example is that it says drawers can be opened with doors opened 90*. However, remember that doors have shelves on them too, and those block access. (see 2nd pic.)

The pic below is of the same refrigerator for the specs above. It shows how the bottom drawer can only be accessed with both doors wide open. That's why I said I find the statement above (first sentence that I circled) misleading. It's clear when you can see an appliance in person, but we don't always have that option.

Thanks for the photos, sorry this happened. Suggestion; when you decide how to "fix this" locate both the water supply cut-off and the electrical outlet on the left wall (when facing the fridge). Place both about 30 inches above the floor and 30 inches back from the corner. This allows you to easily pull the fridge out for cleaning, allows the doors to fully open when necessary, and reach the supply line if there's a need to. All fridges need to "breathe" so as not to overheat the motor.

Not really certain as to what purpose the window seat cabinets serve in that location when more counter space could be more useful. It’s pretty bold to represent himself as a kitchen designer. Much less a licensed contractor.

I am sorry you've had to go through this. I'm wondering if you have another space to use this current refrigerator, like the basement or a garage. GE has some nice looking french door models that are 32 3/4 inches wide that should fit the space. Perhaps this "guy" can buy you a new fridge that actually fits in the space and since it will be a bit smaller you place your current fridge in another location for overflow.

Well he certainly didn’t build this according to his own plan... that said the easiest switch is to disassemble the boxes and switch the location of the microwave and the refrigerator. I little electrical work, the drywall will be covered by cabinets. He can do this in a day. It won’t be exactly what you imagined but will solve the problem and not cost either of you additional money (he’s out labor, you are not getting what you agreed to so both sides feel slighted so it’s fair)

I'm not sure I would want to switch the location of the fridge and microwave, especially if your fridge isn't counter depth. It really would stick out and imo look unsightly.

You can move the micro cabinet forward so it aligns with the face of the fridge. Her ‘contractor’ is a ‘designer’ so I have complete faith. (Sarcasm mixed with truth. He may need to buy a single REP to make it work. It’s on him at this point)

""#3 He is a friend of my family, we never received a formal quote from him or signed any type of contract""

Everyone keeps missing this point (^^^^^^) plus the fact he is unlicensed and purporting himself as a contractor and designer. Good luck I am afraid the fix will be up to you.

You re definitely going to be on your own.

I am going to recommend a slightly smaller fridge and pushing it back so that only the doors protrude past the wall - givyou the opening access. It's still not going to be flush with the cabinet above (which is a pet peeve of mine- having a cab that sets BACK from the top of the fridge that NO ONE can reach) but this solution myight be workable.

The ONLY other thing I can think of, and it's going to be messy and may not work with your (gorgeous) floors, is to tear out that wall to the left, turn the studs 90 degrees and get thin sheet rock or some other covering. You can eek out an inch or 2 from there. But that is MESSY and expensive and have create other issues.

I appears the original wall measurement was off, and the filler on the left omitted.

The refer should fit into the 36" opening if everything is plumb and no base mold, which I doubt without room for that filler.

Moving all the cabinets to the right might buy enough room, but the drawer from probably will need to be redone to clear the door casing.

All this still will not let the door open more than 90°.

Enemy of the family, more like. As an unlicensed contractor, in many US states he can be sued to disgorge all monies paid him and that is the route I personally would be going. Yes, you as the customer were naive, but you did not engage in wrongdoing, and he did. And yeah, buy the narrower fridge.....

Could you take the refrigerator out and then remove that small piece of wood that is between the refrigerator and the cabinets? That might help you get pushed back enough. You will need a little protrusion into the room to swing the door open anyway. If not take part f the sheetrock out on the left and have area frame that looks intentional to display art or plates or a chalkboard. I don't know if I have explained that enough to imagine, but basically frame some shallow area to the left and the the right side of said area would cover where sheetrock removed. Just thinking outside of the box and it probably won't work.

I would buy a counter depth fridge and sell this or put in garage or basement if you have one

Florida has some of the most strict contractor licensing laws in the country; cabinet and tile installers are specifically exempted.

"...contractors are not kitchen designers."

This contractor has bailed many a kitchen designer out of trouble. Failure to pull the cooktop cabinet forward enough to get the rear clearance necessary to prevent a fire hazard and scorch the splash/countertop behind the appliance.

Bad design is bad design; contractors have no monopoly, believe me.

The least expensive solution involves using this frig. You'll have to slightly compromise the design. Remove the cab above the frig and the left enclosure panel. You may have to just leave the cab and cut the panel to remove the portion corresponding to the frig dimension. It depends on the construction. This creates added width for the frig. Determine how far the frig can be installed where you're happy with the door opening. Because the design didn't completely cover the right side of the frig anyway--- you're done.

My son moved into a house with a refrigerator against the wall and the door would not open enough to take out the drawers. I am sure you want yours fixed and I would take out the drywall on the left side of the refrigerator, narrow or turn the studs to get the extra room you need to open your doors. Would be messy, but doable. If you get a narrower refrigerator, make sure you can open the doors on that one. Refrigerators need room to breathe on the sides and the back.

All refrigerators don't necessarily need space on the back and sides for airflow. Many have the condensor on the bottom with a fan that pulls air in from one side of the bottom front grill, over the coils, and blows it out the other side of the bottom grill.

As the comment above, all fridges are different. Some are made to work in zero-clearance environment and others (mainly the cheaper(?) ones with the coil on the back) not. My current fridge (33" Kenmore FWIW - previous owners bought it) is a bottom vent-er with no coils - or vent openings - in the back.

I remodelled the kitchen in a basement rental suite a years ago and one of the issues was where to put the fridge. It ended up being a counter height one. However, without proper ventilation, most fridges of that style need ventilation or will cook themselves shortly. Ended up finding a scratch 'n dent U-Line which fit the bill (bottom front venting).

I have a 2004 GE Arctica SxS that was included with the house I bought in 2005. Nothing special about it, not counter-depth or built-in. I have a 1997 (22+yo) KitchenAid/(Whirlpool) topfreezer, operates the same way.

My refrigerator enclosure is exactly 36” wide and I have a Frigidaire Gallery French Door 22 cubic foot counter depth refrigerator that fits in the opening perfectly. The specs say it is 35 5/8” wide. The drawers will open fully with the doors at 90°. You probably wouldn’t be able to remove them but they are fully operational that way. You still would have the issue of no filler on the left side however. These pictures show the drawers fully open

@scoutfinch72, How do you fully clean the drawers and under the drawers without being able to remove and replace the drawers?

You can pull the refrigerator out to do those cleaning tasks.

wiscokid, I have to admit I didn't think of that option especially since the OP said the contractor had to force the refrigerator into the 36 inch space.

What no one has mentioned is that the opening may not be square....

I wasn't able to comment on my phone, so annoying!

So first off let me clarify that we do not have a french door fridge it's a side by side, I'm not a refrigerator expert (just a tired mom) sorry lol

The wall to the left could be moved but it would be really involved. That area is a closet in the hallway, this isn't really an option for us, it's our only hall closet. We don't have a basement, we have a detached garage but it needs to be rebuilt soon, so putting a second fridge out there isn't something we want to do right now.

We would like for the refrigerator to be able to to pushed all the way against the back wall, I don't like how it's sticking out right now. The specs of model FGHS2655PF5A says it needs 3/8" on each side.

We are in Georgia. Apparently you don't need a license to do cabinet work as a limited service special contractor. But, he's paying another company to come in and do the counter tops, so then isn't he violating the law since he doesn't have a license?

The law also has a separate category for kitchen designers. Under each category, it says you may be required to hold a contractor license, if your company exceeds this scope of work. So if he's doing both cabinetry and kitchen design, would he need a contractor license?

It would make sense if that was true, seeing how many people on here said that they are two separate entities.

Design generally doesn’t need a license. In many states though, the term is state regulated and requires registration and testing. Georgia is one of those states. To be a Registered Interior Designer, you must prove that you have the education, tested abilities, and you must register with the state. You can call yourself a Design Consultant, or Room Stager, or any number of things to get around that requirement. You would need his specific wording of him describing his job to pursue that.

Georgia prohibits anyone from performing residential or general contracting over $2500 without a valid license. When licensing is required and an unlicensed contractor has agreed to provide work – the contract is “unenforceable in law or in equity.” Electrical and plumbing are required to be performed by separately licensed plumbers and electricians, NOT a residential basic contractor. Only a fully licensed General Contractor can perform some plumbing and electrical. Any good GC would just hire the subs beyond basic reconnects anyway.

https://sos.ga.gov/PLB/acrobat/Forms/49%20Reference%20-%20Licensure%20Comparison%20Chart.pdf

He is in violation of GA requirements. And you are legally not required to pay an individual who is contracting without a license. Contact your local attorney general to file a criminal complaint over fraudulent representation. That goes into the public record, which should also be a source to check when initially investigating. Also file a complaint with the contractor board, as he will not be able to get a license with that on his record.

https://sos.ga.gov/index.php/licensing/submit_a_complaint

Those counters are small enough he could have had them measured onsite, fabricated offsite and installed them himself. Fatal design flaw unless the wall next to the refrigerator is less than 29" deep (refer door hinge point is 29+ from back wall). See this alot in hack flip homes and hack spec homes done by inexperienced. Have seen a few cabinet designers miss the fillers, especially when the industry moved to Euro frameless and now when they don't measure the jobs themselves (homeowner supplied measurements).

He could fix this assuming you supplied refrigerator specs.

@Denita I did my kitchen design with help from this forum. You better believe my doors swing all the way open 😂.

. I was just demonstrating to the OP that it’s possible to access the drawers fully with the doors at 90°

That's the kind of door openings I like to see! Nice job scoutfinch72 :)

live_wire_oak That's not true. My friend is a cabinet maker and we had a totally custom kitchen done by him at cost in solid maple. This included rev-a-shelf trash bins, spice racks, shelves, etc. and HD laminate counter tops with a undercounter mounted sink. We paid about $4K for this. Every cabinet was build to the size and shape we wanted, the door design and stain color were selected by us, as was the layout of the kitchen.

Really, 4K for all of that! You got an incredible bargain.

first rule of thumb w/fridges = ensure dimensions fit.