Rohl's services sucks for such expensive brand. I had a brand new A3608 faucet in storage for 4 years. When ready to install it, I found lots of spots on the chrome surface. I submitted a request of replacing the unit. After 2 days, I received an email from Michael Cantin, Technical Support Associate, House of Rohl, saying need more photos (only one photo allowed when submit the request, bad limitation). I emailed him 7 more photos. However, no response from Rohl. I called them and talked with Michael and was asked to send photos again. I resent photos and was told "That looks like a bit of tarnish. Recommended polishes include Flitz polish, Simichrome, or Wrights." I did it according to Michael's recommendation. Yes, many spots are gone, however, there are still some spots with damaged chrome layer, metal color appeal, roughness felt by hand. I reported the fact to Michael, however, no response. I called back and discussed the issue with another rep of Rohl. I was told she would discuss this issue with Michael (she told me Michael is manager of tech support). Again, no response from Rohl. I feel I am deserve a good customer service since the faucet is soo expensive. I guess I am wrong. I remember I received an excellent service, have a similar issue, from Price Pfister. I think Rohl's service is not acceptable, shame for such a reputable vendor. I think no more Rohl for me in the future. I may file a complain to consumer report agency as well.

First, wamot, I'm sorry you're having to go through this. It's the nightmare we all have while planning and going thru a reno. I'm mostly putting this here for others who might find this thread down the line. I know that the GCs and KDs at each store are unique and that becomes part of the puzzle that we have to untangle as we make our decisions. We first went to Lowe's and had them measure (paid) and do a design. There were some things they wanted to do that we thought were excessive (possibly in the wake of the violations that lucille posted) and I felt that the 'designer' was more of a sales person. I think he might have been handing things off to another designer to do. I never once saw him in the design software. We REALLY liked the GC and tried to make it work because we wanted to work with him. But we decided to check out HD. A friend had HD do their kitchen last year, so they also had the recommendation thing going for them. We had measurements from Lowe's, but we had HD come out to measure to protect ourselves ($49 in the midst of this was a bargain, even though we'd already had to eat $91 for Lowe's to measure). The hard part for us was every step with HD took two times longer. There wasn't such a tight arrangement between GC and store. We had to wait longer at each step, and as such, while I was hoping our cabinets would be here next week or so but we're looking about another month out past that. The big reason I'm posting this here is that we were told the GC would come to measure and his wife did. I was not here, MIL was here and remarked what a thorough job she did and how impressed she was. The measurements went from GCs wife to KD. She tweaked the rough design we had based on my measurements to what the GC provided. She was off in four places. FOUR! So that led to a whole round of 'How are you putting that there, that won't fit?' because I knew pretty much all the measurements by heart. I remeasured most things, confirming my measurements with Lowes' measurements. We tweaked the plan for the 3rd or so time and the GC revisited to confirm everything was good. I'm pretty sure THAT's the point that they're responsible up to. After that, I did some switching of things. I did things like move to a 36x33 Susan to gain 3" more in trash pullout to get two cans and make a base and wall into a tall to create a transition from an area that will have a backsplash (interior wall) to an area that will have masonry behind it (exterior wall). Since no floor measurements will change, I should be good. My KD at HD is very good, but she let me know she was a little intimidated by me (and often regrets giving me an old spec book). And more related to the OP's issue, as I was deciding whether to make the jump to HD from Lowe's, I did some reading. I wish I could remember what I googled, but I read that if you want your kitchen done on time, don't use Lowe's. But if you want to save some money in the end, do. They're known for delaying things for many reasons (misordering, not organizing installs well) BUT the flip side is that there are non-performance clauses in their contracts and so you often get $ off per day for each day certain things are delayed. I'd look things over and see if you can find anything like what I'm remembering. I was concerned with Lowe's because they wanted us to pay for everything (all materials and all labor) up front and when I balked that I watched too much People's Court to pay contracting things up front...they have no incentive to finish, I was told there were non-performace clauses (just as I'd read on the internet). Whatever I googled, I also came across a forum with current and former Lowe's employee's posting about changes to the structure of the way they work with outside contractors etc. It was all very interesting. Good luck. If you end up doing away with the fillers, make sure that at least you don't get charged for what will become 'extra pieces you don't need'.

Your kitchen is really pretty, and I agree with the others. If it looks darker than this in person, then consider your lighting plan, and see if it's enough. Maybe it looks dark to you, because of the lighting situation. Do you have under-cabinet LED lights? Maybe a pretty chandalier for the ceiling, centered on the room or maybe some pendant lights? And there are rules of thumb for the color of the lights (warm or white or cool). I'll leave it to those who know to make any recommendations there. I like your wall color! And the floors and cabinet contrast is really beautiful. I like how you kept both in the "warm" category and yet there's contrast. Overall, really, really nice job.

All of these stories are making me very leery, especially since I have had some similar experiences with IKEA. I have a finalized design plan. I started it myself with their flaky planner and then had several online consultations with IKEA personnel. Their expertise definitely varied from so-so to excellent. I've been reading here that some of their cabinets are not in stock. An employee told me that the kitchen cabinet boxes are made in Ohio and are in stock. Doors and panels are made throughout the world; right now they are having problems getting the items that are manufactured in Lithuania and Moldava. For nearly a week I have been trying to download my plan. I can't get it to download, and their planner just keeps spinning and spinning. I tried e-mailing one of the planning employees who had helped me. No return e-mail. I tried calling IKEA and ran into the same disconnect problem.