The countertops were installed yesterday. The cut was perfect, and the installation was very professional. They precisely and cleanly installed the wrong selection of stone. Patricia's (who spent a lot of time shopping for it, and spent extra money for a contractor with a large selection) upset has no bounds.

Two steps forward, one step back.

I'm assuming that a) the wrong countertops can be removed with minimal upset to the new cabinets and b) that the place will recognize the necessity to do so, at their expense. They'd be out the cost of the labor to to a desinstallation/reinstallation, plus whatever they can't salvage from the ones they cut from the wrong slab for other potential customers. I'm sure they'd like us to just keep it and take a discount on it, but the color really doesn't work with the kitchen. I'm hoping that they won't want the word to get around that they expect their customers to bear the cost of their mistakes.

We'll find out Monday, when we get back to Florida.

[Update at noon on Monday]

They're replacing it, and should have it done this week. It's a shame, because it's a beautiful stone, but it just doesn't work in the kitchen.

Is it a stone countertop?

A lot of times if you get an actual stone countertop, the color isn't right until the stone has been treated.

(just a question, not gonna be like I was before)

fabricated counters are different, they look exactly as they are supposed to, but if you get a stone countertop, they are supposed to be treated, and the appearence either heightens or softens based on the recommended treatments.

No, this is the wrong stone. It is not the one that we ordered, and it doesn't match the sample at all. It's not simply a case of "gee, we didn't think it would look like that."

I hope you have better luck than Lileks has with "the water feature".

I was about to mention that, between you and Lileks, you two could start your own "contractor hell" support group.

Although, replacing a countertop is quite a bit more idiot-proof than the OIWF. But, like they say, "make something idiot-proof, and they'll just build a better idiot."

Wise Simbergs, however, would be aware of a critical anomaly: the countertop installed in their kitchen does not, as a matter of law, have to be the original one chosen by Patricia. If both the former and currently installed countertops were obliged to be removed, the House GOP could select someone like Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, the respected Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Am I qualified to publish a best-seller alleging the development of an "American Theocracy" yet?