Today was a tough day on the renovation front. I discovered the sink run was longer than I'd specified in the design. How did this happen?
When we learned that the wall couldn't be completely demolished, I talked it through in person with my contractor. Then I stayed up until late that night wrapping my head around a design for the sink run that would make the partial wall look intentional. The next day I issued a revised design, but it seemed the guys had followed the old one.
We are so far along in the renovation, that correcting this means a lot of work for my contractor and his crew. I'm not a person who likes to make work for others, but I had to speak up now or forever hold my peace, as they say.
To leave it as it is would mean: 1. the sink would be off-center—sink and faucet would be bisected by the beginning of the wall, in a way that would always look like a mistake and 2. the peninsula is longer than it needs to be, jutting out in front of the pantry/fridge/pantry run.
The latter is almost the bigger issue. In a small house, letting anything take up too much space is a mistake. It will make the narrow aisle of the kitchen look even narrower, plus we would lose, visually, the openness when you enter the apartment.
Long story short, I had to do the always tough thing and ask that we fix it. I reminded myself 1. how much I'm paying for this, 2. the labor that I've put into this myself, researching, sourcing, and designing, and 3. how very sorry I would be in a few months to look back and know that I should have insisted on making sure my design was carried through.
Eye on the prize.
And I'm happy to say that our contractor did the right thing. He offered options. And when I chose the toughest but only real one, he said "if that's what you want, we'll make it happen."
That's the true evidence of a good contractor. I didn't go with the lowest bid by far. I went with the person who seemed to me to be the most collaborative, the one whose portfolio of work had handled projects using high and low materials (ie: IKEA and paneled appliances and marble), and the one whose clients gave only glowing recommendations.
I'm feeling very thankful today, that I went with this firm. Mistakes happen. It's how you handle them that says everything.
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