VH - kitchen faucet? Single handle? Tightening Moen faucets is a PITA. There is usually not enough room under the sink, and they need a larger basin wrench to really get them tight - Amazon sells them, our HD does not. Also, the washer to which the lock nut is tightened might have corroded. Has the contractor tried to remove the faucet completely, clean out the old gunk, and reinstal it with fresh plumbers’ putty?
“I do want the banana leaf chairs, though”
Correction… not $400, $440 each. I’d get them if they were 4 for $400. My cats will have a field day! 
I just noticed they put limestone in the powder bath. Yuck. That stuff disintegrates at the slightest touch. My house will be limestone-free!
Designer friend has Dekton countertops, apparently a new product. Most photos I’ve seen are high gloss, but she has what looks and feels like honed. Her pattern is a bit like marble, but the new material yields a less traditional look. Worth looking at.
@BunsenBurner: I’ll ask him. I wouldn’t have thought there’d be too much gunk to clean out, given how young the whole thing is.
Bummer… Moen faucets have this tendency to loosen up with time. What this piece says about the cheapo faucet featured is applicable to many more expensive, newer ones.
So @Bunsenburner, in your experience is there another brand that works better? In my old house we had a Groehe but that kept leaking. (Different problem.)
I am not a fan of Grohe either… had to replace a leaky shower valve, and there were too many types to choose from! It was impossible to find the info on the Grohe site, so thank goodness for Amazon’s free prime returns. Those cartridges are expensive! $40 a pop compared to Moen’s $10. I would just grind my teeth and stick with Moen. Grrf. At least Moen has all of their old faucet info on their website, and they have fewer types of parts.
If you have a solid countertop, the hole to accommodate a Moen could be different than a hole that is needed for other brands.
So I may be stuck with Moen then.
I have no idea if Delta or American Standard are any better! We are testing Hansgrohe faucets from Costco in our kitchen now, but it will be a few years until I know if they are any good. They look sleek and modern though.
We have another plumbing project on our hands. Opened an outdoor faucet to see water gushing out of the wall… here we go again. Ugh. I am the “parts manager” in our plumbing operations. My job is to locate new parts and adequate tools for the repair jobs. Grateful that Amazon exists…
We have Grohe, Moen and Newport Brass fixtures in our house. In 20 years we have had very little trouble with our Moen products and we have 6 showers and 5 sinks. The only problem we had was two of the shower sets were a mix of white and chrome and the finish failed. Moen replaced them free of charge and since they no longer made that combo they gave us a brushed nickel finish that actually matched the finish of our Newport Brass sink and tub fixtures. We have two Grohe faucets in our kitchen and Grohe replaced for shipping one that the hose on the sprayer cracked. The Newport Brass fixtures were the most expensive in our house and we have replaced numerous cartridges. We just did it last week and paid about $42 for the cartridge at a plumbing supply house.
My D and her BF put Delta products in their master remodel. His stepdad is a plumber and he likes Delta. He did have them get them from the plumbing supply as he feels some of what you buy at Home Depot isn’t as good.
All two-handle Moen faucets developed some problems in the 18 years we owned them… they were $$$ and came from a plumbing supply store. MB in new home has Delta two-handle faucets that have been there since 2002; so far, so good.
Mine is a one-handle fancy modern thing. The faucet is fine, it works fine, but it just keeps loosening. Grrrr.
I need to buy cabinets to put in the laundry room and have a handyman to install them. While we just spoke for a brief moment this afternoon, as I was in a meeting, he said I should just go to Lowes or Home Depot and pick something out from the stock cabinets as I told him I wasn’t fussy about what went in there. Well, I have taken a quick peek online and don’t really see anything I want. I also have no idea how to size cabinets; if the space for the base cabinet I want to fill is 44" wide, do I find one or two cabinets as close to that width, and them trim will complete them? I do I have to find a cabinet that is the exact measurement? If exact, I would assume it would have to be custom made.
There are several online companies I could design my own, but was really trying to keep the cost down. There are also discount cabinet stores near me, where I am sure I could find something and have some direction. Before I call the handyman back and tell him he has to go shopping with me, any suggestions as to what I need and where best to look? Cabinets are not an area I am comfortable undertaking on my own, so where better to find excellent advice (for free) than my friends here!
Paiging @coralbrook!
@snowball - I would check out the ready-to-assemble cabinets that you can buy on line. If you google “rta cabinet store” the first link should be a place I have ordered cabinets from before (there are numerous other ones as well). I like them because the boxes are all plywood with no particle board, many of the styles have solid wood doors as well.
Cabinet widths come in multiples of 3" - so 9", 12", 15", 18" and 21" in single cabinets (one door), and 24", 27", etc, up to 42" for some models in double cabinets (two doors). You can get a filler board to fill the space since you won’t be able to get exactly 44", but for a laundry room I personally wouldn’t bother. Uppers, lowers, drawer units, pantry units, etc.
It’s kind of fun figuring out what you want, they have something like 50 different styles, they are very easy to assemble (I had my high-schooler assemble them) and they have held up well in my rental units.
A friend of mine used them to re-do his kitchen and won an ugly kitchen makeover contest with them.
It’s worth a look.
@BunsenBurner , @coralbrook is too busy unseeing green carpet at this time; I think she has her hands full!!
@notrichenough I have actually looked at Cliq Studio before, but have not priced with them yet. Did you use RTA Cabinet Store? I will play around on their site; thanks for the suggestion.
@snowball, yes I have done five (six? I forget) kitchens in my rental units using cabinets from them.
Some contractors hate rta units. Sounds like yours is ok assembling the units?
Did them all myself. B-)
I’m not sure why it would be such a hardship for a contractor to assemble them, after you do a couple and figure it out, it takes less than 10 minutes to put one together.
I am on vacation with my mom and sister but called home and talked to DH to see how the remodel is going. Evidently today wasn’t a great day. There is a problem with the exterior paint color (too close to the neighbors color), a problem with the rangetop (misunderstanding between the designer and contractor, contractor thought we had cooktop not rangetop), and my son drove my car and rolled the window down and now it won’t roll up.DH has a tendency to be dramatic so I am hoping that is the case.