We had a counter...briefly

Our lovely organic white Caesarstone counter was installed last week Friday...and uninstalled on Wednesday.

To start, the installers showed up late due to another job running overtime. Instead of 12pm or so, they showed up closer to 3:30pm. Looking at the profile, the two pieces of counter that needed to be seamed together were not the same thickness. I pointed this out to one of the installers who said that he had noticed it and would have brought it to my attention. He said that if they had been able to show up at 12pm as planned, he would have taken the thicker piece back to the shop and had it sized correctly. As it was, it was easier to install and glue the two pieces then have someone come to grind down the thicker piece in place, or so he said. I wished I'd listened to my inner voice that said this was not a good idea. The installers were incredible nice and friendly and took a lot of care leveling the counter before gluing it in place, which we appreciated. The part we weren't happy about was the dark colour of the seam. It was darker than the counter and not very well done, to our eyes at least. That was just the start of our problems.

Another team was sent to fix the thickness problem and that's when we learned that we should have sent the pieces back to shop instead of going ahead with the installation. Their solution was to just grind down the edge and smooth it. This meant one part of the counter would be one thickness, then slope down to the other thickness. We told them this was unacceptable, not only because it looked bad but that the thicker counter rubbed against the drawers because the edge was sitting lower. We were told that there wasn't any way to grind it down along the length of the counter evenly. At the end of it all, they had to come back to take the counter out, which meant cutting the seam and prying the pieces loose. They left quite a mess behind when they removed it and put a couple small scratches in our cabinets. I don't think the scratches will show once the counter is put back, though. The second installation attempt will be tomorrow. We're crossing our fingers and hoping for the best...