I am literally looking at the 3D renders right now and comparing them to the disaster zone that is my new kitchen, and I honestly don't get why, even though the blueprints clearly marked the outlet height, the contractors decided to ignore it until the cabinets were fully installed, and now fixing it is a nightmare that involves ripping out the backsplash I paid a fortune for. It’s funny how in the renders everything looks so spacious and pristine, like nobody ever actually cooks or makes a mess, but the reality hits you hard when you realize that strict adherence to the aesthetic came at the cost of basic functionality—like, sure, the kitchen work triangle efficiency looked great on paper, but in practice, the island is literally six inches too close to the dishwasher, meaning I can't even unload the clean plates without bruising my hips every single time.
It makes me so angry because I specifically asked about maintenance, and the designer just nodded and smiled while showing me these beautiful, sleek white surfaces... well, let me tell you about white quartz maintenance because the render doesn't show you what happens when a drop of red wine sits there for more than five minutes, it stains instantly and now I have a permanent reminder of my stupidity right next to the sink. And don't even get me started on the lighting situation—on the screen, the room was bathed in this perfect, ambient glow, but because we overlooked specific small kitchen lighting mistakes, I am currently chopping vegetables in my own shadow because the recessed lights were placed behind me instead of over the workspace, which is just brilliant engineering if you ask me.
I fell for the trap of thinking "modern" meant "better," so I agreed to those push-to-open cabinets, thinking they looked so clean without handles, but let's talk about minimalist cabinet hardware issues for a second—the mechanisms fail constantly, and you end up with greasy fingerprints all over the fronts because you have to touch them to open them, which completely defeats the purpose of looking clean! It’s just one thing after another... budget went over by 5k instantly because the "standard" sizes in the render didn't actually fit the weird quirks of my old house's walls, so everything had to be custom cut. If you are about to start a remodel, do yourself a huge favor and stop staring at the pretty pictures and start looking at the boring technical details, or check this reference source for actual dimensions and clearance rules, because otherwise, you're just paying for a pretty picture that you can't live inside.
