Ken, 

Your story brought back memories of that sick in the pit of my stomach-cold sweat feeling I used to get when something on one of my projects went terribly wrong. Most of them happened when I was off the job and came back to discover crap that made me put my head in my hands and walk rapidly around in small circles. I particularly remember the guy who framed every rough opening in a house too small for the windows I ordered. I had to come back on a Saturday and tear them all out and build them to the correct dimention. I also had some guys who allowed a very long first floor exterior wall on a 2 storey house get 1 3/4" out of plumb in the middle. Looking down on the house from the hill in the front yard it was obvious. I had to pull a string from corner to corner and use a saws-all to cut all the joists to proper length (taking progressively more off the end of the joists as the bow got worse toward the middle of the wall span) and then use a come along and a sledge hammer to pull the top of the wall back into the joists. 

When I read your story the first thought I had was "wow, Ken needs to install a really wide stone base moulding around that room", but it would have looked like a curb and you would probably would have had looked really stupid when you got to your first door opening! Just make all the casings 4" thick. It will look fantastic. What a mess. Good luck with it...

Brian            
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