It's OVER!

As I suspected the contractor was a no show Tuesday.  Didn't even hear from him.  The Project Manager had issues contacting him also.  We found out the job he was on was giving him some trouble.  Actually he complained that the homeowner was watching his every move and calling him out on some of his work.  I have no sympathy for him.  His attention to detail or lack there of caught up with him. 

This seems typical with some of these shaky contractors.  When they get held up or can't meet their commitments, just don't show up.  Go dark and not answer your phone.  Some how they think that is better than calling and trying to explain the situation, which while not making the customer happy, they can at least keep from making them very angry by going dark and not meeting your commitment.  

Finally he did send two of his workers out Wednesday and they got after it.  We wound up getting higher end baseboards than we had previously.  I didn't question it just went with it to speed things up.  They worked all day and finished it up.  I have to say they did a great job and their attention to detail was good this time.  We have all the furniture moved back into place and are proceeding with getting all of 'K's' nic nacs placed.  The garage has returned to near normal and I can get the car back inside.  But we are finished with contractors for now.  Hallelujah.

The last month 'K' has been experiencing some knee issues, limping and painful.  The Doc sent her to physical therapy.  The PT guy says she has a loose ligament that has caused her knee to be unstable and has caused some issues from her hip on down.  She went to PT yesterday and has been in so much pain she couldn't even sleep.  Xrays were done yesterday too.  Hopefully that will tell them something.  Seeing her in so much pain is tough.  She tries to power through.  She is calling the PT today to ask about the pain after her session and if a knee brace would help.  I sure hope some of this works soon.  Neither of us want her to have another surgery.  

Happy Trails

Just Messing Around Today

Not much going on here today for a change.  The Granddaughter is here after a long absence out in Arizona.  We are just waiting for Tuesday and the promise of the contractor returning to place baseboards and get this thing finished. Then we will finally be able to move all the furniture back against walls and get all 'K's' decor placed.  I just hope it goes smoothly with no hiccups.  But it is a subcontractor and I have little confidence all will go well...if they show up.  If I don't hear from our project manger by noon today I will text him to verify they will still come out Tuesday.  I've got a doctor appointment that day too.

After all that is done we have no real plans for anything.  We have not been confident when things would get finished so no future plans were made.  I have started my yearly tree trimming.  This would be for all the suckers on the trunks of the oak trees that make them look unkempt.  'K' says they look like they need a shave.  That will take me several days, the trees not me shaving.

We had a couple contractors come out to give an estimate on gutters.  We never really needed them, or so I thought.  Our siding on the back side of the garage has been a victim of my neglect.  So it will get gutters, front and back and along the patio where we walk under.  I also decided to place it across the front of the house.  I was undecided at first since we have so many oak leaves that pile up in the valleys of the roof.  They have a built in screen system that may help alleviate clogging the gutters with leaves.  I have my doubts.  But 'K' wanted them due to one valley dumping a lot of water right onto the sidewalk by the front door/porch.  They can't start until Sept. 1.  They have supply problems also.  Aluminum is in short supply it seems along with everything else.

Have you been out to eat an any restaurants the last month or so?  Has the service pretty much been bad?  It seems the shortage of workers is really taking it's toll here.  It takes longer than usual to get seated at some restaurants due to lack of wait staff.  Some have less cooks so food comes out slow.  It doesn't seem there is much incentive to go back to work either.  Something has to give eventually.  

Happy Trails

And The Floors are Done

I have been a bit preoccupied this week and have not really had time to post anything here.  The floor installers came this past Monday as promised and got most of the floor down.  Tuesday they finished up.  It was really just one guy and his son.  The son didn't do any installing.  So that one guy did the lion's share of the work.  He was a subcontractor too.  Not an actual employee of the business we were dealing with.  It appears that is the way this type business, construction etc. is mostly handled these days.  It is just too expensive to have employees on the payroll with all the benefits that need to be paid too.  It seems that is good for everyone, except for the homeowner. 

 

All in all, the work that was done was was done pretty well.  However the attention to detail suffers quite a bit.  In this whole 2+ month process both contractors missed things or just flat didn't do them.  The floor installers were supposed to move all the furniture and was to have placed felt pads on every piece to ensure that the floor was not scratched.  We just found out about the pads today.  The installer had us go to Home Depot and get the pads and then we installed them.  No big deal but he got paid for that.  After they finished the installation they were to have moved all the furniture back where it was supposed to be.  Also they should have cleaned the floor.  Neither happened.  They left while we were out back staying out of the way.  When we heard them leave we found the furniture as they left it out of their way.  It was unusable all stacked to one side and another room.  The floor was covered in a fine dust that took two moppings to get looking like it was supposed to.  We had to mop before 'K' and I moved the furniture back.  We were very hesitant as we can't lift it enough to move all the way, it has to be slid since it is so very heavy.  And wouldn't you know it, we scratched the floor.  'K' was extremely hot.  Having left that work to us and then that happened.  

The salesman just left here.  He came out to see the damage.  However he was able to fix it and it looks like there was never a scratch.  Acetone did the job.  Whatever, 'K' is happy now.  You know the rest.  We will get refunded on the furniture moving.  The sub told them he moved everything back.  Did he think we would lie about that? For what purpose?  Ah well, it's almost totally over.  Tuesday the contractor that did all the repairs will come back and place the baseboards.  Hopefully they can get that done in a few hours and get out of our hair finally.  

Things are slowly getting back to normal with all the items that need to be returned to their places.  But until the baseboards are finished that won't be complete.  

Now 'K' is getting new curtains to match the paint and probably some new area rugs.  I'm holding out on the rugs.  Why cover up these pretty new floors so you can't see them?  Ultimately she will win.

And this is the short version.

Just Painted Cabinets

Flooring Start

Finished

The floors are actually a bit darker than the photos.

Happy Trails

Good News on the House Renovation

We got some good news regarding our floors yesterday.  They have received the materials and are expediting our installation.  They will start Monday if all the materials check out OK.  That's about a week early.   We had gotten a text from our Project Manager that handled everything else.  They are committed to installing the base boards they ripped out.   That will happen after the floors are installed.  They knew this would take a bit of time and were fine with it.  They want to get their portion of the job wrapped up and offered to give us money to have our flooring contractor install the baseboards.  The flooring contractor already said no.  It put me off a bit.  They have been paid in full.  They aren't loosing any money.  But they say it hurts them to keep the job open.  I stalled with my answer and in that time we heard from the floor guys.  So all I did was send a text to the PM and tell him the install date and it could possibly take 4 days.  I didn't hear back.  Apparently he understands my implied message....suck it up and do your job like you said you would.

So today, Saturday, we are finishing up our painting.  We will be ready to go so this finally can get finished and we can have our house back completely livable.  Then we can relax a bit, hopefully.  

Now for a late lunch and then touch up the paint and call it a day.

Happy Trails.

Painting And Seeing the End of the Tunnel

Painting.  We are just under 50% done.  I anticipate getting it all done in plenty of time for the flooring install to not be a concern.  I also managed to get the jungle cut down to a normal length.  Although no trimming took place this time.  That will have to wait.  It would be great if we can finish the painting some time this week.  But we both have doctor appointments ( I have 2) and the AC guy is coming out to check out our system after all the dust.  I am a little concerned about what he will do since the person I talked to didn't seem to understand what I wanted.  Check to see if the dust needs to be cleaned of my system.  Seems pretty simple.  I assume due to her confusion they didn't do that sort of thing and I will have to call another company that cleaning ducts is their main function.  So it may be a wasted trip for the AC guy but I'm sure they will extract their pound of flesh.  But I will get reimbursed by USAA.

We finally made the move to another church congregation.  It's a long drive but the kids and grandkids attending there were the main draw and won out over one so very much closer.  We know a lot of folks there, actually at both places, so we aren't really strangers at all.  It was a hard conversation telling my friend from the place we left.  It was a long hard process in coming to the decision to move and we are glad it's over.  We both needed this change.

Happy Trails

Clean Up and Paint

The cleaning crew came out Wednesday morning.  Two ladies that absolutely know what they are doing.  After they left I have to say I think we have the dust whipped.  It even smells clean.  I still have the AC man coming to check our system and possibly clean any dust he finds.  I may have to call another company for duct cleaning.  I don't know what the AC man can or will do.  He can't get here until the 15th.  He may come during our floor install.  It's all about timing.

We are still trying to get our kitchen put back together.  It is taking much longer than it took to take it apart.  However, that will probably stall out.  We have less than two weeks to get the walls painted.  We have 3 blue samples and some other that I can't describe.  I liked it bit 'K' was so so on it which surprised me.  She likes those kinds of colors and I thought she would love it when I showed it to her.  Who knows?  So when I finish this I will slap some of the paint samples on the wall and see how it looks.  Then we go from there.  Hope we can decide quickly.  We have no real date of install of the flooring.  But we should have plenty of time if all goes well.

My yard is out of control.  With all the rain it has gone nuts.  That will have to wait on the painting unless I can squeeze it in some how.  I have a pile of old landscape timbers I need to get rid of along with that old dishwasher too.  Some guy in our neighborhood quoted me 199$ to haul it off.  No thanks.  We have a bulk pick up in the hood every fall, I will wait for that since it's free.  I can gradually cut up the timbers and dump them in my own trash can and it won't cost me anything but a little elbow grease.  

OK, I gotta slap paint.

Happy Trails

Tuesday July 6

It's just past 9 AM and we are waiting on the cleaning crew to show up.  They have been delayed as we are getting some monsoon type rains all over the area.  So there is some flooding.  We are ready for them to get this cleaning done.  I am not sure who is coming, just that a crew was coming to clean.  They did advise the Project Manager they were running late due to the weather.  That is a change that seems positive.  We never heard from anyone before whether they were going to be late or even show up.  So the show of responsibility makes me think they have some pride in their business.  I'm not sure how much they really have to do since we have been cleaning off and on since the construction crew left.  It will be nice to have a good thorough once over anyway.

We spent the 4th at some church friend's house.  We had a good time visiting with everyone and eating some hot dogs, what else?  We had been invited many times before since our kids are members of their congregation.  We never accepted since it's our anniversary and we didn't want to impose on our kids.  This year we had no plans for our anniversary since we had been a bit overwhelmed with all that's going on with the house.  We just didn't give it any thought until the last minute.

Tomorrow, or even late today after the cleaners leave, we will start looking and paint to cover some of the walls inside where all the work has occurred.  We have found some areas that could use a fresh coat.  Plus with most everything out of the way it will be much easier to paint.  So we will take advantage of that and try to get it done before the flooring gets installed.  The only issue is the colors we like.  they are wildly different and it has been our main area of conflict in all this.  I like either white of some variation of or very bright bold colors.  'K' wants some muted flat looking colors but certainly not white at all.  So we are both compromising a bit.  This time we will bring sample colors home to try on the wall she likes to call an 'accent' wall that will be different than any other.  We have those now but I hate the color but it goes with everything else.  She will get her wall, it just may not be the exact color she wanted at first.  A flat dull light shade of blue.  I want a very bright shade of blue but on the darker side.  I wouldn't have chosen blue but that is my compromise.  I also have a couple other colors she seems to be OK with at this point.  If you don't hear from me in a while you will know what happened.

Happy Trails 

Finished?

Not technically.  We have to put some things back together to make it livable again.  We will leave all the decor and knick knacks out as they would have to be moved again when the floor contractor comes. 

The subcontractor left late Thursday.  They were mostly focused on getting the kitchen finished.  The painting of the cabinets was a major chore.  I am not sure they had ever painted cabinets before.  They also painted the entire ceiling in every room where any grinding dust landed.  That is the largest part of the house.  We never asked then to do that, but with the failure of the dust containment and the tape removing spots of the texture, they obviously had no choice.  All I did was point out the issues.  All that's really left for their part is installing baseboards, but that won't happen until the floor install.  The project manager is sending a cleaning crew out Tuesday AM.  'K' and I have been cleaning here and there just for our own sanity and it looks pretty good.  I have been having a minor sore throat and headaches and voice sounds scratchy.  It's like having an allergy coming on.  I'm sure it's dust.  I just hope they can get the remaining dust that we don't seem to be able to get.  We still leave tracks in our bedroom from the dust sticking to our shoes.  Snickers also leaves puppy prints on our leather furniture.  It's mostly on the floors and walls at this point.  'K' and I will paint the walls of the all the rooms where work was being done to match the new flooring.  That will handle the dust if the cleaning crews don't work on that.  

We ordered our flooring yesterday and put half down.  They tell is about 3 weeks before work can start and it will take 2-3 days.  We had to go with our second choice as our first is not available at this time, it could be another 2 months.  We have mixed feelings about not waiting but there is no difference in durability, it's just a minor color difference.  It's also cheaper and will save us 1k-1.5k$.  

So today we are focusing on the kitchen, getting it put back together so we can use it.  There are also some things I have to do due to the lack of attention to detail the subcontractor messed up.  They use day labor so they aren't really professional painters.  They painted the rails of the drawers of all things.  So they are sticking even after they addressed that.  They missed one entirely.  I am thinking of using some WD 40 to see if that loosens them up or some graphite (not sure about that though).  They are useable, just not as smooth as before.  I also noticed that the ceiling in the dining room was missed along the edges where it meets the wall and around one AC register.  I will do that since they left us about a gallon of paint.  I could gripe at the PM and make them come back out and finish, but we are both tired of messing with them and having to wait on them to get out so we can be comfortable in our own house.  It's easy enough for me to handle.  I don't want them back.  I may even do the baseboards.  Nah, they will have to come back for that.  I don't want to have to buy the wood.

OK, I have to get back at it.

Happy Trails