"It ain't easy bein' green" - Kermit the Frog 1970

So after the last downer post we decided to lighten the place up a bit with some humor and a shout out to our childhood. (Bryan also claims that I have some relation to Dr. Seuss due to my color choices - Christina)

Behold what the inner most desires of Christina's color palate have unleashed on the citizens of 13th Street --->

The bathroom is now part lime green, part (primer for now) white, and a faint "blue". I've only had time this weekend to get the first coats of paint up as I have to re-prime the non white and "blue" walls grey. That's something that I wasn't aware of, but what can you do. I'll keep calling the "blue" used up there in quotes because it's barely blue. The actual color is "subtle blue" and it's pretty darn subtle. It looks really cool, but most people won't ever know that it's not white.

The bedroom now has the first (of what I can assume will be three) coats of "radish" red as well as the "blue" on most of the closets and in the shot to the left. The red is kind of scary I admit, but I'm just the hired gun around these parts. I'll trust the designer on this one. (I actually gave Bryan a choice between the radish and a deep blue, I was actually shocked that he picked the radish, but I do think it will be great! - Christina)

So that's the paint stuff. I am going to wrap up the colored walls over the next couple of nights after work, then do the ceiling. It's backwards to do that, but that's how I roll. After seeing white primer up for about 2 weeks, I really wanted to see some colors up there. And I'm in charge of the work now, so that's that.

Our tiling project has been on hold for the past 10 days or so with our friend Niko out of town. He's back this week, and the shower will be done soon and then it's just the grouting. When the tiling started Christina took a picture of the wet saw in our bathtub. I think it's fitting since that's how DIY projects work. Meaning do anything you can to get the job done...and quickly. Also notice it is one of the few times you get to plug something electrical into an outlet, then put it in the bathtub and add water.

Yeah, our current (and only operating) bathroom was remodeled by the previous owner. In approx 1962. At least it is a complete set with matching toilet and sink. Hey, we'll get to that eventually.

Besides the tile wrapping up in the next week and the painting being done by the end of the upcoming holiday weekend, we're just getting things done. We're going to work with a guy for the plumbing install, since the contractor bailed on that part, and some great friends have offered up services for the hardwood install and helping me finish the electrical. Our contractor story was just pitiful enough to have everyone want to help, but it's TOTALLY APPRECIATED!!!!

Oh, on a side note I mentioned in the last post that I was getting a table saw. Well I got it last week and used it to try my hand at window sills. While the sills didn't quite work out (but it was a good learning experience right?) the saw is great. Of course this weekend we had a friend in town from NYC and my workshop was converted into a bedroom complete with putting down a rug....man we're on top of it.

I guess table saws make great bedroom tables?

Anyway, that's it for right now. While we're still having some back and forth with our former contractor on his nonsense, we've moved on. We're hoping that upcoming Labor Day weekend means the end of painting, tiling...and the start of trim and installing the electrical pieces. And turning on the power!!!

We need a vacation.

Breaking up is NOT hard to do....

So it's been a couple of weeks since I've last vented on the interwebs. Where to start....hmmm...oh yeah, our contractor has officially QUIT. Left. Took his tools. Good riddance if you ask us.

It all started so well. The guy was nice, showed up on time, and really started off well. It was pretty exciting as you can see in our early June entries. But like a ball of yarn with rusty nails in it, things slowly unraveled and became a dangerous pain in the ass. First off, in his quote there was only one sub listed, and that was the plumber. Christina in fact met the plumber, but that was the owner...not the guys that did the work (again, this is in a previous rant I posted so I'll refrain from rehashing). So then the weirdest thing happened; more and more subs showed up! They multiplied, like little late to work, throwing trash everywhere, moody Tribbles. Where was Captain Kirk when we needed him!?!?!

The electric subs screwed up half of the lines and lights by not following the plans Christina made. Again, this is in a previous rant, so I'll move on.

Oh, a footnote to all of that. We got a bill from the contractor for a combined $4,250 for OVERAGES from the plumbers and electricians. I'll say that in the line items, about $600 from the electricians that were from increased scope, and that close to $1,000 from the plumbers was because what we wanted was more than the "standard" bathrooms that they do. What?

So in early July I got this bill and called our contractor to hear a great defense of the overages. In so many words, I was told that the subs probably billed us for overages because we (Christina and I) are a pain to work with. That we change scope (like I said, it was for one thing...an extra outlet for a window AC) and that the subs had to redo work the entire time. Note that last part, it's a running theme.

After talking with him and looking at the work I took up the position that we'll just pay the money and move on. Christina was pretty pissed about the entire thing and REALLY pissed that our contractor wasn't keeping overages under control from HIS subs. I blindly argued a slightly different position...I was wrong now. I see that.

Anyway, next up were the drywall subs. Ok...whatever. The guys took almost 6 days to hang the drywall, and then brought in ANOTHER guy to tape ans mud the entire space. Not only did that guy take 4 days to do his thing, but he only applied 1 coat of mud (and sanded) to the entire space. Crap work. But hey, no overages!!!!

The drywall ended in the middle of July. After that Christina and I were now seeing some issues with the place. First off, all of the framing that our contractor ACTUALLY did, was off. Our main closet was finished to a length of 5'11" (speced to be 6'), and two linen closets finished to 22" (speced to be 2' even). What this means is that we cannot get any standard out of the box closet system as they come in 24" spans. Our fault I guess, we should have put the dimensions on the plans. Oh wait...that's right they were on the drawings, all of them.

The windows that were ordered for us were in fact NOT the custom Andersen windows that we had specified and that were in the contract. They are stock Andersen 400 series and so we waited close to 6 weeks for standard windows that can be ordered and delivered in less than 2 weeks. They were also ordered without hardware. We were quoted for custom Andersen 400 windows with hardware. We were ripped off. But by the time we had waited 6 weeks, endured torrential in the bathroom downstairs, and the hallway, and dining room, any windows were an improvement

Anyway, as I write this I'm getting tired of the nonsense. I'll boil it down to the fact that we created an "Action Item" list for our contractor that included items still left to be done (per our quote), items that are in progress, and what I called "items of concern". The last set of things included the closet dimensions as well as the lack of adequate framing around the windows that were put in. This resulted in an additional $650 during the stucco work to put the brick back in the wall. Totally unacceptable items.

Also in that last list was our stack plumbing that has been incorrect and a point of drama since the plumbers did it wrong to start with. Refusal to do anything about it was raining down like...well...I don't know. I was going to say my fists to this guy's face, but this is a family friendly blog.

Anyway, with this "Action Item" list we wanted just to talk and do a walk through with our contractor about the items. But the funniest thing happened during this; he stopped answering our calls! He must have been thanking God for caller ID on cell phones, because it helped him avoid acting like a professional and talking to his clients. After about 2 weeks of trying to get ahold of him (and I did once where we scheduled a date and time to do the walk through, where I think he lied about a family emergency to not have to show up) I got an email.

It was THE email. The "I can't work on your house...I'm losing money when I go there...I can't keep redoing work" whine-fest. It was all crap. He just decided that he didn't want to deal with us and do the work that we expected and that he PROMISED us. Sounds like a contractor in Philly alright.

The best part to all of this is that the guy has the cajones to tell us that he has not paid the plumber or electrician and that we are responsible for amount due to them. The amount he owes them is like $5,500 while the last payment to him was to be $4,600. See a problem there? But if you're paying attention there are a few problems here.

1. We have only the final payment to make to him (obviously that isn't happening) and the amount he owes those subs are more than we owe.
2. That he is saying we in essence have to pay 110% for 80% of the work. Not happening
3. That we have to pay the subs to finish the work and in effect we'd be paying them TWICE
4. That he paid himself before his subs.

Homey don't play that. At all. Not happening. He has threatened that if we don't settle up with the subs that we'll get a mechanic's lein on the house. I'm going to skip the legal stuff, but if he isn't smart to pay them himself we're not going to pay a dime.

At this point we've done a little back and forth with Christina using her great friends in the architecture and commercial contracting world to really do a number on all of this. I'm playing the bad guy and I'm fine with it. In fact, with this stuff I'm loving it.

Don't even get me started on the upside down mismatched window sills that were installed. I think that was the breaking point, both for us with the contractor and for the contractor when we requested they all come out. But at least I was able to buy a new table saw over the weekend to do the sills! SILVER LINING INDEED!!!

The sky's did seem to part a bit today, and we have a stucco contractor that has been great and sent over a friend of his that might just be able to help us out of this pickle. Stay tuned, hopefully for more pictures of complete work and less rants, but then again it would not be called "working on your house" if it was all easy........

We're getting too good at writing checks...

So if you read my post from last night, you already know that our stucco contractor was sending over a roofer today to fix an issue with the roofing and the new stucco. Whatever, not a big deal.

Well as of 6:50 this morning, we're getting a new rubber roof. For the shingled house dwellers, a rubber roof is what it sounds like: it's a membrane of rubber that is placed on the roof and is sealed. It creates a water tight roof for us folks with flat roofs where it's possible water can just sit and hang out if things aren't done right.

It's funny how you can make pretty good size decisions after being awake for 20 minutes and before even thinking about a cup of coffee.

But the reality is that we knew we were going to need a new roof come winter. After walking around a couple of the levels over the past few months, we've noticed some cracking of the silver coat, and even had to get one area patched. Jimmy the roofer confirmed this with a couple of demonstrations as to just how close we were to having some BIG issues. :(

It's just who wants to wake up on a Monday to have that level of reality hit you? Between the new stucco and the roof, all we have left is to replace the rest of the windows and this damn house is ready to roll I guess. That's the positive side of it I suppose.

But it's still early on a Monday, so we'll see what else is in store for today.

- Bryan

Between stucco and a hard place

Between having a cement crew here all week putting stucco on the back of our house, the various leaks that facilitated, and the cats deciding to be daredevils....we had a week around here.

I'll start slow. Our house was (as I type this) all brick in the back and side. After moving in to the house 3 years ago it became very apparent that the brick was an issue. Sections were turning black and there was obvious moisture seeping through the wall and really causing problems with some plastered rooms. Anyway, so after years of saying "you know, we really need to take care of this" we had the guys come out and well...take care of it.

The timing was planned to be after windows for the third floor were in with the exterior trim in place. Done. And the other factor was making sure that we could pay the guys in U.S. currency. Done. Three days later, the back of the house looks something like first the picture on the right.

And for some weird close up of the stucco work, for those who are not that familiar, I guess you can enjoy the picture on the left. Do with it what you must.

Anyway as I eluded to at the top of this number, some of this work created some issues for us in the water department. The byproduct of the guys peeling some of the rubber roof off of the existing wall was that when the stucco doesn't meet the roof...water goes RIGHT INTO that seam and floods the floor below. Great stuff!! A+++++++

Whatever. Our cement contractor is really nice and felt bad the guys left the area like that. He's coming over tomorrow with a roofer to fix it all no charge. There are still some decent contractors out there as hard as it is to believe.

So the last fun thing happened yesterday morning. I never mentioned this previously (in spite of Christina's insistence I admit) but our cat Bing had an escape a few days ago. He decided to hop out of the front windows on the top floor onto the top of the bay windows. I found this out after closing the windows, and a few minutes later wondering what "that f#$%ing cat" noise was. Yeah...I felt kind of bad seeing the little dude out on the window still 30+ feet over the street. With a very large tail he made a B-Line for the inside of the house.....

But our other cat Marco took the prize Saturday morning. At around 8:30 AM Christina was milling about the house and heard a noise coming from outside. She looked out a window and saw my man Marco staring up at her. Outside. From the roof of the first floor closet. Marco, upon seeing her shining face, started to wail in that way cats do when they're about to be run over or something. Long (and winding) story short, I threw some clothes on and ran outside with a ladder to rescue the dude.

I have created a little something to illustrate HOW he managed to end up outside (click on the image for the full effect). Please, no requests to jazz up other pictures, this one was a SEVERE waste of time tonight. In the end we realized that he went out of the small bathroom window on the third floor and DOWN to the closet roof. 20+ feet. Cats really commit to something.

So anyway that was way too much excitement for first thing in the morning. Now we're double checking that all of the new windows are closed, at least until the screens are in.

Our friend Graham has asked a few times to finally see a picture of Christina working on the house. Now she's normally the shutterbug and not myself, but I did find one that I took that is proof the Bear has put in some time on this mess that we live in. It's old but it still counts.

That's it for now. Tile will be done this week, and my parents are dropping by for a couple of days on their way to a wedding in DE. Good stuff!

- Bryan