Hardwood floors and an instant love of being done.

Done*. There, it's nice to type that: D O N E*. The hardwoods have been successfully installed in the third floor bedroom. Now, as usual I have a caveat to my declarations, and this time it's that the floors we bought are unfinished red birch.

Whatever, those are the details that the devil resides in.

Right now I'm savoring the sweet smell of hardwoods being laid over 2 days this weekend, with a little extra help. My past experiences with hardwoods involved mainly walking on them and Swiffering as needed. But hey, everyone has to learn to live on the edge at some point.

Our friend Graham helped us (THANKS GRAHAM!) on Saturday to get the ball rolling. Luckily we own all of the tools needed like a chop saw, jig saw, air compressor, and even a table saw (which came in really handy for ripping boards). The only thing we needed was a floor nailer which we rented at the Depot.

Well in the end we rented three as the third time was a charm:

• The first had a crazy "nozzle"/"adapter"/whatever. It's like someone took the real one off to use some industrial size air hose
• The second looked the part, and we were excited to see that the thing would at least hook up to the compressor. Well, after hooking up the hose our hopes were dashed. Someone, it seems, decided to do some field repair on the rental and neglected to replace the main gasket. So air was just passing right through the thing. We soldiered on with a stiff upper lip, but all of the wads of duct tape couldn't help. It was a trip back to the Depot.
• The third, it was just right! This time I made the guy at the Depot hook the nailer up and I even decided to try it on some flooring sample right there.

At this point we were like 2+ hours behind schedule and time moves for no man.

Once we got back everything went pretty darn well. Considering the weekend was like living in a Swamp around here (thanks hurricane Kyle), the floor went down with just minimal pools of sweat on the unfinished floors. (Christina chased me around with a bandanna for most of the weekend) What can you do?

Sunday saw me finishing the main part of the bedroom and then dealing with all of the cuts needed to wrap around the 4 closets in there. That was "fun" and "I can't wait until I can do that again". Yeah, that's it.

*crickets*

Whatever, after some total mental lapses involving tapes measures and being able to, well, actually measure, the floor went down. The last (and craziest) part of the install was at the third floor landing near the bathroom and along the stairs. There were 100+ year old spindles nailed into the original pine subfloor that we were going to obviously cover. Our solution? Use scraps of the floor as spacers of sort. Then I just stood on the stairs and reached up to cut them with my reciprocating saw. And it totally worked. The cuts aren't 100% flush with the flooring but they're close enough to make a HUGE difference.

The old bullnose was removed and some spiffy new stuff picked up by the Boss today. She does have a good eye I must say.

Anyway, the floors were run and cut to the end of the subfloor and the new bullnose tacked in. The only "problem" with the bullnose is that the edge curves gently 90 degrees and they didn't have that piece. So until we decide to lose our minds and pay $200 for a custom milled 90 degree curved piece that's like 4 inches long...there's going to be a gap. Sue us.

You basically see the final product in the picture to the left, but probably better on the right. See? Ok, so some spindles didn't make it though the flooring install, but they're in a nice little stack waiting to join their friends once again.

Just wait until we post the pictures of the plumbing fixtures now that they've been installed....and WORK!

Electricity (that was Friday) + floors (you know, unfinished) + plumbing = A happy house. Or at least until the stress of staining the floors happens...

Long time no typing at you!

So fall is here and of course the project that had no end in sight...has an end in sight! I'll wait until you recover from fainting..................................OK, let's soldier on with the blabbering blogging.

So we've been busy over the past 3 or so weeks with finishing the grouting in the bathroom, some light framing/construction, and some (more) painting. The third floor is ACTUALLY slated to be done(ish) by Monday. "What are you talking about Bryan...we know about the contractor drama, so how can you be about done(ish) on Monday?

Note: done(ish) means that all I have left is the window trim. Can do.

Well, glad you asked. In the end (and tons of phone calls and conversations) we decided to pay the electrical subs to come back and finish the job. Yes this means that we'll be paying them essentially AGAIN for the work. Yes that sucks. And yes, we fully plan to recoup our money in the end. I can assume you know what drama that will mean in a few months. But I digress....

So the sub is coming back Friday and we're finally going to have power and lights up there. Big win. We spoke to the plumbing sub a couple of times 2+ weeks ago, but then he stopped calling us back. After we called ever.single.day.for.two.weeks. Needless to say, he hasn't convinced us that he is worth paying. This still leaves open the nonsense about our contractor never paying them, but we'll deal with that when we come to it....but whatever. Honestly, and not to be too gross....I need to make #2 in our new bathroom after all of the checks I've heaved out of my wallet. There I said it. Sorry everyone. (that last thought will FOR SURE be deleted by Christina in the next 18 hours I just know it)

We did let the plumbing sub know our intentions to use someone else with "if you don't call us back by end of day...yeah yeah..." you get it. But Monday our replacement guys will be here bright and early to finish the work. Damn straight.

In the meantime, I will be attempting to install the hardwoods in our bedroom with our friend Graham. This will be on Saturday, so hopefully that adventure ends like "Return of the Jedi" and not "Empire Strikes Back" by Sat night. At this point only the magic 8 ball knows.

Anyway, how about some pictures?!?! How about THE LAST PICTURE I WILL EVER POST of our shower? (you're welcome for the "last...ever" realization). Note the fantastic grout work, and matching marble ledge and curb?

If you work through previous posts, or have a memory that I can't even pretend to possess, you'll know that under the new bathroom is our old office (now workshop). Well I had a couple of decent days and worked on the soffit that will house the plumbing and recessed lights. We're so fancy I feel like I should be wearing a suit all of the time. Pin stripes.

Here's the result of my effort. To be truthful, this actually took me two weekends. One Sat to start building it the way I thought it would work the best...with me ripping almost all of it down the next day. Then this past weekend I got my head out of my proverbial #2 and did it right. The product is to your left.

Hey family and close friends...want to come over and stay for the weekend? (a few of you have braved our work cave in the past) AWESOME! Here's what our living room looks like right now. So come on over!!!

And yes that's a mattress and box spring in our living room. We ordered them in June thinking that (HAHAHA) we'd be using them upstairs by now. I got a little antsy over the past couple of weeks since we paid for them and they weren't in the house. And given how well our recent track record of paying people to do or deliver things has been going...I wanted them in our house. So add in the 120 or so feet of window casing we have lying around, and the place is like cat hide and seek heaven.

I guess to wrap this latest update up I'll give you a picture that we find kind of funny. What do you get when you cross someone grouting and needing bucket after bucket of water, with another person who spent 30 minutes mopping the kitchen floors?

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<--- That. New uses for those silly grocery bags.

Dreaming in paint colors

We hope everyone had a relaxing holiday weekend. Christina and I both skipped work on Friday, so that gave me 4 days to be covered in paint and really experience Labor Day weekend. I spent the first two days putting the second and third coats of red on the wall, as well as the second coats of green and the "blue" (again with the quotes). All I have left is some patch work and a second coat of white in the bedroom. I really was on the fence about the second coat of white, but I think that's just being lazy. Two coats are minimum in my book. For those playing along, 8 gallons of primer and 9 gallons of paint.....

We decided to go with low VOC paint that we purchased from Duron. I have to say that I was really surprised how well it covered given that I had read a few reviews/opinions that low VOC paints don't cover. Now granted, I primed every wall twice and for the red and green walls I also primed them grey....but still the low VOC stuff is nice. Plus since it hardly smells, you can paint all day without any headaches or feeling ill from the fumes, just maybe like a little play-doh. The red had to be a traditional base since the low VOC bases are for light and pastel colors. That's an FYI if anyone wants to go the low VOC route.

Everything else is wrapping up. Niko put in some long hours after work last week and finished laying all of the tile in the shower before the weekend. I'm hoping that he'll decide to come back and grout this week, unlike our contractor. I need the tile and paint to be done, and I think it's about there.

I'm including a few pictures of the completed shower for those who might be interested. The shampoo bottle on the recessed shelf was a test for my sanity. I had a moment of panic today thinking that the shelf we created wasn't big enough for a standard shampoo bottle. Needless to say, our architect won't be yelled at today, because it fits. Whew.

The items that are left for this floor are:

1. grout
2. install the plumbing fixtures
3. install the electrical items
4. lay the hardwoods in the bedroom
5. put in the correct sills that we ripped out
6. trim
   

The problem for us is that #2-6 were supposed to be done (correctly) by our former contractor. As we're still trying to figure out what the next step with that mess is, we might be waiting a few weeks to wrap it up. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Anyway, hopefully we'll make that final decision after we talk to his bonding company and get some legal advice. It's getting ugly around here for sure.

To round out the posting, I took a couple pictures of the space. This first is where the tub (that's being used for tool storage right now) will go overlooking the stairs. The little unfinished lip you see has a marble top and it's bathroom side will have the baseboards wrapping on it. Fancy-schmancy I guess.

The last picture is of the niche that was created on the outer wall of the shower in the hallway. There were some adventures getting that niche there, framed properly and the tile on it....but there it is. Man, it's crazy seeing it and thinking about ALL of the work that damn thing was. But hey, I'm just the hired help right, and the architect seemed to be really attached to it?

So I guess that's it. if we do wait a few weeks to finish the third floor as I mentioned, then the next project is framing in the soffit in the office on the second floor. It's currently my workshop, but getting that soffit built with new electrical run to the room is infinitely more fun than painting. Any day of the week. It's not like we are going to run out of projects anytime soon!

"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