Minus One Painter

Yesterday I fussed at the painter and this morning he called to quit. The guy always talked to me and seemed to be scared of Jason, he called that one wrong! This is hilarious to me but it sets us back another week. I immediately called another painter that we know, who is out of town this week. Luckily he had us lined up for painting the outside of our house next week anyway, so now he can just paint the inside and then the outside over a two week period or so. I might just have him paint the kitchen, dining room, hallway, moulding in the livingroom, and I'm seriously thinking about having him also paint the back porch area just so I won't have to do it. I want to make those decisions as I go, as I find out how much it's going to cost us. This guy works an hourly wage, so he works out to be a little cheaper than the other guy. I guess we'll consider putting the floor in before the paint. Jason and I will discuss that tonight.

Damn Painter!

So the painter still hasn't shown up. I had a conversation with him on Friday and another this morning where I basically told him that we were paying him too much money for him to be continuously blowing us off like this. He was understandably defensive and a little bit crappy but I didn't care. He's been sufficiently addressed. If he doesn't show up at 8:30 am like he said he would, he's fired. Of course, we said that about Friday too but Jason wimped out on it when I told him to talk to the guy. We have all of the issues documented and it's clear that we've given him more chances than anyone else would, so his opportunities are over. My luck he'll show up in the morning and then we'll be cursed with a sloppily, half painted kitchen. Story of my life! Who could have possibly thought the painter would be the biggest problem? Ugghhhhh!!!!!!

The Carpenter Is Done

Our carpenter has completed his end of the deal and all that's left is the paint and the floor. As far as the floor goes, Jason says he's ready to buy the materials this weekend to begin work on that asap. The painter called this morning and gave another story about why he hasn't been around. I explained the issues with his telling us he'll be there and not ever showing up. In true fashion, he once again told me he's devoted Monday through Thursday of next week to our kitchen. Jason was pissed. The painter for the outside of the house is starting Monday, so Jason and I agreed that if the outside gets done and the kitchen is still in limbo we'll ask the new painter to do it and fire the first one. Jason tells me we gave the initial materials and good faith check to Painter #1 on May 8. It really should have been done by now. Thank God we didn't give him very much for good faith.

Here are the latest pictures that I took last night. One is of the glass door on the china cabinet (and the removal of the counter that used to be off of that cabinet), and two of the kitchen from different angles. We put the range in there last night just to see how it's going to look. We think it looks great! Once the paint gets on there (if it ever does) it'll look like a new kitchen!

Just Stopped By The House

I went out for lunch with Jody and Jereme, so we stopped by the house to see the kitchen. The electricians are about done. The carpenter says he has an adjustment to be done on one cabinet door, he's ordered the correct hinges on that. The moulding in the dining and hallway was up. One wall in the livingroom was up. He reports that once the electricians leave he'll be repairing the wall that they cut into. Looks to me like after tomorrow all that will be left is painting and flooring. We have to make some decisions on the floor. I hope this painter gets his butt in gear really soon. Jason is leaving town next weekend on business, so I hope the floor is done before then. We also have to find a day to get our fence section built. I want a picket fence to run along the drive between the house and the garage. Just something to keep Aidan in the backyard. Jereme is planning to help with that, so I figure that should go pretty quickly and smoothly. Jereme gave me the list for the shopping trip. Soon we'll have a new kitchen and a new fence! By Aidan's birthday it'll look like a different house! I can't wait!

Visible Progress

Yesterday some of the cabinet doors went up. They have some paint on them but are not complete. I spoke with the carpenter again about the painter. He seemed a little annoyed but assured me that the painter would be there on or before Friday. The electricians were there when I left to finish their job. Once they are done and the doors are on, all that's left is the paint and the floor. The floor is our problem-- and we still have not made those final decisions. Although I think the water-resistant laminant that we looked at is fine with me. Jason has to make up his mind on that.

As an extra, the carpenter is putting crown moulding up in the rest of the downstairs today (not the bedrooms or bathroom), so that ought to be nice. I think that we'll get the other guy who is painting the outside of the house next month to paint the moulding in the livingroom, the diningroom, and hallway. Oh, I'm not ready to work out my thoughts on those things yet. My goal is to have those other rooms and the back porch area complete before Aidan's birthday party.

Here's a picture of the kitchen as of this morning.

Is It Memorial Day Yet?

The electricians should be clearing out today. Yesterday they converted all of the fuses to breakers and hooked us up on the extra energy. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that we only had 60 amps of power coming into the house, whereas most people have 200 or something like that. Jason and I were both astounded that although we were aware that the electric was not up-to-date, we had no idea how bad it was. Oh well, it's fixed now. Thank goodness. When I get home today I should have a plug under the sink to run both the dishwasher and the garbage disposal. Jason ran the dishwasher last night since we had a few dirty dishes in the laundry room sink that had been sitting there for about a week. He used the contractor's heavy duty extension chord. I have to stop for veggies on the way home so that I can chop them up and then scrape the scraps into the disposer. It'll be great!

Jason went out to buy moulding this morning so that the carpenter can finish hanging it in the dining room, hallway, and living room. When he got to the house to drop off his materials, the carpenter was there bringing in cabinet doors. Still no painter. The carpenter claims that the painter has been taking advantage of the nice days to finish outside jobs for other clients. Jason says if the cabinets are not complete by Friday we are hiring our alternative painter. The current painter charges a premium price for unreliable service. The only reason we hired him was because I figured it would be easier for him and the carpenter to coordinate so that the cabinets and doors would be painted before the doors were installed. The carpenter has to be done by Friday because he's flying south for a month. We've all known this from the very beginning. The deal was that the painter would have it all painted and then last thing would be door installation. I'm livid that the painter has slacked on the one reason we agreed to hire him. Perhaps that condition should have been made more clear, but I have no issue with Jason just paying him for what's already been done (the two coats on the doors) and then moving on to the other painter.

I spent most of today searching for a picture to hang over the hideously ugly 3 ft X 1.25 ft grey breaker box hanging on the kitchen wall. At my third store I called Jason to complain. I was close to his work so he came over there on his lunch hour to see what I'd picked out. He didn't like what I'd chosen, nor did I, so he looked around a little with me and we found one that we think will cover it. It was hard to find the right size, the right colors, and one that was tolerable aesthetically. If this one covers the box, I think I'll be able to pull some colors out of it for accessories like window treatments and a cover for the chopping block cart. We plan to restructure our rolling chopping block into a breakfast nook. I think it will be really cute.

I'm starting to be able to imagine the finished product, although I don't really believe that it will ever be finished. Anybody have a saw that Jason can use to install the floor? Anybody want to help install the floor? Just asking!

They Keep Saying That It'll Eventually Get Done!

Things are moving along and the end is in sight (I think). The dishwasher went in yesterday, although there isn't any power yet. The electricians are there today putting in the breaker box and installing the plug under the sink for the dishwasher and disposer. I'm so excited about my garbage disposal. And the dishwasher is pretty nice too, although I'm still unclear on how this dishwasher is different from others I've had. Jason and most of my friends have assured me that I'll notice the difference. We'll see.

The carpenter put up moulding yesterday and I believe that Jason is going to have him put moulding up in the living room, dining room, and hallway later this week. The painter and the carpenter are roommates. We went with this painter only because we figured with them being roommates, it would be easier for them to coordinate their work. Yesterday the painter was supposed to meet the carpenter at our house but he never showed. So I told the carpenter to let the painter know that we are very aware that we are paying top dollar for this painter and that I expect that his work will not be as sloppy as his schedule. I'm pretty relaxed about this sort of thing but I expect to get the quality that I pay for. If this guy totally flakes out on us we have someone else that will be able to do it, so I'm not that worried. I just hate to have to back out of an agreement with a guy who is pretty nice interpersonally. Just not meeting expectations professionally.

The carpenter is leaving for vacation on Friday. He plans to have the cabinet doors up Thursday, regardless of whether they are painted. The electricians are probably tearing the crap out of our wall as we speak, so hopefully we won't have too much in the way of plaster repair. I asked Jason whether we might work on the floor next week and he seems nervous about that. We need alter egos. I need an alter ego that can clean house and he needs one who is handier at fix-it jobs.

They Keep Saying That It'll Eventually Get Done!

Things are moving along and the end is in sight (I think). The dishwasher went in yesterday, although there isn't any power yet. The electricians are there today putting in the breaker box and installing the plug under the sink for the dishwasher and disposer. I'm so excited about my garbage disposal. And the dishwasher is pretty nice too, although I'm still unclear on how this dishwasher is different from others I've had. Jason and most of my friends have assured me that I'll notice the difference. We'll see.

The carpenter put up moulding yesterday and I believe that Jason is going to have him put moulding up in the living room, dining room, and hallway later this week. The painter and the carpenter are roommates. We went with this painter only because we figured with them being roommates, it would be easier for them to coordinate their work. Yesterday the painter was supposed to meet the carpenter at our house but he never showed. So I told the carpenter to let the painter know that we are very aware that we are paying top dollar for this painter and that I expect that his work will not be as sloppy as his schedule. I'm pretty relaxed about this sort of thing but I expect to get the quality that I pay for. If this guy totally flakes out on us we have someone else that will be able to do it, so I'm not that worried. I just hate to have to back out of an agreement with a guy who is pretty nice interpersonally. Just not meeting expectations professionally.

The carpenter is leaving for vacation on Friday. He plans to have the cabinet doors up Thursday, regardless of whether they are painted. The electricians are probably tearing the crap out of our wall as we speak, so hopefully we won't have too much in the way of plaster repair. I asked Jason whether we might work on the floor next week and he seems nervous about that. We need alter egos. I need an alter ego that can clean house and he needs one who is handier at fix-it jobs.

The Saga Continues

Ah, the kitchen. We ran into the plumber at Fazoli's last night before we got home and he asked us how we liked our sink. We hadn't even seen it. He said that he didn't make the drain for the dishwasher or replace the line for the water/ice maker on the fridge. I'm guessing that means he'll have to come back next week. I'm very confused about why he didn't do either of those two things but Jason says that it must be a communication issue. Like Jason didn't properly communicate what needed to be done. Oh well, as long as it all gets done.

The major progress last night was that the sink, faucets, and garbage disposal were all installed. The garbage disposal is still not operational because the electric is not yet hooked up. That will be Monday. It would have been yesterday but Jason had to get a second estimate and that pushed us to next week. The top cabinets also were refaced but no doors have gone up. The painter is still working on those.

We're having additional issues with the painter. He's all over the place with what he wants to do, how he wants to renegotiate the contract. Facts are that the job has changed-- mostly in our favor. There are three fewer cabinets than there were previously and new wood rather than existing wood on the cabinet facings. I'm not a painter but I'm guessing that painting new wood is probably easier than sanding and painting old, greasy, dirty existing wood. So Jason is renegotiating that contract. I spoke with the guy this morning to explain our position and I think it was effective. It set the stage for Jason to go in asking for reasonable prices. This guy wants to make up with stuff like painting the insides of the cabinets. While I think that would be nice, I'm not interested in paying for that. I could do that myself after the kitchen is done and before I put everything back. After all, the inside of the cabinet doesn't have to look perfect. I never would have thought that the painter would be the hardest contractor to deal with.

Ok, so here's another thing. Why is it that some contractors (like the plumbers) neglect to do what needs to be done and others do stuff that wasn't asked for and then expect to get paid for it? We negotiated with the carpenter that he order the knobs and pulls. On the contract it states that if we supply our own, that $100 comes off the cost. In reaction to that, he decides without approval to add rollers to the drawers to make up for that $100. Honestly, if he'd just called us to ask whether we would be willing to do that we would most likely have said yes. Just the fact that he sprung it on us last night after it was done rubbed me the wrong way. Then we find out that he's coaching the painter to do similar stuff. Part of my conversation with the painter this morning was that we do not want him doing work that we did not ask for but that we will pay him for work that we ask for. And that the price will be prenegotiated so that we don't have surprise costs. In the case of the carpenter, he is very skilled and does great work for pretty cheap. Even with the hidden extras, he's totally worth it. I don't believe, however, that the painter will be the same.

Mostly Moving Right Along

Yesterday when we got in we saw that the countertop was in and the sink was just sitting in it (not really installed). The upper cabinets facing was off on one side, ready to be rebuilt. I figure today the progress will probably be installation of the sink, garbage disposal, and dishwasher drain by the plumbers; rebuilt facings of the top cabinets and removal of the 2 cabinets above the fridge by the carpenter. If they get more than that done, I'll be surprised.

Because the countertop and sink were in their correct spots (not yet caulked but still seemingly installed), I pulled out the cutting board that fits down into the sink and pretended to cut veggies. I'd "cut", then I'd sweep off my "scraps" into the other sink, "pushing" the garbage disposal button while making the motor noise for it. I cannot wait to cook in this kitchen. It's going to be great! The dishwasher has it's own garbage disposal, which led Jason to declare that he'd like to cook a lasagna and then put the whole thing into the dishwasher!

Last night we sat up late talking about the remaining budget on the house and what we could do to maximize it before resale. I think it will be no problem. Jason is feeling confident about a bathroom update too, although that will be a few months or more away. We will be painting the exterior before the end of summer.

Latest News

Just spoke with Jason and he went by the house during his lunch break. The second opinion electrician had been there and is going to get back with him soon on that situation. The carpenter has removed the peninsula that was blocking the freezer door. Jason says it reveals that the hardwood stops at the kitchen entrance and that there is no hardwood under the kitchen floor. He also said that the removal of the section from the cabinet looks as good as new and that you'd never know it was even there. This guy that I found is a great carpenter.

Here is the picture I took with my phone last night.

A Little Closer Each Day

The kitchen looked a little better last night when we got in. The drawers were in (the fronts weren't), the spacers for the dishwasher and stove were in, the cabinet to the right of the stove was in, basic stuff like that. I can see how it is shaping up. We spent our evening with Jason reading to me about alternative treatments of ear infections while I alternated playing with Aidan and cleaning out the top cabinets to get them ready for the carpenter to work on.

Another electrician (other than the ones scheduled to come) called Jason to say that he could offer a better estimate-- he's freelance and doesn't have the overhead that the other place has. Jason asked him to come this morning to give the estimate. The other place was put off until later today. Jason made the comment that this general contractor business is stressing him out.

My understanding of what should be going on today (unless things have changed) is that the countertop is being delivered, the plumber will be installing the sink and the dishwasher drain, and possibly the painter might be there. I still think it was a mistake for Jason to have bought the appliances prior to the remodel, but whatever. The fridge has been pushed over into the corner on the other side of the kitchen and the stove is in the laundry room. We still haven't made any decisions on the flooring and the moulding is dependent on the flooring choice.

Remodeling: A Sociological Experiment

I'm fascinated by the twist and turns that something so seemingly simple can take. You sit down with the contractor, you make all the plans, you cut the first checks, and then you wait.

Modification #1: Eliminate 3 cabinets to accomodate the very large (but very nice) fridge.
Modification #2: Our electrical set up can't support a dishwasher. Hell, it apparently can't support all the stuff we have now. Yip, time to update the fuse box to a breaker box. Wow, that wasn't in our budget! Time to put off the exterior painting.
Modification #3: The fronts on the cabinets are made from pressed wood. How odd since the interior parts are made from hard wood. The new cabinet doors won't hold on pressed wood. The carpenter has to remake the facing out of hard wood. It actually works out better because building from scratch takes less time than rebuilding existing materials to fit new modifications.
Modification #4: The plumbers' pipes were leaking this morning so they came back to take a look. The old pipe was thread bare. New copper pipe installed.
Modification #5: The little section of floor that revealed hardwood was decieving. There appears to be hardwood subflooring but not flooring. Time to reconsider flooring options.
Modification #6: Without hardwood floors the moulding that Jason chose may not match. Time to consider moulding options again.

As I left for work this morning the carpenter was there working away. He was able to get a lot done yesterday, so my hope is that he'll get a lot done today too. Both he and Jason feel that his part of the job will be complete by next week but I'm skeptical. The electricians come later this week (which means 2 days of no electricity). Tomorrow the sink, garbage disposal, and dishwasher drain will be added by the plumber. The dishwasher installer is on standby. I figure those parts will be done by early next week. Once the painter finishes then Jason will do the floor or have it installed. Home Depot has a laminant for kitchens and baths. I'm considering other options as well.

The Floor

Jason and Ron pulled up the lanoleum to reveal a really nicely laid plywood subfloor. In one spot they were able to remove all but the hardwood. This showed that there were two layers of subflooring and two layers of lanoleum on top of the hardwood before they took up the lanoleum. In an effort to learn more about how to pull up the subfloor, Jason called Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim said that the presence of the subfloor may indicate that the hardwood is damaged in some way, either water or termite damage and could be beyond repair. We plan to investigate this thoroughly before proceeding.

Kitchen Update

Our kitchen remodel is underway. We have acquired a fridge too large for the hole, which will result in the removal of three cabinets. Losing the cabinets is actually a good thing. We also have a new range. I love both of the new appliances, even though I thought I'd miss the bottom freezer. I don't. I love the side-by-side.

We removed the backsplash to reveal this old, thick, gross glue. The painter says it's no problem. Jason and the painter also removed the lanoleum to reveal a subfloor. In one spot only they have removed two layers of subflooring and another layer of lanoleum to reveal the hard wood. Jason was thrilled to see the hardwood. The plan is to refinish it. Also trying to talk him into pulling up the Pergo in the dining/livingroom/hallway to refinish that too! My master plan is to put the Pergo in the back porch area but Jason isn't fond of that idea.

Next week the carpenter, painter, and plumber will coordinate to start knocking out the kitchen. If things start getting crazy I'm moving out until it's done and I'm taking Aidan with me!