Forgive Me For I Have Not Blogged

It's hard to believe it's only been a little over a month since I've blogged here. A lot has happened in that amount of time. Starting with the present and working backward. These first pics are of the bathroom vanity and sink. Note first that the water is on and the underbelly of the sink is DRY. Wohoo! When I took that picture the backsplash and sidesplash were just sitting there lookin' pretty, but now those are installed too--which just amounted to gluing them in place. I like to celebrate the small victories, even the very small victories.

Before the vanity went into place there was a matter of moving all manner of wiring for the vanity light--that actually still isn't in yet--the outlet, and the switch for the cieling light/fan/heater, and then installing the in-set mirror and also painting (nice blue eh? It's bears an uncanny resemblance to the color I had/have in the hall. Mom actually painted over some patches in the hall with the bathroom paint, and while the color blends fairly well, that semi-gloss shine is a dead give away against the otherwise very matte finish)


Before working on the bathroom though, we struck hard at installing the kitchen appliances. Somehow when we did the rest of the wiring of the kitchen, I spaced the fact that there would need to be power to the cabinet that housed the oven. Running a wire might be pretty straightforward sometimes, but not in this case. There was only about a 1 foot cube that was at all mysterious, but it was a doozy. We drilled a good-sized, like an inch and a half or 2-inch diameter hole through the back of the cabinet into the wall cavity. Somehow that hole ended up being what seemed like just under 6" deep before we hit the void inside the wall. Then we tried to cross that telescope with a 5/8 inch wormhole from the basement through about 4 inches of material because of the angle we tried to make through the flooring and sublfoor so as not to drill through a double joist from the underside. Sheesh! I'm still not quite sure how we missed it the first time and the second time, but with the third hole when we threaded the wire up it it came up right dead center of the eye of the needle upstairs in the cabinet. What a relief. I still have that swiss cheese to fill up, but at least the wiring is complete (nearly).

We put a vent to the 2nd floor bathroom toilet that seemed to be missing, guessing by the gurgling sound of a flush. It took some elbow grease but we managed to get a T joint and two flexible rubber "boots" my dad called them but Lowe's called them something else, anyway, we got 'em all in there in a straight length of 3" (or was it 2.5"?) drain pipe by making an opening in the kitchen ceiling just in front of the refrigerator. Having succeeded at that we fed a 1.5" vent pipe from there through the stub wall in the upstairs bathroom that obscures the toilet from the bathroom entry.

But before that even, we hooked up the cooktop, my Dad and I... come to think of it that was mostly Dad's doing except for my several trips to the hardware stores. Dad built a plug for the cooktop which required also changing the wiring to the panel inside the cooktop from the aluminum that was there, to copper. This last picture (O the glare! Not my best photography thank you very much.) is of the panel inside the underside of the cooktop.



Still there are some niggling things that remain to be completed.

In order for the dishwasher (not pictured) to truly be finished, I need to take it back out, which may well mean removing the electrical and water hookups, in order to epoxy some brackets to the underside of the granite countertop to screw the dishwasher clips too. It's amazing how much trouble it was to find where/how to do this in the instructions. I only knew it (might) need to be done because the countertop installer supplied the brackets, screws and epoxy for the purpose. But nowhere in the instructions was there mention of it, even though there were a couple of screws included with the instructions that had no designated purpose therein. So I went looking online for more generic DW installation instructions. What the heck, I even went to the Maytag site. The instructions I found there looked suspiciously familiar, only in frame 24 (I think it was, there were I think 36 steps in all) of the scantily annotated picture instructions, there was an inset that showed how to bend the clips so that they essentially line up with the screws for the sound-muffling baffle kinda weather-strippy thingy (I believe "soundproofing" is too strong a word in this case, and I wouldn't want to oversell it) around the face of the dishwasher.

That'll be a pain in the arse to get done, but pretty straightforward. There's still a risk that I'll attempt the task by sliding the dishwasher out just enough to slide the brackets into place, but there's a (HIGH) risk that I won't be able to place the brackets properly without getting the thing completely out of the way. We'll see what happens with that.

KI Pendant lights in the kitchen by the west wall windows
KI Face plate on the electric supply box in the oven cabinet
KI Cabinet trim
BA Bathtub faucet trim
BA Threshhold

A little more sheetrock and a whole lotta preppin' and paintin'

Whew! Happy Thanksgiving!

Order Vanity, Check!

I ordered a vanity/sink base this morning and the top/sink to go with it. And I'll still get to work by 9. Whew!

I Should Be Asleep Right Now

I'm sick. Yesterday I was off work and took the opportunity to have a couple of contractors come to the house. One came and left in under a 5 minutes. He was just evaluating the situation and determining what needed to be done. The other was a plumber and he was LATE and he was here for HOURS (ka-ching!).

Today, I'm blogging while I should be in bed sleeping. But the workers sent by the first guy yesterday are here installing steel straps under the island countertop. I'm really glad to have this done sooner than later (of course, I thought this was what would be done yesterday), but I'd rather be sleeping than typing and listening to them work. ...Actually, it sounds like it may not be much longer now. Forgive me but I don't feel like taking their picture even though they're probably very photogenic young couple (maybe they even really are a couple?) and she's wearing a fun pink long pile hat. I'll take pictures of the work when they're done, and when I'm done napping.

As for the plumber yesterday. I now have kitchen sinks!! Yippie! Still to be done, install the dishwasher and the insta-hot (it's actually some other brand, but I'm not going to go look right now). That'll be the end of the plumbing in the kitchen.

Other stuff to do in the really near term:
wire electricity for the oven
buy/install and oven
install bathtub trim kit
buy a vanity/sink for the bathroom
install/mount cabinet hardware drawer and door pulls
install a threshold/transition for the step up to the bathroom
clean up the breaker box and re-mount the face plate
lights and switches
trim
take a bunch of crap to the dump

Late last night I went to finish up my taxes. I forgot that I had done them on my desktop machine at home, I was thinking that I had worked on them using something web based so they were on a server somewhere. About 2 months ago my desktop box stopped working completely. There's not so much as a flicker when I hit the power switch. So I got to re-do my taxes last night from the beginning. It wasn't that much, but it took me a while to put my hands on it all. I e-filed right at midnight. I'm unsure what to expect, but I hope to get an email from the government in the next couple of days.

Oy! I need to sleep!

The people are gone and the work for this particular task is done, and it's 10 a.m. Whew!

Here are some photos of the sinks and the underside/backside of the island.

The Money Shot

Ultimately I couldn't wait for them to finish. By their first estimate they should have finished between 6 and 6:30pm. At 7:30 Lara called and asked if they should hold dinner for me. I told her no. But then I asked how much longer 'til the countertops were finished and the lead guy told me about half an hour. I opted to sign the form and leave them to finish and lock the door behind them when they left, and I headed off to dinner. I returned to find it looking FABULOUS. Unfortunately there is a missing element. The overhang on the island is a little bit too long and requires some structural support, and that's missing. It's a little frustrating because I had to go back and forth with the sales person when I was doing the ordering and I paid an upcharge explicitly for the inclusion of steel strapping or ell brackets to support the overhang. Now on delivery they are not there. Aagh! Nearly there. But doesn't it look great!!?

Sinks, Cooktop, Backsplash

They're putting in the backsplash and mounting the sinks. They have yet to try dropping the cooktop in, but I don't think that'll be a problem. (fingers crossed)

Still Working

Dang it, the airborne dust and the flash are a bad combo. I'm sitting at my laptop, listening to the guys working on the countertops. I took some early pictures when they started. They're nearly done with all the horizontal stuff now I think, hopefully they'll be onto the backsplashes soon. I'm going to be late for dinner.

They're He-e-e-re!

Fineline Pacific staff just arrived to install my countertops. I'm so excited I could just about throw up. They say it'll take around 4 hours.

Yippie!

Plumbing and Caulking in the Bathroom

It was a good weekend of visiting and working. After spending weeks mulling over countertop options, with the help of my parents I finally got back to some hands on stuff, including revisiting my caulking skills improvement efforts.

It started out we were going to just try to get a toilet into the bathroom upstairs so that we didn't have to traipse down through the kitchen to the 1st floor 3/4 bath, especially at all hours of the night and states of undress. It doesn't normally bother me much, I can navigate this house in the dark. But it's a nice courtesy to my folks to forego that midnight adventure. Okay, it--and everything else--is just long overdue.

Since we were on the subject of plumbing, we also moved the water for the vanity back to the wall where it used to be. It was an ugly move, but it's done and the valves are in place now where I want them. Now I (still) need to buy a vanity.

It was a lifesaver having my folks here to help. I'd never installed a toilet before and that's a lesson I would have dropped fifty times over if I'd been left to do it myself. As it was we more or less destroyed the first wax ring we tried to mount and didn't think to buy an extra at the store. In all I think I took 5 trips to the hardware stores that day.

So we got in the (good) toilet (now I'm sorta shopping for a replacement for the other one which is functional but not elegant... inasmuch as a toilet can be elegant. I'm not sure other people use the word "elegant" the same way math people and coders do, but it's a pretty dang handy word. But I digress.) and we--that's a real loose use of the word "we" too, Dad did nearly all of the work but the shopping and clean up, but let's not let those go underestimated either. Remember I said I made 5 trips to the hardware store!--plumbed the as yet nonexistent bathroom vanity/sink. I was happy to call that good. But when I was at work today I got a call that they started caulking the shower corners (and 2 shirts and countless paper towels and my hands repeatedly) and installing the handle for it too. If I worked on it when I got home, it's possible I could shower upstairs in the morning...

Well, I did pretty much get to work on it when I got home. The caulk is not pretty (no coincidence there are no close ups here), but I think it'll work. I also took apart the shower handle to put an o-ring in order, but I'm still not sure I'll take a shower upstairs tomorrow. It's after midnight and my toiletries are all still downstairs. Plus I've got no curtain or window covering upstairs and the shower is visible from the neighbors' kitchen so... No.

And I shopped vanities on my way home and in the process found the exact same sinks that are included in Costco's granite countertops deal so I can more accurately compare prices. Blam! Take that. I'm still waiting for them to get back to me with a quote. I'm also hung up on corbels, but I'll probably just suck it up and use them. They don't seem as elegant as a cantilevered solution might be.

It's My Turn

I paid a little money for a lot of caulk tonight...
That sounds funny if you say it right

For a couple of weeks now, the tile has been done and it's up to just me now to get the corners caulked and the fixtures mounted so that I can use the shower and the tub.

TWO WEEKS and I only JUST BOUGHT the caulk I need. I feel like I can't wait for it to be done, but apparently I can.

I just got a bid back for the kitchen counters. Maybe that will come together more quickly. That's another task where my part is little more than reading and pen- lifting.

Put A Fork In It

I got home pretty late today. Csaba was still here at 7:30 putting in the last few tiles around the tub faucet. Tomorrow is "clean up and grout". Wo hoo!

Hocus Focus

Daily progress continues in the bathroom. I couldn't be pleaseder. Today Csaba finished the shower except for the cubby for the shampoo shelf thingy. And he started putting the ledge on the wall for the tub surround where, truly there should be bullnosed edge, but that's just not how the chips have fallen.

So time was of the essence for me to make a needed fix to the tub fixtures. Can you see what I did? I fixed the "fix" that my first tile-setting contractor did.

There's No Progress Like Daily Progress

The tile setter returned. I didn't see him at all today, but he did like he said he would and set up the wet saw in the bathroom where he was working. It cut out several runs of stairs to the front porch for each cut, but it made for tight quarters in the workspace. It looks to me like my bathroom was fairly well covered, well enough anyway for surfaces that should be able to tolerate getting a little wet sometime. Plus, it also looks like he got a good deal done.



The shower walls are nearly done just a few more cut tiles on adjacent to the floor on the south pony wall, tile in the inset shelf and we're golden, just the tub surround to finish. Awesome.

Tilesetting Resumes

Whew! I arrived home today to find a van at the curb. I didn't really panic, but I also arrived home to an open front door. Luckily by the time I got to the porch I saw my dog Henri inside. According to Csaba, the tile-setter, H got out twice today. It's tough to keep track of that dog. He never goes very far (lately anyway), but he doesn't tend to come back until he feels like it.

It feels a little like two steps forward, one step back as he took out one row of 3 tiles tile along floor on the back wall of the shower so that he can replace them with a set that matches what he's putting in. The new stuff will be more like two rows of half-tiles so that he can make up the difference between the one-tile-high row that was there and the > one-tile-high area that needs to be filled in the same line where the floor line drops for the shower drainage.

When he pulled the "old" tiles off they took some of the waterproof seal with them, so he had to re-apply that. That's the red goo on the wall there.

Anyway, Csaba will be back tomorrow and back at the shower walls. Yippie for that!

That Was Weird

I noticed the lock box was moved, but it was just a little, in fact, maybe I was just remembered it wrong (wrongly, incorrectly, dismembered it, er...). Anyway, MAYBE that means the contractor showed up today!

So I went inside and upstairs to the bathroom. Nope, no change.

Oh well. Note to self, call contractor in the morning. I'm frantically cleaning house--okay, not even that, I'm just picking up jetsam, mostly laundry and hucking it down the stairs to the basement where the W/D are, but other stuff too. I even managed to sweep before my friend arrived to walk the lake.

We walked the lake and had a little food and drink. My point here is that hours later I got back to the house and went to the bathroom, the other bathroom, and I noticed that the toilet seat was up. Now, I may leave the lid up on occasion, but the actual toilet seat, I'm pretty reliable when it comes to that, since I don't put that up in the first place unless I'm cleaning or puking and I would have remembered either one of those.

So someone has been here.

I wasn't totally freaked out or anything. But it's a little creepy when someone has been in your house, but their stated purpose has not been tended to at all. So that begs the question, is THAT the person who was here? I did change my combination on my lock box again just that morning, so presumably no one else would know it. I notice the back door is unlocked, but wait I did that myself after I got home...

No biggie. Later that evening I went down in the basement, getting back to some other cleaning up I was doing (just starting really, tip o the iceberg kinda' thing) over the weekend, plus starting that laundry I'd thrown down the stairs. As I got down there I noticed a lot of lights were on. Not typical me to leave them on, but then I did sort of stop in the middle of my crap sorting adventure last Sunday, went up for air and never went back down. So I don't think the contractor dude was down there. It's just that the creep factor/aura sort of thing has a lingering imprint on my mood. It's like what having ghosts would be like, if there were actual physical evidence.

So once again, I'm up 'til 1 A.M. doing nothing particularly useful. (Well there was that laundry and cleaning, whoopie for me!) I can blame the creep factor, or the coke I had at dinner, or really just the same old same old. Old habits die hard. And I had and 8 A.M. meeting to look forward to in the morning!

Tomorrow Noon

I received email from my new contractor for the bathroom tile-setting. They plan to start tomorrow noon. It still didn't sound CERTAIN, but at least they called me proactively. That's a (giant) step in the right direction.

Now I need a vanity! O crap, and a plumber.

Plumber: vanity and toilet, and finish shower and tub
Electrician: move vanity lighting, wire the switch for the radiant heat

tick tock..

I've hired a new tile setter. Curious that there are no new pictures though, eh? Well, that's because nothing's changed yet. I signed the new contract, I dunno, Tuesday or Wednesday last week and they said "It's possible we could start tomorrow". But when tomorrow came they were not ready to start.

The difference? I haven't paid them anything yet, and I won't until they're done... Maybe that's not a difference until they're done, come to think of it. But I expect to hear from them this week. (Does that go without saying?)

Island Time

Mom and Dad came to town this weekend for the birth of their 5th and 6th grandkids. As things worked out, they stayed at my house, and boy does it show. Mom cleaned ALL OVER THE PLACE, and Dad and I bolted down the island cabinets in the kitchen and worked on wiring for the cooktop. On Sunday, when I was otherwise occupied, Dad even also mowed my lawn. I was THRILLED to hear it even before I saw it! I'm sure my neighbors are just as enthusiastic. Now I'm ready to get bids for countertops, yippie!

Separated at Birth

My brother and sister both had babies last Thursday. My sister lives here in Seattle, and my brother is on the east coast, about an hour outside of Boston. Charlotte Lee Cassidy Bull was born at 6:33 EDT weighing in at 6 lb, 11 oz and measuring 19.5 inches. Hanna Kaisa Lassila, my sister's daughter, was born at 5:12 PDT, also weighing in at 6 lb, 11 oz, and measuring 19 inches. I'm not sure of the timing of the comparison, but at some point, my sister and brother-in-law were in room 555 at Swedish Hospital and my brother and his wife were in room 554 at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. The whole family are pretty tickled by all the coincidences.

Seven pictures is too many to post in one blog entry, but it's quick to get through as a small set on the flickr site. The first 3 pictures are from Boston, the next 4 are from Seattle: 20080605_BABIES

Kitchen Island

I've received my cooktop, and my 2 new cabinets for the kitchen island. I finally took the cabinets out of their boxes and lined them up in the kitchen, roughly where they will go. It makes the island a little long, but I think it will do. I haven't opened the cooktop yet. I know I'll have to before I order my countertops, 'cause there's a template in there they will need. But I'm nervous about it for some reason.

I'm needing to hire the new tile people. Haven't done it yet. Haven't sent Sim notice that I'm moving on. After dead silence last week and last weekend, I can't imagine he could be surprised.

Promises Promises

I suppose you're getting tired of reading this kind of news...

Before I left for a week's vacation Sim said "when do you get back". "Next Sunday," I said. "Good. We'll be done when you get back."

Well, it's not done.

I got home Sunday early in the afternoon. Sim and his assistant were there, presumably making progress. I didn't look too closely. I went out for lunch with some friends. I don't know if it's me or them, but it feels uncomfortable to be around the house while they're working sometimes. Maybe it's just the house in the state that it's in.

Anyway, after lunch I went and got Henri from the sitter's in Edmonds and went home. As I drove up, around 2pm, they were just packing up and leaving. I sorta thought maybe it was for lunch, but they didn't come back.

GE Considers Selling Appliances Division

A week and a half after I finally ordered my GE 30" Induction Cooktop, GE decides to look at selling their Appliances Division. Dang.

Whew! Nearly Missed 'Im

It's supposed to be mid-80 temperatures here today, perfect for walking the dog in the morning before the peak rays. I dilly dallied long enough that I just left the house at 9:40 instead of about an hour earlier, so I only got around 1/3 of Greenlake and back, with a coffee stop in the middle. Actually, I still overestimated my pace, I got back to the house at 10:35, a little late for my 10:30 appointment. As I got to my block I noticed a car drove up to the corner and doubled back. I thought "o crap, maybe that's them." I almost waved to stop him, but thought better of it. It's a stranger, if I'm wrong, I'll feel like an idiot for flagging him down.

So I got up to my porch and realize there's a business card jammed in the door, so yes indeed I have missed my appointment. I called the cell number immediately. Oddly enough it rang about 5 times then voicemail picked up. I could barely understand what was said, so I left a message saying I'd just missed him and if he was in the neighborhood could he please come back and do the estimate. When I hung up, I noticed I had missed a call, I had a new voicemail from his number. So I went to dial my voicemail and when my list of recent calls came up, I realized I'd misdialed his number--I'm forever getting numbers transposed in phone numbers especially, but all the time really. Anyway, when I then called him back at the correct phone number, he answered from still in the neighborhood, and he said he'd circle back.

Sure enough it's the stranger I saw driving away when I walked up. We both had a chuckle about that, 'cause we did double-takes and triple-takes when he drove away the first time. In he comes and I show him to the bathroom. "Wow, that's really tight grout" he says... I used to think that was a good thing. Apparently, though, it's tight enough that it's difficult to even get grout into some of the spaces. Great.

In any case. He says he'll get an estimate to me by the end of the day, and if I agree to the terms they can probably start Monday.

I have a text message from Sim that his crew will be here Sunday. The day I take off for Alaska.

Keeping My Appointments

It's like bringing an umbrella on a sunny day just to keep it from raining. I feel a little badly keeping my appointment for an estimate to finish tile-setting on Friday if Sim is actually going to finish the job.

At first when I arrived home today I was pissed off to find that the front door key was sitting out in the open on the front porch. The upside of that is.. well, there are two upsides. One: I remembered to put the lockbox with the spare key out there, and Two: it meant they actually showed up to work. So yay for that.

When I came in I noticed that the back door was left unlocked. Then I noticed that there was still a saw out on the back deck. Then I heard something in the basement, and it wasn't Henri. They were still working. All better!

I met Javier and he showed me the work they'd done today in the bathroom. Looks like they've completed the simpler parts of the tub surround, and begun the more interesting parts. They've also replaced the broken tile in the shower floor near the drain. AND they've put in some baseboard, er... base tile, or whatever it's called if it's stone instead of wood.

Tomorrow is Today

I have forgotten my cell phone, but I'm checking my messages intermittently through the day. Sim called 9-ish and said he was "in the neighborhood". Why he calls from 3 blocks away I don't know. He mentioned that his other guys might already be at the house. I'm hopeful that there will be progress made when I get home, but I'm not holding my breath, and I'm not holding up "Plan B". I made an appointment with an alternate tile-setter to do an estimate on Friday.

Tomorrow

Ah what to think. I'm getting calls from a new tilesetting company to schedule an appointment for an estimate. And now I just got a call from Sim saying he can work tomorrow with two other guys and finish it by this weekend...

What to think.

Psyche!

Lara and Kimmo in front of the house. This is a more overall view of the porch steps. In the picture, because of the perspective I guess, they actually look pretty good. But they get bigger as they go down, but they also get closer (to the lens) so it looks kind of right. But they're SO NOT RIGHT. Lara's due in a month, maybe less now.

Late Friday afternoon, well maybe Friday evening actually, I got a text message from Sim (I NEVER would have guessed he knew how to do that) asking if I wanted him to come Saturday morning (8 AM, why he names an actual time I have no idea...) with an assistant AND another installer and do what they could in a day.

DUH.

Since we hadn't spoken for a while (er, no work and no word for a week and a day), I guess it was a legitimate question. I called him back immediately and got no answer. I left a message that that would be great. I was working on getting another installer to finish the job but I wouldn't actually be collecting bids until next week. So if he could finish it sooner than that, that would be great. I made this call to him on the way to my soccer game.

I played, then checked my phone. No call. We went out for dinner. Then I checked my phone again, no call. When I got home late-ish Saturday night, I sent him an email and a text message (finally figured out how to do that...), inviting him to work on Saturday.

I called Sim at 8 o'clock on the dot Saturday morning, reiterating the agreement that he might work the day, and asking him, if he did come to work today to please give me a call. Then I left for the day to watch nieces Emma and Susie play soccer up in Bellingham, the season championship tournament.

It was a good long-ish day at the park, for a total of 3 games, 2 and a half of which is all we (my uncle Steve and myself) stayed for. We got back to town around 5 or 5:30. I got hung out for a while to wind down from the drive. I guess I was sort of putting off going home because when I left Steve and Sue's place I called Lara to see what she was up to. She and Kimmo were on their way out for dinner, and I tagged along, not stopping at home on the way. (Avoidance behavior much?) After dinner we all came back to my house to see the state of the bathroom. The exact state I left it in this morning. Front porch steps too.

Ordered the remainder of my kitchen cabinets on Friday. Man they're spendy. I'd forgotten how bad the sticker shock was for the set I bought initially. Sheesh! Who do I think I am!!? I've yet to receive word that my cooktop has shipped so I'm probably looking at at least a week still before I can get all my pieces in place and order countertops... which means that won't be happening until probably June, last week of May if I'm really lucky. I'm trying to keep my hopes down here.

Changing Horses in the Middle of the Race

Looks like I'll be hiring somebody else to finish the tile installation in my bathroom. I really hope I'm nearer the end of the race than the middle.

I'm still a little stunned that Sim is just plain flaking. I can't help but wonder a little bit if he's fallen off the face of the earth or been hit by a bus or something. I called him this morning and left a message to get back to me if he hasn't "walked off the job" as it appears. I've emailed the homeowners club regarding scope and materials for new bids. I suspect I'll need to pull the trigger on that today or tomorrow.

I'm really relieved to have ordered my cooktop. Now if I can get the remainder of my cabinets ordered, I'll really feel like I'm in the home stretch!

Quiet Around Here

I called Sim once or twice after I got home from work. I also emailed the homeowners club and asked them to send tile installers to do bids for finishing the work.

I emailed Dave this morning, or was it last night, about the front porch steps.

And I ordered my cooktop. Yay! :)

Mis-steps

My front porch steps were in bad shape before this weekend. They were crumbling and too high. I tripped and fell on them once in the winter I guess, and I know Sim tripped on them once that I saw, and supposedly his assistant tripped on them once too. I called Dave last week and he came to fix them on Sunday.

I was out all day babysitting for Laurie--not at my house with all of one chair in the living room, no kitchen, and no cable. It was a beautiful day anyway, so there was no call to be spending time indoors anyway.

Dave called in the morning, for I can't remember what, but I knew he was working on it. We stopped by the house at some point in the day so I could drop off Henri, and Dave was still working. So we said hi and dropped Henri, as gracefully as possible, over the fence into the back yard. (Stupid me, I coulda' taken him through the gate on the other side. He's FINE!)

I got home after dinner. It was still daylight. The front of the house is in shadow. I thought they looked a little off. Sure enough. There are 4 steps with the following rises, in inches, from the top down:
5.25, 5.75, 6.75, and 6.75

It's nice that they're all solid and straight now, but this is still unacceptable. I sent Dave an email today to that effect, and with some pictures to boot. We'll see what he says.

Sim, on the other hand, hasn't done anything since last Thursday, not even so much as returned my calls (4 of them).

Sure Enough

Sure enough, no show no word all day Friday. Makes for a sucky start to a weekend. At least my team won our soccer game and my knees didn't hurt too badly at the end. It's a wonder what a couple of weeks off can do.

On the upside, I've settled (again) on a cooktop. I've sort of changed my mind countless times, really having felt "firmly decided" only twice before now. The thing is, I was looking at the GE installation specs today and I saw that the GE 30" induction cooktop fits in a 30" cabinet. WO HOO! I had all but given up on that. Ed Begley Jr be darned, I think I'm putting my oven next to my fridge after all. I realized today that if I do it that way then I can see into the oven from the bar. I haven't yet (re-)ordered cabinets for that yet though so, we'll see if I change my mind on that again. I was at the shop today so the fact that I didn't order is a good indication to me that I'm actually not yet settled.

Friday No Show?

Here it is Friday morning, just barely, it's almost 11. Nothing. A day and a half of work this week. Jeesh! I want his job!... No I don't.

Shower Walls Begun

Finally a good day. A solid day of work. Sim and his assistant arrived before I left for work in the morning. As I walked out the door he was setting up the wet saw on the front porch.

When I got home in the evening I went up to the bathroom. New tile on 2 shower walls. Yay!

Fishiness

Met with Dave this morning. He'll do the porch steps this weekend. Whew!

While I was home waiting for Dave, around 10 to 9, Sim called to see if his regular assistant--who routinely beats him to my house--was parked in front of my house or not. He said he was in my neighborhood on 50th and he'd be to the house shortly.

The meeting with Dave was pretty quick. We looked at the steps as is, and talked about how they could be fixed with a reasonable balance of aesthetics and efficiency/expediency. Then we discussed timing, as in when he could come over and do the fix. Our meeting lasted probably 5 to 10 minutes. Then we were on our separate ways.

As I drove away from the house I realized that Sim should be there shortly. It was quarter past 9, so kind of odd that he wasn't there already really. So I looped the block and went back home. As I approached the corner, I saw Sim coming the other way, so we got to my house at the same time. I told him Dave was coming on the weekend to fix the steps, so I needed to know if they could work in parallel or if I needed to manage scheduling. He said they could work at the same time, no problem.

Whew. So that was quick. Off to work I went. I was lucky enough to get into the parking garage by 9:30 and get the early bird special daily rate, 10 bucks for all day. Yay. Be thankful for small favors.

O but I sighed too soon. At NOON I get a call from Sim saying he's waiting for Dave to come back with the key so he can get into the house. Sim says he looked for the key in the lock box but it's not there. Dave doesn't have the key, Dave never used the key, he knocked on the door and I opened it. Sim was the last person with the key from the lock box, and to my knowledge, he's the only person with the combination, so the locating the key is his responsibility. He says, okay he'll call me back.

I'm impatient.

Ten minutes later I called him back to see if he'd found the key. If he can't find it, I'll need to drive home for my lunch hour to make sure he can get in. He can't. Off I go. I arrive home to find a note in the door "Went to lunch, be right back." ! But what's more, I check the lock box and the key is in there! Jesus. So I call him and tell him that the key is in there and I'm going back to work.

Pretty much all the advice I get from folks is to fire him. I'm convinced--though why I can't explain--that we're in the home stretch. As long as I see visible progress on a daily basis, I'll stick with it.

When I got home from work I went upstairs. Visible progress zero... maybe? There's dust all over the bathroom, and I know I didn't put it there. So I call Sim. He says he sanded the floor to smooth the seams. Ugh. Whatever. He says he'll be back early in the morning. Yay for that, I guess.

Another Hold Up

I started off waiting for my tile contractor to show up for a meeting. I had almost given up when he showed. We had a face to face conversation after exchanging written statements that seemed almost irreconcilable. I rejected a $2,000 change order to a $2650 original bid. He never mentioned my letter in response so I don't officially know if he received it yet or not. I sent it to him certified mail, but only yesterday. I also sent him a copy via email Sunday night but it's unclear whether he ever checks his email. He did tell me about how the job was more complex than he thought it was at first and explained some carpentry tasks and creative mudwork he had to do to compensate. I reminded him that I asked him before he started, and before 8 weeks of delay on his side, what prepwork needed to be done. When we parted we agreed he'd finish the job, but only for the original estimate.

But then...

When I got home from work today I went straight upstairs to the bathroom to see what had been done. NOTHING. AAgh! So, after trying to decide what to think, how to respond, I just called him to see what he had to say. His substitute assistant, the brother of his regular assistant, tripped on the front porch steps first thing. Sim took him to the hospital, he had a hairline fracture to the wrist. Shoot.

So now I'm meeting with Dave tomorrow morning to talk about fixing the front porch steps. This could be interesting. Dave's the one who did the carpentry that Sim had all the complaints about. Sim did some funky stuff with the bathroom floor, different from how we first described it, oh probably going on a year ago now, or maybe only 10 months. I wonder what Dave will think of it. I've been living on borrowed time with the porch steps anyway. Shoot.

Four Strikes!

I've been looking through my checks and browsing the Washington L&I page on the web trying to put together the particulars of what info I need and what info I want to report if I report this guy, the tiler. I wrote him the "first half" check to start (which I shouldn't have, at least in the amount that I did, since "first half" is typically a materials payment and I'm providing most of the materials) on February 21, it's now April 17th. Last Thursday was the 4th time he's told me either that he'd be "done in a week", or "at your house full time 'til it's finished" or both. Funny thing, Tuesday evening he said "I'll be at your house full time starting tomorrow" and "I should be there by noon" in the same breath.

Now it's Thursday again, a week after the last "done in a week claim". One day after his "We'll be at your house 'til it's done" and the only progress is ONE BOARD of hardibacker over the rough-in carpentry I did last weekend, no two weeks ago just before I was sick. There's a note leaned up against my front door when I got home from work yesterday afternoon. I came home early to meet with him. But I arrive home to find a note on a nasty old piece of sheetrock that says "Wrong size board, I'll be back tomorrow at 7:30". Now it's 7:50 in the morning, there's no sign of him and no call from him, and I'll be late to work. Agh!

No Reply, But Maybe Some Response

I emailed Sim summarizing our situation, what he said would be done that hadn't, that I wasn't able to get ahold of him on the phone, needing the job to get finished so that I could refinance my mortgages--nevermind live in a "finished" house (I don't know if I'll ever feel like this is a finished house...). I told him I understood if he was too busy to do it, since he's recently had a fire at home and is having trouble timing things with his own contractors and all, but if that were the case then please refund my money and return my materials.

Whew! That's the short version.

I still haven't heard back from him, so I don't actually know if he got my email. So maybe it's just coincidence, but today when I returned home from work, I found that all the remaining backer board is installed, and the room is mostly cleared out and looking tile-ready (for all I know). Tomorrow's Friday and I have the day off. I expect that means I'll lay eyes on the guy and we can talk about the remainder of the work and timeline.