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!