A long but productive day

I met the contractor at 8 a.m., and he had a crew of two guys with him. Today's main goal was demolition. They got right to work, and I had a brief meeting with the contractor. One of the guys will be removing the bars from the windows and they took a look at them today. They are actually going to have to grind away the metal screws because after bolting the bars to the stucco, they welded each bolt so it cannot be unscrewed! Wow, now that's serious security.

I called the building supply place where I ordered the windows to inquire about their business license for the city where I live. The guy who sold us the windows had no clue what I was talking about and said in his 4 years working there nobody had ever asked that. This I cannot understand because it is stated quite clearly in the permit paperwork that the person who delivers the windows has to have a business license. It was clear I was getting nowhere with him, so I asked when the windows would be in (today is two weeks since we ordered, and he said multiple times that it would be 2-3 weeks). Well, today he says it may be 3-4 weeks. Oh boy was I mad and gave him a earful! I told him he misled me, and he backed off and talked a bunch of smack about how there's a 70% chance of them being here in 3 weeks. I was really mad - I planned my whole schedule with the general contractor around the window arrival date which had been promised multiple times. Then today, weeks later, the story changes. Not cool!

I finally called the city business license office to figure out how to solve this business license problem. They are really tough! Even a national manufacturer cannot deliver to this city unless they have city business license or are a licensed common carrier. Ugh. As it turns out, the building supply place is licensed in my city, so the problem was solved. But the store was no help.

I ended up going to the building supply store to check out molding. I liked the window molding shown at the display and the contractor suggested I get a sample and try to find it cheaper. When I got to the store, the guy who I had been dealing with looked scared to see me! But, I was nice to him and informed him that his store did have a business license. His manager was there, and said the problem was that the salesguy confused business license with permit. Ok, I only said business license 50 times. Ugh, nothing like telling someone their job, especially after they tell you multiple times they've been doing their job for 4 yeas.

The salesguy said the molding shown was made by the window company and would be really expensive to order. He took me to their lumber yard and got me a sample of their molding that was supposedly equivalent. He couldn't give me prices and wasn't inclined to check so he guessed. After getting their prices, I went to Home Depot and couldn't find anything. I went to another home center store, where I got really good advice. The reason I was having trouble finding comparable window molding was that he gave me floor molding! Once the differences were pointed out, I couldn't believe that anyone who should know better would have made this mistake. I ended up buying really nice molding at a great price. I even understand if he didn't know, but he acted like he did know.

Between the two stores, I managed to get all the lights picked out and/or purchased. This is a relief. By the time I got back and unloaded the molding, it was time to go.

The crew was prepping for the new windows to be installed, so they took off the molding on the existing windows.



We are relocating this door a little to the right to give better hall access.


There was major demolition in the laundry area. This area was really gross (think roach carcasses on the wall) and would never be able to be painted. Here is how it looked when we took possession:

Here is how it looked after the junk was removed and the cabinetry demolished:

Here's how it looks now (you can see straight through to the bathroom):


The plywood from the kitchen subfloor is being removed due to water damage. It will also make the height lower so we can add our own flooring without a large height change from the living room.


There were some pavers in the backyard which I started moving to try to find the origin of a pipe that vents water under the house. The pavers were home to thousands or millions of ants. I think I found a queen! Actually I found 4 queens in a short period of time. I tried to photograph one and by the time I ran to get the camera and got back it was gone. I had the camera handy when I found this one. The red ring is the top to a drink bottle (like the top of a milk gallon) that I put in for scale. This is one huge ant! I've never seen one like this before. There's lots of ants in the yard, but thankfully none in the house.

Someone left this in front of our house. Cute, use our front as a junk drop-off point. I think that people see how bad the house looks and figure why not? They are also letting dogs poop out front and not cleaning up. I actually had to laugh at this though - it's an old foot massager probably from the 1970's. It was dusty and dirty. I like the idea of recycling one's old stuff, but does it have to be in front of my house?