Plumbing drama

After arguing with me for days on this, the plumber finally relented today and said the pipe needed to be changed but "there will be a small charge for labor and materials." WHAT?!?!! "Why should we do the work twice?" WHAT?!?!?!!? I very carefully did not verbally rip him to pieces the way I felt like he deserved. But said, "I already paid you for that work. It didn't pass inspection. You need to fix it." He reluctantly agreed. Ugh. The sad thing is that I think some people wouldn't have known better and would have just paid it and been ripped off. Anyway, we have a tentative appointment set for tomorrow if his day goes well today - gee, thanks for gracing me with your presence. He was great until the first progress payment, and now he's just been annoying. This whole fiasco with the wrong sized pipes and missing calculations have really held things up. I won't be doing any more business with him after the conctract ends! It goes to show you no matter how carefully you pick someone you can still get a loser.

I'm still learning so much in this process. For a while, I thought I had forgotten to get a gas line for the dryer and that it would be big bucks. Fortunately, it's only adding a "T" to the existing line. This time I got it verified in the calculations first! I also noticed (not for the first time) that there is a 4" vent for the dryer that has to go behind the water heater. We had planned to hide the water heater in a 24" cabinet (it's 20 1/8" in diameter). I'm glad I caught it now while we can still easily solve it. The contractor said he would either do a cutout or pull the cabinet forward enough to accomodate it.

It's been a good week or so. We are making a lot of visible process and moving faster. The pressure is letting up and I am feeling less pressure. Fortunately, there is also less shopping to do. That is great news because I am so sick of shopping and decision making. One thing we still need is all new interior doors. The existing ones are really nasty.

This is the bathroom insulation:


Here is the framing on the larger closet opening in the office:

Here is a close up of the corner of the closet. There is a metal strip in place to protect the corner. The strip will later be covered with drywall "mud" which is a compound used to fill the holes and give a smooth finish.




Here is one of our new windows.




The contractor sanded away some paint covering the floor in a closet to show me what it will look like when it is done. Wow - I love it! The trim piece laying on top of it is the window and door trim. It is a plain piece of stain grade pine that will be finished with a clear or amber stain.