More progress

Today was a good day. The handyman service I found was scheduled to be here at 8:00, and at 7:48, the handyman was here as promised, in uniform and in a well-equipped truck. I was testing the service out by hiring them for a few small jobs. It is not cheap, but you get what you pay for. The technicians are highly skilled, and supervised by a licensed general contractor. All employees are bonded and insured. You just call up, describe what you need and they send the appropriately skilled person. What a convenience! You can save money by buying your own materials, which I did. By buying them myself, I didn't have to pay for shopping time for the technician. The owner talked to me yesterday and told me exactly what to buy. I also liked that the bill was laid our ahead of time with no surprised - you only pay for time at a specified rate and materials. The technician even had the correct wall anchors to install the linen cabinet where there were no wall studs. He did a great job and I was pleased with the service.

I am going to hire them to do the bathroom floor. It's a bit of a tricky job because it requires three trades - they have to pull up the toilet, prime and paint behind it, install the flooring, and reinstall the toilet on top of the new, higher flooring. The flooring itself is easy to install - it is "click together" cork floor boards (like hardwood). My concern is pulling all of it together and doing it in one day so we don't have to spend the night in a hotel due to having no working toilet.

I did have to make a shopping trip while the technician was here. The vent covers I bought for the attic vents were wrong. I went to Home Depot and a building supply place and neither had them. Luckily, a contractor saw me leaving Home Depot with my old vent cover and nothing new in my hands and directed me to a nearby mom and pop hardware store. It's the kind of place that hasn't changed in 50 years. It is jam packed with all sorts of things. It looks kind of jumbled, but the help is really great, and they had the exact vent cover I needed. That's twice they've had what I needed when I couldn't find it elsewhere. I'm glad they haven't changed! It's got to be a good place to shop - the place is filled with contractors every time I go.

Here is the work the technician did. First, he installed the linen cabinet in the bathroom. I am so excited to have one more space I can move into, even if it is small. For seven months, our toiletries have been in a jumbled box on the floor. It's no fun rooting through a box to find a new package of floss. There is also stuff in the garage we haven't been able to get to. I haven't cleaned my rings or worn makeup in seven months because we haven't been able to access these things in the garage and even if I could, there was no place in the house to store them. Yay! It's funny because I am learning to appreciate each thing as it happens - you don't know how nice a small thing like a linen cabinet is until you don't have one. We won't actually be storing linens in it since we have a towel cubby built into the bathroom.




I had the handyman replace all of the crawl space and attic vent covers. Many were missing or broken, and I have had constant fears (including a few bad dreams involving mice and other critters in the house!) of animals finding their way under the house or into the attic. They also just look so nasy and realy contributed to the junkyard look of the place. It is a job I could have done, but I am routinely doing 10 hour days, and just cannot get to everything. Plus, it seemed like a low-risk project to use to try out the handyman service.

Here is a before shot. I actually forgot to take before pictures, so this one is not that bad.


Here is an after shot. What an improvement! I also had him put a "critter guard" on the roof vent for the bathroom fan. The contractor we were using installed the fan seven months ago and never covered the top of it to keep critters out. What a relief to know they cannot get in now.