Lanscaper starting Tuesday

I got a call from the landscaper today and he want to start Tuesday! Yay! I am through-the-roof excited, although I won't believe it until they show up. Things often don't start on schedule.

Faxed second contract

I faxed the second contract today at lunchtime. What a relief. The general contractor may be coming tomorrow with his metal guy to get started on the gates.

faxed contract!

Late this morning, I got the general contractor's new proposal which included the stairs. It's more than we wanted to spend, but in the ballpark. Since we really need it done ASAP, we're going to go ahead with it. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of additional time to work this out. We are both feeling mad that the contractors are taking so long. The time frame is closing in, and it's not good to make snap decisions on big things.

Even though we really wanted to build a deck right now, we've decided not to because the price was just way higher than we expected and wanted to spend. We've come up with a temporary solution that will give us use of the yard and solve the grading issues so we can fence the place and join the various levels. In a way, I am relieved and glad. The temporary solution will buy us a few years to use the yard and see what we like and don't like. We'll have lots of design ideas by the time we go to build it. Some examples of things I think we'll make better decisions on after a few years use: number and placement of electrical outlets; number and placement of water faucets; location of grill (if built in); size, type, coverage of any cover (roof). I am also feeling a sense of relief at putting the brakes on a large expenditure. It seems like it makes more sense to do this in a few years. An added bonus is that depending on how complex a design we want, we may be able to build it ourselves. We'll see!

I called the landscaper in the morning because I had not received his contract. He called back at 3 and gave me the new price (the price went up due to there being more grass, sprinklers and edge beds because there's no deck now). He said he could fax the contract, but I didn't have it by the time I left at 5. It did come tonight and I looked it over and pencilled in a few minor adjustments. I'll fax it tomorrow.

Blind shopping, what a drag

Today I went shopping for window blinds with my mom, who knows about these things. Believe it or not, they are quite complex. Unfortunately, the way my (brand new) windows are made, we have very few blind options. The mounting surface is only 1/2" deep, and most cellular or "honeycomb" shades require 1 1/2" or more. I was very disappointed to find this out. I'm not ready to shift gears yet - we only looked at one store and thanks to the marvel of the internet, I still think I can find what I need. Who would even think to consider window treatment options when picking out new windows? Just choosing the windows was a chore by itself.

I spoke to the general contractor about my new idea, and actually got a revised proposal from him which missed a flight of stairs! How do you miss a flight of stairs when there are only a handful of things on the list to begin with? He said he would resend it including the stairs tomorrow.

windows cleaned today

Today we had a guy come to clean the windows. This may seem like a silly thing to spend money on - I mean how hard is it to clean first floor windows, especially since we have the tilt-in kind? Well, our prior incompetent contractor didn't used drop cloths or masking tape, so in many areas of the house we have splatters of various materials. Our exterior window frames are no exception. The beautiful, brand new sparkling white frames have stucco residue all over them from when the stucco was patched after the window installation. I had planned on cleaning it myself, but when the stucco guy was here doing the new stucco he strongly cautioned me against that, saying I would scratch the frame (it's fiberglass). He gave me the number of a window cleaner who he said works really cheap and knows how to do detailed construction cleanup like we have. I had him come out today, and boy was it worth it! Had I done it myself, it would have been the equivalent of less than minimum wage and it wouldn't have been done for a while. The frames look great and now that we have new stucco the difference is striking. He got the glass so clean you couldn't see it (try that with Windex)! The longer range shots didn't show the change well, but here are two close ups of the same window.

Before, covered with stucco residue:


After, sparkling clean.

Faxed a sketch

I spoke to the contractor today and he said he wouldn't be able to come to the house until at least Tuesday. I took matters into my own hands and faxed him a sketch. It was way too confusing to try to explain it to him on the phone, mainly because he doesn't seem to understand the difference between the side of the house and the back. I even tried using directions like "the north side of the house" or "the northeast corner" etc and he still wasn't able to follow. I followed up the fax with a detailed email, so hopefully we'll get another proposal soon.

A small heartbreak

I was working on the shower enclosure today and realized that I cut a piece wrong. I was cutting two right angle pieces that have to form the end of a rectangle. I have to cut the pieces because the rectangle is too wide if I use the pieces as shipped. The problem is I cut them both identically instead of one "left" and one "right." Ugh. I was so excited that my table saw was able to make super-nice cuts in much less time (compared to using a hack saw, which the product website suggests) that I didn't re-orient the second piece I cut. So, the shower enclosure is temporarily on hold until I can order a replacement piece.

I spoke to the contractor this morning about the price, and asked him to come up with some options that would fit within our budget. After talking to him, I was talking to C and came up with a great, cheap idea that would temporarily solve our problems without the expense of a deck. I called the contractor right back and asked him to call me ASAP (before he put any work in) and he didn't call back all day. What a pain. Why do they wait so long? We're under serious time pressure here.

Whoa!

Last night, we finally got price from general contractor (deck and gates) after 2 weeks. It was WAY too high. The prices was 2 - 2.5 times higher than we expected. We are now scrambling to try to come up with an alternative plan. I'm a little disappointed about the price, but that's not the main cause of my upset. We've waited so long on this and now we have to get into iterations of contracts. If they continue to take too long, we simply won't be able to have the project done before I start school and we will have to arrange care for the dog (at quite a cost). We'd love to be able to work more with the contractor and try different scenarios but we have to wait so long for each version that we really can't do that. Thus, we are forced to make a decision with scant information.

1 window done and ready for shade

The window I've been working on is done and ready for a shade. Today I just had to patch the nail holes and joints with wood putty and give it a thorough cleaning. The putty is great because it hides so many flaws, even on the wood with a clear finish (i.e. not painted). It makes me look like a much more skilled carpenter than I am.

Here is a shot of the finished window. I think it looks pretty good, black plastic and messed up wall paint aside.




On a good note, the general contractor called and said we'd have his bid today on the gates, deck and stairs.

doors, windows and shower

Today I sanded the side door. I sanded the front door yesterday, and hope to coat both tomorrow. I worked some more on the shower and got the last piece of trim up on the one window that is close to done. All I have to do is clean it and putty it (nail holes and joints) and it is done.

The general contractor called today and said I'd have his quote today. Of course it didn't come, but at least we've gotten to the "you'll have it today" phase which is better than nothing. The whole yard situation is so frustrating. I started trying to nail this down weeks ago, and if the contractors were on the ball we could have a yard by now.

Why get a permit?

With all the difficulty our building permit caused, I often get asked "Why even get a permit?" To answer this, let me first summarize why you wouldn't want a permit. (Note that all information is true where we live and may not be true in other places).

1) Increased property tax - Whatever you spend on a permit gets reported to the property tax office and your tax may increase.

2) Pain in the neck - Doing work under a permit is, simply put, a pain in the neck. There are so many details and places you can get snagged. The building codes are often cryptic and interpreted very differently depending on who you talk to. In our community, the standards are ridiculously high (much higher than any community in this area).

3) Delays - Doing your work with a permit will delay your job. Meeting the high standards takes time. Often you cannot schedule an inspection when you need to. In our city, the standard is that they offer next day inspections. I often waited up to 6 days for an inspection. The job cannot progress until you have an inspection. You and/or the contractor are forced to wait at home during the window of time in which the inspector might arrive. When the inspectors find corrections (which they almost always do), you have to get all the proper people out again to fix things and then re-call for an inspection.

When I started this project, I had a long track record of project management in my professional life. It's something I'm good at, and one of the reasons is that I think things through and try to imagine anything that could go wrong. I assumed that if I did enough homework that I could anticipate what could go wrong and be prepared for it (this has almost always been true in the past). This was a false assumption and not a reflection of my inadequate preparation. There are many places where things go wrong and there is absolutely no way that anybody could have known it was possible until it happened, including contractors. I've said many times that if only the city would document things and make them available to the public that many delays could be prevented. Event the contractors I worked with were shocked by the unpredictable delays we encountered. There were even things where the city had literature that covered some contingencies and the literature just wasn't complete.

4) Contractors - Getting a permit forces you to use contractors with a city business license. Many charge more to do the work with a permit (especially in our city). Some won't work in the city we live in.

Sounds pretty bad, huh? So why on earth would any sound-minded person get a permit? Well, consider the following.

1) It is illegal to do construction that requires a permit without one. The city literature I got clearly states you may be subject to civil or criminal charges for doing work without a permit.

2) Risk of losing the work - If caught, at minimum you have to bring the work up to code and prove it. This may mean opening walls, tearing out construction, etc because our city will not accept pictures you took during the work. Worse, you may have to simply remove the work (even if it looks good and adds to the house). Even worse, you may face the above mentioned civil and/or criminal charges as well as having to rip out the work or bring it to code.

3) Future sales liability - When you sell, you have to disclose the non-permitted work. All of it. The law is quite clear about this. This means your house has less appeal (I would be very scared to buy a house with unpermitted major work). If you don't disclose, your buyer has strong grounds for a lawsuit against you and you can be criminally charged with fraud.

4) Your safety - Houses can be very dangerous if not built properly. In the electrical system, the risks are pretty obvious. You can burn your house down with improper wiring. The people that owned our house before us did a lot of their own mangling (they probably called it upgrading) including electrical work. Our electrician was surprised again and again and kept making the comment "I can't believe this place didn't burn down." This was after we had a contract, so he wasn't trying to sell me more work.

Gas lines are a big risk. In our house, we had a new length of gas line (about 10 feet) run because we relocated the gas cooktop. The pipe was undersized by 1/4". This slipped by 3 licensed, experienced plumbers employed by our plumber. The city caught it on inspection and we had to change it. What's the problem? An undersized gas pipe can cause air to be sucked into the pipe which can explode.

Structural issues are huge in a house. You can get all kinds of shifting and cracking even if it doesn't kill/maim you.

Inspection is the only way to make sure safe. My electrician missed a few grounding wires even though he is quite good. 3 licensed plumbers missed gas line size. These are serious risks which the average homeowner is not qualified to assess.

5) In our community, there have been some prosecutions for tax fraud on unpermitted work. Since permitted work increases your taxes, you can be prosecuted for not declaring the work.

6) My career would suffer were I to be caught. My profession has a code of conduct which clearly states that fraudulent activity is not acceptable. I could be barred from ever working in my field again even though this has nothing to do with my work. Many jobs now require a background check, and I imagine any sort of fraudulent activity could hurt your chances of being employed.

7) I hold a minor appointed office in our local government. My code of conduct for this office also clearly prohibits any sort of fraudulent activity. If I were to get caught, I imagine it would be quite newsworthy. I don't even want to think about my name in the local newspapers.

8) One benefit to getting a permit is reduced homeowners' insurance. We got a quote from one company which cuts our insurance premium in half because of all the work we did. It may not seem like much, but multiply the effect over 10, 20 or 30 years and it's huge.

So no the question is, how would you get caught?

1) Permit history on a house public knowledge. Anybody can go to the city permit office and pull the permit history on any house. I would check any house I was considering buying and did check when we bought ours.

2) The city is trying to catch you. They may have ways of finding unpermitted work we wouldn't even think of.

3) City inspectors spend many hours every day driving around. They are constantly looking for things being done without permits.

4) They remember your house. I was surprised many times by how much the inspectors remembered from visit to visit. They could pick out what had changed each time they were here.

5) They look for violations while inspecting other stuff. We had some structural reinforcing done on a second permit while our main permit was open. When they were inspecting the structural work, they were poking around and asking questions about all the other work to make sure it was permitted.

6) Increased enforcement. One neighboring city has a full time guy whose only function is to find unpermitted work. He drives around looking for things, goes to real estate open houses and browses sales adds trying to find mismatches in the recorded square feet, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. He looks for things in sales ads like "new kitchen" etc. Municipalities are getting increasingly strapped for cash and this is an untapped revenue source which doesn't require any new tax levies to be passed. I predict that this kind of enforcement will grow in many areas.

7) Your neighbors could complain. If you neighbor has the slightest grudge against you, they could make one call and blow the whistle on you at any time, even after the work is done. I would not like to live with this hanging over my head.

So there you have it, my reasons for working with building permits.

Back door done

We decided to leave the back door as it is. It looks great and the finish is good enough for now. It will be recoated in 2 years, so the finish will be smoother then. I cleaned up the door and removed the tape and it looks great. What a relief to have one of the doors done.

I also worked some more on the shower and windows.

Back door dilemma

Today, the back door is finally dry from the last coat of stain. I am really glad I did the third coat because the finish feels really smooth and looks good. Now my dilemma - do I do a 4th coat? It's pretty good now, but another coat would make it really nice. But, it is good enough now and the doors will need to be restained every 1-2 years so maybe I should wait? It would be really nice to be done with at least one door - I've been looking at blue tape on all the doors for weeks. Also, since this is a double door, doing a coat of stain is a big project and it may not be worth it.... but then again it may be.

Met with Landscaper today - yay!

I was at lunch with C and got a call from the landscaper that he was ready to meet in 20 minutes. This isn't as last minute as it sounds - he had told me early in the morning that he would call when he was on his way. I ran home and met him right away, and he gave me a contract which, I am happy to say, looks great. It is right in line with the other prices we got and we feel best about this particular guy. He guesses the work will take 1-1.5 weeks if he works straight through, but he may not be able to due to having the deck constructed by the general contractor simultaneously. He doesn't think the deck will be a major interruption - once the water lines are run underground, the deck can be worked on and the entire rest of the yard is available for the landscaper to work on. The only thing we are waiting on is the contract from the general contractor for the deck, gate and steps.

We are replacing the concrete side steps off of our side door because the gas meter is underneath and the space is so tight that a worker really can't get to it. We are going to have nice wood steps with a hinged top so the worker can get to the meter and have lots of space. This in and of itself wouldn't be a priority since the gas meter is new and probably won't need any work for a while. The problem is that there isn't a proper shut-off valve. If we ever need to get the gas off in a hurry, we'll need to grab a wrench and squeeze into the tight spot and manually shut it off. We've asked a few plumbers if they could install it and they all said no, that the space was too tight. So, we're doing the steps now. They will look a lot better, and since the whole back and side yards are going to be done, it would be a shame to have nasty, cracked, stained concrete steps with all nice new gates, etc.

I also got to Lowe's today to pick up some supplies. While there, I drooled over the garage organization products. I can't wait to tackle the garage. According to a lot of design websites, the garage is the new "hot" area of the house, so in the last few years there have been a ton of new products for garage organization. Although we desperately need to get some garage storage and organization (it would be so nice not to have the shop vac and air compressor in the house), I don't see this happening any time soon. There are just too many choices and too many decisions to make so I need to wait until I can give this project the attention it deserves.

About the yard

I realized, after getting a similar comment from several people, that I haven't clearly communicated why we need a landscaper in the backyard. I think the general assumption is that landscapers make yard "pretty." I think when I talk about it, the image people get is that the yard is simply bland and boring, and just needs a few plants and maybe a touch up on the grass. The truth is, our backyard is in way worse shape than that. Our landscaper won't even be doing any plants (except the grass)

First, it slopes both left to right (higher on the left) and front to back (higher in the back). It also slopes toward the house and garage, which is a big problem with water run off. So, right off the bat, there are several tricky 3-dimensional problem to solve. First is the general grading of the yard. The slope must be changed so that the water drains properly (i.e. away from the house and into the street or into a drainage system). This is quite a complex problem by itself. There are multiple ways to handle it, including building a drainage system (which we'd like to avoid). We may need to have dirt trucked in, and the landscaper may have to bring in a back hoe to move dirt around. Plants need to be considered as well - without plant matter to hold the dirt, and changes to the grade might not last (this will be grass in our case). With or without a drainage system, there are still multiple ways to handle the slope and water runoff and all of them have their pros, cons and price. The second tricky problem is the transitions from the various heights. The driveway, with respect to the house, is quite high (i.e. if I am standing in the driveway, the lower edge of the ground floor windows is about waist high). On the other side of the house, there is a 5 foot wide walkway. When I am standing in the walkway, the ground floor windows are way over my head. The backyard touches both of these levels, so we have some transitions to figure out. Our plan is to put a deck in that is at the same level as the grass in the back of the yard and to use step(s) to get to the driveway and side of house. The deck will be about 2 feet higher than the driveway near the house and will be at the driveway level at the back of the deck.

Second, the yard was used as a junkyard/dump by the previous owners. Right now, there is no grass. It is packed dirt with waist-high weeds, glass, cat poop, ditches, glass, litter, etc. After grading the yard, it needs to be rototilled (top layer broken up) and possibly the soil quality corrected. Our elm tree has dropped seedlings which are now growing quite tall and need to be removed as well.

Third, we want a seating area of some sort to use right outside our back door. We are thinking a ground level deck at this time, but we are waiting for prices. The deck has to tie into the fencing and gates. Since it is a ground level deck, we could probably tackle this ourselves, but we want it done sooner than we could possibly get to it. The hardest part of DIY projects is sifting through all the information on something. We could probably spend years figuring out what wood is best (yes there are dozens of options), what stain is best, how to lay the boards, etc. We've owned our house 19 months and have lived here 14 - we want to start enjoying our yard and sitting in it.

Fourth is the issue of time. We need a yard by the time I start school for our large-breed puppy to hang out in all day. He cannot be out there at all now. There are too many dangerous things for him to eat and be injured on. There is no way to contain him as the yard isn't fenced and the fencing can't be done till the deck and gates are done. We'd be years trying to solve all these problems and figure out how to do things and which materials to use.

Fifth, we live in a warm climate. Without sprinklers, you can't have grass. He'll be installing sprinklers for us and running a water outlet at the back of the garage for a hose.

So there you have it, the short answer of what the landscaper will do.

More chugging

Today I worked a little more on the shower. I cut two pieces of the curtain track with a hacksaw as suggested on their web page. What a job! It took forever and the cuts came out poorly. I had to file them down to get them smooth and straight. I am going to try my table saw for any future cuts. The material is aluminum and I think the saw should go right through it.

Just for clarification, yes we have lived here for 14 months with no shower. We have to take baths. What's taking so long? Well, because we wanted a big tub in our small bathroom, the big tub has to also serve as a shower. Normally you can just hang a shower curtain on a rod and contain the water in your tub. We can't use a rod because it would have to span 8.5 feet (from wall to wall, not because the tub is that big). Also, it would visually and physically obstruct the whole bathroom. This in and of itself isn't a problem - I purchased curtain track like they use in hospital rooms which suspends on the ceiling and give you a clean look. The problem is that we, mainly I, picked the wrong kind of tub for this application. Regular plain old bathtubs have an apron around them which catches the water (on non-shower-curtained sides) and sends it back in the tub. We have a drop-in tub, meaning it doesn't have an apron and any water not caught by the curtain would sit on the tub deck and probably spill onto the floor and/or leak into the walls. Ok, still not a problem, I used the curtain track to make a complete circle around the tub. Why it's taking so long is that the calculations to put it up are quite complicated and I spent many sessions trying to get it just right. Also, the track itself is made of many parts and comes with no instructions. You have to reinvent the wheel on everything. At each point where 2 pieces join, there is a splicer piece to hold them together. The problem is that if the splicer touches the ceiling then the rest of the track won't. I've had to figure out exactly in what order to put each piece so that I can mark the exact location of they drywall anchors for that piece. Add to it the fact that you are working on the ceiling over a large bathtub, and well, it turns into a big project. I spend a little time on it every day, and I will celebrate the day when I can actually take a quick shower, but in the meantime, taking baths is the least of the discomfort we live with daily.

I also cut the last piece of trim for the one window I am trying to get done before my mom comes to town. It didn't fit! Argh! I really get why finish carpentry is expensive. I am learning though - I started by cutting the piece too long and then shaved off bit by bit until it was almost right. The problem was I couldn't shave a small enough sliver off at the end and took too much making the piece too short. It was also warped anyway so even if the length had been okay it wouldn't have held onto the wall. The lesson here is that nails will not hold a warped piece of wood to a straight wall.

Lastly, I continued my weekly ivy trim. I swear the stuff grows faster than I can trim it. I fill the yard waste can every week and don't keep up with the waste the yard generates. I can't wait till the ivy is gone (as if that would ever happen.)

Chugging along

I worked some more on the shower enclosure today. I tested the dummy pieces I cut yesterday and they looked good. I got worked a little more on the window trim, but when I put the piece up, I found it was too warped at one end and would not adhere to the wall. It was a bit disappointing because I thought I'd have a finished window today, but it didn't happen.

Right now, the windows and shower are my main projects other than yard related tasks, which mainly is badgering the contractors to get me contracts. I did knock out a few "mosquito" tasks (you know, small annoying things that are hard to get to and tend to hover forever). I took the protective shipping wrapper off the dishwasher. This took about 30 minutes because a lot of construction dust had accumulated in the adhesive where the wrapper had started to peel. I had to clean it with a special stainless steel cleaner very thoroughly. I hadn't wanted to do this until maybe a month ago when the major dust producing work was done. The other small task was putting vertical clips on the hall closet rack. The closet has vertical rods to which the drawers, shelves and hang bars are attached. When I installed in months ago, I never put the clips on the bottom of the verticals and as a result, the whole rack moved a bit every time you opened a drawer or put something in or out. This took about 40 minutes.

So it may seem odd to be working on these mosquito tasks when the house is in such chaos. I found that it actually helps my state of mind to complete things and knock them off my list. I have literally hundreds (if not thousands) of these tasks, so doing a few now and then helps me to feel like I am making progress and reminds me that the big first push is almost behind us and that we are entering the ongoing renovation stage. These two little tasks also did improve my quality of life in small ways. The dishwasher looks much nicer and the hallway rack doesn't move around when I am getting something our or putting it away. I save myself this small annoyance 6 or more times a day. It's sort of like when you have a squeaky door that annoys you just a little bit every time you go in or out and then one day years later you take 5 minutes, pull out the WD-40 and fix the squeak and you think to yourself "why did I live with that annoyance for so long."

I have found it is also really difficult to perfectly prioritize my to-do lists when they are so large and so complex. There are multiple priorities and dependencies, and I've had several days where I got so overwhelmed trying to figure out what to do that I got nothing done. I've learned that it is better to do a little on the most important tasks (the shower and the windows) and then just to pick something else and do it. The really important things are obvious, and in the long run, it doesn't matter which mosquito tasks get done first only that they get done.

Som baby steps today

I got another piece of trim up on one of the windows. Just one more piece to go and that window is ready for a shade. My mom is coming to visit in a few weeks and is going to help me buy the shade so I'm finishing the window just in time.

I also worked on the shower curtain. I cut dummy pieces of material to test fit the track. I'm using curtain track suspended from the ceiling to enclose the whole tub since it is a large tub. I wanted to test fit before spending time cutting the actual material and possibly wasting the material if I my calculations were off. So far, everything looks good.

Prepped back door for last coat

I got the back door prepped for the third coat of stain, but wasn't able to actually stain it since the prep (sanding, blowing dust off with air compressor, wiping surface, re-taping) took much longer than expected. I am glad I'm doing 3 coats - it will make a big difference. Just getting it sanded made the surface so much smoother.

A very depressing thought

I realized today that I have become someone who lives in a mess. It's been over a year and a half, and the place is still a mess and will be for at least a few years. It was a depressing crashdown into reality to think that this isn't just a temporary stopover, but a long-term situation. I never pictured myself living in a mess. I am really neat and like a clean, uncluttered space. Even though I hate it and protest it daily (hourly even) it is still true. I may not like it, but I live in a mess. I live in a house where I am not comfortable having people over. I live in a house where you can't find things. It's gross and I hate it, but it's true.

Weekends are often when the house gets to me most. We both work hard all week and weekends should be for enjoying and getting a little bit done. Instead, I have this oppressive weight hanging over me and the mess feels even worse because I should be enjoying my house. I find that the only way I can enjoy a weekend is to put in at least a little time on the house.

I get into a rut on weekends where I can't relax because the house is such a mess and there's so much to do. I feel like I should be working. But I often can't work because I'm so exhausted from the week and need some R&R. So I end up having a bad weekend because I neither got anything done nor had fun. What a waste, and I end up feeling bad and burned out on Monday.

$56 on lightbulbs?!?!?

Yes, I really did spend $56 on lightbulbs today. I was shocked.

In order to meet the electrical code, we had to install a lot of different kinds of fixtures, many fluorescent. As a result, we use 9 different lightbulbs in the house only one of which is a "normal" bulb you could buy at the supermarket. The rest I have to buy at a lightbulb store (don't laugh, we have two near here!) or some can be purchased at a home improvement store.

Holy errands Batman! I could just imagine running the lightbulb store every few weeks (I've been there twice recently since we've now lived here 14 months and the bulbs are starting to burn out). In order to manage this lightlbulb situation, I set up a system. How absurd is that, to need a system to manage your lightbulbs? I set aside and entire, large drawer for bulbs and each time one burns out I go to the bulb store and get one to replace it plus one extra.

The bathroom main light burned out this week and there were two bulbs. I removed them and took them to the bulb store (they are very knowledgeable and helpful) and asked for replacements (4 - 2 for now and 2 extra). The bulb didn't have the wattage on it, but fortunately the guy was able to guess. He said it was a cheap no-name bulb (it came with the fixture, so it's not surprising).

I was shocked to see that the 4 bulbs cost $56! For lightbulbs? They better last a lot longer than a year at that price ($13 each). Although I appreciate the energy savings of fluorescent lights, I see a lot of downsides. One is the fact that you do have to go someplace other than your supermarket to buy them. This creates extra trips and pollution (although surely not enough to negate the energy savings). It creates extra scheduling for homeowners. I think the light from fluorescent lightbulbs is not as nice as regular bulbs. I don't like the effect on people, food and decor. Finally, fluorescent lights have mercury in them. If you break one, you have mercury in your house. They have to be disposed of at your local hazardous materials drop off. More car trips and scheduling. So, yes I have them, and will keep them but I do hate them.

I was telling someone of my lightbulb purchase and he suggested I change the fixture. One of my contractors told me this is quite common in this city - people put in fluorescents to get past inspection and then change all the fixtures to regular once the final inspection is done. This cannot be very environmentally friendly. I explained to him that first, the fixture was quite expensive and I am not so quick to throw that money away. Second, aside from expensive bulbs, I like the fixture. It has a regular light, heater and nightlight. The heater is so nice for winter mornings, and the nightlight is great for not killing your eyes and waking you up in the middle of the night. Third, the new bulbs which are made by GE might last longer than a year. The problem may be that the bulbs that came with the fixture were cheap. Finally, the fixture is integral in the ceiling. It's not a simple matter of taking it down and screwing a new one in (though many fixtures are). The fan is in the fixture, and the vent for the fan goes up and through the roof. This would have to be changed. The actual ceiling rafters are framed around the fixture since it is bigger than the gap between the rafters. The drywall is cut around it as well. In other words, changing this fixture would be a very big deal. Oh, and no, I can't just put regular bulbs in. The electrical code requires fluorescent bulbs with 4 pins so the fixture will only take these. Fortunately, I am happy with my choice except for the expensive bulbs and that may prove not to be a problem.

Stained side door today

Today I got the side door stained. This was a relief because each door now has at least one coat and is less likely to get damaged. It's hard to find the time to do each coat since I have to stay home with the door open for 5-8 hours. I still need to do a total of 5 coats so I hope to get this done before I start school. I used brushes I bought at Ikea for this job, and I would recommend against them. It's great that they carry brushes for all the unfinished wood they sell, but the brushes were just not suitable for this job. They are cheap and don't have a solid block of bristles - they have bristles around the outside and nothing inside. As a result, the brush doesn't hold much stain. As I continued to work, the brush got less and less able to create a smooth finish and it was really hard to use around edges and corners. I've used other cheap brushes and they've worked fine, I just did not like the Ikea brushes.

While I call it "staining" the doors, there is really no stain involved. I am using a clear product which has a slight yellow-orange tint to it. It protects the wood and really makes it beautiful. Here is a shot of the door jamb half coated. The strip on the right of the black line (weather stripping) is already stained. The narrow strip to the left of the weather stripping is the same wood not stained. The wide strip on the far left is a kitchen cabinet. I think the stain makes the wood look really good.

Here is another shot of the half-stained door jamb.



Here is the half-stained jamb and the unstained door. The newspaper is covering a window in the door.



I did manage to speak with the general contractor today who told me what his foreman said is wrong. WHAT!?! What's with all the drama? We have several meetings, followed by a last meeting to work the details out, everything is fine, foreman shows up, panic, then "oh, it's nothing." I really resent wasting 3 hours of my time and wracking my brain all day trying to get a derailed project back on track.

The GC wants to cut the offending tree root, and keeps assuring me the tree will be fine. I am not so sure about cutting the main root of a tall tree. But it is a ficus, which have notoriously aggressive and large root systems. I spent 2 hours online trying to get assurance it would be okay but could not. C and I are going to wait until we see the contract to raise further issues. We need that contract, and once it's in front of us we can begin negotiating the final terms. But first we just need a darn contract!

The stucco guy came by at 5:15 to fix a few small streaks in the finish. This was supposed to be my time to work outside, but as with many days my schedule was completely upended.

Met with GC foreman today

The general contractor sent one of his foremen over to finish the stucco and door job. Other than the fact that he was an hour and 45 minutes late, I was pleased. He adjusted two of the deadbolt locks that weren't working correctly, rehung some wires the stucco guys took down and rehung the exterior lights. He also hung the phone box and attached some wires that were not part of the job. I appreciated the extra work.

I went over the deck construction with him AGAIN. I'm not sure why this was necessary since I've gone over it with the owner several times. It was an hour of super overwhelming details. We kept running into problems that seem to have no good solution. For example, the deck is almost at ground level and we have a large tree root right along the surface. We've been going back and forth about what to do over and over without coming up with a good answer. He also gave me a different construction scenario which will require much more excavation than what I had discussed with the owner. He also mentioned the need to build a retaining wall at the far end of the deck. The actual surface of the deck will be at ground level, so the support structure will be underground thus a wall needs to be build to retain the soil away from the support structure.

What I don't understand is why did this meeting even happen? I already met with his boss, and the information this guy gave me is different than what his boss said and different than what the landscaper said. I called the landscaper and explained the situation, especially the tree root. I asked him if we could removed the tree and replant one of the same species but put it lower in the ground. He called me back a few hours later AT HOME! What is it with not using cell phones? Time is really of the essence, he knows that, and calls me at home. He said the foreman was wrong, but I still don't know what that means or how to get to the bottom of it. I am really getting stuck in the middle and I don't want to be there! When I took on the house, I felt well prepared to handle it. I don't feel that way about the yard, so I specifically told the landscaper I wanted one contract with him for the job. I don't want to be responsible for it, and now I am. I spent a few hours online trying to figure out what to do about this tree root and got nowhere.

Once again, we are in a quagmire. I start full-time graduate school in 6 weeks, and we don't even have a first draft of a contract on the yard. We are back in that physics conundrum where if you keep going half way to something you never get there. I thought we were so close yesterday and then this comes up.

It has been a really crazy week. School is fast approaching and the house is in chaos. I have not been able to do life maintenance and things are spiraling down. For example, I've needed air in my tires for days now. I need new sneakers (I have foot issues and need good shoes. The old ones are so worn they are hurting me and I run nightly with the dog). The house is a cluttered mess, which causes me a lot of stress. Both C and I need new alarm clocks. His stopped working months ago and we've been using my cell phone. The alarm suddenly stopped working on it. I have a new phone, and have had it in the box for months but haven't been able to open it and get it hooked up. The clock in the bathroom stopped working and we need a new one. I need some dress clothes (slacks and tops) for an internship for school (we never dress up, and I really don't have anything I could wear). I have a hard time finding clothes so I am not looking forward to this. The light bulbs in the bathroom fixture burned out. Normally, not a big deal but due to the code requirements I need special bulbs that have to be bought at a specialty store. The mixer (mixes hot and cold water to get the temperature you want) in the bathtub broke a few days ago and we only have warm water to bathe in. Fortunately, this one seems to have fixed itself but it's worrysome just the same. Whew, what a list. Things really pile up when you can't maintain your life. Working with contractors can really upend your life and routines. I have to be here a lot while they are working and often I get a call that they can be here in 20 minutes so I drop everything.

This is why remodeling is not fun!

Landscaper meeting today

Once again, a contractor called the home number instead of my cell. I was out with the dog, but fortunately C got the call and told him to come on over. Thank goodness I can drop everything because he basically gave me no notice and these guys are hard to catch for a meeting. It's not good for my productivity because my schedule is constantly upended, but it's better than missing the meeting. It turned out that the general contractor was here too and we went over the deck plans AGAIN. It is so overwhelming - there are so many details and some things are really hard to communicate. I had sidewalk chalk ready so we could draw on the ground and this helped. I really hope we have all the plans worked out. Now we are waiting on proposals from both of them. I hope the price is okay - we really want the work done and these two are by far the best we've met.

Due to the meeting, I did not manage to get the side door stained. I'm concerned about this because every day that passes is more risk of damaging it. Untreated wood left outside can quickly get ruined. It is just really hard to schedule this in because it has to be done on a day when I have 5-8 hours to stay home with the door open and this rarely happens.

Landscaper blew me off again!

I called the landscaper at 11:30 and he said he was in a meeting and would call me when it was done and let me know what time he was coming. Needless to say, I got no call. He had also given me directions to drive by a house that he had done a gate on. The directions were go East on X Street and turn left on Y. The problem is, those two streets don't intersect. I wasted time today doing this (fortunately not much, but still). Yes, I know we could hire someone else, but this guy was by far the best when we were screening landscapers back in the winter. Also, hiring someone is not instantaneous. It would probably be several weeks before we could select someone by the time I called a bunch of people, set several appointments, carried out the appointments (1-2 hours each), checked references, etc and picked someone.

I've been working on staining the doors. I call it staining for convenience - I'm really finishing them with a clear finish. But staining is a more accurate word than painting. I've learned I could never be a painter. It's so tedious! Everyone loves wielding a brush, but that's only about 10% of your time. The rest is spent in prep and cleanup. I just find everything but the brushing way too tedious and boring. The doors look great! Pictures will be posted at a later date. I got the last door mostly prepped today. The other two doors have 2 of 3 and 1 of 3 coats respectively. It may seem odd to be jumping from door to door instead of finishing one, but as long as the door is uncoated you run a big risk of damaging it. So, the priority was to get at least one coat on all the doors. Also, the product I'm using often takes several days to dry thoroughly. As difficult as it is to schedule a door staining day (I have to be able to stay home with the door open for 6 hours or so), I don't want to waste any waiting for the stain to dry. It's not so bad, it just means I have blue tape up on all the doors for a long time.

Today I expected to get the side door prepped and stained. I ended up only being able to get the prep done because I found water damage on the threshold. I used a power sander (thank goodness I have one) to remove most of it, but there was detail work in the corners which took a long time to do by hand. Once I finished the sanding, there wasn't time to stay home with the door open.

I also worked on putting one piece of trim on the one window in the house that is ready for trim (the others are in various states of being shellacked, including some that haven't been started at all due to having been recently re-replaced). The window trim is extremely time consuming. I lost count at 700 hours, but at that point I wasn't even a third done and now I lost a significant amount of that time due to having to re-replace 4 of the windows. At this rate, it will take more than a year of full-time equivalent work to shellack and finish the trim on the windows (not counting window treatments). Speaking of window treatments, we still don't have any unless you count the junkyard collection of plastic, tarps, and newspapers we have taped up to give us privacy. The shades can't be installed until the trim is done. Ugh.

It took about 2 hours to get one 34" piece of trim up. As most people will tell you, any sort of trim is much more difficult than it looks due to the 3-dimensionality of it. Our house is old and none of the walls are plumb so often the window sticks out at the top and doesn't clear the wall at the bottom. Add to this a bad drywall patch by both our prior incompetent contractor and the handyman I hired to fix it and it was a real problem. I ended up chipping away the drywall and plaster which was built up too much around the window. i put the trim up in the "trench" I chipped out around the window. Once we get ready to patch the walls (for the third time) and paint (for the second time) I'll fill the trench in with drywall mud. It's a bit of a cheat, and the trim will sit somewhat embedded in the wall, but it's pretty minor and to fix it correctly would be a major undertaking. I shouldn't have been surprised, but was, at how long it took to get one trim piece up. my goal is to have this one window ready for trim when my mom comes for a visit so she can help me buy a shade for it. (buying window shades is way more complex and expensive than you might think, and i don't want to make a mistake).

Stucco pictures

At long last, the stucco is finally dry enough for pictures! I am excited for the big reveal. Here they are:

Here is the front of the house. I was staining the front door, so it is open and you can't see how good it looks. More pictures will follow when it is done.



Here is how it looked when we took possession in January 2006:



Here is the back of the house. This picture actually encouraged me a lot. When we first put the pictures on the computer, they were up in thumbnail so a lot of the detail wasn't clear. If you squint to make it blurry, maybe you'll get the same effect. I think it looks GREAT! I love the wood door, white trim and the way the roof and stucco work together. Ignore the trash, of course - it's not part of the permanent yard plan, although it feels that way.



For comparison, here is the backyard when we first saw the place.

Landscaper blew me off today

Ugh, we just need to have a quick meeting about where plants and trees will go so he can finalize the sprinkler set up. I'm frustrated at having to wait so long just to get a contract draft. I start school in 7 weeks and don't have the time to waste! Yes, I could begin all over again and try to find someone new. But this guy was by far the best of the 4 I interviewed and it took calls to all the qualified landscapers I could find just to set up 4 interviews. Contractors are so busy here that even bad ones are busy all the time. The good ones are just hard to hire.

I did have a very successful trip to do some errands this afternoon. I have been looking for a toilet paper holder and hand towel bar in a contemporary style with a brushed nickel finish. This has been really hard to find! I've even looked online and had trouble finding it. Truth be told, I am quite picky about these items. Our bathroom is so nice, I really wanted to have the two remaining fixtures match. I also like really plain, clean lines so that means no extra ornamentation of any kind. I was very pleased to find them today! I wasn't even looking for them - I happened to be in a housewares store for something else and there they were! Yay!

Landscaper meeting today

Today I was quite pleased that I was able to have a meeting with the landscaper we'd like to use and the general contractor we've been using in the most recent phase of the project. We actually found this landscaper back in January when we were interviewing landscapers. He was definitely our favorite, but we never did get a quote from him so we'll have to see how the quote comes in. The others we interviewed were just not people I'd consider working with for a variety of reasons and this guy was actually pretty cool and pretty smart. He seemed to get us, our budget, lifestyle and taste right away. We actually found the general contractor we've been working with through him - they work together a lot. So, we had a good meeting and we hope it works out because we need the yard done ASAP for the dog. I am starting full-time graduate school in September and we want to be able to let him stay out all day.

I am working on a post right now describing what the landscaper will do. I don't think I've fully fleshed out why we need professional help on this one. They are doing a lot more than planting pretty flowers; in fact they won't even be planting any decorative plants this time around. He'll be doing things like grading, drainage, sprinklers, fencing, deck, and gates