Week ending 11/26/10

C started some staycation on Saturday the 20th for two weeks and we didn't do much this week except recover from the painting. It was almost like moving out of the house and everything is scattered from end to end in the house. The thing is we've done this so many times in the last five years it's like we've never been able to really get moved in and on top of things.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and we took the dogs on a hike in the morning:

Week ending 11/19/10

On Saturday the painters finished. They did an okay job, not too bad but there are loads of splatters all over the house I have to clean up. One of the things I've learned is that you never really get any closer to being done on a fixer upper house, you just move to a different place on the to-do list. Having the paint done means 1 big job is off the list but many small ones have been added.

The idiot painters even ruined a pair of C's favorite pants. What is wrong with people that they don't use tarps? Having gotten burned by tarp-adverse contractors before, I've learned to put the use of tarps into my contracts. I could have fought and gotten the pants replaced (and the window shade, hand finished front door and the numerous other things they dripped paint on) but I've had so much of that kind of fight I just don't have the energy any more for it. So I put up with their crap and shoddy work.

Here is a shot of one of the corners of the living room. C's screen is on the right - we painted the wall around it black!

Week ending 11/12/10

On Saturday, we spent about 6 hours planning and prepping for paint. It's really stressful and there's a lot to figure out.

On Sunday, I had to deal with yet more incompetence in the home renovation field. I've been buying my window shades online, which is great because I can enter exactly what I want and the only human error I need to contend with is my own. Now, for some unknown reason, they no longer sell them online. So that project is on hold for probably a few months until I can find time to go to a store and deal with a likely incompetent salesperson. At least the company still makes them!

C stayed up really late Sunday night getting the computers situated and backed up in preparation for the week. We left one workstation in the office and set up a separate one in the kitchen with the idea that they won't be working in both places so we should always have access to one station or the other.

On Monday, I happen to do one of my 3-times per week check of an old email address I'm phasing out and found that the contractor emailed me at the OLD address at 8:17 Sunday night saying he couldn't start this week! Not even a day or so late, he can't even start this week and he was supposed to start Tuesday or Wednesday! Contrators SUCK! I cannot believe he didn't even call me.

Needless to say, I ripped into him Monday morning and let him know how unhappy I was after we spent all weekend getting ready. He hemmed and hawed and said he would try to do something and would let me know. WHAT TIME will you let me know? Uh, I don't know, maybe 3:00, 4:00. I said if I didn't hear back I would call him at 3:00.

Of course, he didn't call at 3:00, nor did he return my call at 3:30 until 5:30. Nice. GREAT customer service there bud! After a lot of pressure from me he agreed to start on Wednesday.

They did end up starting on Wednesday, and I'm pleased to say they didn't screw up anything really bad. All the screwups were pretty minor, although I was there watching them the entire time. They worked Wednesday through Friday with plans to come back Saturday. Did they finish? You'll have to read my next post to find out!

Here is our bedroom ready for paint:


The livig room, ready for paint:


The den, walls prepped and ready for paint:


Another shot of the den:




Den:

Living room:



Kitchen with our makeshift workstation and square paint samples on the wall:



Living room - the metal rectangle is the frame for C's screen.

Week ending 11/5/10

I mailed the paint contract in and didn't hear back from the contractor - what a surprise! ;-|

I finally got a hold of him on Friday and he's supposed to start Monday or Tuesday.