Category: Contractors and Loan

I’ve been working on the stair railings, and I’ll have a post about them hopefully soon, but there’s been a bunch of other things going on we should get caught up on. For starters, we got our countertops! Sarah and I went shopping for stone countertops for the kitchen as well as the three bathroom vanities. We learned that while there are lots of installers, they all buy from distributors and the distributors won’t sell directly to you. We did some online shopping and then visited two different local distributors and figured out what we liked and didn’t. Unfortunately, the distributors only give you a pricing scale with no way to extrapolate how much anything is. We were able to estimate roughly from that, but it wasn’t until we went to our installer to pick out some remnants for the bathrooms that we finally got a quote. It was –somewhat predictably– more than we’d hoped (or budgeted). The granite we wanted for the kitchen wasn’t in stock and wouldn’t be for a while, so we went with our second choice. We bit the bullet and they came out and finalized the measurements and got it all installed about a week and a half later.

We started hollering at the GC to get the plumber, electrician, and trim guys out. The doors for the trim were a couple weeks out, but that had come and gone. Then they delivered the trim but it was still another week before they finally started work on that. After weeks of trying to get the electrician out, he showed up for a few hours and hooked up some lights, but apparently doesn’t want to put in the fixtures, outlets, and switches until everything else is done, which is really frustrating.

The plumbers, on the other hand, were able to get the sinks, showers, and toilet all working, which is exciting. We now have more than one flushing toilet! this morning they picked up the port-a-john that had been beautifying our back yard these last months. They still need to wrap up the freestanding tub in the master bath and the kitchen appliances, but plumbing is otherwise basically done.

Next up the carpet guy showed up. We’re carpeting the attic as well as the stairs that go up to it. Unfortunately, he said we couldn’t wrap the carpeting over the hallway and stair edges like I expected and Sarah decided she didn’t think that would look nice. After some back and forth, we decided to make an edge of hardwood that will match the first and second floors, so she’s been working on that. The carpeting is supposed to be installed next week, along with the glass for the master bathroom shower.

The HVAC installers got one of the two AC condensers up and running, the unit that runs the second floor and attic. They put all of the vent covers in and we realized the drywallers were a bit sloppy around a couple of them and we need to add a bit of mud, which I picked up today. They needed a part that they ordered to finish the other unit, but it’s been a week or two so I need to follow up and hopefully they can wrap things up.

The trim guys started putting in doors, door and window casings, and base molding. There’s definitely some things we’re going to touch up after they leave, but we’ve had them fix the more egregious problems, like installing the bi-fold closet doors upside down, or getting two of the doors mixed up, installing a door in the attic bedroom that swings the wrong direction, and then saying they need to exchange the remaining door for one that swings the other way. I was able to solve that dilemma when I went to turn off the light and noticed the switch was behind the door. Today they fixed those things and then started installing the tile backsplash in the kitchen. Then a whole bunch more boards showed up for them to continue on trim, since they’d chewed through the initial batch already with a lot of the house still to go.

Once Sarah finishes up the attic stair and hallway edging, I can varnish that along with the railings and newels and then install the iron balusters. We’re closing in on being able to move upstairs, and as exciting as that is, I really wish I could get all the contractors out of the house so we can take a deep breath. A few more weeks and I think we should actually be there.

Back when we started this project, we decided we wanted hardwood floors. The house had hardwood floors originally, but they were too far gone to save. For one, they didn’t go through the whole house, as areas like the kitchen had been torn up and replaced with plywood at some point. Next, we were changing the floorplan, so we couldn’t leave them in place. Perhaps most importantly, they were buried under layers of laminate floors, full of nails, and had been refinished so many times there wasn’t much left. We pulled the original floors up as part of demo and had a fun time trying to give them away.

We had the new floors done professionally and thus didn’t have to do much, but there were a few items. First, the GC dropped off a stack of unfinished red oak tongue and groove planks. We met with a few different contractors until the GC settled on the third and they got to work almost immediately. The started with the second floor and laid everything in a few days. Like most contractors, they gave us a timeline that was only loosed correlated with reality, but by this point we’re fairly used to it.

Our biggest worry throughout the install was that they were going to put a staple through one of the radiant heat pex lines. They said they’d installed over them before, but this contractor also said they preferred not to use only glue since the boards sometimes pulled apart if you didn’t put staples at the end. Despite the knots in our stomachs, they managed to complete the whole thing with no puddles or leaks.

Of course, that’s not to say it was perfect. The first issue was on the landing, where they installed a bullnose edge around the outside perimeter. Rather than a mitered return, they just had the unfinished edge of the bullnose sticking out the side of the landing. Since I was already working on the stairs at the time, I noticed this and used some of the remaining bullnose left out to redo the piece myself. Could I have asked them to redo it? Probably, but our experiences with contractors to date have made us a bit jaded about how certain things will be taken care of, and we prefer to just do some things ourselves and save on hassle.

Next they laid the first floor, which mostly looked good except where they put bullnose around the opening for the future basement stairs. Where the bullnose met the base of the column, they just skipped over the column, I assume because it will be mostly covered by trim. But it won’t entirely be covered in trim, and you could certainly see it if you were coming up the stairs, so here again I just redid the section myself, cutting out a small piece of the existing bullnose, cutting back a miter where the new piece would fit the corner, and then making a piece to fit around the column and fit into the corner. This didn’t turn out completely perfectly, but it was close enough that some woodfill made it blend in. I glued it and clamped it until everything was set.

They finished laying the floors on Monday, but then didn’t return. We contacted the GC, who said they were going to finish the floors at the end, when everything else was done. That’s not unusual, just not what we’d expected, and it presented some challenges around things like appliances being delivered. So we said ok and started making plans to get the cabinets assembled and installed.

Then the GC contacted us to let us know they actually would be coming back to finish the floors starting on Monday and they’d finish up Wednesday. We kind of roll with the punches and adapt to the situation as it comes, so we shifted to finishing the stairs so that they could finish the treads when they finished the floors.

Monday they sanded and put down more wood fill, Monday evening Sarah and I went up and added some woodfill ourselves to some spots they missed, and Tuesday through today (Thursday) they put down three coats of varnish and buffed. I think they’re done and aren’t coming back, but I’m not certain, nor do I know how long I’m supposed to stay off the floors. They’re mostly dry at this point, but generally I believe we’re supposed to stay off at least 24 hours. I managed to get all of the above photos without walking on the floors, mostly because the attic and stairs to the attic will all be carpeted. We’ll see if they come back tomorrow and, assuming they don’t, we’ll start on base kitchen cabinets this weekend. Our interior doors are on order and supposedly about two weeks out, so we have that much time to finish the cabinets before trim starts.

After the whirlwind post I did almost a month ago, I was planning to be better about posting more frequently to keep up to date on everything, but that didn’t happen. So here we are again with a whole bunch of updates to get you current. The good news is that this time around there are some things that are actually finished.

We’ll start with tile. The tile installers didn’t show up on Monday, but they did show up later that week and got to work. I bought twelve 50lb bags of thinset (8 modified, 4 unmodified) based on some square footage calculations, but that was apparently insufficient. I had to run out and buy another ten bags of modified, then six more bags on unmodified. Ultimately, there were three left over (this is really sounding like a math problem). I also had to run out and buy more grout, and some random extra tiles, and then return some extra tiles. In short, I made a lot of trips to the store through the process, which was a bit over a week.

When they were done, we noticed a couple of issues and we had to ask them to come back. The powder room on the first floor was uneven, and they didn’t make the shower drain opening big enough to fit the drain, but they came back and got everything fixed, so the bathroom tile is now complete. The kitchen backsplash has to wait until cabinets and counters are in.

Meanwhile, work on the back porch continued. We had a bit of a back and forth on color. They originally told us we could paint it whatever color we wanted, so we said white, since that would match the front porch and the trim. Then they forgot about that, and started bringing some items pre-painted black. We asked about the color and they said it was fine, then later said white would look bad “like hospital”. I suggested the stair and railings could be black and the frame could stay white, but then they said they would pain the inside of the frame black regardless, so finally we said just to paint it black. We’re actually fine with black, and if they had said at the start it had to be black we wouldn’t have minded, but it was a bit frustrating to be given the option and then basically not given the option. The famous quote of Henry Ford “any color so long as it is black” was literally our experience here.

On the other end of the house, the front porch is done! I had mentioned in a previous post that they hadn’t finished the roofline, the fascia, soffit, and gutters. They did most of the front porch work back in July but said they needed materials to come in that would take about a month. It had been a few, so I contacted them and they were surprised to learn it wasn’t finished. Unfortunately, that’s fairly typical of our experience with contractors. Fortunately, they did come back out and the front of our house finally looks done.

The back porch was finally completed yesterday, along with some adjusted concrete footings. It was just eight and a half short weeks after they told us it would take about two. On the plus side, it does look really nice, and it includes angled sheeting under the second floor to drain water. We may add a gutter and downspout down the road.

We also started work on the cabinets. My sister Jessica came up from Indiana for the day to help assemble the upper cabinets for the kitchen. We figured we could install those before the floors were done. Because we’re putting in a hardwood floor that will be sanded and finished after it’s installed, we don’t want to put the base cabinets in first, so we didn’t want to assemble them either. I learned some tricks with the cabinet assembly, including the importance of sanding some of the dovetail edges so they go together a bit more easily, using enough glue so they stay together, and also how to staple without it popping into the back of the cabinet, something I wish I’d figured out before I did so in a place it will be visible.

Painting work continues. We realized the “light gray” color we had for the hall and stairwell was more “light blue” and we didn’t like it. At the same time, the taupe we had in the kitchen and living room seemed a bit too dark and a bit cool for the cabinet finish, so we repainted all of it with a light taupe called “Mocha Light”. We haven’t finished repainting the living room, but we may get to that tonight. Sarah started on the den, the only other room we have left.

With help from our friend Dan, we hung the upper kitchen cabinets (except for one that gets attached to a full-height floor cabinet). We had debated whether to hang them 54″ or 56″ above the floor and finally settled on 56 to give us a bit more height above the counter. Unfortunately, I later realized the aforementioned floor cabinet is 114″ tall, and the upper cabinets are 60″ (uh oh, another math problem), meaning we needed to hang them at 54″ after all. So, we’ll have to take those down and re-hang them. That’s honestly not the worst thing in the world, since a couple of gaps had opened up between cabinet edges, so a second try at getting everything tight will hopefully resolve that.

With word that the hardwood flooring was going to be installed, we had to get everything cleared off the floor, meaning our freshly tiles bathrooms and the attic became dumping grounds for all the cabinet parts, stair parts, light fixtures and plumbing fixtures still in boxes, assorted tools and other construction accoutrements. With Dan’s help to haul the AC condensers up the stairs and out onto the second floor deck (where they’ll be installed), as well as moving the bathroom vanity this morning now that the glue is dry, we were ready, and as I type this, they’re going to town. I’m terrified that they’ll puncture a radiant heat pex line, but they said they’ve installed over this before, so hopefully it will go smoothly. Allegedly they’ll be done Saturday, so we’re planning not to be here for the smelliest parts of that. It’s getting a bit cold outside to air the house out.

Once the floors are done we’ll go full bore on the kitchen cabinets and the stair cladding. Hopefully the AC installers will be out to finish that up, and the trim guy can start work not long after that. We need to get the shower glass lined up, pick out countertops, and get the painting done. Things are starting to feel like we’re closing in on being able to live upstairs. A big thanks go out to Jessica and Dan for helping out!

It’s exciting to see progress being made. The drywall is hung, the front porch is shaping up, and debris is being cleared away. Unfortunately, it hasn’t all been good news. During cleanup, one of the drywallers stepped on a loose drywall screw and punctured one of the radiant pex tubes in the floor. While it’s possible this could be patched, it would be better to re-run the whole loop and be confident it won’t spontaneously start leaking down the road and ruin floors, ceilings, structure, etc. Each floor has six pex loops that are roughly 200 feet of tubing. The puncture is on the second floor in the main bedroom closet, but that loop goes clear down the hall into one of the front bedrooms, because of the layout I designed to make each loop as close to the same length as possible. The damaged loop is the yellow one in the plan if you follow the link.

So, since I don’t have a radiant heat contractor to fix it for me, I ordered another 200′ of tubing, disconnected and removed the ends that connect to the manifold, carefully pulled up the whole loop while draining it into a bucket, vacuumed out the track, re-caulked it with the heat transfer caulk, hammered in the new pex tubing, re-filled and reconnected the line.

While I was making these repairs, it occurred to me I haven’t covered all of the other damage the contractors have done of late. Let’s rewind the clock back to the holidays. We went to visit family as the work on the siding was wrapping up and the electrician was working on the EMT conduit. My front door has a smart deadbolt that I can control remotely, but the door latch was starting to get a bit weak (it’s on a heavy door, after all). I probably should have sprung for mortise locks, but that’s another matter. Anyway, the deadbolt failed to unlock occasionally. The electrician couldn’t get in one morning and we weren’t home, so we unlocked the basement door where he could get a key to the back sliding door.

We got back to discover that the threshold to the fiberglass sliding door had been completely shredded. An image of the wheeled toolbox that the electrician hauled around popped into my head, but he never fessed to it. I told the GC and he sent over one of his guys to figure out how to repair it. I gave him the information on the manufacturer and distributor and waited. And waited. I knew it had taken a while to get the windows and sliding door in when we ordered them originally so I was pretty patient, but after a few months I asked the GC about it, who asked his guys, and no one apparently had any recollection of this problem or doing anything about it.

Despite my frustration, I took his advice and emailed the manufacturer myself, which initiated a new waiting game of weeks and weeks of follow up after follow up. Finally, I managed to get an order submitted and paid for. The delivery was surprisingly quick after that. Rather than endure more delays, I just fixed it myself, first removing the door and the fixed side and pulling out the existing threshold. I discovered the next challenge was fitting the new threshold in. I didn’t want to crack it (fiberglass is strong but a bit brittle), and there wasn’t much flex in the sides. I wound up trimming it slightly short so it would fit in, and then caulking the gap. Finally, after six months of walking around the house to get in because we couldn’t use the back door, it was repaired. I also replaced that door latch, so the front door is good now.

Next up was drywall delivery. The truck driver insisted he couldn’t fit into the alley and craned the drywall in from the street. The drywallers opened up the casement windows on the second floor and attic to crane it in and somehow managed to disconnect the arm that operates the window and then leave it that way. This one was at least relatively easy to repair, but it involved unscrewing the track from the bottom of the windows, and then the screws didn’t screw back in securely without adding some glue. Worse than this, the driver managed to break our neighbor’s car window as he hoisted drywall over it. We didn’t know this right away because he didn’t confess and we had to discover it from photo evidence later.

Most recently, today, I went to remove the piece of drywall in the master bath shower area that I had asked them not to drywall. Imagine my surprise when I removed a screw and water started shooting out of the wall! They had managed to puncture the copper water pipe that goes to the overhead shower head. As luck (forethought?) would have it, I’d splurged on a shower valve body with integrated shut-off valves and was able to turn this off without having to leave the water shut off for the whole house. I texted the GC to hopefully have the plumber come out and fix this. This wouldn’t have been an issue if (a) the plumber had used one of the metal plates designed specifically to prevent this, (b) the drywallers hadn’t put drywall there in the first place, where I had asked them not to and clearly tile backer should be, or (c) I had managed to finish putting the tile backer in before they started.

In summary, contractors are frustrating. They break things a lot and they often don’t even tell you. Over the years, there have been many other incidents. I’ve been operating throughout the contractor process with the idea that making it an adversarial relationship would make things worse, but it’s hard to stay calm and positive in the face of ongoing damage to a house we’ve spent so much time, effort, and money on.