| ITEM | STATUS |
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Electrical: |
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Interior Painting: |
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Travertine: |
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Granite Counters: |
Installation begins this morning. |
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Appliances: |
To be delivered this morning. |
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Yard Clean up: |
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Plumbing: |
90%. Kitchen Sink to be installed during granite installation. Then sink plumbing to be installed. |
I will make September 1.
The house is so close to nearing completion, I can taste it.
As usual, there were some snags. Nothing in home renovation is ever super easy. Especially when one contractor takes over for another.
I do have one "good luck" story to share.
When working in the house last weekend, I tried to turn my radio on. None of the sockets in the living room, save one, seemed to be working. Upon his arrival, the new electrician was tasked to find out why these sockets weren’t working.
Come to find out, no new wiring was ever run to those sockets. For some reason, only one was done. I was curious: what exactly did I pay for the first time around?
While the electrician was under the house, he noticed something. Or rather he noticed something missing.
When the bathtub was installed, all of the plumbing was present. The copper lines for hot and cold water, the plumbing for the toilet. All of the drain work was there.
But the drain was never connected to the bathtub after it was installed. If the electrician hadn’t noticed when he was under the house, my new tenants would have created a lake underneath the house every time they showered. And no one would have been any the wiser.
When I witnessed this for myself, I nearly came unglued. Now someone could argue and say "But yeah Cliff the plumber was so busy and when you changed contractors he hadn’t had a chance to finish it?"
The last time I saw the previous plumber, he had spent half a day building me shelves for my laundry room. Shelves I did not want nor ask for. I was forced to wonder why he was tasked to do that, rather than connect the drain work for the bathtub.
I will make September 1.
There are times when putting in 100% just isn’t worth it.
The wood in the house is suffering from alligator syndrome. The shellac was applied too
thick and over the years it has cracked. Every piece of wood trim has been infected.
In one "pay per job", the instructions were simple: strip the trim, re-coat the wood with stain and polyurethane. This trim follows the edge between the walls and the ceiling in the living room/dining room area.
After eight hours, the trim was stripped and the stain was dry. Per the directions, the first coat was to be buffed. Then, a second coat needed to be applied.
To strip the trim and after drying, the trim looked fantastic. In total, it was about 8 hours to complete the work. And this point, a decision had to be made whether to do the second coat or not.
The order was issued: stop.
If you have a starting point (let’s call it zero) and a finish point (100%), we were sitting at 80% complete. That 80% was the stripping and staining. To complete the project would require another 8 hours to get to that 100% point. Is that additional 20% really necessary to finish the job?
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Here is the finished product: |
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The trim is going up, nearly 8 feet from the floor. Unless you’re the world’s tallest man who will notice?
Obviously there are those who will pound their fist on the table screaming "No! You must do all the work or it’s going to look like crap!"
In response, I say "Calm down and eat a Twinkie."
There are cases where you don’t want the hired help to only do 80%.
Here are some cases which come to mind.
Surgeon: OK, we got about 80% of the tumor out. That’s good enough.
Airline Mechanic: The engine needs 10 bolts to hold it to the wing. We got eight. That’s good enough.
I will make September 1.
"We need a decision," the TileGuy said.
Standing in the doorway of the bathroom, glancing over the travertine on the floor. This next decision I felt was the right decision. But I dreaded saying it, due to my budget.
"Rip it all up."
In the main bathroom the travertine was only installed on the floors. 
Because it was installed in straight lines, the edges of the tile do not match up. They are mis-aligned. Hard lesson learned: when installing edge to edge, tiles should be staggered. Never in straight lines.
TileGuy and his three helpers started. It wasn’t long afterward that my cell phone rang again.
"There is no backer board under the travertine."
Ugh.
Travertine is a stone. Thin stone. Not flexible. Very fragile. What prevents travertine from cracking and breaking? Backer board. A rough definition: backerboard is placed under travertine to provide proper support.
What is under the travertine now? Wood. Wood bends.
The travertine in the kitchen and master bath was installed in exactly the same manor.
For the main bathroom, I told them to install the backer-board. Not replacing the rest of the travertine would be a pure gamble on my part.
And this had to go: 
My ability for photos has returned.
Here are some good shots. First is the living room, next is one of the bedrooms. The living room baseboards need some TLC and are getting it.
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The electrical is nearly finished with today as the final day. To be honest, I felt a reversion into some cromagnon phase of development with the complete lack of light. Now, there is plenty.
Unlike the last project, I elected to have recessed lighting installed in the living room/dining room area. But rather than have the lights beam straight down, thereby incinerating anything beneath them, I had them pointed towards the walls. This creates this "museum" effect whereas nice pictures on the walls are highlighted.
When the idea of track lighting was suggested for the hallway I agreed immediately. With this 20 foot corridor, visualizing little lights shining against the wall and carrying the "museum" effect through thrilled me.
It’s not a large leap in logic to assume the renters who do take this house will already have nice paintings or pictures to put on the wall.
Then there’s the recessed lighting in the kitchen.
Once again, I am creating a house I don’t want to rent out but keep for myself.
