Catching a break

Finally, tonight was pure fun, from beginning to end. This was the easiest evening of productive work we've had so far.

Just kidding. It was absolute nightmare from the second we walked in the door from work.

This morning as I was getting ready, I thought to myself, "Hm, it seems a little chillier in here than usual." Of course, this was also starting out to be the coldest day of the year, so I didn't think much of it in the rush out the door.

When we get home tonight and start to take off our coats, we realize something's really wrong. It's 48 degrees in the house. And it's after six.

Quick call to the home warranty people. The very nice operator tells me she'll put it in as a priority request -- but can't promise anyone will get back to us this evening.

So what to do? Wait around for a bit and see if anyone calls? Or just go ahead and phone our own repairman, realizing the cost could easily get out of control quick.

Lucky for us, Dave Allen of Dave & Kelly's Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, Inc. called within 30 minutes. He had a call at 7:00 south of town, but could work us in tonight. Great. Let me get started on some dinner and we'll just chill till he gets here.

I put a pan of cornbread in the oven and just get started heating the cast iron skillet to sear some pork chops when Jeff comes into the kitchen with a sheepish look.

"There's a leak in the sink in the bathroom. The mat in front of it is wet."

This can't be good. Stress. I take a quick look, and the news is nowhere near as bad as it could be. The water supply lines are leaking somewhere. The faucet is older than dirt, so I ask Jeff to get new lines and a new cheapo faucet while he's at Lowe's, which he was planning on visiting anyhow.

Finish and eat dinner. Dave shows up right on cue and climbs into the attic to investigate. Good furnace, he says (though maybe not right for the attic -- more on that another time). And the problem is the hot surface ignitor, a regular maintenance item that takes "about three to four weeks for me to get in special order."

Gasp.

"Just kidding. I have one on the truck."

Ha ha. Actually, Dave's such a nice guy that the joke goes down fine. He installs the new one and is out the door for just the $75 home warranty deductible.

"Out of curiosity, what would I have been in the hole for without the warranty?"

"With the after-hours, priority and overtime, probably $380."

Wow. OK, so it could have been much worse. On to the sink, as Jeff's back with the parts now. Dismantle, and yes -- the supply lines are definitely worn out.

Unfortunately, Jeff picked up the wrong supply lines. We didn't know there are multiple types. Still 40 minutes left before Lowe's closing at 10. Hop in the car and am back by 9:50.



Installing the new lines was VERY crabby. The combination of the deep sink and the vanity cabinet makes for precious little elbow room. I got my hair in the plastic bowl we'd been using to catch the detritus. Ick.

New lines in by about 10:30. No more details.

After my shower, I looked down at my right foot, upon which I dropped a 2x4 with nails sticking out of it last week while dealing with another last-minute crisis. I knew it hurt, but I hadn't actually looked at the damage yet.



I hardly ever bruise. Seriously -- this is rarest of the rare.

And on top of all of this, Jeff isn't feeling so hot. Very tired and getting drainage. Hope this isn't ominous of what I dealt with over the past week-plus.

Grr.

Small steps

At this point, the bathroom wall seams need their mud. Nothing exciting, and nothing much to say about it at this point. Two more coats to come. Those verses same as the firstes.

Feeling better, small steps

Tonight I finally felt like contributing a bit again. I'm a bit congested still, but the fatigue seems to be letting up.

I didn't want to take on anything too extreme, especially after a grocery-shopping trip I needed to complete. So I set out just to cross some T's and dot some I's on the laundry room.



Nothing thrilling -- just a new, lower shelf for detergent and other odds and ends. Also straightened up some of the other braces and touched up paint wherever I could find nicks and scratches from installing the shelving. This felt good to complete.

By now it's too late to take on anything significant, but there were a couple of minor drywall patches in the bathroom that still needed plugging.



And why not just tape the seams too? That's 15 minutes less to do tomorrow night when I start mudding in earnest.



Good, modest re-entry into work. Not sure it felt good, but it didn't feel awful.

Hi, kids! We have a tub!

Jeff here, posting because.......well, because Derek is still sick. AND he worked his tail off today working with the plumber to get the tub installed. Part of what he had to do involved totally removing the half-wall (as posted last night) and MOVING IT ALL OF A HALF INCH so the tub could ACTUALLY fit in the spot we've reserved for it. I'd say Derek's framing worked okay. Much better than my picture taking....

The tricky and maddening part of all of this was that the wall HAD to be rebuilt while our plumber (who, by all accounts, rocks by the way...) worked the plumbing so he could actually have something to install the shower piece on. Otherwise, we would have had to schedule ANOTHER visit with him just to get that bit done.
As you can see, Derek works fast:


Unfortunately, that fast of work and that HARD of work did NOT do wonders for his cold, and he is pretty much laid up in bed suffering through Inside Edition or something equally vapid while he tries to sleep.

Aren't the fixtures beautiful, though? That's the biggest showerhead I've ever owned. And it's all so..........shiny.

Speaking of fixtures....hey, look Ma! No toilet!

Heh. Allegedly, the old toilet had to be removed for this process. But, I just like to think it was because it was heinously ugly.

Next step - we'll start tiling! (Maybe tomorrow, depending on how up to snuff we feel....)

Halfalive in the halfahouse

So, I've gotten ill again. Third time this year. A cold this time, mostly in the chest. But it's beating me down.

Tomorrow the plumber comes back to install the tub with me and do some work on the sink stubs. Just to make sure everything will be smooth sailing tomorrow, we pulled the tub out of its box and went to put it in place on a test run.

Yeah. It didn't fit. By about a quarter of an inch, which is unfixable with the walls where they are.



So the left-hand wall (which has the plumbing in it) had to go. Feeling as awful as I do tonight, that wasn't fun. Oh well. It's done now. Now I just have to build it back while Doug's here tomorrow, so that he'll have something to attach the showerhead and valve onto. I can probably work on that while he's doing the sinks.

Also tonight, we got our statement from Lowe's. Seems they're offering 20% off all special-order flooring. Starting next week.

We ordered all our flooring Sunday night.

Called the store. We will have to give up the 12-months financing to get the discount, but they'll work something out for us, I think.

Good night, I'm ready for something to start moving smoothly.

A very eventful weekend

Wow, where to begin? Many, many things got done this weekend, and we're in a much different place from where we started. This is good.

First thing Saturday morning, we had all our debris from the past four weeks stacked neatly in the attached garage, ready for the North Kansas City Hauling guys to take it away. While I waited, a contractor came over to work up a bid for professional skim-coating of the de-popcorned ceilings. I think I did pretty well on the bathroom, but if we can get a pro to do the others fairly reasonably, it'll be worth it in the long run, we think.



The trash carted off, I felt liberated and motivated to work more on getting the bathroom ready for the plumber. We now know where the sinks are going to go, and we're pretty thrilled for what they're going to look like. The dishtowels you see here are simply making sure we don't chip any porcelain during the dry run.



After this picture was taken, I then roughed in the opening for the new medicine chest, installed the junction boxes for the lighting fixtures (we both decided downsie was the way to go) and generally cleaned things up. We're going to have to get one of the existing plumbing joints redone, because it's corroded and leaks if you touch it. Ouch. Glad we found that while the wall was open.

Sunday morning, it was time to get the U-Haul and finish moving Jeff's stuff out of his Midtown apartment. First, though, a side trip to Bonner Springs to pick up the queen-sized bed my sister is trading us for the very nice futon I used to have in my guest room. This suits both our needs well, as she didn't really have the room for the bed, and we didn't really need a futon -- but will love having a bigger bed than we've ever enjoyed.

We got all of Jeff's stuff moved and returned the truck within four hours. Unfortunately, I did a bad piece of packing and smashed a little bookcase of Jeff's. Boo. I can fix it. But how annoying to have done it in the first place.

After some rest, it was time to go put in the order for all the flooring for the entire house. That was a painful dollar figure to see in one place. But again, we knew it was coming. We even sprang for the deluxe underlayment.



Now we have all the locking flooring (they had enough in stock) sitting in the living room, and the other 90 boxes -- yes, 90 boxes -- will be arriving via special order in about two weeks. Where we'll let that land, I have no idea. Maybe by that time we'll have the popcorn all obliterated and we can stack it in the bedrooms.



Anyhow. We need food. Very, very tiring weekend. Look at the attached garage now, though. We're all packed in.

Advice needed

Today I am going to finish everything around and above the sink, save for the final piece of drywall, which of course Doug the plumber needs to be out until he moves the water lines.



My question: The lighting fixtures (two identical, one over each sink) can be installed with the frosted-glass shades up or down.

I like it both ways. What's your vote? Let me know.

It's glamorous work

And somebody's got to do it.

By it, I mean pulling up the horrible, horrible vinyl "parquet" tile in the master bedroom. And under that tile? 1/2-inch particle board. You know, the really awful stuff that's essentially made of sawdust and glue.

These charming flooring options were, of course, nailed AND glued down with construction adhesive. Now, I know that adhesives have their place, but they're close to irreversible. At least this stuff was just squirted on in a bead instead of troweled on, because it was just incredibly difficult to pry loose, instead of completely impossible.



Now all that's left is to haul the debris to the garage for pickup Saturday morning, and then about a dozen spots are going to require some dislodging action with a chisel.

Not easy physical work, this. No, no. As with every other demolition project, though, once it's done, it's done forever. That's the brightest side.

Frustration

Things are not going along as well as we'd hoped lately. So many unforeseen annoyances, all coming from huge companies with lousy customer service, are keeping us away from getting much done.



Saturday, I tore out most of the rest of the bathroom subfloor, took out all the bad drywall and rewired everything electrical. After only about five hours, though, I started to lose my focus and get tired, which very strange for me after such a short work shift. Got cleaned up, put on some comfortable clothes -- and then it hit me. I got whatever illness had struck Jeff Thursday night.

Luckily, I hadn't eaten a thing in almost ten hours when it was at its worst, so I didn't have any of the, um, nasty side effects Jeff had to deal with. Sunday I woke up somewhat drained, but with all the nausea, cramps, chills and pain gone. Still fatigued but able to walk, we decided to run to Lowe's to purchase our bath faucets.

When we get to the store, we pick up two sink faucet sets and try to find the shower component. Which had been uber-clearanced two days before, and is now down to $37. Which means they don't have any left. Anywhere in the city.

Yes, Lowe's now keeps the Bancroft sink. the Bancroft toilet, the Bancroft tub, the Bancroft sink faucets - but not the shower faucets. Seriously -- I know the realities of business, but this is utterly senseless to me.

The salesman sells us the pieces from the store display, which are missing the valve (the most expensive part). Not in stock anywhere in the city. So I order one online. Still should be less than the whole set would be anywhere else.

Call tonight to check on the order status, and they tell me it's backordered and won't be in for at least a week, at which point they'll ship it. No way. Cancel that order. Order another from Home Depot, which has them in stock. Will be five days or so -- so good-bye bathtub for at least another week.

The stapler for the hardwood floors arrived from my Ebay seller today, so I went to the Midtown Home Depot to buy an air compressor. Long story short: The only one that fit my needs was a floor model, guaranteed to work. Get it home. Doesn't work. Of course.



And then tonight is also the evening Jeff took off work early to be here for the cable TV installation crew. You know, the ones who were supposed to be here to install the cable three times before, but always got their wires crossed and sent the inside-install people instead of the outside-install people, who need to run a new line. Talked to the absolutely USELESS people in customer service yesterday to make sure they knew I had to have the outside crew. Oh yes, they assured me. Not the inside installers. The people who bury the new lines. Yes, that's who's coming, they told me.

Wrong, as the other three times. So tonight I took the very unusual step of e-mailing my frustration to all of their applicable senior executive management. This company's ineptitude on the customer-service front lines knows almost no bounds. This is the third major problem I've had with them in the 12+ years I've been a customer. I truly, truly wish I had a choice in cable. But I don't.



One bright note: The new interior doors were delivered tonight too, and they're even better than we'd expected. I'm so glad Jeff agreed to do double-door units for the closets instead of bifolds. These are going to look so much better and more finished.

I've been through the wringer. The bathtub is going to have to sit here in the hallway for at least another week and a half. I feel like I'm absolutely treading water, and I'm frustrated for the first time in this project. I know I can use the downtime to get other projects done instead. But I wanted to be working on the bathroom full-bore.



And we're getting another huge snowstorm tonight. This winter has been dreadfully awful. I'm down.

What I've learned

Skim-coating ceilings is a little like finishing a song, or a set design, or a newspaper column, or anything else I have to create.

You're never really done, unless you just decide the darn thing is finished.

I could have found another seven or eight spots that could use more touching up tonight. But I decided enough is enough, and I'm satisfied. Paint goes up tomorrow, and the rest of the subfloor is out.

You just have to leave well enough alone sometimes.

Poor Jeff got food poisoning or some other massive stomach distress last night, so he's been very much out of commission all day. Here's to hoping he's back in the saddle tomorrow.