Remodeling Update - yea..

I wanted to think of a cuter title. Like "Hell's Kitchen" but too many people know that as a tv show. Or "Dog Days of Summer" but I'm not upset with my dogs. So .. yea ...

The last time I blogged about the remodeling we were entering month 2. We now have not had ANY work done since June 24th. We haven't seen him since the 27th, the day we left for the beach, and haven't talked to him since either, despite numerous phone calls and even a couple of visits by his house. Wonderful.

We've had the City Building Inspector out. Apparently our house was VERY, VERY dangerous for us to be living in. The bastard .. I'm sorry, contractor, took the chimney down beginning on May 6th. It was an old brick chimey that vented the gas boiler heater and the gas-powered hot water heater. He was supposed to re-route it all and vent it out the side of the house & up the outside wall, above the roof. He never did. He capped off the old chimney at the kitchen floor with some wood, let it be, and hopped on to the laundry room. He NEVER went back to the chimney, meaning all those gases were just venting into the house. Luckily, we have LOTS of fans and a couple carbon monoxide detectors.
Per the City Inspector's demanding, we've now had the water heater temporarily vented out so that we all can still live in our home.

We've had to replace a piece of "wall" behind the kitchen sink because where he removed the laminate that was there and left it with the old, exposed walling, black mold had begun to grow. Again, not safe.

But what about Harmon?? Well, legally we've had to send him a letter letting him know that he has 15 days to complete the work (hey, his new girlfriend signed for the letter on the 15th, so let the countdown begin!) or give us ALL of our money back. Failure to do either will result in legal action being taken. --- Since I don't know who all reads this (he has seen the blog before), I will keep mum about the next steps there ... for now.

We've had other contractors in, trying to get estimates to finish the job. So far, the estimates have ranged from roughly $12,000 to between $20,000 & $30,000. Yikes!!

On an odd note, we've had two contractors who haven't given us their estimates yet! I called them both on Friday but havne't heard anything back from either of them yet. Not even an "I'm too busy" or "I simply don't wanna" call. If I don't hear from them soon I'll let you know. In fact, I'll be so nice as to let you know their names too. They're both local guys.

And that is where we are for now. Till July 30th .. which is, of course, only 5 days away. We had been taking bets on Facebook on when he would show back up & when the work would be done. There were a lot of "Never!" votes. I can't call it until all is said and done with, but I PROMISE there will be a winner or winners as the case may be.

In the mean time, since I didn't post any photos on here, feel free to amuse yourself (if you want to anyway) and check out the remodeling hell photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/funkymamataney/sets/72157624437011151/ --- these are the photos of all the things left undone, done wrong, 1/2 done, fucked up, and things that left us lucky to be alive.


** PS ~ At this point I can very, very safely recommend NEVER EVER EVER hiring David Wayne Harmon to work on your home!!!

Remodeling ~ Month 2

The photos in this post were taken of the most recent work done. They were taken on June 24th. Seriously, no work has been done since then.

As you can tell, tile has started getting laid in the kitchen. At least something is getting laid in the kitchen, I just feel like I am getting screwed, and it ain't pleasant.

In some fairness, we were out of town last week, so no work could be done. Well, Harmon was supposed to be at his shop (aka home) building the cabinets for the back hallway and the island for the kitchen. Since I haven't seen him and haven't been able to get him to return my calls, I am not sure anything has been done.

The estimated work time was for 3-4 weeks. Not months, weeks. I realize things take longer than usually estimated, but let me just throw something out there: work would go a helluva lot quicker if Harmon showed up before 10, didn't take the hour or more for lunch, and stayed past three. Oh yea, and if he showed up everyday it would be nice too.

There is not one completely finished room or area. Everything still needs some degree of finishing. Right now the microwave and toaster are sitting in the back hallway, on TOP of the new freezer.
The flue for the boiler heater has not been put in yet, so should we hit a serious cold spell we'd seriously be screwed. The hood & vent for the stove hasn't been put in yet ... and I don't think it's helping a lot just sitting in a box in the back hallway, where it's been sitting for a month and a half now.

Needless to say, this has gone downhill and it has gone downhill very quickly. Harmon seems to be a truly cursed man whose ass is being kicked by Karma. First he's left his wife. Then there has been the various bouts of sicknesses (the flu bug, strep throat, high temperatures), then he's moved in with a new girlfriend & that place needs fixing up, back to pissed off ex-wife turning off his phone, and just today I get told that his step-mother had a heart attack "4 or 5 days ago" and so that is why he now can't answer the phone, show up for work, or return phone calls. --- The man is cursed with wicked bad luck I tell you. (FYI - I only found out about the step-mom thing because I went to his new apt. and knocked on the door until his girlfriend FINALLY opened it)

The work is truly gorgeous, when it gets done. But that's the kicker is that it isn't getting done. Work was originally supposed to START on April 19th or 20th. It finally started on May 6th. It's now July 6th and we have a Punch List with 28 things on it. Well, 26, two got marked off.

I am not happy. I am beyond not happy. I am way beyond not happy.

Remodeling Update - The Kitchen

The contract stated that work should take 3 - 4 weeks to complete. Work started on May 6th. We're now 10 days past the deadline. Let's focus on the kitchen for a moment.

~The lights haven't been put in yet, so this is a really dark photo. We will have to touch-up paint on the doors where sanding the new wall behind the fridge caused paint to peel.~

~Same basic shot, just taken with the cell-phone camera. Lights are in & we're very happy there is a dimmer switch!! This is with them as bright as they get, note the fan light still isn't on.~

~This Mexican Star light just got put up today! I've been wanting one for years, and we finally got one after our very antique pull-down, cast-iron lamp got broken. I think the star light looks better there than the other one would've, but that doesn't mean I'm not still mourning the loss of the other light~

The lights are now, FINALLY, all in. Really, I was beginning to doubt they would all get put up! The ceiling is done, minus the molding that will go around it. That should go up at the beginning of next week. Josh is, hopefully, staining the molding tomorrow. So, we'll see.

~Well, at least the new gas stove is in the kitchen and working! But check out the clutter & missing cabinet/counters!~

The stove finally made it's way out of the front room of the house and into the kitchen, where after about a week, it finally got hooked up. The new vent, which will vent the heat outside (the current vent just blows it all back in!) is still sitting in it's box in the front room.
This is my first gas stove. What do I think of it? I LOVE this stove. It's so cool, and it makes me feel like a proper cook. However, there are some downsides, at least temporary transitional ones:
1) Gas stoves put out a LOT of heat!! I was boiling potatoes today and felt like there was a roaring fire in the kitchen!! This fact is NOT helped by 90 degree and humid-as-hell days, nor having a house that doesn't have AC, nor the vent being in the front room. I'm REALLY keeping my fingers crossed that the new, more powerful, vent will suck a lot of the heat outside. Till then, I'm trying to count the blessings of being Southern and sweaty.
2) It friggin' takes FOREVER for water to boil!! The first thing I tried cooking was pasta. I put the lid on the pot (set to whistle when the water boiled). It never whistled, the water eventually over-flowed (which puts out the damn flame but leaves the gas on), and the pasta was very well-done! -- I'm hoping that, with time, I'll just get used to it and adjust my cooking times. I mean, I used to have really slow dial-up on my old computer and I learned to sign on, go make myself a nice cup of hot tea, and by the time I got back I might almost be online. It never bothered me. Hopefully this will be similar.
3) Things take longer to cook on the stove-top. This really isn't such a pain, just an interesting learning curve. But I wanted to include it as a "beware if you're trying to fry an egg or something" and you're not familiar with gas stoves.

I love my new stove though. Despite the current downsides, the stove rocks. The bottom drawer is a warming drawer by the way. That'll come in handy come the holidays!! AND, the stove is a 5 burner stove, with the 5th burner being a long oval burner in the center. The stove came with a cast iron piece to put there that is a griddle on one side and a grill on the other. Oh yea, it rocks.

One thing I am REALLY not liking though is the clutter. It is driving me up one wall and down another and straight into hiding in the closet or bathtub (I hide in weird spots). There is practically NO work room right now. We're out of spaces to store stuff as well because we can't put anything else in the dining room until the pantry cabinet gets put in the back hallway. Can't store it on the extra shelving in the laundry room until the tool cabinet gets put in the back hallway.
Every time I turn around it seems like I bump into something, knock something over, or lose something. It is depressing, aggravating, maddening (and not in the good way), and I am not certain how much more I can take. On my good days I feel like Tom Hanks in The Money Pit.



On the other days my sense of humor about it all is lost and I listen to Johnny Cash & Ray Charles sing "Busted" and I cry and sing along.



Harmon is building the kitchen cabinets this week, and they should begin going in on Friday. He's working on Saturday, which he ought to be saying he took off Monday for personal reasons, and hopes to have most of the tile laid on the counters by the end of the day on Saturday.
Today was a rough day, I wasn't amused and the delays are getting on my nerves. Which leads me to my next point: the extra costs of renovation.

Everyone says to expect it to cost more. So far, financially speaking, the extra costs have come in that some of our older appliances (deep freezer, old toilet) have suddenly had to be replaced. The true extra costs are on your nerves. The effect of the clutter. Of not knowing what is going to be happening from day to day. Of thinking that __x__ is getting done on Monday but it doesn't get done till Wednesday a week or two later.
Of the cost of take-out food!! UGH!!! I HATE TAKE-OUT FOOD!!! I WANT REAL FOOD!! This has proven a lot harder to accomplish than I thought. I thought I could work around them. I was wrong. Real food takes time. From day to day I don't know what I'll be able to access or when I will be able to access it. The deep freezer (where meat is stored) might be pushed with it's door up against the wall (so they can sand the floor under it). No getting meat out early enough for dinner there. The floor might have just gotten another coat of sealant on it. No getting into the kitchen to make some quick lunch today! Every time I drive to McDonald's to get food I am filled with disgust and anger. Mostly all of it directed at myself for not better planning so that we could've avoided having to go there. Excuses can be made, but when it comes down to it, they're still just excuses, and I am full of guilt and self-anger over it. And I long, long, long to make some good ole biscuits in my new oven. For the room to roll out the dough. For real food, slow food, homemade food.

Slowly, it is all coming along. The work that is done is fantastic. It is just taking a lot longer than I expected, despite warnings from those who've "been there and done that" that it would, that it always does. Guess I hoped that a tanked economy that nobody was building in would result in contractors that were happy for the work and would be trying harder to sell themselves.
The kitchen really is looking fantastic and I do love going in there and seeing the things that have been done. The dogs love it too. The tile floor is apparently much cooler than the wooden floors.

I will try my best to retain my sanity and not turn into the mega-bitch that many people know I can be and that my ex-husband REALLY knows I can be.

The Renovation Continues

It has been a long day. Actually, given the amount of days since my last post, it has been a series of long days. Clutter everywhere, piles that make me feel like I should be on the show "Hoarders," and a general sense of despair. The kids went with their grandparents this afternoon & I have spent the majority of the day asleep.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Here are some photos for now.

~ This is where the old shower stall was in the old back bathroom. I like how the floor looks like a weird tile pattern (it's really rotted wood)~

We've gotten lots of flack for getting rid of the bathroom since it knocks us down to one full bath & one 1/2 bath. But most people didn't even know the thing was there. It felt like going outside to go to the bathroom due to it's placement in the house.

~New Laundry Room!~

The floor is now real tile. The washing machine (on the left in the photo) is where the shower was. I will have better photos soon. The wall was fixed up, shelves have been added, and all my guys (aka - Justin, Shannon, & Tristan) took turns painting the room. I can't begin to express the joy I feel in having a laundry room!!

~The 1/2 bath in our room~

We decided to have the flooring redone in the 1/2 bath in our bedroom. Turned out that the toilet had started leaking, which is why you can see wet wood in the above photo. We ended up getting a new, efficient toilet that will more than pay for itself very quickly. We also got the "comfort height" style which is about an inch taller. Kinda snazzy, probably a perk later on.
The 1/2 bath had some REALLY cool flooring in it. I think I will have to dedicate an entire blog or something to it. Maybe I just spent too many drunk nights staring at it, but I swear Jim Henson (or whoever helped design the goblins in 'Labryinth') designed this floor. Funky little faces EVERYWHERE. I really kinda miss the old flooring, but it was time.

~The new 1/2 bath!~

Now with a new toilet and tile flooring. We also decided to go ahead and give the gal a new coat of paint. Haven't gotten to painting the trim yet, but I do have the paint (it's hiding behind the toilet if you look carefully). The trim work in the laundry room & 1/2 bath aren't done yet, but we're getting there.

~Oh Yea, there it is!~

No before photo, that was a couple of blogs ago -- aren't you following this??

So the new ceiling is almost completely in. The new lights are a couple of days behind on getting put in. They SHOULD go in tomorrow. But I love, love, LOVE the ceiling so far!! We chose the color Sedona Red for the stain, but, as you can tell it turned out a very Hokie Maroon color. What can I say .. we're Hokies!

The old floating laminate tile flooring came out today, along with the older vinyl flooring that was underneath that. The new stove is in, but is sitting in our front room, along with the vent for it and the new lighting & fans for the back hallway. And tomorrow promises to be a very full day with hopefully lots of advances. Wish me luck, or at least a sound night's sleep.

Remodeling - the work begins!!

After a couple delays, the work on the house finally started on May 6th. May 5th they brought stuff over & May 6th they got to work. That day they took the chimney down off the roof. Friday he started working on taking down the chimney inside the house.


~Before the chimney came down. You can see sheets covering surfaces from the soon-to-come, massive invasion of dust.~




~ I got the first swing with the sledgehammer. This was always something I've wanted to do and given Jomo's death & an asshole comparing us to Micheal Vick because we put Jomo down, the sledgehammer proved VERY therapeutic!~


~The chimney is 1/2 way down now. David Harmon has a guy named Josh working for him. I absolutely adore Josh and think he is a fantastic worker!! Watching him take the bricks apart was interesting. He didn't need anything other than his hands, as the mortar was that old and crumbly.~


~Here Josh is showing me how clogged the chimney was. The chimney has been used to vent gasses from the boiler heater. We had thought there was a metal flue inside, there wasn't. Where Josh is showing with his hands is where it is clogged up from him taking it down. Everything below his hands is STILL clogged up (and the chimney goes all the way down to the basement) and WAS clogged up before he got started. It is scary to think the gasses have had to try and go around all that crap. I will be very happy when they install a new metal flue~

~The chimney is down! This is before Josh cleaned up, which he did a FANTASTIC job of!! Major points there!~

~Sorry for the cellphone photo. Here the chimney is down, the old wall is down, and the bottom 1/2 has new drywall up. This photo was taken May 10th. We've been delayed on finishing the drywall due to rain.~

Along with the work in the kitchen they've also started on the old back bathroom that we were using as a pantry. Everything bathroom related has come out, including the flooring we had put in. We're waiting for our fabulous plumber to come by this evening so that the washer & dryer can be moved into the new "laundry room." Yesterday Josh cut the doorway to a much larger size so that all would fit through there. Photos will come soon, I promise.

So -- what are my thoughts about all this renovation?? How are we liking it so far?? In no particular order, here are my thoughts:

1) "Contractor Time." It has been difficult for me to get used to this. I am usually a very big stickler for times and schedules. Contractors are known for running on time schedules of their own, so I can't really take points off of Harmon for doing so as well, any contractor would likely be the same. But it is still something I'm having a little trouble with just because that's me.
Also, some days work begins around 9am and then they're done for the day by 2pm-ish. This is something that is odd to me, just because we're used to typical work day hours. Again, perhaps that is just the way things are, I don't know. I'm trying to just focus on being happy about work being done.

2) Cleaning up & stuff like that has really gained them points. They've been wonderful about that. They're really great about trying to stay out of our way - not that we had an issue about that, it's more something their trying to be really conscientious of & we appreciate that.

3) The Workers. Harmon has had a couple different guys in here so far and we've liked them all. Josh is who has been here the most and we've been REALLY pleased by him.

4) The Work. Well, so far, everything is been in a taking down & taking out stage. That makes it kinda hard to rave (or complain) about the work. They've done a great job taking things out, haven't caused more damage or anything like that, so I would say that so far, we're happy with it all.

All in all, it's a positive experience so far. I wasn't happy about the delays, but there was nothing I could do about it either & we're trying to be understanding that things happen. We aren't the only people out there in this world. The weird work hours are something else we're trying to get used to. But it could be a lot worse, and we know that, so we're happy with everything so far.

A follow-up thought: I forgot to mention that a lot of the woodwork is being done off site. The wooden tongue & groove ceiling has been stained at his shop, saving us the hassle of the fumes and probably working better for them as well. Same with the wooden cabinets. This might (and likely does - at least hopefully does) account for "afternoons off." It is hard to remember that they could be working very hard on our stuff but that we just might not be seeing it. Since everything else so far has been positive, I'm going to go with this on this one too.

Remodeling - Before Pics & Contract Signed

Sorry for the long title, I couldn't think of a better way to shorten it. We signed the contract this morning for the remodeling job. We decided to go with David Harmon for very obvious reasons stated in http://thebluenymph.blogspot.com/2010/03/contractors-estimates-are-in.html. We've been very pleased with him so far and, while I must admit to being a little nervous as is normal at the beginning of any new voyage, we're really excited. The planned start date is April 19th. We expect it to take 3-4 weeks for the entire job to be done.
I promised to document it all, and to stay good to that, I'm going to post the "Before" pics now.



~The door to the left leads to the dining room, the door on the right to the hallway. You can see the chimney jutting out (the chair is in front of it). The chimney is going to be taken down, the flue put more into the wall, and the new fridge will be put along this wall.~


~The stove & oven will be replaced with a new gas one (the current one is electric), along with a new vent that will actually vent to the outside. This should allow me to cook & can much more efficiently and also keep the kitchen cooler when I cook! The stove will be moved to the left a little to free up the corner cabinets for a lazy susan. Currently the cabinet next to the stove (as well as the upper cabinets) go all the way back to the wall, making access very difficult. He's also going to build more counter space where the fridge is, and some complimentary cabinets.
Since you can see them in this photo, I'll include them here. The wine barrel is going to be replaced by an island with a butcher block top. The floor will be tile, the counters will be tile, and the ceiling will be replaced with a pine tongue & groove wooden ceiling. There will also be can lighting in the ceiling (though we're keeping all current lighting as well), and LED lighting under the cabinets.~


~This WAS a full bathroom. Currently we use it as a pantry & beer storage room. We've never cared for it as a bathroom, as it feels like you're going outside to .. well, take a shower or go. The plan?? This will become a laundry room & beer storage room. The doorway will be made bigger, so we can fit the washer & dryer through it. If the room doesn't end up looking just as cluttered I'll be friggin' amazed, mainly because the beer stuff just takes up a LOT of awkward room.~


~This is a shot of the hallway. I was standing in the doorway to the deck when I took it. If you look in the lower left hand area of the photo you can see the doorknob and, behind it part of the wooden clothes drying rack. There is space behind that wall where we currently have shelving.
So, back here he's putting in glass brick to replace the current windows. You can't really see them at all in this photo, but if you look in the upper left hand area you can see the light coming in. He's going to put insulation in the walls, refinish the floors, and build custom cabinets for me to use for my pantry items and for the other things we keep back there. The freezer will stay in the hallway, the washer & dryer will go into the "laundry room" & the trap door to the basement will remain a trap door.

And that is pretty much all of it. I'll likely create a Flickr set of the photos since there are much more than posted here.
Like I said, we're really excited about this, and eager to be working with him. He's always been on time, very courteous, willing to work with us, sharing ideas, and makes us excited about the project. Now excuse me while I go throw up these butterflies.