Violent Ink

Moving experience

Things that went wrong:

1. Our couch doesn't fit in the basement.
2. The contractors keep telling us all the work will be done "by the end of the day." Been hearing that at least since last Thursday.
3. We didn't move until Saturday because our movers' "morning move" went until almost 10 p.m.
4. Contractors didn't install the dryer vent, so we can't use the laundry room. (Hopefully by the time I go home, that will no longer be the case.)
5. Our internet connection stopped working as soon as the Comcast guy left and the phone help people wouldn't fix it for at least 48 hours.
6. So we got caught unawares when massive flash flooding came through last night.
7. And looked like morons, I'm sure, standing in the basement eyeing the sump pump and the water dripping down the walls.
8. And now we have water coming in the master bedroom, which we know because the contractors noticed a water spot on the main floor.
9. I bought bedroom curtains that appeared to be opaque, but weren't.
10. We lost two little plastic thingys during the move, so one of our shelves was unusable until we found a similar (but not exactly the same) product at Home Depot.
11. The closet in which we want to install a countertop is exactly 1/2 inch too shallow to use the premade counters they sell at Home Depot.
12. The contractor's crew seems to stop working if we are not physically present (or if the main contractor isn't there).
13. There was a total communication breakdown on what kind of windows we had to get, and the one that was put in so far is white and double-hung (aka opens top to bottom), but they are supposed to be brown and side to side.
14. So we already got reported to the condo association.
15. Spencer is afraid of ceiling fans, and we have three of them.

Things that went right:

1. We are about 90 percent moved, but for much of the kitchen and all of the front closet and some odds and ends.
2. I got our bookshelves totally unpacked and we got the couch put in the new place on the main floor, so the house is starting to look like our house.
3. One of our neighbors brought us champagne on Saturday night to welcome us to the neighborhood.
4. We have a fair amount of parking at the new place, and now we can bring in groceries without going up two-plus flights of stairs.
5. There is a ton of space in the house, which is awesome. It's nice to have more than one option for how to arrange furniture.
6. The kitchen floor is in, and it's awesome.
7. So, too, is the fridge.
8. The cats are starting to adjust to the whole move experience (though getting locked back up this morning in anticipation of contractors didn't make them too happy).
9. I finished my project of the other upstairs bath -- it's totally repainted, and with the goofy green shower bar cover removed and the new shower curtain and rugs, it looks downright presentable.
10. The TV, Tivo and VCR are all set up and work fabulously (fabulously enough to drag me into the second half of First Daughter).
11. The couch in front of the fireplace actually makes for a really cozy reading nook.
12. It's nice having ceiling fans when it gets really hot (don't ask Spencer what he thinks, though).
13. I'm a half-mile closer to work now.
14. There is a cute picnic table right in front of our house.
15. We OWN A HOUSE!

Blarghey

Our move is ... happening tomorrow. The movers got some bad information on their morning move, so it turned into an all-day move. Unfortunately, we didn't get it rescheduled until about an hour ago. But that's OK -- now we can crash. And the contractors? Still not done, but we do have a new kitchen floor, and the fridge is plugged in and working, and they installed the leftover flooring in the little nook where the washer and dryer used to be. And the relocation of the laundry room is going pretty well. But the master bath is untouched since they ripped everything out, and the railing on the master bedroom slider is broken on one side and looks precarious and the neighbors keep coming over and freaking out about it, and we keep asking the contractor to move it and he keeps not doing it. If the dude would just say it's going to take five or seven days or whatever instead of telling us EVERY SINGLE DAY that it's all going to be done in one day, I would be a much happier camper. Also, Judah and the contractor had a major communication breakdown and the wrong kind of windows got ordered (Columbia is a planned community with all kinds of draconian regulations). We already got reported to the condo association, so our new kitchen window is now just a "placeholder." Oh well. And we moved the cats. Who are not amused, especially since we had to leave them alone closed up together in one room. It'll all happen tomorrow! Right?

Plumb crazy

Yay, the plumber was good, too, and as of 1-ish, the kitchen was ready for the drywall madness to begin. Won't know whether it did until later, but that's OK. Progress at last is made.

Weekend update

Well, the electrician is awesome, and the kitchen is now ready, electrical-wise, for the drywall fixes. The plumber is supposed to show between 8 and noon tomorrow, so hopefully that will all go as well. We (aka Judah) took out the rest of the cabinets yesterday, so we're just waiting on them.

The spackling I did in the bathrooms turned out OK; now I just have to hope that the paint for the bathroom is the right color. Judah started painting sealant paint on the concrete walls in the basement storage room, and it took a whole gallon for barely one coat on one wall.

I set out to buy curtains for the master bedroom slider and also came home with a new quilt, sheets and shams (though I just realized there is no bedskirt).

So, yes, lots of progress made, though not one single bit of it thanks to the contractor!

Oooh, speaking of whom, he just called. He was very apologetic, is glad we found people to do the work that had been left hanging, and he is going to refund every bit we end up paying to the other workers, and if they charged more than he was going to, he will cover the difference. Whew! And, there was a huge backorder on double-paned windows, so the company he gets them from gave him and thus us triple-paned for the same price. And the drywall folks are slated to be there tomorrow at noon to make the kitchen happen.

My fingers are crossed, but my expectations I am trying to manage.

Shoulda coulda woulda

OK, Judah found an electrician, who is at the house right now and is going to start on the kitchen stuff right now. He seems like good people, so yay! Plumber comes Monday. Once the pipe gets rerouted, then maybe the drywall contractor (the original one) can actually get the kitchen done. We might be able to figure that out if he would FREAKING CALL US BACK.

In other news, our appliances (fridge, dishwasher, range hood, disposal, washer and dryer) were delivered today. They are so pretty!

Now I'm going to pack again some more. The big furniture move is on Friday, and we want to have most of the rest of our crap (I mean "stuff") over there first. And I have to work tomorrow night starting at 7 or so to edit a late concert review. So best get back to it since it's already 3.

*deep breathes*

Oh! But I did successfully spackle in the main floor bathroom where they had the horrible soap dish holder. All traces of that will be gone soon, Then I can get rid of the one in the non-master upstairs! I'm all empowered and stuff. Or something.

*flails*

When your contractor asks you if you know a good plumber or electrician, you know you are in trouble. ARGH!

It would appear

that our contractor is being hosed by the sub-contractors that he hired. Which kind of makes this whole thing funny, sort of. (Possibly even ironic.) He assured us last night that the plumbing and electrical in the kitchen would be handled today and that he'd get the drywall taken care of over the weekend. We shall see if that comes to pass ...

Unless

Unless something happened today, there still hasn't been any work on the house since that first day of lotsa work. Which sucks and totally destroys our timeline, but whatever. We can't control it, so no use worrying about it. I've got enough potentially ulcer-inducing stuff in my life to waste energy on things I absolutely cannot change.

One funny thing: Judah ordered our appliances last weekend, and I glanced at the receipt last night and noticed this: "[Blahblah] Dryer. Quantity: 2." Yes, we got such a good deal on appliances that Judah accidentally ordered us two clothes dryers. He got the order fixed this morning, but still. Hilarious.

We went to Home Depot last night to try to solve the puzzle that is our 59-inch wide bathroom. My idea is: This 36-inch wide cabinet I can't find the link to, but it's white cabinetry and has this awesome feature of having a huge drawer in the bottom-most part, which is usually wasted space. Then we can buy a free-standing 18- or 20-inch cabinet thingy for more storage to put in the 23 inches of space that will be left. Something we can probably get at Target or IKEA or whatever.

Oh, yeah, and Judah just went by the house, and it was another day of a whole lot of nothing.

*arrrrrrrrrrgh*

House house house

So now that I have written more about painting a stairway than you ever, ever wanted to read, here's the other house stuff we got done. Judah's put in all the light fixtures we have purchased (though we have a few more to pick out ... we're having trouble finding ones we like for the basement). In discussing with the contractors what all they have to do to the master bath to fix the leaky toilet plumbing, we decided to go ahead and replace the toilet (which is old) and the flooring (which is new, but is so crappy that it looks old -- it's stick-on squares). So we went with this ceramic -- it's so pretty! We were in the midst of buying this other stuff, and this woman came up and told us to check out the reviews online, that it breaks really easily and is hard to fix and stuff. So whew, thanks, lady for helping us out! We also got a new shower head for the other bathroom (it has a 20-some year old shower massage head that is literally falling apart) and a new brushed nickel fixture for the kitchen sink.

For the master bath, we want to get a new vanity/cabinet/whatever you call it, but here's the thing. The standard sizes are 36, 48 and 60 inches wide. The space is 59 inches wide. Yes, it's one inch shy of standard. I think we figured out that we can get a 36-inch vanity thing, a drop-in-sink and a custom 59-inch countertop. Of course, that will probably be more expensive, but there don't seem to be other options when your room is an inch too narrow.

Ooh! Another thing ... I was watching this show Sell This House or something like that, and they updated the exact bathroom mirrors that we have by framing them out with molding. On the show, they were going for a temporary fix and affixed the molding with press-on velcro, but we can get the same (or better) effect with nails, I'm sure.

Paint me once, shame on you

Finally, FINALLY, I accomplished something at the house. It only took four tries, three kinds of paint (including two colors) and two kinds of paint appliers, but I don't care:

One wall is fixed after the monstrosity the sellers left us with -- swaths of "touch-up" paint everywhere that were done in semi-gloss paint over walls painted with flat paint. Let's see if I can get the progression uploaded here.

Total before: When we
were taking photos
of the place and first
noticed the problem, thanks to the flash.

Before, part two: After painting
it Oyster White, the color we'd
been led to believe was the correct
one, but instead made it look like
a giant nicotine stain. (And a color
that took four days to get our hands on.) (I don't know why this one won't upload a larger version.)

Before, part three: Finally, we
have the right color, but brushing
it on just over the "touched-up"
spots is still pretty uneven. Time to
give it another shot.

AFTER, finally: Repainting the whole wall with a roller finally got us this result. I also did the landing walls and the walls going up the rest of the stairs, but my results weren't that even -- two walls look awesome and two need another go. But not tonight.