Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

It's still very hard to walk in there. I had to bring myself to it today. Nothing is going to get done by just sitting around and being sad. Though I was shocked again when I saw that all the scrubbing we had done to the hall floor to get the grout up caused the polyurethane and the stain to come up too. We're just going to keep finding stuff. Throw another thing on the pile. It's starting to feel like we're never going to be able to move in.

Went through the bedroom and circus room today. Touched up the moldings, door trims and ceiling paint. The moldings are still pretty messed up. I think I can get the bedroom ones a little better. Despite that, my attitude has been 'do what you can and try not to dwell on it.' If we can figure out a better fix we'll do so after we're moved in and had some time to breath. I felt a little better having left and gotten some work done.

Going to go room to room and continue doing that: clean up floors, touch up door frames, touch up moldings, re-paint any messed up ceiling spots and do a general clean. I plan on doing the hall and living room Saturday and kitchen Sunday. I really want to take care of the floors. It's the biggest blow to me. I put so much effort into those floors. I still haven't fully assessed the bathroom yet. I think I need to get some victories under my belt first.

What We Feared

This weekend has not been good. Further inspection of the house revealed Sam's true impact. The more we looked around the more crazy messed up shit we saw. Both Tony and I have been leaping from being very depressed to very angry. It disturbs us that someone can have so much lack of concern for their craftsmanship. And then to look us in the face and ask for money. The damage we've seen isn't just carelessness, either. It's laziness. He just wanted to get the job done as fast and sloppy as possible and preyed on our ignorance of construction to do so.

We have both put blood, sweat and tears into that house. And he might as well as just taken a dump in the middle of the floor. Everything he's done has been tainted by his neglect and now we have to clean it up. So many of the new things we've bought have been in some way ruined. I cannot express how much it angers me that I have to clean up after another asshole who was allowed in that house and just didn't care. Anyway, here's a list of things we've found wrong so far:

Cabinets

• knobs put in the wrong place; not fixable
• gouges in two of the panels; fixable: sanding and re-staining
• proper bottom molding and drawer pulls not installed; fixable: we have to do it ourselves

Floors

• large gouges in the circus room floor from where he used a stand saw; fixable: spot sanding and re-staining
• marks from where he stained the trim inside on the floor; fixable: spot sanding and staining as planned
• grout and some sort of plumbing poxy tracked through floors in all rooms; fixable: scrubbing

Doors

• bedroom frame splintered in more than one place; not fixable: can only cover with wood putty and stain
• circus room frame destroyed in several places, wood shattered in two spots on top of the frame, one side disconnected from adjoining frame, other side has circular marks like was hit with a hammer (the door at least still works); not fixable: can only cover with wood putty and stain
• bathroom frame has grout all over it; maybe fixable: scrubbing, sanding and re-staining

Front Door

• large gouge in face; not fixable: can only hide with stain
• door not properly sealed, water damage has already occurred; not fixable: can only seal and paint over damage to hide
• threshold not properly installed; fixable

Walls

• gouges in dry wall; fixable: putty and re-paint
• trim, joints filled with wood putty and just globed on; fixable: sanding and spot staining

Bathroom (we haven't thoroughly looked at the bathroom yet)

• caulk is dark grey (because he ran out of the matching grey and couldn't bother to tell anyone), obvious and ugly; maybe fixable: pull off caulk and re-caulk, need to finish caulking anyway
• mirror screws are in crooked, needed to be boxed in under dry wall and that wasn't done either; fixable: drilling screws in again

Dishwasher

• face kicked in at the corner causing the side to bow and catch on the face of the cabinets so it won't open without scraping; maybe fixable: either by calling the manufacturer and buying a new face or hammering the dent out.

Some of the things he was instructed to do correctly, not half-assed, and he still didn't do right. And other things he just did because he's stupid and lazy. Do you really have to instruct someone not to kick a dishwasher into place? Shouldn't they know better? But the answer to this, and possibly every other question that you can ask about this, is answered by the same four words: Sam is an asshole.

WTF and Its Silver Lining

Tony and I had a long talk last night about Sam. Well, it turns out that the half a day's work he had left to do on the house still isn't done. And he put the knobs for the kitchen cabinets on wrong. We told he specifically we wanted it in the corners of the doors and his dumb ass decided to put them a few inches up from the corner anyway. He would have put the drawer pulls on wrong the fast and wrong way too, but he had the wrong screws.

We talked a long time. We talked about being so tired of always going over there and having to clean up after him and then to have to come back to the same mess two days later. We talked about all the mistakes we caught him doing and how we're afraid of what mistakes we didn't catch but will have to fix 5 months down the road. We talked about the sloppy job he's done and what we're going to have to do to fix it. We're afraid of what he will screw up next. But, most importantly, we talked about how stressed we were about the situation and that we just want him out. We just want the damn job done, whether its us that has to finish it or not. We agreed last night that if he isn't done by this weekend we're sending him packing.

Well, this morning Tony got proactive, gathered up Sam's tools and told him to have a nice fucking life. We learned a hard lesson about who to trust and who to hire. Even though we have a little more work to do now its still a giant weight off our shoulders. At least now the problem isn't worrying about the job, its just getting it done.

Can He Really Be Finished?!

..... its so pretty.

I went to the house for the first time in a week over this past weekend. I was trying to stay the hell out of the way so that Sam could get done. And everything is so damn pretty.

Kitchen Sink Counter

Bar

Bathroom Tub Surround

Bathroom Vanity

Bathroom Floor

Sam still has a few odd jobs. we caught a few things during the walk through. There is still a hole in the wall he needs to patch near the sink light. He needs to hand the towel rack and toilet paper holder. And he needs to fix one of the window sills.

After that we still have a few jobs ourselves to get done. The biggest of which is the touch up paint and staining the living room floor. And we have to clean. that place needs to be scrubbed. I am waiting to do both of those until the electricians are done hanging the lights. I need to paint the hall closet and the stair well, but both can really be done after we move in if necessary.

Oh, and, funny story, I had a can of 'white' paint for the built-in cabinet and stairs. I tried touching up the ceiling in the living room with it and it was a little... off. So, on a whim because I need to touch up the walls anyway, I painted a splotch on the yellow living room walls and when it dried it matched. I don't know how this can of unopened white paint magically became yellow. Tony swears the lid got switch, but we used all of the original yellow paint and the can of touch up paint we bought is also unopened and hasn't been moved since we bought it. I know in that house I shouldn't ask questions when weird things happen, but.... *sigh* I guess I haven't learned.

Running out of things to do

Sam has spent the better part of the week working on the plumbing. I think we've made a dozen trips to Home Depot for parts. Phew. But it appears to be done today. The wall is sealed and the tile is in place. I just needs grouting now. Tomorrow he's going to take out the toilet and start the floor tile. I think the original finish date of last Friday is out the window (unless we can time travel). I think we're looking more at next Friday. At least Sam is working steadily.

We are going to have to make another trip to Home Depot. Sam put the water proof polyurethane on the bar brackets without staining it first. He decided that it was my job to stain the already sealed brackets since I wasn't doing anything (AKA eating lunch).

I'm happy that I don't have much essential stuff left to do before we can move in. I cleaned three more windows today (three to go), finished the door frames, cleaned the fridge and put the first layer of wood sealer on the counter tops. Still need to stain the living room floors, touch up paint and clean up after tornado Sam, but none of those things can be done until Sam is out of there.

Now More Than Ever

Hit the house hard today. Going to be spending as much time there as possible. Lets just say I'm inspired now more than ever to move in for reasons I won't discuss here.

I cleaned four of the windows today. It took an amazing 30 minutes per window. They were so caked in dirt. One of them could have easily been mistaken for a flower bed. They must have left the windows open in the rain repeatedly. I'm reminded of how things were a few months ago when we were cleaning. And, like things were back then, I don't think anything in the house will ever truly be clean without being replaced. Other than that I put another coat on the door frames. By that time it was dark. I plan to have the frames finished this weekend so we can hang the doors back up.

Sam was supposedly there today. I saw little evidence though. He patch the incorrect part of the bar counter, cut the molding to hide the patch and cut a hole in the dry wall for the medicine cabinet in the window. I don't think that could have taken more than an hour. He complained that he couldn't find the faucet for the bathroom sink, even though it was sitting out about 10 feet from the vanity. I'm not sure how he really finds anything. I spent a good 45 minutes just cleaning up boxes and empty bags he's left laying on the floor. I know I've said this before, but I'm tired of being his maid.

Everything is really starting to come together. The sink and the dishwasher are both in now. All the counters are in too. Because of the warped wall, though the counter for the bar doesn't sit quite flush with the wall. We're going to cover that with quarter round molding. I personally feel that if the wall were crooked the counter should have been cut crooked too. Guess we can't help that now, though. Not unless we want to buy another counter.

Sam is nearly done the living room and kitchen. He has one more window to frame and the back splashes to put up. He's going to focus on the bathroom next.

The doors are finished now. I just have to finish the door trims to match. I put a coat on both, cleaned up the stove and called it a day. I was feeling lazy. And I accomplished everything I really wanted to for this week. Getting closer to move in day. I can't wait.

Down to the Nitty Gritty

I am amazed that Sam worked again today. All of the trim is done, except for one window (which we need to buy more of) and the upper molding in the hall (which we also need to buy more of). He really just has the bathroom, finishing up the stairs and the kitchen back splashes. I hope he doesn't putter out.

He have to make a stop at Home Depot tomorrow for some odd stuff: sink stuff, wood seal for the kitchen counters, more tile for the kitchen back splash, more moldings. We need to return the bathroom cabinet we bought. The one we bought was supposed to be recessed into the wall and we didn't plant for that when we did the dry wall.

I put the second coat on the doors and the door trim and a coat polyurethane on the vanity. Exciting I know. At least I'm getting everything done that I have planned. Doors will be done by this weekend and I'll start the other trim as soon as I get more tape. Baby steps now. We're so close to being done.

Good and Bad

We came back from the weekend and amazingly Sam had worked over the weekend. Yay. We bumped into him yesterday. He started tiling the bathroom wall. Most of the molding is up. It doesn't look as dark on the walls as I thought it would, which is a plus. And he installed the counter we have and the sink and faucet. The counter looks really good actually, especially to say it was only supposed to be temporary. I'm in no hurry to replace it.

Sam told us he'd finish the moldings today and then begged for money. Ugh. And what a surprise he did no work today. How dumb of us to give it to him. I just hope he works again this week.

Anyway, I went over myself today. I got more stain work done. I did the first coat on the other side of the doors two of the door frames. I would have done the rest, but I ran out of tape. I also put a coat of stain on the bathroom vanity. I'm going to see if it needs another coat when its dry.

Molding around door, yeah a little dark, but not too bad

Kitchen cabinet, stained too, walls still need paint

Counter and faucet, counter is butcher block. Pretty damn nice for Ikea stock counter.

The start of the bathroom tile

Working on the vanity