May 2019 – My Boomtown Revival

May 28, 2019May 28, 2019

Another sad post

Last Tuesday I met with the Second Reputable Builder. I greatly reduced his chore list and asked him to focus on finishing what is started and one new thing: Rebuild my Juliet balcony. And then close out the plumbing ticket and the building permit and begone.

He said he would do that, except that the building permit can’t be closed until the siding is on. I said fine, get an extension on the permit and I’ll deal with siding later.

He said he would be done and out in two weeks.

Over the last week I have had a single drywaller here, taping and sanding the few seams in my basement. Probably spending 6 hours in total doing work. Nobody else has turned up.

I suppose if a couple of guys turned up and worked full days for the next 5 days, then they could conceivably get everything still on the list finished. But is that going to happen?

This building industry needs regulation. Standards. Enforcement. What I’ve seen is bullshit.

A reminder of my current living environment. Very stressful.

May 21, 2019May 24, 2019

Reusing walnut floor

In my madness, I decided to use the walnut floor from my original living/dining room in the new master bedroom. The walnut was installed in the 1980’s, on top of original Douglas fir. Because it was added on top of the original floor, there is a small step up when entering the living room.

It was a brief moment of madness, but once I’d started pulling up the walnut, I was stuck with that decision.

Walnut floor in living room, facing dining room

Pulling it up went fairly quickly and easily, although my knees are barely up to the task these days. I suffered for several days afterward.

Floor comes off easily, but not without some waste

Under the walnut was a brown tile, made to look like wood. Why not install wood-like tile over a wood floor. Makes perfect sense.

Yes, probably asbestos. I removed it quickly and it’s out.

Under the brown tile was linoleum. It has a diffused pattern, so only discernable what it is from a distance. It did not come up in a single piece or I might have entertained using it elsewhere. Yes, I’m odd. But the centre had been glued down with tar-like substance, so it came off in small pieces.

Original fir, layer of linoleum, layer of ‘wood’ tile, and then walnut. Why all that when the fir was there?

Linoleum, underneath the “wood” tiles. Leaf pattern is only evident from a distance. Up close it is quite pixalated.

And underneath is beautiful 3 ½” Douglas fir. And now there is no height differential between the hallway/living and kitchen/dining room. All the same Doug fir.

Beautiful fir, underneath. Yes, will need some repairs.

There are spots that will need replacing- where boards are splintered and the like. And there is a real soft spot at the bay window. There is clearly insufficient structure to support the floor in that spot. Good thing I have not sealed under the bay window completely! I think I can remove the insulation, restructure to provide support, and then replace the insulation. You can see in the photo below where the exterior of the bay window was never properly sealed or insulated. The silver is where I installed 4″ rigid foam last summer. Before that it was only the baseboard that protected the house from the outside under the bay window!!

I think I will be happy with the fir when I have a chance to refinish it. Right now I’ve got it covered with brown paper, while we wait for the addition to be done and we can move our living space over there. The chore list does not get shorter.

May 21, 2019May 28, 2019

Where we at?

So, you’re wondering why I haven’t posted anything new for a couple of weeks, when I have an excellent builder moving full-speed ahead and there should be lots of good photos and stories and excitement.

Well, the new builder is turning out to be similar to the old builder. While he promised glory in 6-8 weeks, we are 5 weeks in and are nowhere close. He sends a single guy to do work for a couple of hours once or twice a week.

The builder said he expects the drywall to take another week to complete. I agree, if someone is spending just a couple hours a day working, then it will take a couple of weeks to complete.

The walnut floor installation went like this: On Monday nobody showed up. On Tuesday a single guy showed up. He worked for 4-5 hours and left. He got about 6 courses of flooring in. Admittedly, it is slower going than using brand new flooring. But again, he did not work a full day. I can do 6 courses in about 2 hours. The next day I got a call from the builder that the flooring guy broke his hand playing soft ball after he’d left my house, and wouldn’t be able to finish the floor. The builder was going to try and round up someone else to finish the floor but it would take a day or two. I said, just take the week off and have someone back the following Monday.

I said that because I want as much certainty as possible each day, so I know what is expected at my house: Who will be there, do I need to set my alarm, do I need to clean up, make beds etc? Not just arrive home and find unexpected people have been in the house.

The following Monday, which was last week, nobody came. Nobody came all week, except for said drywaller, who spent 2 hours on Wednesday taping a couple of seams.

I started finishing the floor myself.

The quality of work by the carpenters is good enough, except where they did not understand or appreciate the use of reclaimed trim. For example, they cut into a 9″ baseboard in order to use it as door casing. For &%*! sake, the 9″ baseboard needs to be used as a baseboard!! It’s not like I can go out and locate vintage 9″ baseboards any given Saturday. And I had told them that if they did not have appropriate trim available for any specific piece, then they should use new fir (which I supplied).*

And in a couple of spots, someone used screws to install window casings. Screws! What the hell?? Why not finishing nails?? They used finishing nails on other parts, so why screws in other spots?? I’m not planning on painting the trim, so filling the holes will leave obvious, glaring garbage spots. Awful, and crappy craftsmanship.

Anyway, this is the work of a ‘show home’ builder. Readers, you must have LOW expectations when dealing with contractors and builders.

*Update on this aspect: When I took a closer look at the door casings upstairs and down, I recognized the work of a different builder. That is, the first builder I dealt with understood the use of reclaimed trim and demonstrated craftsmanship with it. Someone else did the bad casing trim – SANDED IT, CUT IT, SCREWED IT. That patina is lost forever! And, it will never match the other trim pieces! And I will no longer have enough of it! WTF!!

May 1, 2019May 1, 2019

Drywall installed

Last week the old basement was spray-foamed (the new basement is ICF), and yesterday drywall was installed in both basements. Not yet taped.

What a difference in temperature (it’s 0 C these days) and impression. I can get a sense of what I will be able to use the spaces for and it feels great! (note I have not seen the bill yet).

There are two areas that spray foaming could not reach, so those will have to be addressed from the outside, when the siding is being done. One area is where the interior retaining wall blocks access to the original exterior wall, and the other is behind the electrical panel. The sprayfoamers did not want to spray over wiring.

THEN the basement should be sealed up tight and the house CRITTER FREE!!!