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!!