Walking A Fine Line

I have an old Ipod Nano.  I love it.  Yes, it's old and outdated but it suits me just fine.  I also have a bluetooth speaker that I use with it sometimes and headphones.

I was gonna try and organize my cookbook collection this past long weekend and sometimes I think better with music and sometimes I just like the quiet.  

So I took my Nano, speaker and headphones down and got everything somewhat organized and I still have more to do but its shaping up so that I can find stuff pretty easily.  Anyway, it took all weekend and I just left everything there. 

Tuesday arrived (Monday was the 4th) and the woman who is doing the touchup painting arrived.  I went down to let her know that the water was disconnected to the inside ( we have our well guy coming to put in the water conditioner) but I put a bucket out by the faucet and she could use the toilet but shed have to get water and out it in the tank in order to flush it.  She did not speak much english but I was pretty sure she understood. 

So I go down after supper, she left about 3:30, and my Nano, speaker and headphones are not where I left them.  So I start to search the house, casually and then more thoroughly as I'm not finding them.  Maybe they are on the porch? Nope.  Oh, maybe Bob picked them up and put them in the back of the mule... not likely but I'll check...nope...in the vehicles...nope, back down to the house once again to slowly walk through and look in fridge, freezer, microwave, dishwasher, utility sink and both showers....nope, nope, nope.  So I had no choice but to send a text to her supervisor and ask him if maybe she thought they belonged to someone and so she took them.  He assured me that she had worked for them forc10 years was a great employee and could I be mistaken.  So I said, well I've looked everywhere and it's not here.  There were 2 people down at the house today, her and me.  That's it.  It didn't grow legs and just walk off.  He said hed send her a text and ask her about it.  

I heard nothing from him till the next morning and he said her story was she was picking it up for someone who had been fired earlier in the week.  " Eddie" itcwas supposed to be his.  Only problem is...."Eddie" was never here.  I will give her the benefit of the doubt that she did not know whether or not he had been here BUT I know that he hadn't been here, he knows he wasnt here and her supervisor knows he wasnt here.  So when she gave him my Ipod and speaker he knew that it wasnt his. 

The Ipod was returned on Wednesday but first some reason she couldn't get the speaker.  Her supervisor assured me that she would have it in Thursday but that didnt happen.  Apparently " Eddie" is avoiding her but her supervisor assured me I would have it Friday if he had to go and get it himself.  Which he ended up doing.  

The fine line you walk here is that you have 95% of the facts.  It was in the house.  It is yours.  Only 1 person could of taken it.  Why would you take something that they had not described to you in detail and if you'd looked at the playlist you'd have seen there was nothing that could be considered Tejano music, in fact you probably weren't even born when most of these songs came out.  Why would you take something that's mildly expensive and not ask the homeowner first?

You also want the person who's working in your house to do a good job, so you know shes taken it but you dont know why...its a real conundrum and so you walk this fine line and question yourself the whole time.

I think she was honestly trying to do a good deed for someone who was less than trustful.  The story to me is still a little sketchy but I have my stuff back and that's all I was after anyway.  I will however keep my eye on my stuff a little more closely now.  I'm glad we are at the end of this poll project and the few subs that are remaining we know very well.  

Just go away!

We had not gotten our release of Lein by Thursday  June 30 and that old familiar feeling of something is up kept nagging at me.  About 7:30 am..ish Friday a flurry of text messages came through.  This was unacceptable, he wasnt paying for appliances ( even though he told us he would), no ceiling fans, no lights etc.  Send me a revised bill and I will see what you owe me, send you a bill and when you pay me...I will sign the lein.  O.K. asshole, you want to get down to the nitty gritty, we can do that.

So I sent him an email that said hed been paid X amount.

We had paid, cabinets, paint, trim and granite.  So that left him X amount but he had not reimbursed us for anything yet and that bill taking 25% off the top for difference in quality ( pretty generous I think), left him 13K in arrears.  Even if we went 10K over budget he was still 3k in arrears.  But we would call it even and if this was not good enough then our next communication would be through our lawyer.  Crickets since then but it's a holiday weekend and I'm hoping we get signed paperwork in the mail on Tuesday.  Then I can let out a sigh of relief.  

Apparently this happens all the time and rarely is the GC in the right.  All I know is that we entered into this in good faith and he has constantly let us down.  Very little communication and very little transparency.  I cant tell you how many times I requested a budget sheet to know what I could spend on what and then just gave up.  If we went over..so be it but I always shop with a budget in mind and also bought early, long before the price increases began.  Never was there a phone call, text or email that said prices were increasing quickly and price he quoted he could not sustain.  He can make all the excuses he wants but he wouldn't be in this position if hed done the house in the time frame he quoted us or at least in 12 months at the most but we are at a year and 6 months...very poor planning and a very sorry business model.  

Granite

We picked out our granite for the kitchen a while ago.

This is what we picked out.  It's called Patagonia.   Loved it immediately and we were told it was Granite.  It is listed as granite on the website..still is as a matter of fact.  

We met with Granite by Design ( the fabricators) last week when the slabs arrived in Kempner.

Apparently this is not granite it is Quartsite.  Which can create an awful lot of issues with cracking, flaking etc.  We were crestfallen because we were so happy about our selection and had seen nothing similar..

It was a real statement piece.  But the owner of Granite by Design said we would not be happy with the final product.  Hed already found cracks in it and areas where they had epoxied it together and said he could not guarentee that it would hold up.  We were certainly disappointed but know when to say when.  He suggested we look around the yard to see if there was anything that would strike our fancy but we had also planned to go into Austin to look once again at Midwest Tile cause they have a lot of different slabs.

As luck would have it, we found something called Deep Burgundy.  The colors are very close to what the sandstone is on the hearth and in the masterbath.  This picture does not do it justice as it's much deeper in color and richer looking.

We are on schedule for next Friday, July 8th for install.  Although hoping someone isnt ready who's already on the schedule and its sooner.  

Moving in Appliances and a surprise

Bob and I decided to start moving in some of the heavier appliances because most of them are in the kitchen and once installed they really wont be in anyone's way.

We also had help from our good friend Keith and his son Tyler.  Both bodybuilders so that was a bonus.

Got the stove in place.

Sub- Zero Fridge/Freezer drawers

Fridge and dishwasher.  That is the heaviest stuff and it's now all in place.  The fridge and the drawers get panels that match the cabinetry but our cabinet makers are on a much needed and well deserved holiday.  The panels can wait until they come back.  

Bob and I also decided to go ahead and put the handles on everything so we did.

Here's a close up of the handle.

Heres a picture of the jig that Bob made so that the handles are in the same place on every cabinet.

And heres what it looks like.

Now for the surprise....

Last week the painters were supposed to be back to clear coat front and back doors and the side door gets painted 2 different colors.  1 color on the inside and another color on the outside.

They were not there on Tuesday and they were not there on Wednesday and so I was curious but they have always been reliable so figured that they had something pressing.  Bob had to go into town to the Hardwear store and just happened to run into Corry who is the supervisor over the painters and Bob naturally asked him when they would be back.  Corry replied, " in a month maybe...if we get paid".  "You haven't been paid?"  "No", Corry replied.  Bob then asked if we could pay them to keep the job going.  And Corry said he would have to talk with his boss.  So long story short...our GC who had just gotten a draw for 12K from us to pay the painters had not paid them or only partially paid them.  This is not a good thing...this can be classified as a very bad thing.  So Bob told me and we sat down with our Excell file where I keep all the expenses and draws and figured out how much we'd paid Ronnie.  How much we had paid toward stuff and were to be reimbursed for and what was left and what work was left to be done.  And Ronnie didnt have enough left to finish the work he had left to do and even though we are very close to finally finishing we didnt see him working any harder to make that happen.  So Bob called him and essentially said....you've had this much in draws, we've paid out this much minus 25% for difference in quality and you have this much left to finish the job.  Can you do it?  We are offering you a win- win situation here.  This gets a house off your plate, and more debt and we finish it out.  Bob said to think about it and get back to us.  But he answered right away saying hed sign an unconditional release of Lein.  I got busy and called all the subs and found out who had been paid and who had not and paid them and have signed receipts with PAID IN FULL, written on them.  And the subs have been wonderful saying that they would make sure we are well taken care of.  Cookies and brownies and care for their well being and making sure they know how much we appreciate them goes a long way.  Next morning there was a flurry of text messages from Ronnie about stuff he was not paying for but we still had an Ace in the hole in case he tried to pull that one and it was to hit him with a bill of our own...

For example: Welder used as a generator for 2 months, several tanks of gas, weld plates for house and porches, consultant fee on how to attach the uprights to the weld plates since the wood framing was done first.  Labor for 5 -  8 hr days @ $55 an hr on installing the wood burning stove pipe and stove pipe materials, same with range hood, the list goes on and on.  But I felt like if I answered any of those text messages that he would gain the upper hand and so for once in my life I remained quiet and that strategy worked because he finally acquiesced and said if we paid the painters, the trim and the granite, we would be about even and he'd sign.  We printed up the form, stuck it in an envelope along with a SASE back to us so hed have no excuses on not getting it back.  We feel like a great weight has been taken off our backs.  Theres not much left to do and  we have all the proper people in place to do it.  A couple of them still work for Ronnie and they will have to do the work on the weekend but if they are making a fair wage then I doubt that there will be any issues.  Granite is supposed to be here next week. 

Cabinets and Doors

The cabinets all got installed and the paint crew got busy on clear coating them along with the doors.

These are just some of the doors after the first coat of clear varnish.  You can see how it made them just the tiniest bit darker. But it also brought out the beauty of the grain of the Knotty Alder.

They also did all the cabinets as well and the shelves in the pantry.

Very happy with the job that they did and we are just one step closer to being done.

Doors are all finished and stacked up waiting to be reinstalled.

Heres a picture of a finished door so you can see a bit of a sheen on it but it's very low.  

Here's the door installed with the Hardwear.  Bob and I got tired of waiting for someone to do it so we did.  

More Cabinet Stuff and Range Hood

I'm pretty sure this will be boring for many of you but I believe that the heart and soul of the home is the kitchen.  At least for me it is.  It's where I best express my love for my family in the food that I make and prepare for them.  It's the room I spend the most time in and the room I am most comfortable in.  That being said, the cabinets cannot be just a mishmash of whatever fits goes.  It has to make sense and it has to be in the right place for the task I am performing.  So like with the old house I took my time designing my kitchen.  I needed it to make sense to me and the way I go about working in it.

Now most professional designers will talk about the work triangle, and that is sink, range and refrigerator.  For me to have the smallest triangle doesnt make any sense.  I want the stove and range as far away from each other as I can get them and the sink in between the 2.  I loved, loved, loved my old kitchen.  It was perfect for me and a LOT of food came out of that kitchen and I fed literally hundreds of people in the 20 years we were there. 

So the old kitchen was an "L" shaped affair and this one is similar but a bit abbreviated in that it's got a shorter upright.  But I also have a whole room that is a pantry and a much larger island so I have plenty of counter space.  

So this is my old kitchen set up.  I had to take this from the AirBnB page cause I couldn't put my hands on a picture that I had.  But you get the idea of a backward kind of L.

Hers the new kitchen.  On your left in the empty space between the 2 cabinets will be my range.  Sink is under the window and fridge goes in that big hole to the right of those 2 upper cabinets.  Island is front and center.  

Heres a picture with the range hood now in place.  

The cabinet to the left of the range is for cookie sheets, cupcake tins and cake rounds. 

Here is a picture from the top.  And this "drawer" slides out.  

The side of the island that faces out toward the dining and living area will hold most, if not all of my cookbooks.  Overflow can go into pantry if necessary.

On the other side is two cabinets with 4 sliders in each.  One cabinet will hold all the baking supplies, measuring cups, spoons, specialty tools, rolling pins and parchment paper.  Other cabinet will hold nothing but cooking items and the lower levels will hold casserole dishes, pyrex bakers and my 2 cutting boards by Boos.  

Next to that will be my undercounter fridge and freezer drawers by Sub-Zero.  Go big or go home!

Directly across from that is my stand up pantry with various adjustable shelves and several drawers.  This will hold Flour, sugars, spices and herbs, salts, peppers, oatmeal and cream of wheat.  The drawers will hold some pots and pans and their lids.  To the right of the dishwasher are drawers that will have silverware, napkins dish towels and probably a drawer devoted to wax paper, aluminum foil and plastic wrap.  Next to the stove to the right will be all the cast iron skillets and stock pots and the cubbie in the corner will probably house the  food processor, my second kitchenaid stand mixer, blender and whatever else I deem necessary.

Upper cabinets will be dishes, everyday and good China.  Above the cubbie for the microwave, to the right of the stove is for the mishmash of plates and bowls that can be used in the microwave.  My everyday dishes I received after my mom.passed.  Its Wedgewood and made long before microwaves were an everybody has one appliance.  I may change my mind about some of these things once I start working and find somethings make more sense over here rather than over there but for right now I think this is the plan going forward.

So something else that we found out much later than should of happened was that we were going to be responsible for putting up the range hood.  Once again, thank you Ronnie!  Normally this is not that complicated of a job BUT because our home is so tight ventilation wise and we use a wood burning stove for heat we have to have something called return air.  That is air that can naturally enter the house, not sucked in.  So in order to do this without making yet another hole in the side is to share the same space that the vent hood uses.  So you have a pipe within a pipe.  The inner pipe is the exhaust from the range hood and the outer pipe is where the return air enters the house.  

Heres a picture of bob installing the inner pipe that carries the exhaust from the range to the outside.  

This is up in the attic where you see that big shiny smooth sided pipe that has the smaller exhaust pipe inside  it.

And there you see it where it hits the wall.  

And that dryer looking vent thing is where it vents to the outside.  Another job we were both dreading finished.  

Granite people are supposed to be here this week measuring.  Our well man Charlie should be here midweek to install water conditioner and the paint crew will finish up with the little bit that they have left to do.  

Cabinets!!

My cabinets arrived today!!

They are made out of knotty alder and are shaker style.  Very similar to my old ones except that my old ones were knotty pine.

Two above are just different angles of the kitchen.

This drawer will hold cookie sheets, half sheet pans, cupcake tins and cooling racks. I'm taking the picture from above.

This is stand up kitchen pantry for things like spices, herbs, seasonings and the like.  I have adjustable shelves above and below those 2 slide out drawers.

Guest bath vanity.

Master bath vanity...kind of a his and hers side.  

And mud room cubbie for laundry detergent, cleaning supplies and what ever else I deam needs to go in there.  

That was all yesterday.  They finish the install today.

Someone is down there now prepping for staining the door frames and spraying the cabinets and pantry shelves.  So we could have someone potentially next week be doing all that.  Which would be great.  

Plumbers were here yesterday and they fixed the leak in the master shower.  I should have checked last night by turning the water back on but I didnt.  They should be here today but of course they arent.  I'm not surprised.  Our attic doors are still not here so that's worrying but we arent scheduled for measuring the cabinets for granite until the week of the 13th so we still have time.