nickjohnson
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Hunker down Mark! This 2 week (their estimate) project is now entering week 7. Sheila and I are a bit tired of living upstairs, but in the world scheme, "upstairs" ain't all that bad so I'd feel a little guilty complaining. I remember telling Sheila that I was just going to do this remodel myself, sure glad I regained my senses. The tile work alone would have sent me screaming into the forest. I'm a perfectionist, probably no one here is slapping their forehead in surprise, but we have a little problem down here in Texas. We have this syndrome where a guy comes to do your drywall, sees that you are about to have tens of thousands of dollars in tile, granite, marble, plumbing, etc. done and suddenly the drywaller is a tile guy, is a granite guy...............We don't have the tradesmen that exist in the midwest and northeast, trained for years under older craftsmen who really knew their craft. Sure, there are a few, but in general we have trim carpenters who favor a sawzall and a caulking gun to a fine bladed mitre saw, it's a shame really. How expensive is a plumb bob and a level, really? We vetted our contractors pretty carefully for this project, but there still have been some hiccups and I can tell immediately when a bill of goods is headed my way. A week ago I dropped in to see how things were going, the marble guy had just placed the countertops and the marble around the tub. There was a joint that had a flush fit at one end and opened up to about 3/16" at the other. I called the guy who owns the granite company and sent him a picture, "that's well within industry tolerance Jim, you'll never see it once it's caulked...." Um, nope! I had them pull it all off and do it again, funny how those tolerances got oh so much tighter the second time around. I kind of feel like I know how I would do it and if you can't do it at least that good, then don't take the job. When Glenn and I were building HQ, the contractors from the other projects in the complex would stop by to see how we were doing something. One day we were stymied, so we decided to walk across and see how it was being done on a guy's office. I'm sure he was spending at least 200K for this project. Glenn and I walked across the ramp, looked at this one corner, looked at each other and burst out laughing, turned around and went back to HQ and figured it out. He didn't let me get away with any slacking and I was the same with him, and it turned out pretty flawlessly considering a couple of novices built it.
This project will be very nice when it's finished and I'm glad we decided to do it, but sometimes it seems like a contest to see who gives in first. I think that we have established that it's easier to do it right than do it over at this point, so I think we're ok from here on out.
Re: the weather, we got 4.76" of rain......................yesterday! Gonna be real green around here this spring!...Show more →
Our home is a tiny semi-bungalow, built in the mid 1930s (buy Lady Jo a beverage, and she will explain). Our two prior homes where both new builds - finished in the white - as is common here in the UK. We kinda got used to that. So when our present home came into our ownership we needed a lot of refurbishment doing. We had no choice but to stay in a miserable rental for months while the work was done. So, after replacing the Kitchen, all the doors - inside and out - all the floors except one room, removeing a useless conservatory and adding bi-fold glass doors and a deck, and peel back / painting throughout - we have what we need. It's not what we'd like - but it is fine for us going forward (I hope). It is also shed loads better than most folks have - for which we are both very grateful - especially when we see the TV news almost any evening!
Edited on Mar 02, 2018 at 12:06 PM · View previous versions
|
