Roy and I both work for oil & gas companies, where safety is always front and center. Every meeting either of us go to is opened with a safety moment either from an attendee volunteer or by the presenter. We both tend to back into (or pull through) parking spaces everywhere, as trained by our companies (in an emergency situation, being able to get in a vehicle and see where you are going and see any oncoming vehicles is a big win, versus having to back out with blind spots). This is an ingrained behavior at this point.
Many of you know that I also began harping on ladder and tree-cutting safety issues after Roy's accident in 1994. And we always are ultra-cautious messing with electricity for any reason.
So, you would think that we'd just be increasing our "days since lost-time accident" counters.
But sometimes, even when an unsafe condition is recognized, it is just such a hassle to get it fixed, and when you aren't around the area, you tend to forget about it. Such was the case of a poorly-anchored "walking board" in the new house's attic. Every time we were up there, and I crossed on that board, I made a verbal comment that we needed to fix that. Someone had screwed it down funny, such that it wasn't really secure on one end. To fix it would mean going down and bringing a cordless drill back up into the attic, unscrewing it, and then repositioning it. But we were always in the middle of something else and couldn't spare the 10 minutes it might have taken to fix it.
On Saturday, 12/10, I stepped on that board and it flipped me backwards, like stepping on a see-saw. My arms flew up in their natural reaction, and the right arm near the wrist came into contact with one of the few braces between two rafters. That stopped my fall and allowed me opportunity to throw my weight forward and steady myself on that fickle board. However, the arm took a pretty heavy hit, and by that night, I couldn't use my hand. Having sat in an ER all day before, I had no desire to do so again. I finally had it x-rayed at the chiropractor's office 4 days later, and no break was seen, though they had suspected a stress fracture.
Day by day, it has gotten slowly better. I was finally able to tolerate bracing it 6 days after the incident and braced it for for a week during the day. I lightly bumped it on Tue the 20th and it let me know that it was still really bruised and did not appreciate the contact whatsoever. On Wednesday, my physical therapist did Feldenkrais work on my arm. It finally started moving better (though after painting on Thursday, it is back to being a wee bit unhappy with me).
So the moral to this story is, do not pass up an opportunity to correct an unsafe condition. Had that brace beam not been there, I could have gone through the ceiling, backwards, or at the very least landed badly on joists in the attic, in an uncontrolled backwards fall. Things could have been so much worse than a banged-up arm/wrist, and I remind myself of that every time I am annoyed at my arm being messed up.
To bring everyone up-to-date on the sheetrock work, we moved back into the new house on the 16th, having cleaned up (most of) the sheetrock dust everywhere, and started decorating for Christmas on Tuesday night - we put up one of my small, 4-1/2 ft tall trees and some lights outside. We primed the Music Hall on the 22nd with one of our summer workers. We hope to get its ceiling painted this week, but we aren't sure of our worker's availability yet.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
A Tale of Two Moves
It was the best of blogs, it was the worst of blogs.
It has been pointed out to me by many folks that I have not made an update since before we moved to the new house (always politely phrased in the "I'm subscribed to your remodel blog, but haven't gotten anything in months!"). Yes, we successfully moved on 8/11. We have continued to move things as we needed them (like, cold weather clothes). We are not fully moved out of the old house — our computers and laundry room remain at the old house, because the new house is not yet set up for them. (That's also why no new blog posts — computer isn't where we live.) We also haven't moved any of our gardening or sewing stuff, or 17 years accumulation of other "stuff".
But — much, much has transpired since my last post.
Like, us moving back to the old house yesterday morning! Only now, we have two cats to move, not just one. Meet Rugen, a polydactyl black kitten rescued from our local community garden back in October (is it really December already?!?!).
Why did we move back to the old house, to sleep on borrowed air beds for more than a week, you ask? (and thanks again, Randy & Janette!)
We are finally getting all* of the drywall work completed in the new house. That means, working in both bathrooms, the hallway ceiling and several walls, two walls in the SE bedroom, one wall in the SW bedroom (my office aka Rugen's room), the den ceiling, two walls in the entryway (the only two walls), all of the living/dining room (aka the Music Hall) walls and ceiling, and the breakfast room walls.
Notice what that leaves out? Only the master bedroom, kitchen, and utility room*.
We evaluated living in wet sheetrock mud, lots of sheetrock dust on days they sand, with two cats and we decided that we are simply not that crazy. So we packed everybody up and moved back up the street instead. Of course, we had to move the cats' tower to the old house, so Roy rolled it down the street on the furniture dolly at 7am. Our neighbors are used to our crazy behavior. Or they certainly should be by now!
Once this current round of work is finished, we'll be able to finish painting the office and hall bathroom (one wall each), paint the hallway (color is selected), breakfast room (color is selected), and master bathroom (colors might be selected - we'll see what we think when that dark red/brown is gone and not affecting impressions), then prime the entryway, Music Hall, and SE room (colors are not yet selected). We currently plan to do a lot of painting the week between Christmas and New Years.
*The utility room is still gutted. Our carpenter's schedule and our schedule have failed to mesh for more than a month, so the joists are still not repaired, so there is still no insulation or sheetrock in there. And yes, it is wickedly cold in that room, so we keep the door closed (not that it helps a lot) when the weather is like this (cold and colder, for those of you not in Houston). We are hoping to get him in there Very Soon Now, like maybe this weekend.
It has been pointed out to me by many folks that I have not made an update since before we moved to the new house (always politely phrased in the "I'm subscribed to your remodel blog, but haven't gotten anything in months!"). Yes, we successfully moved on 8/11. We have continued to move things as we needed them (like, cold weather clothes). We are not fully moved out of the old house — our computers and laundry room remain at the old house, because the new house is not yet set up for them. (That's also why no new blog posts — computer isn't where we live.) We also haven't moved any of our gardening or sewing stuff, or 17 years accumulation of other "stuff".
But — much, much has transpired since my last post.
Like, us moving back to the old house yesterday morning! Only now, we have two cats to move, not just one. Meet Rugen, a polydactyl black kitten rescued from our local community garden back in October (is it really December already?!?!).
Why did we move back to the old house, to sleep on borrowed air beds for more than a week, you ask? (and thanks again, Randy & Janette!)
We are finally getting all* of the drywall work completed in the new house. That means, working in both bathrooms, the hallway ceiling and several walls, two walls in the SE bedroom, one wall in the SW bedroom (my office aka Rugen's room), the den ceiling, two walls in the entryway (the only two walls), all of the living/dining room (aka the Music Hall) walls and ceiling, and the breakfast room walls.
Notice what that leaves out? Only the master bedroom, kitchen, and utility room*.
We evaluated living in wet sheetrock mud, lots of sheetrock dust on days they sand, with two cats and we decided that we are simply not that crazy. So we packed everybody up and moved back up the street instead. Of course, we had to move the cats' tower to the old house, so Roy rolled it down the street on the furniture dolly at 7am. Our neighbors are used to our crazy behavior. Or they certainly should be by now!
Once this current round of work is finished, we'll be able to finish painting the office and hall bathroom (one wall each), paint the hallway (color is selected), breakfast room (color is selected), and master bathroom (colors might be selected - we'll see what we think when that dark red/brown is gone and not affecting impressions), then prime the entryway, Music Hall, and SE room (colors are not yet selected). We currently plan to do a lot of painting the week between Christmas and New Years.
*The utility room is still gutted. Our carpenter's schedule and our schedule have failed to mesh for more than a month, so the joists are still not repaired, so there is still no insulation or sheetrock in there. And yes, it is wickedly cold in that room, so we keep the door closed (not that it helps a lot) when the weather is like this (cold and colder, for those of you not in Houston). We are hoping to get him in there Very Soon Now, like maybe this weekend.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Painting and packing
Well, Big Move Number One is almost upon us. The new house is not exactly ready to be moved into yet, still quite a bit of painting to go, and all, and its utility room is still gutted from the mold remediation, but move on 8/11 we will.
Why? you ask...well...
Because we are hosting dinner for a dozen or more on 8/17 for Rice's Orientation Week. We used to do it all the time, then we moved the hosting to a restaurant for a few years, then we just dropped out altogether as we got lazy/overcome with other things. We decided this year that we wanted to get back in the groove as Sid associates.
We had waited til mid-July to make the call as to whether we'd participate so we'd be able to better gauge whether we'd be moved in, and we simply thought we'd be farther along than we are (it didn't help matters that our best worker's family decided to take some last minute summer vacation trips the past two weekends and then this week/end he is on a track field trip - apparently private schools travel for a week to some meet before school even starts, I'm not really clear on the whys and wherefores).
So I hired some MORE new workers who had recently responded to my ad. Are they Rice students? Why, Virginia, why would you ever think such a thing, just because I ran an ad in the Rice student newspaper classified section back in April and May...no, one is a UHD grad who has applied to Rice for post-bacc study and then her boyfriend, who is a current UHD student. They seem to be nice people and have worked with us painting for a couple of weekends now. We also still have Will, who may have escaped mention thus far--he's our token Rice student.
Today was spent prepping bedrooms for a painting day tomorrow, and packing up things from our old house for the move to the new house. For the remaining crystal stemware, we just walked them in our hands down the street. Didn't have appropriate boxes, didn't see the point in acquiring any, either.
That's about all the news that's fit to print; oh, we've gotten the den all painted. It came out a bit lighter than we expected, but it's so much better than the Army olive drab green that it was, we're fine with it. And we hosted the Westbury Community Garden's fall seed packaging event at the house this past Sunday, so we've now hosted 2 events (both seed packaging for the WCG) at the new house. Not exactly social events, but events nonetheless!
Why? you ask...well...
Because we are hosting dinner for a dozen or more on 8/17 for Rice's Orientation Week. We used to do it all the time, then we moved the hosting to a restaurant for a few years, then we just dropped out altogether as we got lazy/overcome with other things. We decided this year that we wanted to get back in the groove as Sid associates.
We had waited til mid-July to make the call as to whether we'd participate so we'd be able to better gauge whether we'd be moved in, and we simply thought we'd be farther along than we are (it didn't help matters that our best worker's family decided to take some last minute summer vacation trips the past two weekends and then this week/end he is on a track field trip - apparently private schools travel for a week to some meet before school even starts, I'm not really clear on the whys and wherefores).
So I hired some MORE new workers who had recently responded to my ad. Are they Rice students? Why, Virginia, why would you ever think such a thing, just because I ran an ad in the Rice student newspaper classified section back in April and May...no, one is a UHD grad who has applied to Rice for post-bacc study and then her boyfriend, who is a current UHD student. They seem to be nice people and have worked with us painting for a couple of weekends now. We also still have Will, who may have escaped mention thus far--he's our token Rice student.
Today was spent prepping bedrooms for a painting day tomorrow, and packing up things from our old house for the move to the new house. For the remaining crystal stemware, we just walked them in our hands down the street. Didn't have appropriate boxes, didn't see the point in acquiring any, either.
That's about all the news that's fit to print; oh, we've gotten the den all painted. It came out a bit lighter than we expected, but it's so much better than the Army olive drab green that it was, we're fine with it. And we hosted the Westbury Community Garden's fall seed packaging event at the house this past Sunday, so we've now hosted 2 events (both seed packaging for the WCG) at the new house. Not exactly social events, but events nonetheless!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
On the brighter side
Lest ye think it's all "doom and gloom" at the new house, here are a few developments we're happy with at the new place. (By the way, the new house is also referred to as 5127, the East Farm, Purpalicious, "the other house", and probably a few more things. It is where we plan to actually live — and soon, we hope.)
First, new landscaping. We've been hard at work on this since just about Day 2. While there are many, many more months (nay, years!) of work to do, we're pleased that it's looking cheerier and more like us. (Although with this continued drought and relentless sun, some things are not so happy any longer.)
Second, new windows (Jeld-Wen and Simonton). Big, big panes of glass allow unobstructed views of the outdoors from pretty much every room in the house. We've had big, clear Simonton windows for years in the old house, and very much enjoy looking out of them.
Third, Ed re-purposed the old electric dryer circuit for a whole-house surge protector. Now all of our electronic controls on our microwave, gas range, French-door refrigerator, etc., are protected from power surges coming into the house. Dirty power from Hurricanes Rita and Ike did a number on the last microwave we had.
Fourth, one of the few worthwhile items in the original landscape was this poor, much-neglected fig tree out back behind the garage. We have been faithfully watering it, and it has been faithfully putting on figs. Well, the first figs are finally ripe! We had a few figs over the 4th of July weekend. They are pretty tasty.
Fifth, and this is probably our favorite change of all, Ed hung our Meyda Tiffany pendant light in the breakfast room recently. Roy & I both absolutely love it. It was well worth the hours spent Googling and perusing lighting online, after we had a vague idea of what we wanted (a Tiffany-style up-light pendant in certain colorways). Serendipity? The blue in the pendant goes very nicely with the blue we chose for the kitchen.
There is a sixth major project, however, it is still in progress, so no pictures yet. Hopefully, it will be finished to usability in the next two weeks (there will be additional work later), and we'll post pictures of its time line and talk all about it then.
First, new landscaping. We've been hard at work on this since just about Day 2. While there are many, many more months (nay, years!) of work to do, we're pleased that it's looking cheerier and more like us. (Although with this continued drought and relentless sun, some things are not so happy any longer.)
Second, new windows (Jeld-Wen and Simonton). Big, big panes of glass allow unobstructed views of the outdoors from pretty much every room in the house. We've had big, clear Simonton windows for years in the old house, and very much enjoy looking out of them. 
Third, Ed re-purposed the old electric dryer circuit for a whole-house surge protector. Now all of our electronic controls on our microwave, gas range, French-door refrigerator, etc., are protected from power surges coming into the house. Dirty power from Hurricanes Rita and Ike did a number on the last microwave we had.
Fourth, one of the few worthwhile items in the original landscape was this poor, much-neglected fig tree out back behind the garage. We have been faithfully watering it, and it has been faithfully putting on figs. Well, the first figs are finally ripe! We had a few figs over the 4th of July weekend. They are pretty tasty.Fifth, and this is probably our favorite change of all, Ed hung our Meyda Tiffany pendant light in the breakfast room recently. Roy & I both absolutely love it. It was well worth the hours spent Googling and perusing lighting online, after we had a vague idea of what we wanted (a Tiffany-style up-light pendant in certain colorways). Serendipity? The blue in the pendant goes very nicely with the blue we chose for the kitchen.
There is a sixth major project, however, it is still in progress, so no pictures yet. Hopefully, it will be finished to usability in the next two weeks (there will be additional work later), and we'll post pictures of its time line and talk all about it then.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Breaker 1-9, what's your 10-20?
Ever had something that just didn't make sense and that you couldn't let alone? We have two of those things, both electrical in nature.
Ed, our electrician, has worked his way through most of our electrical panel. He reclaimed the old 30A electric wall oven circuit, the old 30A electric cooktop circuit, and the old 40A A/C circuits and re-purposed them so that we'd have new circuits for the kitchen. He mapped the other circuits to what they controlled, but there was one circuit that he was not able to trace. Circuit 19.
Since the utility room is gutted, Ed tagged the wire for us yesterday after tracing it from the panel, so that we can see where it begins heading north in the attic. We work a lot cheaper than he does, especially on wild goose chases.
We traced that wire this morning into a wall in the kitchen (where we know it services nothing). There was a wire coming back up that wall cavity, so we guessed it was the same wire, continuing its mysterious journey. We found that it led to the formal dining room. We left the attic and headed for that area. Sure enough, 3 lone receptacles in the dining room were without power. That's bizarre, an entire 20A circuit to service 3 seldom-used receptacles...in a seldom-used room!
But, that may mean that we have a circuit available to tap into for exterior receptacles. We need one on the west side of the house (or northwest eave) and that's exactly where that line runs.
Now, to the second puzzle. There is an existing, seemingly original, exterior outlet on the north side of the master bedroom (northeast side of the house). It has wire coming into the receptacle and leaving the receptacle...but no power. Digging around in the attic yielded no clues - no wire seems to be going to it from the attic, which would lead you to believe that it would be connected via the two indoor receptacles on either side of that window, with the wires running through the wall. I've never wanted to cut into a perfectly good wall so much in my life. Not knowing why that receptacle doesn't have power is infuriating!
We have contemplated that maybe it should be wired from the exterior light, so I want to turn off that breaker and pull that lamp off the wall and see whether there is wire leading away from it that is no longer connected. Yes, I'm grasping at straws. The deal is, if we can't find where it should be powered from, we're going to have to install new receptacles someplace else where we can get wire to them without cutting into the interior walls (and keeping it under the window would necessitate cutting into the interior wall).
One mystery down, one yet to go....
Friday, July 1, 2011
Failing score
This week was window week. We were supposed to have all new windows throughout the house today (save for one window that will be replaced when we expand). That was the theory. How'd that work out in reality?
Total windows to be installed this week: 9
Window #1 was mistakenly ordered in tan. TAN. That one didn't even make it into the house.
Window #2 (double-hung aka DH) has its lower lift rail deformed in two places, and had had red coloration (on the white) that the installer had removed before we ever saw it...not sure why he went to the trouble of removing the red, because we sure are not keeping that sash. Also, it has obscured glass in both sashes, only the orientation of the "pebbling" results in the sashes rubbing against the locks when operated, which results in an irritating grinding sound. That ain't right and isn't acceptable. The proposed resolution is to re-make the upper sash in clear glass, which should, in theory, fix the problem.
Window #3 (DH) has no observed defects (yet?).
Windows #4 & #6 are awning windows in the (mostly) gutted utility room and (mostly) remodeled kitchen. Both are nice windows, although the wood sill they installed in the utility room isn't level.
Windows #5 & #7 are big sliders in the breakfast room and a bedroom. They were ordered without the "air latch", a small latch that allows you to open the window for ventilation, but keep it secured against forced entry. We have them in the old house and use them quite often during open-window season (yes, Houston does have a bit of that).
Window #8 (DH) has a similar deformed lift rail issue in the lower sash as #2. The installer conjectured that the damage occurred on a moving truck, being tied to a post, or something. I don't know, but it is not only deformed, but has a roughed up edge, and the lift rail still has some red still on it, as he didn't even notice the damage and attempt to remove the red.
Window #9 (DH) takes the cake, though. It's the hall bath's window and there is a foot-long scratch INSIDE the glass unit (between the two panes of glass). You can see it clear as day as you walk towards it with light shining through it. That window never should have left the factory. Quality control utterly failed there. The scratch is on the inner side of the interior pane. It also has the same "obscured glass rubbing against the hinge" problem as #2.
So, let's see. A total of 16 sashes.
- Two were screw-ups by the order-maker (tan)
- Two more were screw-ups by the order-maker (missing air latches - isn't having a signed contract by both parties wonderful? I'm waiting for him to realize this is HIS problem and not mine - because when I noticed it, I hadn't re-read my contract - yeah, I'm covered, air latches are specified! Woo-hoo!)
- Two are bad manufacturing design, requiring the home-owner to change what they want to get smoothly operable windows
- Two more were damage in transit (from someplace to someplace) most likely
- One had non-existent QC at the factory.
That's 9 problems in 16 sashes. That's not a good score, is it?
But, all of the problems are in the process of getting addressed, and we like our new windows very much.
Oh, and since I was on the phone with them half of the day, I finally remembered to locate our order number for the windows at the old house and get a replacement framed screen ordered. These windows are 13 years old, with a lifetime warranty on certain things, the screens being one of those things. It had gotten broken years ago and we threw it away. Since we're moving out now, we thought we should probably replace that full-size screen finally. And it's completely free, we just have to find a way to go pick it up when it arrives at the distributor. (David, truck, please?)
Total windows to be installed this week: 9
Window #1 was mistakenly ordered in tan. TAN. That one didn't even make it into the house.
Window #2 (double-hung aka DH) has its lower lift rail deformed in two places, and had had red coloration (on the white) that the installer had removed before we ever saw it...not sure why he went to the trouble of removing the red, because we sure are not keeping that sash. Also, it has obscured glass in both sashes, only the orientation of the "pebbling" results in the sashes rubbing against the locks when operated, which results in an irritating grinding sound. That ain't right and isn't acceptable. The proposed resolution is to re-make the upper sash in clear glass, which should, in theory, fix the problem.
Window #3 (DH) has no observed defects (yet?).
Windows #4 & #6 are awning windows in the (mostly) gutted utility room and (mostly) remodeled kitchen. Both are nice windows, although the wood sill they installed in the utility room isn't level.
Windows #5 & #7 are big sliders in the breakfast room and a bedroom. They were ordered without the "air latch", a small latch that allows you to open the window for ventilation, but keep it secured against forced entry. We have them in the old house and use them quite often during open-window season (yes, Houston does have a bit of that).
Window #8 (DH) has a similar deformed lift rail issue in the lower sash as #2. The installer conjectured that the damage occurred on a moving truck, being tied to a post, or something. I don't know, but it is not only deformed, but has a roughed up edge, and the lift rail still has some red still on it, as he didn't even notice the damage and attempt to remove the red.
Window #9 (DH) takes the cake, though. It's the hall bath's window and there is a foot-long scratch INSIDE the glass unit (between the two panes of glass). You can see it clear as day as you walk towards it with light shining through it. That window never should have left the factory. Quality control utterly failed there. The scratch is on the inner side of the interior pane. It also has the same "obscured glass rubbing against the hinge" problem as #2.
So, let's see. A total of 16 sashes.
- Two were screw-ups by the order-maker (tan)
- Two more were screw-ups by the order-maker (missing air latches - isn't having a signed contract by both parties wonderful? I'm waiting for him to realize this is HIS problem and not mine - because when I noticed it, I hadn't re-read my contract - yeah, I'm covered, air latches are specified! Woo-hoo!)
- Two are bad manufacturing design, requiring the home-owner to change what they want to get smoothly operable windows
- Two more were damage in transit (from someplace to someplace) most likely
- One had non-existent QC at the factory.
That's 9 problems in 16 sashes. That's not a good score, is it?
But, all of the problems are in the process of getting addressed, and we like our new windows very much.
Oh, and since I was on the phone with them half of the day, I finally remembered to locate our order number for the windows at the old house and get a replacement framed screen ordered. These windows are 13 years old, with a lifetime warranty on certain things, the screens being one of those things. It had gotten broken years ago and we threw it away. Since we're moving out now, we thought we should probably replace that full-size screen finally. And it's completely free, we just have to find a way to go pick it up when it arrives at the distributor. (David, truck, please?)
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Going with the flow
You may be wondering what we've been up to. "A lot of different, exhausting things" would be the answer.
But the title of the post pretty much sums up my life (and the new house) lately: going with the flow.
The Jeld-Wen push-out casement windows across the front porch were installed pretty much without incident. We like them very much. So does the cat, who prefers to enter through windows rather than doors, a trick Roy taught her.
To bring you up to date, we've been working every weekend with our "hired hands": Douglas, Andrew, and Will (not all at once, usually 1-2 workers in 2 or 3 sessions). We've tackled yard work and more yard work, and more and more and more digging out of tree roots to expose them for whacking on. Ever tried to kill an elm tree by cutting it down and grinding out its stump below the surface of the soil so you can't even tell there was a tree there? Well, that just makes it that much more determined to live, so it sends up scads of suckers all over the place, and in a ring around the buried deep stump remains. Same with crape myrtles. And we had lots of both. And we've been painting stuff inside.
But, back to the subject matter. We were rolling merrily along on Memorial Day when Roy & Andrew started to take down the cabinets in the utility room (the ones covering up the window and routing the dryer vent out said window)...and there was nasty mold on the wall and ceiling behind two of the cabinets. Yeah, I said MOLD. Andrew went home at the end of his shift, Roy & I went home and had lunch, stunned, then we returned and cut out a stud cavity so we'd have a better idea of what we were looking at. Turns out it would be more mold of many hues, on the front and back of the interior sheetrock, exterior sheetrock, studs, insulation, etc. That was beyond our abilities to clean up properly, so we called in a mold assessment consultant for a remediation plan.
Why did we have a room full of mold you ask? Well, as it turns out, the vent stack for the washing machine was installed completely bass-ackwards, with the flange of the vent above the shingles in the valley, so that when it rained, the water just poured into the wall cavity. Oh, and the stack had no "leading" either, but that was a secondary issue.
The good news is, the mold situation has just been cleaned up and we received our remediation certificate last night.
That one roof issue led to us calling in a roofer to inspect the entire roof. We'll suffice it to say that $875 later, all of the leading on the vent stacks has been replaced (the squirrels had chewed through all of them!), the central heater has a correct vent that won't be pumping noxious CO into our attic all winter, and I forget what else.
The good news is, our shingles are in good shape.
So, what else...oh, yes, on June 14, we were supposed to get our new countertops. On June 13 at 3pm, I called to confirm they were coming and they were. At 5pm, I received a frantic phone call from the company...there had been an accident. The forklift operator had backed into the rack containing our countertops. I just started laughing, which confused the poor lady. What else was I going to do? I was still in shock from the mold and trying to deal with that.
Then, last Friday, when I was meeting with the mold consultant for the follow-up air sample testing, our Simonton windows were delivered to the house, with the owner of the company we bought them from on site to receive them...and he asks, "so, would you like a tan window for your front bedroom?"...yes, 8 of the 9 windows were appropriately white, like we'd ordered, but the last one we'd changed the design of, had defaulted to tan, and he hadn't caught it. So, no new front bedroom window for now.
And that brings us up to June 29, when the first of the Simonton windows will be installed. We can't wait!
But the title of the post pretty much sums up my life (and the new house) lately: going with the flow.
The Jeld-Wen push-out casement windows across the front porch were installed pretty much without incident. We like them very much. So does the cat, who prefers to enter through windows rather than doors, a trick Roy taught her.
To bring you up to date, we've been working every weekend with our "hired hands": Douglas, Andrew, and Will (not all at once, usually 1-2 workers in 2 or 3 sessions). We've tackled yard work and more yard work, and more and more and more digging out of tree roots to expose them for whacking on. Ever tried to kill an elm tree by cutting it down and grinding out its stump below the surface of the soil so you can't even tell there was a tree there? Well, that just makes it that much more determined to live, so it sends up scads of suckers all over the place, and in a ring around the buried deep stump remains. Same with crape myrtles. And we had lots of both. And we've been painting stuff inside.
But, back to the subject matter. We were rolling merrily along on Memorial Day when Roy & Andrew started to take down the cabinets in the utility room (the ones covering up the window and routing the dryer vent out said window)...and there was nasty mold on the wall and ceiling behind two of the cabinets. Yeah, I said MOLD. Andrew went home at the end of his shift, Roy & I went home and had lunch, stunned, then we returned and cut out a stud cavity so we'd have a better idea of what we were looking at. Turns out it would be more mold of many hues, on the front and back of the interior sheetrock, exterior sheetrock, studs, insulation, etc. That was beyond our abilities to clean up properly, so we called in a mold assessment consultant for a remediation plan.
Why did we have a room full of mold you ask? Well, as it turns out, the vent stack for the washing machine was installed completely bass-ackwards, with the flange of the vent above the shingles in the valley, so that when it rained, the water just poured into the wall cavity. Oh, and the stack had no "leading" either, but that was a secondary issue.
The good news is, the mold situation has just been cleaned up and we received our remediation certificate last night.
That one roof issue led to us calling in a roofer to inspect the entire roof. We'll suffice it to say that $875 later, all of the leading on the vent stacks has been replaced (the squirrels had chewed through all of them!), the central heater has a correct vent that won't be pumping noxious CO into our attic all winter, and I forget what else.
The good news is, our shingles are in good shape.
So, what else...oh, yes, on June 14, we were supposed to get our new countertops. On June 13 at 3pm, I called to confirm they were coming and they were. At 5pm, I received a frantic phone call from the company...there had been an accident. The forklift operator had backed into the rack containing our countertops. I just started laughing, which confused the poor lady. What else was I going to do? I was still in shock from the mold and trying to deal with that.
Then, last Friday, when I was meeting with the mold consultant for the follow-up air sample testing, our Simonton windows were delivered to the house, with the owner of the company we bought them from on site to receive them...and he asks, "so, would you like a tan window for your front bedroom?"...yes, 8 of the 9 windows were appropriately white, like we'd ordered, but the last one we'd changed the design of, had defaulted to tan, and he hadn't caught it. So, no new front bedroom window for now.
And that brings us up to June 29, when the first of the Simonton windows will be installed. We can't wait!
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