Dogs and Jen: Home Edition

I have not been working on my house much, but I do have  a way out of it. The curb guys filled in the big ditch by the driveway so I can get out. There’s still a trench in the yard, but I can avoid that pretty easily.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that they are putting proper storm drains and curbs on my street. The curbs have been inching closer and yesterday, all the driveways down the street from me were inaccessible because the Curb Guys dug big ditches that were not covered and, in some cases, blocked the driveways completely with rebar and cones and things.

This morning, Curb Guy came to my door at 9:05. I was on the phone with my Dad at the time, so he is witness to this conversation:

Curb Guy: Are you going to have to leave today?

Me: Yes. At 10:30.

Curb Guy: Could you leave sooner?

Me: I could be out by 10 or 10:15.

Curb Guy: How about 9? (note: it is already past 9)

Me: NO. But I can leave by 10. I WILL BE ABLE TO GET BACK IN MY DRIVEWAY TONIGHT, RIGHT???

Curb Guy: Sure, no problem.

So I hurried up because I figured they would ignore me and block my driveway anyway. When I came home tonight, this is what I found (the cone is in my driveway):

It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but that trench is about 3 feet deep. And yes, that is rebar sticking up several feet in front of my driveway. I got in by pulling into my neighbors’ driveway, going across  their lawn (it’s a church and people park on that lawn several times a week, so I don’t feel too bad about it), and making a sharp left onto my spot. It’s a good thing Curb Guy will be out of here soon, because he, like Cabinet Guy, is also my enemy.

So much work, so little house work. Tonight, desperate to do some kind of project around here, I finally addressed the pile of dirt left from putting in the patio. To my credit, I did try to move this at the time, but there was a lot of fresh sod in there which was very hard to dig. Thus, the logical conclusion was to let it sit for about two months. That helped a lot, but new stuff was starting to grow on top, so I knew it was time for action. The wheelbarrow and shovel came out (black widow free, thank goodness), and I redistributed this pile. Some went to the garden and some went to a low spot around a tree by the fence.

I’m going to let this dry out a bit and then rake it smooth, but at least the pile and tarps are gone!

Before

After

I’ve held off on buying furniture for most of the house because I wanted to get good stuff which means expensive stuff. However, I really liked this Hemnes collection from IKEA. I’ve had the dresser for a while and finally I broke down and bought the bed and end tables. I really like them, and it looks great now that I’ve put up curtains, the new Dog picture and some candle holders. The only thing left is to get a red chair for the corner with the floor lamp, and maybe a few more things for that wall.

IKEA furniture is much easier to put together with power tools. I put one of the wrenches in my vice and broke it off to use in my drill (since my allen wrench bits were in the office). What a relief to do that instead of spending all afternoon screwing things in by hand.

One of the few non-Cabinet Guy-induced mistakes in the kitchen was that white caulk was used around the main counter top instead of clear. I want to remove this and redo it properly. I know the basic advice is razor blade, but I wonder (1) if that will hurt my granite? and (2) if that will help get it off the wall. Any advice before I start wrecking things?

…she found this guy to be number six.

My blog and my house work, from laundry and mowing to repairs, have all been seriously neglected lately because of the mountain of work I’m under. I am a few weeks into 5 projects which would each normally take 9 months to complete, but with deadlines one month from now.

But, today after letting my lawn go nearly 2 weeks without mowing, I got out and did some yard work. When I went into the shed to get Chompy, I saw this guy on the ladder: a male black widow. I couldn’t get a good underside shot of the hourglass because (1) he wouldn’t turn around and (2) I wasn’t going to make him.

It is a bit scary that my thought process was:

1. That looks like a black widow web.
2. Oh, it’s a black widow spider
3. I have to get my camera so I can put this on the blog.
4. Damn. Those can kill me.

Of course, the males are not generally deadly, but I bet there’s a girlfriend in the shed somewhere. I did a quick look but didn’t see her. Maybe if I’m feeling brave tomorrow I’ll go out and look again. In that case, I will bring equipment to trap it so I can get a good photo.

The girls enjoyed our work time outside, too:

Cabinet Guy is now gone. My kitchen cabinets, however, are exactly the same. Here’s what went wrong.

1.  Missing Items - Remember how I said that I told him to check before he showed up that he had everything? Well, I guess he forgot. The following were missing:
   1. Two glass doors for the upper cabinets
   2. One drawer front
   3. The side panels to replace the ones he messed up. Keep in mind that the reason he came today instead of yesterday is because these panels were supposed to be here on the truck this morning. Now he says they didn’t come. My guess is that he just didn’t want to come yesterday, and they were a convenient excuse.
2. Damaged Items - three of the doors had to be sent back because they had big gouges in them. Wouldn’t a good cabinet guy check this before he brought them to my house?
3. An extra-stupid Cabinet Guy mistake - This is my cabinet with the trash can in it. Note that it is next to the wall and there is molding around the door.

   

   The new cabinet doors and drawers are full overlay. Thus, if you try to open them, they hit the molding. When we first designed the kitchen I pointed this out to Cabinet Guy and told him to make sure everything could open properly.

   When he realized what was happening here, Cabinet Guy suggested we just cut off the molding. Not notch it - just remove it from the level of the counter-tops down to the floor in order to make room for the drawer to open and the door to open fully. I pointed out that this was perhaps the most idiotic suggestion I’d ever heard. Then told him how, if they could make new doors and drawers that were the same width as the ones currently there, they would open correctly. He was quite impressed with this suggestion.  I had to remind him to write this down.

   Then, I had to give him a pen, paper, and a tape measure to do so.

4. Wrong Door Style - These are not the doors I ordered. I ordered these mission style ones in white:

   

   What I got were these:

   

   Notice that they have just one panel instead of two. I asked cabinet guy why this was and he said “Well the mission style ones would have been really expensive, so I knew this was kind of like what you wanted, so I ordered them like this for you.”

   Ok. So that would be bad enough because in my professional life, you would ASK THE PERSON FIRST!!!! However, his story is also a complete lie. The mission style was 15% more than standard cabinets because they were full overlay. When we were first designing the kitchen I asked about doing the doors like they came today, and he told me that would be the same price - 15% extra - as the mission ones. So this design cost exactly the same as the mission ones. I’m sure, that he didn’t pay attention to what we agreed on and just ordered these. Then, when I called him on it, he made up this excuse to try to cover himself.

   In reality, I like these just fine, but he should not have changed my design without asking.

I’m sure there is more, but that list has exhausted me. It’s also exactly what I expected. It will be at least 3 more weeks before the corrected items are here, but it was also supposed to be 3-5 weeks to get what I have now, and that was promised back in early May. It looks like having this done by Labor Day is not gonna happen, so I’m making the new goal having them by Christmas.

Just got here. Current notes: cabinet doors are not what I ordered. More to come.

Yep, no cabinets today. Cabinet Guy claims that the panels that were missing are allegedly showing up tomorrow morning on the truck, and for some reason he had to be down in Arlington today (about 45 minutes from here), so now he says that he will be here with everything tomorrow afternoon at 3. Do you believe it??

What I really believe is that items besides the panels were missing, too. Of course, I think many will be missing when he gets here, but the poor guy just got back from a week long vacation, so I suppose I should cut him some slack.

> : []

Last we heard from Cabinet Guy, he was coming to install the correct doors and drawer fronts today. Despite repeated calls and emails to set a time, I hadn’t heard back. After my wonderful SIL Michelle emailed today, I decided to harass him with phone calls. He ignored them, of course, but did decide to email me. He says he is coming between 3 and 4.

Recall that I also told him not to show up without everything. After setting the time, I get this email:

Jen,

BY the way I do not have the end panels. They did not send them. there is another truck coming at the end of this week or first part of next week. Do you want to wait and have everything installed at the same time?

-Cabinet Guy

To me, this reads “I forgot to order the panels. Can’t we do this later?” Well, I’m not going to let him back out. My actual response:

Let’s do the doors and drawer fronts today. Based on history, it could be a couple months before those panels show up.

So shock of shocks, the cabinets won’t be finished today. The bigger question is if he got the right doors and if they are all here. I’m guessing there will be several problems. Expect an update from me around dinner time.