Week 7: Not starting out so well either....

Week 6 was basically a nightmare. I don't really want to remember it.

Week 7 is now starting off as a nightmare and I am beyond irritated, I might just boil over and blow up!!! This whole process is now extremely infuriating, I am losing my patience. Seriously. I am beginning to think, when the hell is this going to be over?!! I am so sick of construction......and the saddest part is maybe, they are at 20% completion. Ughhhh!!! Shoot me!

What's stressing the Lady out so much this week and just pushing me over the edge is the general contractor. As I said from the beginning, designers and GCs never meet eye to eye. In fact, I think GCs are from a different planet. They just don't think on the same wavelength as interior designers do. Maddening.

I think we hired a fairly honest and decent GC. Out of the 5 we interviewed, he seemed to be the most honest and upfront. However, lesson learned. NEVER trust a GC. Never. Write things down, if he says something verbal. Bloody hell, record it on a tape recorder. I wish I did. He has been so far, pleasant and very responsive to work with. There have been a few miscommunications and now I feel like we are not on the same page. Good thing the Man and I are in this together, because the Man can talk to the GC. I don't want to speak to him right now, he's aggravating and testing my patience.

For example, the GC is now [emphasis now] telling us the height of the floor in the kitchen will be slightly (like 3"- which is NOT slightly) raised than the living room's hardwood floors. Hold up?!?! WHAT? I was flabbergasted when I heard that. Excuse me?! That is not only the first time I've heard this, it is unacceptable. Flat out, unacceptable. How can there be a grade different on the floor from the kitchen to the living?! What the hell. The kitchen flows into the living room, I can't even imagine if there was a step between those rooms!! What atrocity!!! I mean, not only is it hideous, it's flat out stupid stupid stupid......Well, here I am venting away. He's going to "minimize" the height difference but there will still be a "height difference". Yo, thanks for the heads up, bitch! [referencing Jesse Pinkman, Breaking Bad]

Let's see, what else has ticked me off this week.....more issues about the clawfoot tub and the piping. The bathroom is more of the Man's project so I have tried to detached myself from it since I have so many other things to worry about. But now the bloody GC is saying he never knew we wanted chrome piping, he thinks "engineering" the drain piping is too difficult for this job, that this wasn't really part of the scope, blah blah blah. Go cry me a river then get this done already. Jeez Lois. Oh and the lighting in the kitchen. I don't even want to write it out, but it's been a bloody nightmare.

Bad week you say? Why yes sir, give me a second helping of misery and frustration and hold the patience too while you're at it.

( I love Jesse Pinkman from BB, love his character, his quotes, his silliness on this show. This cheered me up a
little...I miss Breaking Bad)

Losing patience,
The Lady

Week 6: Another week of hell.....

Week 6 has been a nightmare basically......You have bad weeks and good weeks, this week was a horrible week. Everything is moving way too fast, and if you don't get on the train, the shoot, you're out of luck. Basically, this week, we seemed to be working in reverse and felt more behind than we have ever felt before. Not to mention, the weather has been in the 100s, which makes it hard to function or sleep.....

Things that did and didn't get done:

Done: Demo and framing of kitchen. The new opening to the kitchen, great!! Exactly what I had envisioned.
Not done: What to do about the opening. Now that it's open, it looks so plain....molding or no molding?

Done: Completely gutted the bathroom. There are holes in the floor and ceiling.
Not done: Piping....why? Not because the crew is slacking, it's because we didn't do our homework and pick out a shower/bath valve in time.....oopsie, our bad..... (and for that we have frantically been searching for a vintage shower/bath faucet and valve. Frantically. It's crazy, we should have done this weeks ago. Negative points for the Man and I.)

Done: RCP (reflected ceiling plan) needed to be done, which again, I was delinquent on.....so I rushed and drew one out in AutoCAD.....I hate designing without putting much thought in it. The Man and I came to this decision because the lights are balance and centered. Plus we changed two recessed lights to pendants in front of the kitchen window......oopsie, again, last minute changes.
Not done: And now, we are late yet again in picking out the pendant fixtures....

Done: Wow, finding these shower and bath valves sure was a scramble!!! We literally scrambled around searching high and low for anyone who had these in stocks. Our GC asked for these several days ago and when we went to Home Depot/Lowes, we could not find anything we wanted!! Stupid move again, on our part. We should have ordered something "custom" like this ages ago. How dumb were we to think HD or Lowes would carry such a thing?! Ugh. Behind, behind, behind.
Not done: We had to expedite shipping on these suckers (sucks to be us, more $$ down the drain) and we are now waiting for it in Week 7.)

Done: All the tile has been selected except the backsplash in the kitchen........yes, we are last minute and the most wishy-washy people ever. Can't make a decision on anything....I think ultimately, we want to go with beautiful blue glass tile for the backsplash.
Not done: We haven't bought any tile!! Not one single tile....hope everything's in stock.....finger crossed (kicking myself in the bum!)

While the Man and I scramble around all week and weekend, this little guy is sound asleep ever so peacefully.....it's nice to be a hamster :)

Hoping Week 7 is better,

The Lady

Week 4.5: Demo & Discovery

Week 4.5, still in the middle of the week and everything is moving at snail pace. It's honestly a bit frustrating. I wish things would happen at the house already but it seems like we take 1 step forward and are pushed back 2 steps :(

We recently were demoing the enclosed tub in the master bathroom. Lo and behold, we found it to be a clawfoot freestanding tub!! How crazy is that. It's in fairly good shape. Needs a new glazing surface inside and a paint job on the exterior (which is another vendor I have to find now!! Sigh...).

In a way it's awesome because we literally get to restore an original piece from the house. In another way, we're back to the drawing board with the design of the bathroom after we finished walking it and talking it through with our GC. He must think we're nuts!!

(The Man hacking at the enclosed tub)

(The Man looking at the piping)

Here's a video of the Man demolishing away....or taking out his built up anger....

Plowing through,
The Lady

Week 4: Things are SORT OF lining in place

The beginning of Week 4 is starting off already much better than Week 3..... I can't believe it's almost been a month since we got the keys to this house!! Yikes....hardly any work has been done to the house, only mountains of estimates for this and that. In your mind, you have schedule set for the amount and type of work, but it never turns out that way afterall.....Some accomplishments of this week are:

- Termite work. Check. In theory, we should be termite free.

- Asbestos Sampling and Air Testing. Check. Came back NEGATIVE!!! That has to be the best news yet. We are more than relieved, we are so GRATEFUL that we don't have to live with asbestos in the air and all that popcorn ceiling we have been scrapping since Week 2 was not asbestos!! Woohoo!!

- Bathroom & Kitchen Renovation. Not checked, but we did finally decide on a GC (finally!!) and we're going with it! It comes with a hefty price tag but we're excited to start seeing some changes to our old dingy house. The Man and I designed the kitchen and bathroom together to make it our own, so we are excited to see what it unfolds these next few weeks. Projected time-frame is 2 months. And of course, there will be hiccups as any construction there always is. But for now, I the Lady, will like to stop for a split second and believe that everything will go smoothly.

- Structural foundation work. Not check. This is the only thing that really bothers us that we can't do much about....we are simply out of money to do any more to the house as of now. We have gotten multiple companies to come out and give us estimates, but it's just too much to swallow right now. Hopefully we will be okay with the structural foundation to put it off till next year!! Fingers crossed....

- Shopping......now for the shopping. Shopping for tile, shopping for vanities, toilets, tubs, sinks, etc......this in itself seems like the best part right? Nope, it's actually kind of a hassle. It's now coming down to the wire and things are going to happen quick when construction on the bathroom and kitchen begin. We have to start buying our materials and fixtures so we can all be on schedule. Joy. More deadlines. Am I back in school?!

(The Man's shoe....and us trying to decide on trim pieces)

(Potential floor tile for the kitchen)

(Gray Quartz for the kitchen counter)

(White octagon tiles for the bathroom/shower)

I guess shopping is much better than scrapping popcorn ceilings and taping off the walls and floors with plastic sheets.....One. Step. At. A. Time.

Moving along,
The Lady