New Year, New Challenges

Happy New Year!! 2015!!

First blog of the year.... here we go.

What a delightful way to start the new year! On January 2nd, our ceiling in the "brown" room aka our TV and temporary living room just fell down. Yes, out of nowhere. Well not exactly. There was a hairline crack around Christmas time which exponentially grew everyday but we tried to ignore it, hoping it would just hold. And it did not hold. In fact, the plaster ceiling came crumbling down on our sofa and rug. Good thing my little Punas were not hurt! So here's the damage:

(Exposed lath and missing plaster)

(The Man was right on it, the next day filling the hole with drywall)

(Drywall puzzle)

(Drywall puzzle with washers to hold down the existing plaster ceiling edges)

(The Man carefully cutting out drywall "puzzle" pieces)

(The next day, plastering begins....and the Lady is taping up the seams with fabric mesh tape, to keep the seams from
cracking as the Man claims. There is no way to put mesh tape up without getting dirty, it's a messy job!)

(just like that, here's my contribution: mesh tape on the seams between drywall and plaster. The Man swears by
this. Otherwise, you'll be sorry with cracks down the seams)

(Tape while the plaster mud is still wet, so it can adhere well)

(Me on the ladder looking out to our street)

Offffff course with any construction or renovation, you always hit a hiccup. Plastering on the old ceiling with a combo of the new drywall has backfired a tad on the man. We got some major bubbling and peeling from the old ceiling (not strong enough to hold the new plaster), so the Man had to remove the new plaster that he just plastered on and put big chunks of mesh up on the ceiling to hold the new plaster to the old ceiling. Yes, complicated, tedious hard work.

It set him back a few days and frustrated him as well. He said he's drywalling all of the ceilings from now on.Sounds good! Plus we got some rain this weekend, which dampened the environment, so we couldn't paint. He finished plastering and sanding/sponging the ceilings but we're just waiting for all of it to dry up to paint.

Patience. Live and learn. Two attributes we will probably come across again and again this year.

Working mode,
The Lady

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