Anyone who knows me well knows that patience is a virtue that I work to perfect daily. I have been working tirelessly on my patience skills lately with this house remodel. Yesterday found me nearly at the brink of collapse.
I will filter some of what I have to say, because I don't necessarily believe in burning someone in effigy when they cannot defend themselves. However, we've hit a rocky point in our relationship with our contractor and it looks like the completion of our castle in Camelot will be delayed another week (that sound you hear is me clenching my teeth and biting my tongue).
And it's all over the floor. The damn parquet floor. The damn beautiful parquet floor. The damn floor that the workers damaged in a couple of places during the demo and reconstruction. We had to have some new wood pieces milled to replace the parts that were damaged by water. For whatever reason it took a long time for the wood to be completed and John (said contractor) didn't think the wood could make it until Saturday the 28th at the least. And this meant that work would not start until Monday, and the floor would not be ready for our big move in on May 5th. What? WHAT?!!
I think Dave and I blew our mutual gaskets at hearing this. Because as of May 1, we are now responsible for 2 mortgages and it's GO TIME to get Lake Howell rented. Grrrrrrr. I guess you can't just sand a bit here and then sand another part there- it all has to be sanded and then refinished at the same time. Oh, and once you put the finish down, you have to let it set up for a few days before you start moving furniture on it. Who knew?
It took most of the afternoon to calm down and come to terms with the fact that we were going to probably lose the parquet in order to move in on the 5th. Bitter, party of one? Bitter, your table is now ready. This just seemed to be *one more* thing that's gone wrong in getting this remodel done. Don't get me wrong, our contractor has been great, and very apologetic over the fact that there've been *glitches* along the way. But I've just not gotten a sense that he's got a fire lit under him to get this work done ASAP.
So we sat down and talked about the pro's and con's of keeping the parquet or installing laminate instead. It all boiled down to we are going to KEEP the parquet in the living and dining rooms and the hallway, and we're going to put down tile in the kitchen (probably more practical than wood in there anyway). This also means that moving day has been backed up to May 12th now, instead of Cinco de Mayo. Bummer, but it's the only way to get it all done and done the way we want it to be done. Victory is mine!
Dave called John today to explain our new plan, and surprise! The parquet work begins tomorrow. I'm still scratching my head over how the wood got here earlier than anticipated, but I'll take it (boy I'm cynical tonight, aren't I). We made a trip to Floor and Decor tonight and picked out a nice porcelain tile in a gray tone for the kitchen. The best part of it is that the grout will be a darker color- yeah buddy. No scrubbing grout to get it 'clean' anymore.
Tomorrow should be a big day and I'm looking forward to it, since it's been a couple of weeks since we had a 'big day'. The cabinets are set to be delivered and the floor work begins. We're getting close and I'm just waiting for the end of the construction so we can start to live in our new castle.
No comments:
Post a Comment