ATTC: Episode 6, The end

It's never really the end, but for the sake of time and letting everyone know what's going on at the house, we'll make this the end of this story.  I was strongly leaning toward the Pete's.  I liked the effort they put in at the start and their willingness to work with me.  As the process went on, I was trying to hammer down all the details, no small task on a project this big.  I asked a few times for things to be added to or removed from the bid and there were some things that were consistently ignored.  After asking about the bathroom window three times without any acknowledgement of it from them, I was starting to lose faith.  The final straw was when I asked about the permits for the project and he told me that I would not need any permits.  Ok.  Done.  That's it, thanks for playing, but pass.  I believe the last communication with the Pete's was my e-mail asking if I really didn't need permits.  I didn't get a response, but I didn't press the issue because I was done with them and back to hiring individual subs.

I met with various subs:  electricians, plumbers, stucco guys, roofers, window guys, and got an idea of the cost (a lot).  I even met with another general who I liked a bit, but his round about refusal to let me meet with the electrician put me off.  He would not give me his name and said I would deal with him (the general) as far as the placement of plugs, switches, etc.  I was annoyed because I would much rather deal with the electrician straight up than have to go through a middle man, but also a little suspicious that his electrician might be one I already met with (who I had been referred to by the same guy as the general) whose bid was lower than the general's.  Ultimately, that and the fact that his overall number was too high brought me back to subs and I hired an electrician the next day.

Now most of the rough in is done!  He's just waiting for a few framing things that I need to do.  I will likely have the general I met with last do that work (that's what I called him for in the first place anyway).

I was hoping to have Christmas decorations there this year, but I don't think I'll be able to do that.  I'm still pushing for that, though.  We'll see how it goes and I'll let you know.

Once you start, it's hard to stop

Demo really is addictive.  After the kitchen wall, I wanted to take down the entertainment center in the living room.

My friend Nicole came over and was the dedicated smasher, while I did a lot of the transport of the removed materials.

In all we were completely done in about 40 minutes.  I was impressed.

The thing was only secured to the wall in about 6 places.  A few screws unscrewed and a few well placed hammer strikes and it was done.

The next day I decided to take down the rest of the bathroom walls.  This took a lot more effort, but it was satisfying to get it all done.

I was also excited I could take it down and not damage my new toilet.  Because of all the termite droppings and possible moisture damage I found at the top of the wall, I will take down the ceiling soon as well.

And for good measure, I got a reminder of why I need a full rewire of the house.

I don't know the exact application for electrical tape, but I know it is not the way it was done in the walls of my house.

Down with walls

You may remember that there is a wall dividing my tiny kitchen from my small dining area.  My plan was to remove it.  See it here on the left.

The plan was to remove the back half of it, from the doorway back.  Here's a view from in the kitchen.

With all the back and forth I was doing with the contractors, I just figured I'd start the wall demo myself.  Dad took a day off work and we brought the tools to take the wall down.

The wall is make of plaster and a knotted backer board and it weighs a ton.  A 2ft by 2ft section probably weighs 15 pounds.  We had to take it down in small sections and had to be careful not to let it slam on the hardwood floors.

You might notice all the cardboard in the foreground (though it is buried pretty well under plaster).  The finished product looked pretty good.  We left a bit of it because we weren't 100% sure that it was not load bearing.

Here's hoping it's not, because if it is we probably should have left the door frame in.  I have a structural engineer coming out soon to let me know for certain.

I also decided to open the window back up into the bathroom.

 

It didn't take too long but it did leave a big mess in the tub.

We brought some plywood from home and screwed it on the outside of the house to block the giant hole we had reopened.

The fun story of the day regards this tiny little thing.

When we got there, it was a one foot section of copper pipe that had been folded over onto the floor.  In the process of taking the wall, a chunk of plaster fell on it an dented it further, right at the floor level.  While cleaning, Dad bent it back and being thin copper, it immediately broke and started spraying water into the kitchen.  I ran and turned the water off to the house and we decided it was a good time to break for lunch.  We stopped by Home Depot on our way back and spent 15 minutes trying to secure this on the end of the pipe, that was now deformed and level with the floor.  That whole time my job was to hold the tiny bit of pipe above the floor, because if I let go it would pop under the floor and the only way to get to it would be to crawl under the house.  Good times!  Fortunately it didn't come to that and after stretching the cramp out of my hand I was able to get back to work.

ATTC, Episode 5: The Phone Call

Ok, so I know that it has been way too long since I have updated my blog.  If there is anyone left that actually checks it, I am sorry for that.  In the next few posts I'm going to try to sum up the last couple months and get you all back up to speed.

One morning, about a week after my last meeting with the different contractors, I received a phone call.  It was a man from a company whose name I didn't recognize, but that seemed to know all about what I needed done on my house.  He listed them off for "your house in La Mesa" and wanted to set up a time for someone to come down and take a look at the projects.  Sitting at the table, listing to the man list off my projects, I got confused.  I asked, "Wait, when did I call you?"
"Oh, we contacted you about a month ago," was the response.
Well that doesn't sound right.  I really didn't think I would have listed off all the projects to some random cold call.  I sat there trying to figure out when they had talked to my dad.  He'll talk to mortgage offer guys for 30 min, so he might have talked about the work I needed to try to get some information about the company.  But the call came to my cell, so they wouldn't have talked to Dad.  As I had the next day off and was going to the house anyway, I agreed to meet with someone.  I set up a time for 11:30am.

Later that day (literally about 2 hours later) I got a call from a woman at the company to confirm my meeting for 11am.  I didn't mentioning that I had set it up for 11:30 because I figured she had misread it, and to be honest I just couldn't be bothered.  I had only been 2 hours, the reminder call seemed ridiculous.  I wondered if she felt as dumb as felt she must.  I don't think she did.

I met with the guy the next day and new instantly where he had gotten my information from.  He looked like he could be the older cousin of the Italian-Israeli.  He even had some of the same stuff to say.  There were a couple times I had to hold in a laugh because it just seemed so obvious that he learned of the project from the first guy.  The best part of the meeting was when he told me that he would guarantee the price he gave me if I signed with him right then.  Yeah, I'll pass thanks.

When I got home I Googled him and looked him up on the CA contractors board website.  According to Google he was involved with a company that had it's contractors license revoked for stealing from clients.  Awesome! Also, he was currently listed as an employee for a couple different companies on the contractors board site, most of which had the same list of employees.  The company the Italian-Israeli worked for was one of those that had all the same staff!

There were even two more run-ins.  I inadvertantly set up a meeting with a third of the group for about a week later.  They called about my heating and at that time the Pete's were talking about that as well, so I thought the caller might be the Petes' guy.  When he got there, he appeared to be the older uncle Italian-Israeli.  I walked him around for a bit, but was over it fast.  His plan seemed to be just to stay in the house until I signed.  I basically had to push him out after 45 min, when my walking around, closing windows and locking doors didn't seem enough of a cue.

After that meeting, I was done.  When I got a call a few weeks later from another company whose name sounded familiar, I was not interested.  He tried to tell me I had called two months before (long enough that I might not remember) and he just didn't want to seem pushy, so he hadn't called before then.  I was short and to the point, telling him I did not need a contractor.  When I got home I looked up the company name, and sure enough it was one that shared staff with the others, including the fraud guy.

Exploratory surgery

After the success of removing the shelving unit on the side of the house, I decided a little more demo was in order.  Not wanting to go too far or take away too much, I just started doing a little exploring.  First was the front porch ceiling.  When I bought the house, there was obvious water damage on the boards.

I had a pretty good idea of what it might look like under there, but wanted to actually look.  I figured it would also make it easier for contractors who came to give me a real idea of how it will need to be fixed.  The tongue and grove boards were already warped and came down pretty easily. 

It's pretty much what I expected.  Lots of water damage, and a small hole through all the roof layers.  A tiny skylight if you will.  Possibly install by PO?  He did seem to have an affinity for inconveniently placed skylights.

After the porch, I went into the bathroom and started to explore.  I started by pulling off a few of the tiles from the shelf that the owner had installed.  I thought it likely that I would find moisture.  Based on the fact that the tile appeared to be applied directly to the drywall (not ok for the shower), there is a moisture spot at the base of the wall in the adjoining room, and the shelf is directly across from where the shower head was, I felt my hypothesis had merit.  Sure enough I was right.

Yay!  What do I win?  Oh, nothing?  Just the chance to have to repair more damage?  Damn.  The wood and drywall (I was right about that too) were still saturated with water.  Keeping in mind that I have owned the house for several months, I don't know how long it has been vacant, and the shower plumbing is currently non-functional, that moisture has been there for a long time.

Because demo is addictive, I kept going, moving up and down the wall from the shelf

and poking around the plumbing side of the tub (the hole on the back side was there when I bought the house).

After plugging the tub drain, the tub itself became a pretty good storage spot for demo tile and drywall.

That was all from the small section of wall.  Now I just have to do all the rest.  And figure out were to stop.  This much is certain:  if I plan on doing this demo myself, I'm going to need a dumpster or will be throwing out pieces of my bathroom for the next year.

Demo begins

You may remember a while ago, shortly after I bought the house, I had it tented for termites.  In order to do it, I had to run to the house after work to cut down a trellis that attached my house to the neighbors fence.  I was able to get it down without too much trouble and the tenting went fine.  In the short time I had to take the trellis down, I didn't have time to remove the shelving unit below it.  It was termite eaten, blocked the path by the house, and was useless to me, so it had to go.

This thing ran the length of the garage, and while the wood was weathered, it was secured with the most giant screws and anchors ever.

There were at least 18 of these holding the thing up.  They were secured so tightly, I wasn't able to use my power screw driver to take most them out, all it did was strip them.  I had to alternate between using a manual flat-head that was slightly to small for the job and the ends of my mini pry-bar, but I was finally able to get everything down and off.

You can see all the long screws.  There were 4 of these panels that had to be taken down!  But victory is truly sweet.

Also, after doing a little clean up on the ground, it turns out there is actually concrete that runs from the house to the fence under all that dirt.  I think that's a pretty big bonus.

While I was taking the shelves down, the dumpster I had rented to get rid of the shelving unit, the trellis I had taken down, and some of the stuff I had found in the back yard arrived.  I was using the screw driver to take apart the trellis so it would fit easily into the dumpster.  I was moving pretty fast, just unscrewing and tossing the screws straight into the dumpster.  I did about six rapid fire, but when I went for number seven, I noticed a problem.

The end of my screw driver no longer had the magnetic Phillips head attachment that allowed it to actually work.  I slowly looked at the dumpster and may have thought profanity, maybe tears, maybe both.  I had accidentally pulled the end off with the screw and tossed it into the half full dumpster.  Here is what I'm talking about:

Anyone thinking needle in a haystack?  I thought about just leaving it in there, but I didn't have any other attachments for the screwdriver, and I still needed it.  I wound up climbing into the dumpster, pulling out some of the contents, and carefully picking through the rest.  It actually only took a few minutes to find the thing.  I feel like I got lucky.  A needle in a haystack my be harder, but a screw driver head in a dumpster could be close.

ATTC, Episode 4: Italian-Israeli take 2

At the end of my meeting with the Italian-Israeli, I agreed to meet with him in two weeks so that he could be "the last person I talked to".  I thought he would be bringing me some sort of budget, some idea of how much it would cost.  When we got in the house, he asked me if I had met other contractors and when I said I had he asked me if I was ready to go.  I looked at him a bit confused and said, "well, I haven't gotten any numbers from you, so no."  I told him that I would not be signing anything without getting some sort of idea of cost and I think he was a little surprised.  He spent five minutes taking a couple measurements and writing a basic list of the projects I had:  kitchen, bath, electrical, etc... and spouted off a number.  It was higher than I was hoping for, and higher than the other guys, but not that far outside of reasonable.
 
After he gave me the number, he asked me what I was thinking about the project.  He said he had been honest with me and that he wanted me to be honest with me.  I decided to go ahead and do that.  At this point, the Pete's were the most impressive, and I had pretty much knocked him out of the running.  I was pretty sure that we would just not work particularly well together.  I felt that our ideas of design and finish would not match and that he would be spending his time working to convince me to spend more money.  I told him that I was leaning in a different direction.  He looked at me confused and asked, "What do you mean?", so I decided to make it more clear.  "As in I'm leaning away from you and toward someone else."  At this point his face got all pinched with what seemed like confusion and possibly hurt.  He asked me if there was anything he could do to change my mind.  He asked me what the other guys had done differently.  He told me he really wanted this job.  He was starting to sound a bit desperate.  I felt like I was breaking up with him.  What I was really looking for was a detailed bid with labor and materials separated.  I had asked him for it before, but he basically avoided answering, trying to tell me how his bid included a budget of, say, $3-5 per square foot for the kitchen tile (never mind that I want hardwood).  When I asked him what he would do if I wanted something that was only $1, he just told me matter of fact that he would give me a credit.  I didn't want to waste the time or energy explaining to him that without a detailed bid with everything separated, I would have no way of knowing if the credit had actually been given, or how much it had been.  Basically, the division of the bid by labor and materials is designed to keep him more honest, and he didn't seem all that interested in that.

He asked for his folder back, which he checked to make sure everything was still there, and I told him goodbye.  As he was leaving, head down, tail between his legs, he continued to ask if there was anything he could do, because he really wanted the job.  I pictured him returning to the office and getting yelled at by his family (he said his company was a family business when we first met) for not getting the job.  I assured him that I had his contact info, and if I thought of anything he could do I would let him know.  I was sure to use my calming, "everything is going to be ok" voice.

As soon as he drove away I sent a text message to my friend and called my mother so I could share the laugh.  What can I say, sometimes I'm just not a good person :) 

ATTC, Episode 3: The Petes

The third contractors I met with were two guys named Peter.  They showed up with their notepads and measuring tape, ready to work.  I walked them around and they took notes and measurements.  They had suggestions for the project and asked me questions about what I was looking for, all the while writing everything down.  So far, these guys were impressing me.  I told them I was looking for a detailed bid, separating materials and labor.  The other contractors I met didn't seem willing to do that, but they said it would not be a problem.  They would give me a bid that was just labor, so I could "compare apples to apples".  Though without materials listed, I would need to do a little more work to figure out the exact budget, I was very excited to be able to get the exact labor cost.

I was very impressed with the guys.  They took measurements of the rooms, even measured the entire back of the house so they could give me a precise estimate of how much it would cost to restucco.  They pointed out aspects of the job that might take a bit more work, like the fact that I would likely have to replace the about a third of the wood floor in my master bedroom before it I refinished it because the boards appeared to have shrunk and were separated from each other.  Although this would mean that the repair cost would go up, I did like that they were actually looking at the job and giving me some realistic expectations about what needed to be done.  I told them that I was not interested in non-permitted work, that anything that required a permit would need one, and they were fine with that too.

They were at the house for about 45 minutes, measuring and discussing the plans with me and each other.  At the end, head Pete (the one I would sign the contract with) asked to set up a time later in the week to bring in his electrician and plumber so that they could have a look and get me a real number for how much those parts of the project would cost.  We set up a time to meet both subs at one time and they headed out.  I knew I would need to get and check references (they agreed to provide them), but I was pretty sure these were my guys.

A Tale of Three Contractors (ATTC), Episode 2: The South African

The next contractor I met was basically the opposite of the Italian-Israeli.  He was an older guy, early 60s maybe, that wanted me to walk him around and show him the projects I had for the house.  He had a few suggestions on my planned projects and he seemed to know what he was talking about.  Through the course of the meeting, though, my opinion of the guy swung wildly.  He listened to me as I explained the projects I wanted done.  Plus!  He only uses sub-contractors because he doesn't want to deal with employees.  He's "been in the business too long and not interested in dealing with all that."  Not in itself a minus, but the matter of fact tone in which it was said rubbed me the wrong way.  Also, in that same tone he told me that he didn't get permits, he had the subs do all that, he "didn't want to deal with all that" either.  Minus.  He has been in the business for over thirty years here and in South Africa and is a member of several professional organizations, including one that is apparently fairly selective as to who it lets in.  Big plus.  He was also willing to let me do whatever aspect of the project I wanted to do, and supply any materials I chose to.  That was a nice change from the Italian-Israeli.

So I went back and forth on this guy up until the end, when the balance shifted.  We had been talking for probably about 25 min, walking through and around the house discussing the projects, and he told me about his process.  He was going to get back to me with a budget, basically a ballpark estimate based on what he had seen that day, and if I agreed that it was in budget, then he would bring in his subs for a more concrete number.  Not necessarily terrible, so long as I could get some real numbers before I sign a contract, but here comes the final rub.  After all this talk and walking around, he gave me his card and asked me to "send me an e-mail with everything we talked about today and I'll get back to you with a budget."  Seriously?!  You want me to write all this stuff down for you?  Isn't that part of your job, to take notes on potential jobs so you can give me a budget?  I guess he didn't want to deal with all that note taking stuff.  There seemed to be a lot of things he wasn't interested in dealing with.  Sort of made me wonder how many other aspects of the projects he wouldn't want to deal with, either.

I did wind up sending him the e-mail, just because I wanted to know how much he thought it would cost, but I had already decided not to use him.  I didn't bother to respond to his e-mail.  You know, I just didn't feel like dealing with it.

A Tale of 3 Contractors, Episode 1: The Italian-Israeli

I had been wavering on whether or not to use a general contractor.  I certainly could hire my own subs, but the benefits of having a general to coordinate everything have tipped me in that direction.  Now that I had decided to go that route, I had to start interviewing contractors.  Yay!! (eyeroll).  I joined Angies List to get some ideas and looked up questions I was supposed to ask, things I was supposed to check for in order to be sure I found the right contractor.  I contacted three contractors from the list.

The first to stop by was the Italian-Israeli (this is how he described his background) from the big company.  He was a young guy, early 30s, who introduced himself not with a handshake, but with the presentation of his contractors licsense which he wore attached to his belt by a retractable cord.  He told me how I should be sure to check that the number on his business card was the same as the one on the license.  He would have many "tips" to "educate" me throughout the course of our hour together.  Class had begun.

His pitch was to sell himself and his trustworthiness.  He talked, through a moderate accent, of being with me every step, taking care of everything so I wouldn't have to.  He told me how his company only uses it's own people, no subs so I wouldn't "pay twice".  At this point in the class came the pop quiz.  Sorry, I forgot my number two pencil.  He wanted to know how much I would expect to pay down for a job that was $70 thousand.  Ten percent or less was my response.  He seemed a little surprised and slightly dissappointed when I answered correctly.  All he could say was "very good" when I stuck with my original answer when asked what I would say if they insisted on 20-30%.  I think I aced the quiz in more ways than one.

Another part of his pitch was showing me photos and video testimonials.  The pictures I understand, but the the testimonals were not as convincing.  At least one of them I would have thought twice about showing.  It was a black couple sitting at their dining room table with the Italian-Israeli talking from behind the camera.  It was a little ransom note hostage video for me.  I'm pretty sure I saw their hands, so I don't think the couple were actually tied to the chairs, but I might not be remembering it clearly.

He showed me these pictures and videos on his iPad, and he was very happy to say that they were having a special, giving away iPads for jobs over a certain amount.  I would definitely be spending enough, but the deal was supposed to end that day.  He could probably get it extended a bit since I was meeting with him then.  He would be able to do me this favor, but I would have to act quickly.  Not at all suspicious.  A subtle high-pressure sales pitch.  I liked the look on his face when I told him completely straight-face that I didn't care about the iPad, that it was in no way a selling feature for me.  He sort of stuttered for a minute.  I mean really, if I wanted an iPad, I'd go out and buy one for myself, not get it from my contractor.  Put that "$600 value" toward my house thank you very much.

Next he asked if maybe they could do a small job around the house so I could see how the company worked.  I suggested installing a new front door.  He told me it would be $3000.  Now it was my turn to stutter.  Oh wait, I had the hardware, so it would only be $2500.  For a front door?!  Standard size, basic design, seriously?  I told him I would wait to get it all done together.  The encounter also tipped me off that we might have different standards of finish, because I can not imagine myself spending $500 on hardware.

The whole time he was there he repeatedly told me how he wanted my business and the job.  He showed me a packet that had all the information I would need to research:  contractor license check, copy of the license, list of references, their BBB A+ rating and what the ratings meant, financing paperwork and their $2 million liability insurance coverage.  (This packet will become important in later episodes of the saga.)  He let me keep the folder if I promised not to give it to anyone.  You know, contractors might try to steal his information and pass it on as their own.  Usually, you don't get the folder until you signed, but he decided he trusted me.  Anyone missing the sarcasm here?

It was an interesting hour.  I showed him everything I wanted done and he talked about how I could trust him.  It didn't go unnoticed that he made no measurements and took almost no notes.  The only numbers I got from him were for the instillation of my solid gold front door by a small army of magical elves.  Ok, ok, I exaggerate.  It was solid silver installed by a couple leprechauns.  As for numbers, he only told me that he could beat anyone's price and that I should talk to other contractors and then meet back with him.  He wanted to be the last person I talked to.  I agreed to meet with him two weeks later.  I assumed that he would have some sort of numbers for me then.  You know what they say when you assume...

Burried Treasure

I went to the house the other day with the idea of doing some yard work.  I had noticed the area behind the shed was pretty overgrown, and I wanted to trim it back.

I had also noticed that there was some stuff back there that I wanted to dig out and throw away, and thus began my adventure.  Trimming the branches back was the easy part.

Then I had to go for all the stuff.

I found a bunch of random stuff in bins, old toys, papers, arts and crafts from one of the girls that used to live here.  The first exciting find was in the coupon expando-file.

Five bucks cash!  Sweet!  Now I would be looking at every little thing not just out of curiosity, but to look for more treasures.  I checked an old purse and found more money.  Just some old coins, but money is money.

In addition to the random toys and stuffed animals, I found bits and pieces of PO's life.  Actually, of his wife's life.  Yearbooks from Chula Vista from 1978-1983, old pictures, some craft projects from when she was a kid, info from the maternity wards of the hospital about pre-natal care then bringing the baby home.  I was able to put together a fairly interesting story, but don't have all the pieces.  It seems there were 4 kids (at least in the pictures) and the oldest, born in 1985, whose crafts and workbooks I have, was not PO's kid.  I have the paternity papers.  Yeah, there was a lot of stuff back there.

I looked through the photos.  There were quite a few of the cats, a few of the kids, and a couple of the house.  I pulled out the ones of the house, but may try to give PO the photos of the kids.  I'm not quite sure.  The ones of the house show it before they added the front planter (which will be going) and also before and during the installation of the front walk.  Those were informative, answering the question of why the front side of my yard is slightly raised above the neighbors' and lumpy:  it looks like that is where they dumped the dirt they excavated when they installed the walk.

By far the biggest find of the day were the 1976 Canadian Olympic coins, complete in their leather case.  I had to pry the case open pretty hard, but inside were 28 shiny, silver colored coins.  Each had a plastic cover over it, and only the one that had slid out of its spot showed any signs of wear.  I thought these might be worth something, but didn't want to get my hopes up.  They were uncirculated coins minted for the Olympics not too long ago, they might not be worth anything.  I packed them in the car and looked them up online when I got home.  There were quite a few coin sets minted, but they are sterling silver, so there is some value.  There are a few sets on eBay selling for around $800!  I have to say I was pretty excited.

It turned out to be a fairly productive day, even if the side of the shed I had gone there to clean turned out worse than when I started.

To General Contract or not to General Contract

To general contract or not to general contract, that is the question.  Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the stress and chaos of full home renovation alone, or to hire another to take it on for me.

I wavered.  First there seemed too many projects to be my own general, hiring subs for every little thing.  I didn't really know how to start.  Then I talked with Mike, the general my realtor had found, and our meeting made me start to think I should just do it myself.  Two guesses how the meeting went.

There were several problems with Mike.  First, while he had done a lot of projects like mine before, they had mostly been for banks as they got their foreclosures ready for quick sale, or to flip them himself.  I asked him if he had worked for homeowners and he said yes, but when he listed his resume, he only listed the banks he had worked with.  That's great and all, but I'm not a bank or looking for a quick flip.  I plan to live here.  I don't want some quick, cosmetic fix of a problem that I can pass on to the next buyer.  I want to get it done right one time and be done.  I'm not sure he understood that.

The second major problem with Mike was that he met my dad.  Now, I love my dad, and he does know the industry and how to write a contract, so he will be able to help me out at times.  The problem with this meeting of the Mikes is that Mike the contractor met my dad and my realtor long before he met me.  It was the three of them that had talked about what needed to be done to my house.  Key words, my house.  When I had some questions about his estimate, he agreed, somewhat reluctantly I believe, to meet me.  A couple times during our meeting he dismissed my question with a "well, I went over that with your dad."  I mentioned to him that it was my house, my money, my decision.  I would be the one signing the checks.  I don't think it got through.


In his proposed work, he was going to re-stucco the whole house for a price I thought was ridiculously low.  I walked him around to the back of the house and asked him his plan.  When I asked if he was removing all the stucco on the back, he said no and looked at me like I had just asked him the stupidest, most obvious question on earth.  He intended just to patch it.

Yeah, that only needs a little patch, right?  Well, so long as he can get a pink to match.  I can't believe I would have asked such a stupid question.  Certainly you need more than 75% damage before you have to start to consider more than just a patch, and I'm clearly only up to 73%.  As you can guess, the meeting was going well.

Last straw, that really let me know our time together was done, came when I told him that anything that required a permit would need to have a permit pulled.  I am not interested in any non-permitted work in my house.  I want the third party check of the work and I want everything safe for now and legal for resale later.  Don't even get me started on an industry that is "regulated" with a permit and inspection system, but doesn't require licensed contractors to follow through with the process.   Or a real estate industry that allows the sale of homes with non-permitted work and additions and doesn't require the seller do anything to make it right and legal.  Anyway, upon my statement, he again looked at me like I was stupid.  "Well nothing we're doing here needs a permit."

"Really?"  I ask, looking at him sideways with one eyebrow raised in skepticism.  "Not even the electrical?"  To this he said no, because we weren't changing the box, just the wires.  Yeah, all the wires, every last one.

Slam!  That was the sound of the door shutting on any future of him working in my house.  I may not be incredibly knowledgeable with regards to home renovation or repair, but I am confident that rewiring an entire house, even a small one like mine, with require some sort of permit.

In addition to all of this, when I asked about doing multiple projects at the same time, he again looked at me like I was stupid (ass!, I'm getting annoyed just remembering all those looks as I write).  He said no, he would do them one at a time.  Well why the hell do I need you then?  I could organize these projects one at a time myself.  It might take me a little longer, but I wouldn't have to work with you and more importantly I wouldn't have to pay you to come over and think you're better than me.  Thanks for playing Mike, but I think I'll pass!

Emergency Surgery

One of the things I knew I had to take care of fairly early on in my renovation process was getting the house tented for termites.  I got everything set up to have them come on a Thursday and be done by Saturday.  Tuesday I was off from work and was doing some yard work at the house when I noticed something troubling.  There was a trellis overhang that attached my house to the fence on the property line.

The problem with the trellis, beside it being pointless, ugly and bug eatten, is that in order for them to put a tent over my house, it would need to come down.  With it in place, the tent would have to go over the fence which has the double problem of taking it into the neighbors yard and the fact that the fence goes all the way to the back and around the property without any breaks.

There was also the issue of the tree that had at least one branch laying on my roof.  I talked with the next door neighbor about sharing the cost of removing it, which unfortunately he said he couldn't do, but he did say I could hack it up, that he didn't care.  I may in the future just pay to have the thing cut down myself, but that would have to wait.  I just needed to get my house ready for the tent.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any of the proper tools with me on my day off, so I had to stop by after work and race the daylight to get it all taken down the night before they came.  I had my dad put together all the tools I might need, and mom brought them down to me at work.  I had a tall ladder at the house, which I was able to use for the first few feet, but the shelving unit attached to the house was too close to the fence to let me use it beyond that.

The tools.

Once I found a plug in the garage that worked, I was able to get started with the saw.  I was up on the ladder making the first few cuts, trying to figure out exactly what would be the best way to get this done quickly, when one of the neighbors from across the street yelled, "Be careful up there."  Doesn't seem too bad, right?  I mean, maybe he's just trying to be nice, show some concern for the new neighbor.  Doubtful.  I'm pretty sure he just assumed that, as a girl, I couldn't possibly have any idea what I was doing with a power tool.  And up on a ladder, too!  Certainly I would be there all night, or just until the ambulance came to bring me and my severed arm to the hospital for reattachment.  Perhaps the fact that he is friends with PO colored my opinion.  Whatever the case, I didn't have time to deal with him.  I just smiled and said, "I will," turned my back, rolled my eyes and got to work.

The whole process only took about 30 minutes.  I was concerned that it would be difficult because of the shelves on the side of the house.  They blocked my access to the top part of the trellis that connected to the house, and the trellis appeared to be fairly well built.  Fortunately, the wood was so dry and bug-eatten that I only had to cut the boards at the fence, and cut the occasional cross beam, and I could just wiggle, bend and break the wood right out of the screws on the house.

I had to use the step ladder for most of the cuts.  It was a little shorter than I would have liked, so I had to reach up and look up in order to make the cuts and I pretty much had to be right under the cut I was making.  The only big deal about that is that I was looking up and all the debris from the cuts was falling down.  Perhaps you see the problem.  Even with safety glasses, without which I would likely be blind now, the end result wasn't pretty.

My face was covered in wood dust and other fine particles that were shaken loose from the sawing and pulling down of the trellis.  I was very happy with the end result of the house, though.  I was able to clear a spot for the tent to fall.  I knew that it could be a while before I was able to dump the remains of the trellis, so I dragged them into the garage so that they would get tented too.  I didn't figure there was any point to tenting the whole house only to leave possibly termite infested wood within feet of it.

I also took down a branch that was laying on my roof.  It turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought.  Cutting through the 2 inch diameter branch near the trunk of the tree, I pulled and pulled until I wound up with this...

I think I actually heard my roof sigh in relief.  It was a pretty exciting evening.  The neighbors 3 year old daughter thought so too.  She poked her head out every so often to watch what I was doing, running from front to back and letting her parents know, "I can see Olivia from back here!"

The next day at work I got a call saying they couldn't find the key to the house.  They had asked me to hide a key so that they could get into the house, so I had done that.  Without access to the house, they could not tent.  The first call was from the guy in the office, saying his guys had told him they couldn't find the key.  He asked me if they could call me back so that I could describe my hiding spot to the people actually at the house.  A few minutes later I got a call from the guys at the house.  I told them exactly where I hid it, and they said they had checked, but hadn't found it.  I knew exactly what the problem was:  they were looking for a house key.  My house doesn't have front door hardware, so the front as well as the garage are locked with padlocks, the keys to which are much smaller than a standard front door key, only about as big as a mailbox key.  I told him again where to look and informed him of what he was looking for and he said he would try again.  His tone did not convey much expectation of discovery or faith in my competence.  Twenty minutes later he called to let me know they had found it and had started.  I told you I put the key there!

I went by after work and everything had been started.

Now it is all done and I can move on to the heavy work.  It's nice to know that the termites are gone, along with any other pest that might have been living there.  Of course, last time I visited the house, there were quite a few flys and a not so great smell coming from the attic.  It seems I may still need to deal with a few of the other pests.