Waiting on "The Tile Guys"

They began installing the bathroom and floor tile ten days ago.
So far, they have ALMOST one bathroom finished.
Only 2 more bathrooms, a slate fireplace wall, and 1400 sq ft of mudroom, laundry room, kitchen, foyer, hearth room, office, and hallway to go!

The cabinet folks are waiting on the tile guys.
The interior trim carpenters are waiting on the tile guys.
The sauna installer is waiting on the tile guys.
The electrician is waiting on the tile guys.
The countertop fabricator is waiting on the tile guys.
It seems EVERYONE is waiting on the tile guys.
Waiting....
Waiting...
Waiting...
I feel like singing the Heinz ketchup commercial "Anticipation is making me wait..." But, it's not anticipation - it's "the tile guys".

My builder assures me that "the tile guys" actually kick other subcontractors out of the house if necessary. They are the prima donna of the building subcontractors and always get the right-of-way. He also said that they are paid by the square foot, ours are going extremely slow, but they seem to be doing excellent work - (which gives me a little comfort.)

You'd think they could do some creative scheduling... but oh no no no! The floor goes in first, so the cabinets can sit on it, then (and only then) the countertop can be measured, countertops fabricated and finally installed. The sauna needs a floor before the walls can be installed. Carpenters dare not create dust because it disrupts "the tile guys".
And so it goes....
And so we're waiting....
waiting....
waiting....
Rather IMPATIENTLY.

I saw the master shower, but Lee didn't!

So, here you go Honey... It's not quite done, but it's looking really good!

Interior trim and garage doors

Our garage doors were ordered yesterday, with the row of windows on the top "row" of the door, and we have arches on the garage. Just realized today that it will look just like our neighbor's house. I think it looks goofy, and we should move the windows down to the second "row". See?? The arches cover up part of the windows!

I had to meet the builder at site early this morning... sigh. ANOTHER emergency trip to site. Wish the builder had an OUNCE of project management skill - but that's an entirely different post subject. The carpenter says there are nine different ways to install our window trim. He had a couple tacked up for me to look at, and I selected this one. (It's a bad pic, but do you like it?

Was he trying to be nice?

Under the post Stone Fiasco we got this comment:

Mr. Shawn said... Hmm... your stone doesn't look so bad in relation to the rest of the new house! If in real life it does stand out that much - instead of replacing it - you can hire an artist to go in there and paint portions of each stone so that it blends in more with the house. Basically, pain each stone (or wash it or something), so that the colors balance out more and blend in more.

First we don't know Mr. Shawn. We didn't expect anyone to read the blog other than us really, so this was a bit surprising. Then we read the comment. "Hmm... your stone doesn't look so bad in relation to the rest of the new house!" This could be read, in comparison to the rest of your house the stone is not all that bad - or in other words the rest of your house sucks so badly the stone looks good. OK, we had not looked at that way. If we had not already had the stone removed we would have felt better about the stone..?.. We take solace that "in relation to" is not exactly the same as "in comparison to". As for the suggestion of painting the stone he obviously does not know about Tierny's tyranny -- a reference to the guy that runs the HOA and approves (more appropriately said “overlords”) any changes to the outside of the house. But we could have had a big getting our house stoned painting party.

Picky picky picky

We confused our builder – again. On the form for the garage door (yes the “form” to indicate the style of garage door, style of the windows in the garage, placement of the windows on the garage door, and of course the color of the garage door) we wrote a color, scratched out that color then wrote the same color again. We see that as confirmation rather than confusion. As for the window style we wrote a style that was not on the form or in the brochure. I guess we understand how this could confuse some people. With that clarified, all that remained was picking the placement of the windows on the door: Top row or one row down. Think about Toad and the vertically challenged Fern, this decision was not that easy. The consideration was that for security the top row is better so people like our daughters and Fern cannot peek into the garage, without assistance. Fern wanted to see out through the window so she wanted the windows lower. Because moving the windows higher actually would deter the average Waunakee criminal and Fern ultimately will not spend that much time gazing out through the starlit garage door windows, we put the windows on the top row.

Rejected.... again

We did go back to the house today to mark the closet layout, but we really just wanted to see the new shower. The mud was dry, but were we able to see the floor? Nope, all covered with paper 'cause the shower walls are not done. I guess our tile guys pay a lot of attention to detail, which is a nice change from the builder, but man are they slow. But we take slow with an eye for detail over quick and sloppy. Maybe next weekend.....

This is the hidden floor at the entrance to the shower.

This is our wall.... on the floor.....

Irony

This is a sign posted on the door to the ...... well, the Mud Room of course. No really, it is. This was a bit frustrating since I only get to see the house about once a week (ha, you should have looked closer Toad not Fern -- Fern made me an official poster today -- I have really created a lot of these posts under her name. By a lot, I mean one.) The "mud" for which the official sign was created is for the tile floor. They glue down an orange mesh that has a pattern a lot like one side of a sugar wafer cookie (yes you know what those are http://www.nationwidecandy.com/mmcandypb/KeeblerVanillaWafers.jpg) and then put a grout-like layer with a technical name of "mud" over the mesh. You cannot walk on the mud when it is wet. This meant I could not get in to see the bathroom which is where most of the work was done so until next week, all I was able to see was mud.

Well actually we are going out to the house today to see if the easy closet designs we came up with really fit -- as long as the mud is dry......

Closets Made Easy

http://www.easyclosets.com/ is a great tool for designing your closets. MUCH less expensive than California Closets and just as nice. Free shipping but 24 boxes worth of puzzle parts. The builder will assemble.

What is this?

Anybody want to guess??

Another "urgent" trip midday

Got a call late morning from the tile guy, AJ. He wants me to come to the house to look at the bathroom tub tile. I need to "decide how the main tile meets the stone tub deck". What??? I thought the tiles just "meet"...

As I was rushing out the door, the stone guy, Lawrence, called. He wants me at site to approve the mortar color. I gave Lawrence executive decision-making control on the mortar earlier in the day, but he's very uncomfortable with the sheer power of the situation.

Lawrence introduced me to Neil, our new mason. I approved the stone sills and the mortar.... which I really didn't think was necessary anyway. I like Neil... he was playing some good 70's tunes while he worked.

AJ showed me four different ways that the two tiles can "meet".... but he already said two wouldn't work and the stone would break. Anyway, there is no way he could have explained it over the phone. If he made an "executive decision" I wouldn't have known the difference either. I did learn a few things in talking with AJ though...

1. Our concrete floor in the basement is uneven, so the tile would break if installed. Instead of fixing it, the builder is making the tile guys "deal with it". So, AJ is putting many layers of goop on the floor to level it.
2. AJ made our builder remove the whirlpool tub and drywall in order to install the tile. Guess our builder wasn't too happy about it....
3. As part of the design, the builder put rounded corners on the drywall in our house. But in the bathroom, tile looks kinda goofy butted against a rounded corner. Guess this happens "all the time" and is something that AJ would never do if he built a house. Boo AJ... Boo builder...

And lastly, I ran into Jim... the painter. He ran out of paint at a different house, so came to ours to "steal" some. (His words, not mine.) The odd thing is that he took a 5 gal tub of paint that is a totally different color than we ordered for our interior. It was opened and partly used, so Jim swears it must be on our walls "somewhere". I'll be taking my paint samples to the house to see if they truly put in the right colors... but, I do like what it looks like anyhow.... it's more of a curiosity thing now. :)

We're getting mail!!

We are receiving mail directed to our new address!

The first thing we received was an anniversary card from Sue and Tippy -- thank you!!

I just need to get to every company that sends us mail to get things changed over... a little hassle, but really exciting!

Three subcontractors called me in today...

I had a very busy day at the AT&T office. My PRESIDENT was in from Dallas, so we had internal meetings with him. (How can he be younger than me and be a PRESIDENT????) Also, a couple of customer meetings were on my calendar. I got a call from the electrician at 8:45 saying that her workers were at the house to install the light fixtures, but they didn't have any light BULBS. Well, I had no idea that I had to buy the bulbs for the electrician!! At first she asked that I drop everything and run to the store, buy bulbs, and get to the house with them. Twenty minutes later, she called me back to say her workers moved on to another site. They "may" be back later this week... but maybe not. Geez......

The stone company called to tell me that they began installing the new exterior stone. Do we like it? Do we want to stick with the "standard mortar" or go with the "colored mortar"? Obviously, Lee and I have no idea what mortar choices we have available to us.... we just want to see the stone and minimize how much you see the mortar. I think the guy was afraid to install too much, given we just ripped off a bunch of different material. (Our $3,000 mistake... :)And then, TWO calls from the "tile guys" came in...... Lee and I spent a good 90 minutes at the house two weeks ago marking down the outline of where carpet and tile should be installed. Evidently, the line is gone. So the installers worked "off of blueprints" to determine the space. Hmmm.... that can't be good. I told him that we'd mark it off again on Friday (once Lee is back in town). Frankly, that particular tile won't be here until 8/4, so they shouldn't rush us!

Here is a pic of the floor by our lower level bar area.... I LOVE it!!!

And then, there is the stone floor of the shower.... The tile installer called me to make sure we were "OK with" the stone floor of the master bathroom shower. Evidently, the stone pieces do not come in flush square pieces... they are odd shaped. He thinks you can see the "square-ish" outline of each piece... but he also doesn't like the look of real stone either. So maybe we shouldn't give his opinion any credence???

This is what a single piece looks like....

And what our shower floor may look like...

We just have to get through the floor install, and then our builder will/should manage the rest. I guess this is worth the money we saved going through a different flooring company than what the builder normally uses....

And lastly, no calls from the general contractor... but they installed the arches on the garage, and finished the garage interior, and began the installation of the wood trim around our windows. I love the way the windows are looking!!!! It looks like all of the interior doors were delivered and are ready go too...

Our flooring guy says that everything, other than the main "concrete connection" tile will be done by 8/1/08. And ALL tile will be done by 8/8. I can't wait!!!

July 21, 2008 -- Painting complete

The interior painting is complete! Not sure if we used too much gray/brown or not, but it's DONE!!! After we move in, we can always repaint. I absolutely LOVE my office, which is painted "moody blue".

Below is a pic from our master bathroom looking toward the bedroom:
Pic of our lower level rec room... wall where the TV will be installed. Fireplace on the right, hallway on the left....
The contractors began finishing off the garage today -- it's all insulated and the drywall has begun.
Tile contractors are SLLLLOOOOWWWW. So far, they've only put the first layer on the master bedroom shower. I hope for better performance from Sergenian's in the days to come.. and both Lee and I have spoken to them about it!

The Ecuadorian masons removed the old exterior stone today. Hopefully, they will put up the new stone in the next couple of days

"Trio of Happiness" - Craptastic hotel!

We moved into the GrandStay Suites, Madison for the time between selling our old house and moving into our newly constructed house. It was advertised as having a "fully stocked kitchen" and a "one bedroom suite with a queen-sized bed". Wow. Truth in Advertising has been stretched to new limits! It's very, very small... smoking room that reeks of cigarettes, burn holes in the carpet and furniture, and incredibly small! I'm even afraid of using the glasses and silverware that came with the room because it looks so grody. (Is "grody" a word??)Our suite is less than 500 square feet. We have a "double" bed, not a queen bed. The bedroom is so small, you can hardly walk around the bed without hitting the wall! Also, they told us we'd have a "full bedroom closet" that was "wall sized". We ended up with a mere armoire with a single drawer. With the two of us, we have one drawer and two one-drawer nightstands! I immediately packed more clothes for our storage unit, and will wear the same things every other day!

The cat, Isabel, is terrified of every noise in the hallway. He has taken to hiding in the armoire below our clothes. After two days, I finally fished him out and made him come into the main area of the room/suite. He now lays almost exclusively in the one armchair that we have.

July 12, 2008 -- Moving Day!!!

July 11th is moving day for us. We will be without a home for about 6 weeks. We sell our Oregon home on July 14th, but can't move into the new house until the end of August at the soonest. To keep things easy, we will be staying at an extended stay hotel in the interim. (There will be future posts about the craptastic hotel I selected....)

We chose PODS as our moving solution. They deliver portable storage units to your home. You load them, and then PODS will store them in an environmentally controlled warehouse until you need your stuff. With a single call, PODS delivers your stuff to the new house. Sounds awesome.... (but didn't work so well for us - see future posts)

OK... so, I packed, packed, packed, and packed. Lee's work schedule is horrific right now, so I did the majority of the packing. (Basically, he packed the garage and his closet.) I've had horrific schedules when in the midst of a big bid, so I certainly understand what he's up against. He'll have his opportunity to rub my back or unpack... whichever is best for ME! :) We hired Two Men and a Truck to help me load up the PODS. Boy was I surprised at how much stuff we had! We had two PODs, but on moving day learned that all of our stuff wouldn't fit. Cripes. I ended up calling around to find an additional storage unit on moving day -- and on my seventh call, I finally found one. (Who knew "storage" was such a lucrative business right now?)

Moving day brought heavy severe thunderstorms. Much of the inside of the POD got wet. All the more reason for an additional storage unit to house the patio furniture, lawn mower, and grill. It didn't matter, because we needed the space!

Anyway, we finally got everything packed up by 7pm on Friday. Saturday we cleaned the old house, hosed out the garage, and touched up the interior paint. PODS picked up our units on Saturday, and we were officially "homeless". PODS does have a cool way of moving their units... see the pics above. They have a hydraulic lift that surrounds the unit, then lifts it onto a flatbed truck. Every wheel has it's own lift, which is awesome. (I do find power tools and mechanical stuff to be cool. Gotta love that Podzilla!!!)

July 12, 2008 - Stone fiasco

There is good and bad news tonight when we visit the house site.

Good news: Drywall looks to be just about completed. Good seams, no visible gaps. We even have our mailbox mounted and ready to go! Cool. Super Cool! Below is our lower level rec room: Bad news: Lee obsessed over the exterior stone choices. And I mean OBSESSED. It's all good though, because Lee really has an eye for color, texture and lines. He's really very artistic, even if he doesn't realize his own talents. After spending so darn much time selecting just the perfect stone, the mason started installing it today. And it looked like CRAP. We stared at it for a full hour, willing ourselves to like it. We asked other peoples' opinions. But to no avail, EVERYONE thought the stone was too gold for the grayish brown stucco colors on the house. ARRRG! We can only worry how much replacing it will cost us...

July 8th - Drywalling is almost complete

Lee and I drove up to our house at 7pm at night. A future neighbor is walking her dog down the sidewalk and comments "you have some very interesting music coming from your house." Really? Lots of Latin love songs permeate the city block - all coming from our place. We also had some very interesting people walking around inside of our house! Inside, we find a crew of 3-4 hispanic gentlemen working hard on taping, mudding, and sanding our interior walls.

This guy makes me nervous! He walks on stilts, and when he needs to get into the tray ceiling area he even uses his stilts on top of platforms! View from the doorway into our kitchen. Cool ceiling!
Platforms are on the floor, and this guy actually walks on them WITH his stilts! This is a view of our great room from the front door.

July 5, 2008 - Sheetrock

My mom came to see the house with us. She didn't even know how to get to Waunakee, so I'm very glad we showed her how to get there. The builders have been busy installing the sheetrock. They worked on July 4th holiday and got ALL of the sheetrock installed within two days. Wow! Next the taping, mudding, and sanding begin.

Mom and Lee walking around the lower level rec room: (We have pretty arches. :)
All of the stucco is DONE. Woo Hoo!!
I can finally sit on my "screen porch"!!! (OK, it has a floor, but no door or screens yet. :) This will undoubtedly be my very most favorite room of the whole house!
Our patio -- doesn't it look inviting?? :) I'm always amazed at the trash that is left laying around the construction site.

Plumbing & Sillcocks

I didn't think that selecting plumbing fixtures would take much time. I mean, how many options exist for a toilet?? Well, I've learned a lot. The plumber, (Dave Jones Plumbing), gave the builder a VERY BASIC bid for the house.

It costs $50 per toilet to have a handle on the side vs. the front of the tank. WHAT??? No explanation of WHY, other than they can get away with it. Also, brushed metal finish is much more expensive than shiny chrome. Once again, WHY? Because they can get away with it.

After I received the bid, I was able to argue my way out of $1000 that the plumber was trying to charge extra even though it was in my builder's contract bid. In the end, we came in under budget for the plumbing by almost $2000. This is good because everything else is coming in high!

Plumbing trivia:

Q: What is a sillcock?
A: A hose bib

Q: What is a hose bib?
A: An exterior faucet.

Q: Did the plumber put our sillcocks in the right place?
A: No. And now we learned that they can't move them to where we originally ordered them. (Nothing horrible, just frustrating.)

Electrical decisions

I just don't think about electricity. I don't have high expectations. I merely expect to flick a switch and have my lights go on or off. I don't want to think about the color of my switches... or if my switches are slides or switches... or if they turn on/off the wall outlets... or which wall the switch should be located... or how many switches control a single light... or where outlets should be... or even what darn light fixtures I want in a house. Cripes!!!

These decisions weren't hard - just time consuming. Three hours spent at the office with the electrician and blueprints, and then another three hours on site with him for a walk-through to make sure we got the plan right. We spent a little more on actual electrical work, but it will result in less fixtures. So, it's basically a budget wash. Instead of using Madison Lighting, I found beautiful light fixtures at Home Depot and Home Concepts for a fraction of the price. I loaded them into the truck and delivered them to the electrician's warehouse for safekeeping. Awesome --one thing DONE!

Surround sound and home audio is another matter. The builder didn't include much of an allowance in our budget for audio / video wiring. We decided on a moderate system, which will be awesome. I can't wait to be able to play the stereo in almost any room... even my patio! :)

June 26th -- Things are hopping!

Our kitchen island is framed in and plumbed. Cabinets are outlined on the floor so one can get a real sense of space. We found this quite by surprise on the inside of our pantry! I'm kinda sad that this will be covered up by drywall before too long.
Electrical and plumbing work is underway. This pic is of our master bathroom. (wall where sinks will be installed.)
Stucco exterior is moving right along too! Unfortunately, they put the wrong color in the gables. I quickly called them and they corrected it within a day.
Sometime over the past month, Lee and I decided to change the plans for the house exterior. Originally, the plans called for vinyl siding on the sides and rear of the house. We upgraded the exterior to be full stucco and no vinyl siding. It sure looks nice. I'm so glad we did it!

June 20, 2008 - Front door installed and stucco begins

We have a front door! Below is our builder, Wayne, clowning around for the camera. He's quite the unique guy. He tells me he has a "gay side" while trying to convince me to let him pick out all of our interior colors (floors, cabinets, walls, etc.) Then on another day, his landscaper brother confides that Wayne cuts out all of his pants pockets so he can easily scratch his private parts! Yuck!! Lower level family room all framed up...
Close up of the stucco work. First styrofoam, second tyvek, third a base layer, fourth more styrofoam, and then finally stucco...

Fireplaces and windows installed - June 11, 2008

Pic from the foyer looking into the great room: Pic from the dining area -- looking at pantry