Floors Again

Well, just this past Sunday, the floor guys finished taking out and replacing the floor in the hall in the master suite. We are not jumping down and celebrating because there is still an issue with one place. We call it "the divot" - the low place in the area between the two rooms that is not level. I noticed it the first time I walked across that area. We put a level on it and it is not level and The Guy put a ball on it which just rolled smartly into the other room. Good Grief! The floor guys seem incredulous that it happened and said they don't know how it could have happened since it was level before (which it was). They don't want to do anything to fix it because it will be too much trouble for them. They would have to take out a large section of the floor and level the area and then tie into the rest of the floor. Whine, whine, whine. Unfortunately, Bobthebuilder agrees with them. It is really disappointing. Bob did say that "if we insist" they would fix it. We are still not sure. There is a concern that upon resale, someone might think the floor is warped or that there is something wrong with the slab. THIS WILL NEVER END!!!!!

Floor Update

After fits (by me) and starts (yes, plural), the kitchen floor is finally almost ($%^%#$@!#$%) finished. More about the almost in a minute.

Here is the floor removal halfway through.

The piano and pool table had to be moved into the den and everything had to be covered with plastic to minimize the dust. At least we had room for a Christmas tree.

All of the small items and chairs from the den were moved into the dining/wine room about a month ago. Good thing we didn't have any dinner party plans during the holidays.....

We now get to put everything back together. The goal is to have it completed by Christmas night.

oh - about the "almost" - there is a low spot in the area between the rooms. No idea how that happened, but they have to tear it out, level it and put it back together. Not sure when this will happen. They also did not fix the hallway in the master suite, so that will be fixed at the same time.

NO Floor this Week

I'm so angry about it that I can't post anything that my mother could read, so I'll post more later.

New Floor - Part 1

Here is the new floor in the den. No more buckled seams. Yea! Only 5 1/2 months after moving in.............

Phase 2 starts on Monday, December 13. Oh boy! They get to move both the piano and the pool table. Should be fun!!!

Finally!

Well, it's not the landscaping!. The floor guys finally showed up on Monday and after the Guy called Bob the Builder, he sent over more workers and they got the existing wood up from the den floor. That little exercise took all day and here is a photo of the results.

Naturally, Brix thought all the wood chips were there just for his chewing enjoyment, so it has been quite a feat to keep him out of there.

Day two was the removal of all of this wood and glue residue. That endeavor also took all day. Today was the laying of the new floor. Photos to come....

Oh, and we now have about 1/4 inch of dust all over the den and kitchen.

One Year Ago

I never thought I would be still posting on this blog about how we are not yet finished! NEVER - in my wildest dreams. But, alas, here we are. Over a year ago (by about a week) and we still have a mud pit in the back yard and warped floors. The floor guys were scheduled to be here Monday - Wednesday this week to replace one entire room, since the "replace a small section" method failed so miserably. On Sunday, I started talking to the Guy about moving things out of the den. He refused because he said he didn't think the floor guys would show up. But, I said, BOBTHE BUILDER said they would be here and I'm going with that. I ended up only moving a few of the more fragile items. The floor guys can move the big stuff - not our job.

Well, apparently, not their job either, which means that the Guy was right. The floor guys did not show up! They did drop by about noon and said they would come today (Tuesday) and get it all finished in two days (with one of those days being the Wednesday before Thanksgiving). Yeah, RIGHT. We may be slow, but we are not stupid. That will never happen. The Guy asked them if the wood was acclimating in some indoor location (which was not done before and is one of the alleged reasons it warped in the first place). "Ummmmmmm. We haven't ordered the wood yet.". AH HA! It was never going to get done. Why do they pretend? It is just ridiculous.

Well, we are now rescheduled for Monday - Wednesday of next week. Hummmmmm. The Monday after a long weekend holiday. Wanna place bets???

Oh, and the landscaping is supposedly scheduled for that same Monday. Let's go for a two-fer. Any bets?????

Stay tuned to see if you won your bet. I'm betting the landscaping doesn't get done and that the floor guys show up around noon on Monday.

It's Never Easy

Well, the big week has come and gone. The septic guy came on Monday and Tuesday and installed a new float in the first tank. That didn't work as the pipes still rattle. They tried some other things on Wednesday and we think they finally found out how to fix the problem (again). Haven't seen or heard from them since.......

The floor guys came on Wednesday (ah, I remember "construction time" - were supposed to be here between 8:30 and 9:00 but arrived at 10:00) Spent until about 4 or so, including lunch, and only replaced a section about two feet by six feet. At this rate, they will be totally finished by next June. Especially since they told me that they would work on our floor when they didn't have anything else to do. Supposed to come on Thursday around 10 - didn't show up at all. Came Friday morning and picked up their tools to take to another job site. Think we're a priority?????

Bottom line on the floor, some of the new joints are raised, the wood doesn't totally match and it has a different finish. Oh, and there are gouge marks in some of the surrounding boards. Well, THIS experiment did not work. Back to the drawing board. Fortunately, Bob is still very committed to getting it finished soon and properly.

Landscaping is unbelievably frustrating. Not done at all with continuous promises to get it finished. I'm ready to sue them.......

Good news - the weather is BEAUTIFUL and the dog is getting slightly better!

Stay tuned.

Should be a Big Week

Emphasis on should. The plumber and septic guy came by on Friday and think they have a solution (which is really a septic solution - not plumbing). The septic guy should be here Monday to fix the problem.

We hope to get started replacing the floor on Thursday. New wood is supposed to have been ordered....... I hope we do get going. I originally thought we were going to move everything out of one room and rip it all out, sand the slab and start all over again. Turns out they are going to replace sections at a time that can be replaced in one day so every evening we have total use of the particular room they are working in. This is MUCH better - both the inconvenience and the lack of dust from sanding the slab. They are replacing the most obvious place first and see if it turns out well before they start on other areas. Should be tons of fun with a new 50 lb puppy. Oh boy! He's going to love it!

Lastly, after many false promises, the landscape company promises once more that the sod will be replaced this coming week. Wanna place bets???

Once these three items are complete, we are officially finished. Can it really be true?? Only 5 months after we moved in.......

Stay tuned!

You Know it's Not Good When.....

Your plumber calls and starts humming the theme song from the Twilight Zone. We have had an issue with the plumbing/septic since we moved in. The pipes in the master bathroom, kitchen and powder bath all rattle at various times of the day. The powder bath specializes in gurgling in the middle of the night. The bathroom and kitchen pipes generally rattle after large volumes of water go through them, such as after a shower or dishwasher cycle. It is interesting because the powder bath already existed although the pipes were redone, and the kitchen and bathroom pipes are brand new.

The septic guy and the plumber have been out numerous times to fix what they think the problem is and nothing has worked. On Monday, the plumber installed some larger relief valves and said it would either make the problem stop or get worse. Guess which it was? Now they have to get together and collectively solve this issue - why didn't they do that before, you ask? "It's construction" is my only answer.

We have only three things that remain before we can say we are finally finished - this, the floors and landscaping. More to come. Stay tuned.......

New Addition

No, it's not the additional two car garage with the apartment above that we really want, but an addition of the four legged kind. Meet Brix. He is a 6 1/2 month old Vizsla we rescued from a family in Jacksonville who could not handle him. He is from our Illinois breeder and has the same bloodlines as Escrow and Equity. He is totally out of control - so his "addition" to the family is still a probationary one. We have a personal trainer for him, so are going to give him as much as we can to succeed, but if he doesn't stop biting me, he's going back to Illinois!

The Osprey are Back Already!

I was sitting in the back yard last weekend and heard an Osprey call. Not terribly unusual as there are some who do not migrate. I looked up to see one soar over the lake and land on the limb beside the nest next door. I was stunned and wondered if this was one of the local birds just stopping for a minute. Nooooooo! In another minute or so the other one flew up and landed in the nest. We grabbed the binoculars to get a better look. They were pretty scruffy, so we surmised they had just flown in. How cool is that - to actually see them arrive? It is about a month early from previous years, but they left early as well. Perhaps, the previous years were the exception and this is the normal timing. Only future years will tell. Regardless, we are thrilled to see them back!

Sorry for the terrible photo - early in the morning pointing into the sun, but the silhouette doesn't look that bad!

It's Official - New Floor on the Way

I finally put my foot down and let Bob-the-Builder know I was through with de-humidifiers that really are not doing a thing to help the floors go down. There is no discernible difference from when we moved in and my patience has run it's course. Bob couldn't be better about it and is fine with this decision. The floor guy is now looking for the exact same manufacturing lot of the wood. If we can't find it (and are certain it does not have too much moisture in it) then we have to pull up the entire floor as well as the baseboards. No one wants to have to pull the baseboards off - I just don't think it will ever look good if we have to do that. Perhaps I am wrong - we had to pull off many of the door frames and replace them and they are fine; however, I don't want to find out.

I think we are going to have one large section in the middle of the den replaced first so we can make sure that it stays down and does not warp. If that works, then we will go with the rest of the rooms and hallways. Yuck. I don't look forward to this process, but it should be the LAST thing we have done.

Then - PARTY ON - we can finally have our open house. A friend predicted in early August that the party would take place in January. Noooooooooo!! I said. It won't be that far away. Unfortunately, I'm beginning to think he is right. We are getting into Halloween, then the holidays. January is generally a slow party month, so that might be it. 6 months after moving in. Wow (not a good wow).

Manatee

Before we were sidelined by the Halloween Spook House plastic door, we started hanging art - which is the last major thing to be done. All of the big pieces are hung with the exception of the den. I don't want to hang anything in there with the low humidity. It's not working on the floors, but I don't want it to ruin anything else. :)

When I told our designer what color we wanted on the walls, she noted that she was not surprised, given that the same color could be found in almost every single piece of artwork we own. I truly had not noticed - but it is really evident now! I was most surprised when we hung the Wyland Manatee Port Hole. The frame actually matched the walls - who knew?? It looks right at home!

Floored

What we hope is a last ditch effort to determine if the floors are ever going to go down is in progress. We have an industrial grade de-humidifier at work in the den with a really nifty drain hose that runs the length of the master suite into the shower drain. How much fun can you have? We cordoned off the room for two reasons - first, a piano consultant said that the piano should not be subjected to such low humidity and two, it will be easier to tell if the floors go down if we limit it to only one room. The plastic barrier looks like the entrance to a halloween haunted house - hummmmm is that prophetic? The vortex created by the machine working contrary to our HVAC system caused the plastic to come off the first day and now, after two days, it is coming loose again. Aggggghhhhhh. Not to mention, the machine puts out so much heat, it is almost unbearable to stay in that room for any length of time.

Oh, and we're having our first dinner party this coming weekend! Thankfully, they are all very good friends and the disarray will not matter to them (not if we have enough wine - which, thankfully, we do!).

Now, That's Entertainment!

After all the drama, time, two different groups to build it and two different painters to paint it, the entertainment center is finally ready! Whew! It is worth it, though, as it looks spectacular! Photos are difficult as we put mirrors on the back, which reflect the images from the window on the other side of the room. Anyway, you can get a good idea of the finished product. Whohoo - more boxes can be unpacked!

Faux What, Part Trois

The doors to the kitchen pantry were painted white and they stuck out in a turquoise room with mahogany cabinets and darker granite. Since we loved the work our faux painter had done, we asked her to paint the view out our back door on the pantry door. She incorporated all of our favorite things, Equity sitting on the dock, the boat (wine barge) heading out, a pelican sitting on the idle slow sign, the osprey nest, the shuttle and, if you look closely in the clouds, you just might see some mouse ears to symbolize the fireworks we see every night! Quite an improvement over a plain white door! Oh, and she painted the bottom to match the cabinets!

Faux What, Part Deux

In addition to the mural on the back wall of the wine/dining room, we asked our faux painter to paint the entrance, which is a small hallway under the stairs, to look like an old barrel ceiling with a few niches containing some of our favorite wine. Here is the end result. We think it is fabulous and hope you agree!

Is That a Light at the End of the Tunnel or a Train?

A couple of weeks ago, I drove to Tennessee to pick up a couple of pieces of furniture for the house. Many thanks to my mother (and to a prodding cousin) for the marble top table that fits perfectly in the foyer niche! I also took mother to VA to see the baptism of the twins. Overall, well over 2,000 miles in less than a week. Since I have been back, we have had multiple crews of people in the house almost every day - exactly 15 out of the past 17 days, thank you very much. It's enough to make you want to drink - oh yeah - THAT'S the reason!! Tempers are running short and we are damn tired of it. However, it is not over, but we think it's close - or it could be that train! I pray it's the Hogwart's Express coming to take me away!!!

The floor guy came by and tested the moisture again and it really is coming down. Verrrryyyy sloooooowlllllyyyy. He said he thinks it will be several more months. BIG sigh! We'll just have to have our open house party and point out to everyone that if we start dancing and stomp very hard on the floor joints that it might help flatten them out! Any excuse to dance, right?? It doesn't help the floors that this has been the summer of unprecedented heat and humidity. And yes, the biggest drop in the moisture was right around the dehumidifier. The dilemma is this - at what point does the humidity get so low that it negatively affects the 130 year old piano? No one seems to want to be the one to do that, so we will keep it slow.

Anyway, it's Friday after 3:30, which means no one else today. Yea! However, we get no reprieve since someone is coming on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and.......

I think we will hit the wine cellar this weekend!!

Where Are We?

We were out puttering around the lake the other day on the Wine Barge (nickname for our boat) and I was totally relaxed and not paying any attention to anything. I did realize we were getting close to home, but didn't really know exactly where we were. I kid you not, I looked at the house we were coming up on and said - out loud, no less - "Whose house is that?". That's either really pathetic or it shows what a tremendous remodel job we did - or, as I choose to believe - it's both! A friend came over for the first time the other day and said they missed the driveway because they did not recognize the house! Cool!

More Something Old

Here is a close up shot (ok - it's a bit out of focus) of the fantastic job the metal craft people did on the old wrought iron table. It really is an outstanding job.