Saturday, May 1, 2010

The Ceiling Saga Continues!

Yes the celing saga continues and needless to say, we are not happy campers!  For those of you that don't know us three "willow's", we've been making our way together for years.  Every now and again one of us branches out on their own but we've always ended up back together.  Mother has more experience with more things than she can remember!  (Very small play on words considering she is 89 and a tad forgetful sometimes)  My sister is a fine craftsman.  She just has a talent for making things work, fit and look professionally done.  I have a knack for color and for doing what I am told - which led to me becoming the "caulking queen" in our little threesome.  Yes, I can lay out a bead of caulk like any man's dream!  lol!

Our contracter, on the other hand, is not nearly as professional as we are.  Boy is my sister mad!  We thought we made it clear that we hired them NOT because we didn't know how, but because we are older and time challenged and didn't want to do it ourselves anymore!  But like so many men, they get a look at three sets of boobs, nice hair cuts and fingernail polish and immediately exude that testosterone laden behaviour that screams, "You'll accept what I say and do as law and perfection because you are women and won't know the difference anyway!"

We have removed no less than three items of agreement from his contract, simply because we do not have faith in his ability to do them.  In exchange for those items,  the contracter said he'd haul some concrete off for us.  Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen either.  He let us know yesterday that he will be finishing up on Monday morning.  He also let us know that the ragged edge of the old sheetrock on one wall  could be covered with a strip of baseboard.  Now considering that it's at the top, I'm am hoping he meant crown molding but somehow, I don't think so.  And given that the lip on that wall is not equal to the non-existing lip at the end of it where he put up a sheetrock "patch".... I don't think molding will work anyway.  But I wear a bra so what do I know?  right?

We lost about four inches more of our beams than planned too.  He chose to fur with 2 x 4's instead of 1 x 2's.  He also left a small piece of a 2 x 4 holding up a drain pipe in the rather than band it properly as requested.  Of course I discovered this just as they were putting up the sheetrock in that section on my way to let the dogs out.  He said, "It's worked this long, it'll keep working and it ain't hurtin' nothin'."    Then I got the look.  You ladies know the look.  It's the one that say's, "Go back to your fingernail polish honey, this is man's work."

So, the plan is to let him finish what he can, see if he meets the rest of his contract and gets the concrete out.  Then we'll tear out the messed up stuff and fix it ourselves.  At least it will be done correctly and the way we want it.  I've got plenty of emery boards and fingernail polish to repair the rest of the damage. 

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