Crazy legs, a pain in the drain, and anyone seen the plumber?

Just when things were going along wonderfully well, and it looked as if we might actually move back into The Cottage by Valentine's Day, this week had to happen.

As mentioned in a previous post, the plumber came last week and installed the clawfoot tub, which is made of acrylic. On top of the tub's plastic wrapping was the tub installation instruction sheet. The very same instruction sheet that I later found tossed aside, apparently completely ignored, in the living room. The tub, meanwhile, had its drain installed by the plumber using plumber's putty rather than silicone to seal the threads. Too bad the plumber did not bother to read the manufacturer's instructions, a neon orange piece of paper with big black letters stating: DO NOT USE PLUMBER'S PUTTY TO INSTALL THE TUB DRAIN!!! USE ONLY SILICONE!!! (<-- only bolder, and in a much larger font).
When I stopped by The Cottage after work and found plumber's putty oozing from around the drain, I was seriously not happy. The tub, being plastic, is never supposed to come into contact with petroleum products or other solvents. Heavy naphthenic distillate, one of the ingredients in plumber's putty, sounds like a petroleum-based solvent to me.
The plumber was informed of the above, and promised to fix it ASAP. Six days later, the tub drain still has not been correctly installed. The plumber is nowhere to be found. He wasn't answering his phone or returning phone calls. One of his crew was supposed to come out on Saturday and finally take care of it, but never showed. Some excuse about meeting with his taxman. The plumber sucks, and I hate him. I also hope the IRS sticks it to him, big-time.

That was probably the most distressing of several blunders, goofs, oversights, and other assorted minor but annoying problems that the past week held in store for us.

The Plaster Guy (who we call "Houdini," because we were told "he's a magician" who would have a supposedly transformative effect, hiding all flaws and making uneven walls seem straight again) was expected to come back to rectify the semi-crappy drywall work he did a few weeks ago:


We were given word that Houdini was expected to rematerialize yesterday evening, but he somehow never showed up until today. In anticipation of Houdini's arrival, I carefully masked off the no-fly zones, remembering all the mud that got slung everywhere the first time he came out. The man does not own a rag, I don't think!


Houdini patched things up okay, for the most part, and only managed to slop drywall mud on a few off-target places in our new kitchen.

Another unexpected twist occurred yesterday when the v-cap molding around the sink got chipped by the contractor while he was trying to set the sink into its final position prior to caulking it in place. Poor J. He was very apologetic, and has ordered new v-cap. I know he is hating this sink right now, for this and many other reasons. I guess Carlos will be hating the sink some more, too, since he will now have to come back and replace the damaged v-cap.


Finally, the wood trim around the sink, the final design of which is still a work in progress, had a bit of a setback, too.

Pictured below are the 2 halves of a red oak kitchen island leg that will be used to trim out the area around the sink base. I ordered what was supposed to be a single leg, split in half lengthwise, from a millwork company in Tennessee. Sounds pretty straightforward, but this is what got delivered yesterday:


two mirror-image pieces of wood that are completely different colors! I emailed this photo to the company's customer service department, explaining why this was just not going to work. To their credit, they were very apologetic, and went out of their way to make things right. Two new (matching) half-legs were shipped out today, and the mismatched ones will be shipped back to them at no cost.

What a week!

Raindrop or Cay? Another weekend of painting.

Today we spent our day sanding the cypress ceiling in the bathroom prior to applying clear-coat. Unfortunately, we found several splintered areas that needed to be glued down and re-sanded, and we never got around to applying the finish today.

Funny, other than lots of pencil marks, the beadboard in the kitchen had virtually no imperfections. The bathroom ceiling seems to have gotten all of the defects. The beadboard should all look fine after the glue dries completely and we finish sanding and give it two coats of satin polyurethane.
Next, Andrew started priming the bathroom walls. He worked on the cutting-in while I cleaned out, wiped down, and caulked the bathroom's storage cubby, which is still an icky peach color courtesy of a past makeover by the PHO. With the toilet out of the room, there won't be a better time to tackle this job.

Once the new toilet is installed, it will next to impossible to reach back into this tiny cramped space to paint (which is why it's still peach, even though I painted the rest of the room a few years ago). The gaps between the homemade shelves and surrounding walls have now been filled in nicely with caulk. It will probably take 2, maybe 3 coats of primer to cover the old glossy peach paint, but no doubt it will look much better once it gets a long-overdue repainting.

While we took a break for lunch, we visited our local paint store and picked up a couple of sample quarts of paint to help us decide on a color for the bathroom walls. Rather than applying paint samples directly onto our freshly-primed walls, we primed 2 small drywall scraps, so that we can paint them instead. Have I mentioned that painting has never been one of my favorite home improvement chores?

So, tomorrow we will finish the touch-up sanding of the cypress beadboard, then clear-coat the ceiling, finish priming the storage cubby, try out our paint samples on the drywall scraps, and maybe pick a color and start painting the walls!

Our 2 paint samples (Raindrop on the left, and Cay on the right) look almost identical in the photo, but one is actually a bit greener than the other.

These 2 colors were the final contenders we chose from several paint sample cards we compared by taping them to the walls and viewing under different lighting conditions.

I doubt "drop light," or "flashlight" conditions will influence our choice, but we have seen the various paint samples under those, as well.

Which one will be the winner, Raindrop or Cay? Stay tuned!

New Kitchen and Bath in Progress

The work officially began on December 2nd! The first really noticeable difference was the replacement of the kitchen window. The previous window was so long it came down to within 2 feet of the floor. Since new cabinets are going in, and the farmhouse sink will be beneath the window, it was necessary to replace the window. Here is the new window. Beneath it you can see the framing for the old window. The old window will be saved and reused in the workshop, eventually.

A section of the old drywall has been removed where Durock will go to provide a backer board for the tile backsplash.

We marked with blue tape where Durock will need to go for the tile that will be installed behind the gas range.

My favorite new change so far: the new cypress beadboard ceiling that is going in!

Wow, is that gorgeous!

Yesterday, Andrew helped me remove the old wallpaper border. We figured, better to take it down now and get it out of our way before the cabinets go in. All it took was a bucket of water, a couple of rags, and some determined peeling. We were finished in less than an hour. It's now apparent that the kitchen was painted pale blue at some time in the past.


Dixie checking out the hole in the floor where the plumber and electrician access the crawlspace:

Dixie "helped" with the wallpaper, too.

Meanwhile, in the bathroom....
The new closet flange, minus (temporarily) the toilet. Not the most exciting part of the remodel, I know, but we were thrilled, since a few months ago we had to take out the toilet and repair the old, broken flange to stop the toilet from rocking and leaking.

The new vent stack: