The best laid plans
A few post back in FEBRUARY, yes that long ago!! I posted some sort of list of what we had in our IN tray. These were all the dangling projects that needed our immediate attention. Some got done. Some got diverted. Some were completely forgotten! Here's a recap and an update:
Said back in February: "The wood floors in the living room. Right now the wood planks are sitting in the room ready to be laid. The floor is not ready though and needs to be prepared. We're walking on concrete for now. Ouch."
Well okay, this is a sore spot between me and Seb ...and my feet. I'd like to have some baby-proof floors. Seb says it's a week long project and very time consuming to prep. He also used my mother's visit as an excuse, and now there's the terrace project. Meanwhile we're still living on bumpy concrete with no leveling compound on it. Ouch.
Said back in February: "The roof apparently very soon. Our guy is scheduled to start this month. We have to buy all of the materials including the Velux windows and the bay window for our bedroom. This is a "builder guy" and not a "roof guy" who actually works with his 19 year old daughter. She's really pretty and not the roofing guy's daughter type you might be imagining. I'll try and sneak some pictures so we can imagine why she would want to swing roofing hammers in February and not want to have a career as an esthetician."
The roof project. Don't get me started! A sordid story that is still ongoing. Our neighbor The Dragon Lady attacked our roofer threatening to sue him if he didn't immediately stop our project. She called his boss and said "your roofer is moonlighting on weekends blah, blah blah" For the record the boss knew our roofer guy was moonlighting weekends actually and he'd encouraged him to find extra work, even loaning him the necessary tools. Anyway, Dragon Lady is just that way, mean as a skillet full of rattlesnakes. We had to stop the roof job because she threatened us with legal action too for working with uh err, regular:people. Touché, she had us there and because of this we've stopped for three months. Three month of talks while we negotiate her leetledemand that we pay her for a new roof for the coproperty we share in the back so she doesn't feel obliged to discuss our business with her friend The Mayor. Meanwhile we have 3/4 of a roof and a very shaky promise that Mr. Moonlight Roofer will return to finish the work ... someday. By the way his daughter bailed after just two weeks. She did work hard her first few weekends though but she seemed a little high maintenance, brooding and whining and it turned out that she ran out on daddy before the job was done claiming she was depressed.
Said back in February: "The arch in the kitchen/dining room. This isn't anything major but it's very pretty. We've decided to put arches through much of the house. With our crooked walls Seb is having a time with it. He also isn't here very much so that makes it hard. Pictures forthcoming because it's a great little project."
This project came out wonderfully and Seb did such a beautiful job. He also redid a corner wall and some stone in another corner. Everything looks fab in the living room wall-wise. I'll be posting pictures of this soon.
Said back in February: "Removing the paint off the stone on the front of the house. The heat gun doesn't do very well in below freezing temps so I've been lazy about finishing it. The front of our house looks like a ghetto right now so I'd really like to get it done. I think we're the pathetic scab on the face of the village. The snooty lady down the street doesn't even say hi to Seb anymore (she never said hi to me btw). The place really looks condemned. Pictures forthcoming so you can all vote on whether we should open a crack house or a heroin flop house."
Ever have a project that you can't quite get finished? This is one of them. I'm just not happy with the results so far. I'm mulling over a new method for taking the paint off without so much scraping damage. The young stonemason in our village suggested I use wallpaper paste mixed with caustic "soap" which I might try. I'm worried about having a huge mess on my hands though. If only I could take the stones off the wall and not have to do this work upside down! Meanwhile I did clean up the front of the house a little but frankly it still looks like a crack shack, no voting necessary on that.
Said back in February: "The wood floors in the living room. Right now the wood planks are sitting in the room ready to be laid. The floor is not ready though and needs to be prepared. We're walking on concrete for now. Ouch."
Well okay, this is a sore spot between me and Seb ...and my feet. I'd like to have some baby-proof floors. Seb says it's a week long project and very time consuming to prep. He also used my mother's visit as an excuse, and now there's the terrace project. Meanwhile we're still living on bumpy concrete with no leveling compound on it. Ouch.
Said back in February: "The roof apparently very soon. Our guy is scheduled to start this month. We have to buy all of the materials including the Velux windows and the bay window for our bedroom. This is a "builder guy" and not a "roof guy" who actually works with his 19 year old daughter. She's really pretty and not the roofing guy's daughter type you might be imagining. I'll try and sneak some pictures so we can imagine why she would want to swing roofing hammers in February and not want to have a career as an esthetician."
The roof project. Don't get me started! A sordid story that is still ongoing. Our neighbor The Dragon Lady attacked our roofer threatening to sue him if he didn't immediately stop our project. She called his boss and said "your roofer is moonlighting on weekends blah, blah blah" For the record the boss knew our roofer guy was moonlighting weekends actually and he'd encouraged him to find extra work, even loaning him the necessary tools. Anyway, Dragon Lady is just that way, mean as a skillet full of rattlesnakes. We had to stop the roof job because she threatened us with legal action too for working with uh err, regular:people. Touché, she had us there and because of this we've stopped for three months. Three month of talks while we negotiate her leetledemand that we pay her for a new roof for the coproperty we share in the back so she doesn't feel obliged to discuss our business with her friend The Mayor. Meanwhile we have 3/4 of a roof and a very shaky promise that Mr. Moonlight Roofer will return to finish the work ... someday. By the way his daughter bailed after just two weeks. She did work hard her first few weekends though but she seemed a little high maintenance, brooding and whining and it turned out that she ran out on daddy before the job was done claiming she was depressed.
Said back in February: "The arch in the kitchen/dining room. This isn't anything major but it's very pretty. We've decided to put arches through much of the house. With our crooked walls Seb is having a time with it. He also isn't here very much so that makes it hard. Pictures forthcoming because it's a great little project."
This project came out wonderfully and Seb did such a beautiful job. He also redid a corner wall and some stone in another corner. Everything looks fab in the living room wall-wise. I'll be posting pictures of this soon.
Said back in February: "Removing the paint off the stone on the front of the house. The heat gun doesn't do very well in below freezing temps so I've been lazy about finishing it. The front of our house looks like a ghetto right now so I'd really like to get it done. I think we're the pathetic scab on the face of the village. The snooty lady down the street doesn't even say hi to Seb anymore (she never said hi to me btw). The place really looks condemned. Pictures forthcoming so you can all vote on whether we should open a crack house or a heroin flop house."
Ever have a project that you can't quite get finished? This is one of them. I'm just not happy with the results so far. I'm mulling over a new method for taking the paint off without so much scraping damage. The young stonemason in our village suggested I use wallpaper paste mixed with caustic "soap" which I might try. I'm worried about having a huge mess on my hands though. If only I could take the stones off the wall and not have to do this work upside down! Meanwhile I did clean up the front of the house a little but frankly it still looks like a crack shack, no voting necessary on that.
posted by christine at 1:28 PM
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