The Addition - Additional Woes

Today is May 23, so fully into the 3rd month of this agonizingly slow-going project to build an upstairs bedroom and bathroom in my house.

At the moment, I am having a meltdown.

Last Thursday, the electrician's helper and his helper came to do the electrical trimout, which was not completed by the first two electricians on the job. They did their best, I presume, but still outstanding is the issue of the light in the stairway that has no switch downstairs. After several days, the contractor's calls to him have not been returned.

The electrician's helper and I had located the electrical outlet that was buried under the stucco by the stucco people. About 25 holes were made while trying to find it and they have to be repaired. However, after a full week, the stucco person has not returned the contractor's calls regarding repairing the holes.

Also last Thursday, the roofer came - after the roofing contractor indicated that I should pay his employee to come and stop the leaks on the roof that they were already paid to fix before. - When he arrived, I said we have the 3 areas of the leaks marked in the attic. I had already pulled down the attic ladder but he declined to go up to look at the marked areas. I had stated that one was on the roof by the furnace vent - which they had installed. Another was near the corner of the flashing and I pointed to a shingle that seemed to be lifted up, and said that maybe the water was running under it. - Without ever going to the attic, the man came to the front door and said he had fixed all of the leaks. At that time, I asked again if he wanted to double check in the attic. He did not.

Yesterday, it rained; last night it rained harder. My husband found water in the bucket in the attic under the leak near the furnace vent. In my bedroom, in the area of the leak described near the flashing, I could hear water dripping into the bucket. [With all of the leaks, it seems to depend on which direction the rain is blowing.]

I've noticed that when people are called back to fix something, they are defensive - or is it passive-aggressive?

May 24 --- THE PAINTERS. They came here for the first time on April 14, which was the end of week three. They were supposed to do all of the priming and painting and then come back about A WEEK later and do their trimout. By that time, the floors were supposed to be in and the quarter round molding on. At that time, they could touch-up, paint the woodwork, etc. But on the first leg of this job, they were here for a full week. They primed and painted the exterior siding and trim on the upstairs dormer, then went into the new space and supposedly prepped. This was followed by the ceilings being sprayed and the walls painted. The crown molding and the trim around the window was was also primed and painted. The game plan when the painters left on Friday, the end of that week, was that they would come back the following Thursday, which would be April 24. The contractor stated that he was having the electrician come to do his trimout on Saturday and the plumber would follow in 3 or 4 days. He said he was planning to have this job done by the end of the week after the painters were done. So he was saying that he was planning to have everything done by about April 25.

This all changed when the contractor could not manage to get the stairs built and the stairwell floor done.

To reiterate, today is May 24 and things are not done.

When the painters left the first time, I knew they had not been able to work in the stairwell but I was told by one that the upstairs was done except for the molding around the floor, which would be painted after the flooring was put down and the quarter-round added. Upon hearing that, I pointed out some things that I didn't think looked good - but they were left that way. Later, in preparation for their return, I went up and put post-it stickers on more than 50 places that were nail holes, screw holes, dimpling, wrinkles, gaps, etc. Then I was told by the painter on the phone that the upstairs was really NOT done at all and they would fix everything when they came to do the trimout. - Since it is possible that I had misunderstood in the first place, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and also accepted the contractor's word that the painters were responsible for the problem areas. In fact, to show respect, I took down most of my stickers, thinking I would let them finish and then see if there were places that still needed fixed.

In the olden days, I believe painters came in and did the prep work FIRST, i.e. patching, filling, sanding. Now, apparently, the primer and first coat are done FIRST, then the prep work.

Long story short, the painter didn't come back to do the so-called trimout until May 12. Instead of being here one day, there was so much detail work that it was clear they would be here for a week. Not only did they have to complete the upstairs bedroom, bath and closet, they had to stain and polyurethane the stair treads, paint the stair molding, crown molding, risers and spindles, and they had to give the walls in the stairwell a second coat.

Since they were only getting paid $500 total for the trimout, I felt really bad for them. They would be here the whole week and the job was much bigger than they signed up for. I could hardly stand it so I gave them an extra $250. - [I paid the contractor an amount for the project and he hires the subs and pays them.] - I also paid the head painter to paint the ceiling in my living room. - Actually, I could have insisted that the contractor take care of painting the ceiling because it was damaged during the construction. The same with the kitchen; I paid the painter extra. We did the bathroom ceiling ourselves. We also said we would do other painting to help out. WHY I felt we should be helping to paint, I don't know.

It was an agonizing week with the painters here all day every day. They even had to come last Saturday, the sixth day -- and then one came back on Monday.

Since the stairs were getting coats of polyurethane, we could not go upstairs to look at the paint until Sunday. [Plus, the electrican's helper didn't have the lights on until late Thursday night.] Knowing that only one painter was coming on Monday - and only to paint the spindles, it was very upsetting to see the problem areas upstairs. The bedroom walls and ceiling were much better and I went ahead and started putting the room together. I saw that they had painted down to the shelf in the closet, covering the 4 inch stripe above the shelf, which they apparently originally thought was unnecessary to paint because no one standing on the floor could see the area of the missing paint.

But the closet was a mess. There were big bumps of mud from the sheetrock installation, really bad corners, and wrinkles galore. - In fact, it was the same as it was after the first time they were supposedly "done" with the painting, which the contractor said was the painters' responsibility. There were all kinds of issues... so when the head painter brought the other painter on Monday, my time was limited. For one thing, the men were coming to put the heart of pine floor in the stairwell floor. - I went upstairs with the painters and they said it is not their job to deal with the flaws in the sheetrock - the hangers were. Case closed.

The contractor eventually came this week and he said it IS the painter's responsibilty. - Ultimately, it is the up to the contractor to see that it is done and done right. - But shouldn't he and HIS painters have been on the same page with this? - OF COURSE! But the contractor NEVER checked any of the work of the subs and obviously didn't resolve the issue with the painters. It seems like they are afraid to rock each other's boat because of leads to future jobs; the painter and contractor are both sources of new work.

Getting back to the paint matter, I remember that the sheetrock guys had worked 20 hours on the weekend because the contractor was going to start his trimout on Monday, April 7. Didn't happen. And I recalled that to save himself some money, the young sheet rock hanger had done the finishing himself rather than having to pay his regular finisher. That probably explains why there were so many flaws.. I like the sheetrock hanger and he worked very hard. If the contractor had told him he needed to come back and clean some things up, he certainly would have... But the contractor never really looked at the job and when I raised the subject, each time he said the painters would take care of it.

So while the contractor and the subs wobbled about who is responsible for what, time is flying and I am not close to being done with this addition.

The contractor came this week and proceeded to sand and spackle some of the sheetrock issues. He also tried to straighten the bathroom vanity cabinet under the vanity sink. The cabinet is now damaged, the quarter round has to be redone, and most of the bathroom has to be painted because of the mess incurred. The sink is sitting on the vanity better now but it is not exactly right, leaving the cabinet off-center. - He also did something to stop the toilet from leaking, and he put up the tissue & towel holders, and drilled holes for the cabinet pulls. By the time he was done, the bathroom floor was dirty and wet and had to be cleaned. As I did that, I noticed that one of the tiles around the toilet is cracked. And while sitting on the toilet seat, the first thing I noticed is that the wall between the bedroom and bathroom caused the line of tile in the bathroom to be off about 3/4 of an inch, from one end to the other.

Everything seems damaged!

Did I mention that the contractor put all of his tools on my $300 bedspread?

Well, he first said he is coming on Monday, Memorial Day, to do the threshhold for the back door and do the brick step. Now, he said it will be Tuesday. In addition to that, he said he is coming here on Tuesday with the one painter and they are going to repair and paint everything right this time. He said he will also have the electrician (or helper) here AND the man who will sand and stain the heart of pine floor in the stairwell floor. THAT WILL BE A GOOD TRICK! But typical of the planning of this contractor. How can the floor person do the staining if there are people working in the area painting, etc.

Not trusting a word he says at this point, and knowing that he makes messes wherever he works, we are fed up! We have given all of the workers chance after chance to do things right... and now we are going to do most of the rest by ourselves, even thopugh so many aspects of the poor workmanship are irreparable. They would have been perfectly happy to walk away and leave things done in a half-assed manner - and just hope we were too dumb to notice. - I mean, really, should I have had to tell the contractor that the three bottom steps were so slanted to the back - by 3/4 of an inch - that it was a hazard? Should I have had to point out the various errors made during this construction? He is the supervisor that I paid to oversee this job. - All I can say is that if I had been this careless, casual and incompetent during my working career (nurse), there would have been dead bodies.

May 25 -- In the new bathroom, we are going to redo the quarter round that he broke and then caulked. - That was acceptable to him but not to me; it is a reflection of the inferior quality of work he does. We will have to live with the vanity sink that is not on quite right... and the cracked floor tile... and the tile line that way off... and the wall under the sink that is built with a half gallon of spackle.

We are also going to paint the areas that the contractor sanded and spackled. I cringe to think of him in the new addition with a can of paint. He would probably sit the paint can on my new comforter!

All he will have to do upstairs is put the reducer strip between the bedroom and bathroom. - He said last Wednesday that he would do the punch list on Thursday and would arrive at 7:30; he arrived at noon and wrestled with the sink and did a few other things as quickly as possible. He said he would do the reducer strip on Friday. He came at noon and he did have the strip with him. He even carried it upstairs! However, he could not put it in because he had not brought his table saw to cut it with. So, that is put off until some future time.

He also said he was going to adjust the air conditioner valves or something in an effort to make the room cooler. He said that for two days and he left both days without doing it.

I already told about my discovery a few weeks ago that no insulation was put around the bathtub. We eventually did that ourselves. Then I realized this week that there the heat from the attic was actually UNDER the new floor, which is elevated from the attic floor. There is insulation below the space (above the downstairs ceiling) but none in the space. SO, I thought it was a good idea to somehow put insulation in the space and also try to seal off the space from the attic heat. - First, the contractor kept saying that there was already insulation under the room... There is, but not in the space directly under the floor. - So he said he would seal off the space from the attic. - My husband decided that insulation should be stuffed into the spaces between the floor boards of the room so he did that. He also put a skirt around, to try to keep the attic heat out of the space.

STUCCO - The 25 holes in the stucco that were made while searching for the buried electrical outlet were supposed to be repaired yesterday. On Friday, a week after he first called the stucco people, he said "They will be here tomorrow morning." Gullible as ever, I waited in good faith for them to appear on Saturday. Naturally, they never came and never called.

This kind of inconsiderate and disrespectful behavior is not uncommon, particularly since Hurricane Katrina. The workers have so much work that they can keep moving on without worrying about the satisfaction of the customers they leave behind. So sad. - I remember that when contacted about doing the job, the stucco man was here the very next day - but is not easy to get them back.