Where is the Professionalism?

You work so hard.  SO hard.  You plan, you budget, you shop around.  You get picky.  You read reviews, you trust, you hire a professional.

Professional.  A word that implies that someone is good in their craft.  A word that conjures up thoughts and hopes of a person that knows what they are doing.  An idea that someone takes pride in their work.

I am so frustrated with the lack of professionalism in my flooring installers' work.  It's tricky, too, because I am stuck with it.  And that fault lies on no one but me.  So here is what happened.  I bought hardwood from a local flooring shop.  I then used "their" installers to install the hardwood.

Well, while there, my Dad asked them if they did tile, as well.  They said they did and then went beyond that.  "Actually, you are getting screwed by working with the flooring shop.  I don't know what they charged you, but they are paying me $1.75/square foot to install this hardwood.  All you need to do is look at your receipt to see how much you are getting screwed.  If you by-pass them, I can save you a ton of money."

Of course, I immediately grabbed my receipt and learned that I was being charged $3.00/square foot!  So the flooring company was making $1.25/square foot for...nothing!  That was just mark-up!  So I could by-pass the flooring company and use the SAME installers and save $1.25/square foot?!  Yes, please!

I took that as wonderful news.  I took that as a man trying to save money on a foreclosure flip.  I took that as a way to save another $1000 on my expensive floors.  I took that in the exact opposite manner I should have taken it.

Why?

Here, I have a contractor who is trying to work against the owner who supplied him with work.  Here I have a contractor who is trying to circumvent what is probably written in his own contract.  Here I have a man who is trying to bite the very hand that feeds him.

And I was excited!

And now I have to suffer the results of that decision.

So I'm in a pickle.  I have a wonderful hardwood flooring installation followed by a fairly terrible tile installation.  At first glance, it looks good.  I mean, it had me fooled.  The tiles are down.  But it's the DETAILS where I see the poor workmanship.

The tiles are uneven.  Not terrible but certainly noticeable.  The grout is cut short of the walls and trim.  The floors don't even come close to meeting each other (a couple of inches).  And the absolute worst is the ridiculously awful and aggressive cutting of the doorjambs and trim.  I mean, it's nothing short of horrendous.

Not 1/16th of an inch off.  Nearly an inch!!!

The floor is so far away from the trim.

Can you read a tape measure?

Just horrendous work.  This is the picture where the associate said, "That looks like ****."

Another missed cut.

What am I supposed to do?!

There is just a bit off.  There is poor.  And then there is just a blatant lack of knowledge of how to cut.  This is awful.  From a "professional!"

I am so unhappy with this.

The gap between the hardwood and tile is 100% the result of improper measuring.

Floors are supposed to MEET each other!!!

Pieces left behind.  Look at the gap between the hardwood and tile!

The large gap.  I had to beg over a couple of months to get them to come install the threshold.

Can we read a tape measure?!

Gaps everywhere.

And the worst was the large overhang of tile with no mortarboard or grout below it.  At places, it was over an inch deep.  I could stick 1/3 of my finger underneath.  I demanded that grout be applied below.

The massive amount of gap yet again.

It's literally as if the contractor could not read a tape measure.  All over my house I have trim pieces that do not reach the floor.  I have tile that sits on top of open space (no floorboard or grout below it).  I have threshold that does not reach side-to-side.

The threshold comes up short.  Again, can you read a tape measure?!

I want to say that I'm being too picky, but when you look at the actual work, it's just awful!

On top of everything, I had to stay on top of the flooring company to get the project completed.  I was quoted at 4-5 days for everything, and it took nearly 2 1/2 months.  And that was ME having to call them.  That was me having to keep them on the project.  In that time, I've received mailings and phone calls asking me to pay for the work!  I keep on saying, "As soon as it is complete!"

Well, the work is so bad that I took some pictures into the company.  And here is where I have screwed myself.  Because most of the poor workmanship is in the tile, I am just going to have to deal with it.  I only went through the flooring company with the hardwood!  Yes, it's the same installer.  Yes, if I asked, the flooring company would have also used this same person for the tile.  Yes, I would have paid even more for the exact same work.

But now that I need it corrected, I really can't ask the flooring company to correct it.  Not on the tile.  They can only correct it on the hardwood.  And that is just too bad.

Because the tile work is poor!  And it's not the tile mostly...it's the wood cut to put the tile in!

Again, they can't use a tape measure!

Yes, I'm frustrated.  I worked so hard to make this house look nice, and someone else has now made the craftsmanship poor.  And I PAID thousands of dollars for that poor craftsmanship!

Seriously, folks, take PRIDE in your work.  This is awful.

The Bathroom is (Almost!) Done!!!

Well, the morning started out with a phone call to my flooring contractor.  And much to my surprise, he said that he would be over right away to fix the mistake.  I guess a project he was supposed to do today didn't pan out, so he had some free time.  He was over within the hour, and he went to work right away on the cut.  He had the tools, and he had the problem fixed in less than 10 minutes.

Woo hoo!!!

So not only could I officially put my bathroom back together, but I could take back the diamond blades, too!  Money saved!

I was able to put the toilet extension on with no problems, so the bathroom was ready for a toilet!  But not before some more paint...

The toilet flange extension is in!

 I sanded, then painted the drywall patch jobs and the area behind the mirror.  And, yes, this time I chose the right color!  I also installed a different faucet in the sink.  I had mistakenly chosen a "bar faucet" which meant that there was no drain.  So I took that back to Menard's and surprisingly found a Moen faucet that also had a $30 rebate.  I was going to spend full price, but the rebate printed off at the register!  I should have bought two more for upstairs!

The space was tight, but the drain fit right next to the drawer.

The wall is sanded and painted!  Ready for a fixture and mirror!

Almost ready for a new toilet!

Now ready for a new toilet ffter the paint and trim!

So I hooked up the new faucet, installed the brand-new toilet, installed a brand-new light fixture, and added the brand-new mirror.  For the light fixture, I was shocked at the prices in the store!  But I searched and searched, and I found a display model that was on sale.  I had to help the store associate disassemble it (he didn't know how), but I was out the door with a trendy fixture for $34.99.  I know, right, on sale?!  No box, no warranty, and some dust that had to be cleaned.  But it was perfect.

And just like that, this moldy bathroom that just two weeks ago had nothing but a drab 1991 feel to it, was modernized to a brand-new 2017!  I seriously love it.  I don't know the exact total until I do my receipts, but I think I was able to update the entire bathroom for around $900.  New tile floor, new vanity, new toilet, new mirror, new light fixture, new paint.  That's just a smart move!

The new bathroom!

But just to remind me that nothing can be easy, I went to install the last piece of the puzzle:  the door.  And that's when I realized that the door did not fit.  It will have to be cut!!!  With the new tile, the floor raised up too much.  It's an easy fix, but it's yet another reminder that there are surprises at almost every turn!

The hinges are off!  The door has to be cut.

The door drags along the floor.  Aghhhh!!!

But what a relief.  I now have a cute little bathroom!

I love it!

Huge Strides Forward!!! And Set Back Again...

I love when progress is made!  So much about profitably fixing a foreclosure home is setting plans, budgeting, being frugal when you can, and working your tail off.  After a fairly successful day yesterday, I had another good day today!  Not without its challenges and gambles, but today they paid off!

If you recall, yesterday I was facing a pretty significant issue with the vanity.  The drain line for the sink was sitting right up against the drawer track.  It was so close that I just wasn't sure I was going to be able to use this vanity.  And I loved this vanity after searching forever for one that would work!

So with the help of Pa and Ma yet again today, I measured.  And measured again.  And again.  The choice was literally coming down to 1/16th's of inches.  And since it was that close, did I want the drawer track to be weak where it mounted to the vanity?!  Agh, what to do?!

The vanity wasn't looking like it would fit with the drain line and the track of the drawers on the right side.

Well, after LOTS of measuring and eye-balling, I decided to go for it.  I was going to cut a hole in the vanity and try to slowly work my way over to the drawer track until the drain pipe fit.  The plan was fairly simple!  But in order to make the hole even smaller (and preserve more vanity strength) I removed the drain pipe from the wall so that the larger screw cap end wouldn't have to fit through the hole in the vanity.  I could now just use the smaller end that went into the wall (and through the vanity).

I started with a drilled pilot hole.  "Well, the vanity is now yours," said Dad.  Yup, no going back now.  And then I used a Dremel-style tool to cut my hole.  Of course, it went through the particle board material so easily.  And I slowly made my hole bigger!  And then bigger.  And then voila!  I had it!  The pipe fit through...and the drawer still had enough meat in the vanity to stay intact!

The gamble had paid off!  The vanity was a go!!!  So exciting!!!

The vanity is in!!!

And with that, the transformation of the bathroom took on full-steam.  The new tile floors were in.  The vanity was now set in place.  The sink was added.  The new faucet was installed.  The old mirror came down.  The wall was repainted.  The ugly box light came down.  And that's when we hit yet another snafu.  But it wasn't necessarily a surprise.  Just as we had discovered upstairs with the Master Bathroom light fixture, the electrician didn't really care about the drywall when he installed the fixture.  "Hey, this will be here forever."  "And if it's not, well, it's not my problem."  So rather than just a small hole for the Romex wire, he just ripped out an entire section of drywall which the light fixture would later cover up.  It's understandable...to an extent.  But now I was paying for his decision.

The huge mirror!

Bye, bye, mirror!

Look at that drywall!

Regardless, it was going to be another drywall patch job in a bathroom that was going to have more.  The drywall behind the toilet had been wet and moldy, so I removed a section along the floor.  I also decided to remove the long towel bar that hung over the toilet.  It was more for a shower towel rather than a hand towel, and I didn't care for the look.  So now I had several holes to patch...a job that I don't really like doing!  But it needed to be done.

The area behind the toilet.

So I cut out odd shapes of drywall and patched the various areas.

The long hole is now no more.

I cut out a section of drywall for behind the toilet.

And then started the patching job!  I'm awful at this!

The first coat of mud.

And then I hit another setback.  Such a common theme in this house!  With the new tile, the floor is quite a bit above the toilet flange.  So I purchased a toilet flange extension, but I had a very significant problem.  The tile installers didn't measure very well, and they covered up part of the toilet flange.  So when I tried to lay the new extension on top of the original toilet flange, it would not fit.  None of the holes line up.  This is a huge problem, actually.  The tile needs to be cut!  But it's already installed!

The tile covers the flange at the bottom of the picture.  I can't add the extension!

Dad recommended that I contact the tile installer and have him fix it, but just getting the tiles installed was a bit of an issue.  The more I reflect on the whole process, the more I realize I really didn't get the best guys in the business.  I'm noticing more and more errors in their work.  And after paying thousands of dollars, that's quite frustrating.  I'm still waiting on having the hardwood thresholds and trim installed, too!

And now this.  Frankly, I didn't even want to deal with the installers anymore, so I decided just to do the cut myself.  I tried with a Dremel-style tool, but that did nothing.  I tried to sand it with a power tool, but that did nothing.  I needed a tile cutter for a power tool, and it was worth the expense of a purchase rather than waiting on a crew that I didn't trust to show up.

So I headed to Menard's and bought two diamond-cutting blades for my saw.  And they were expensive!  Nearly $20 for one blade!!!  All for one cut!  I chewed on that decision for the day, and I finally decided that it was silly to spend that money on one cut.  So what if I'm set back for a little bit.  The contractor needs to fix his mistake.  I'll call him in the morning.

So that's the route I took.

While Dad and I were working in the bathroom all day, not to sit idle, Mom was feverishly working on cleaning my remaining floor trim pieces.  That's a boring project that I have not completed, but now that the floors are down, it's time to wrap up the whole project!  She was invaluable in those efforts.  So after the pieces were cleaned, back on they went!  What a difference the final touches make.  Seriously, it's the small things that just make the biggest difference.

So many pieces to go back up!

Mom working away at all the paint, dust, and hair!

So while I had to halt my process on the bathroom, other projects moved forward.  I am going to call the flooring contractor to see what he can do about the poor measuring in the bathroom.  I am ready to move forward.

I was able to sand and put a second coat on the holes in the bathroom, so they will be ready for paint tomorrow!  Little by little this bathroom is coming together!

I'm An Idiot!!! (Painting the Wrong Color!)

You ever have one of those days?  You know, one of those days where you just wonder what in the world you were thinking?  You know, one of those days where you are excited to get something accomplished only to realize that YOU and YOU ALONE just doubled the time it will take to get it accomplished?

I firmly believe that everyone should buy a foreclosure at least once.  If only for the fact that you will be faced with challenges, regrets, excitements, failures, decisions, disappointments, and hopefully success.  It's truly a mirror-image of life.

Well, today, I found my failures and excitements all in one day!

Now that the bathroom tiles are complete, it was time to get the bathroom ready for the new vanity.  I went ahead with the modern grey vanity purchase (over the brown wood), and I was eager to get it installed!  Having to pee upstairs every day is a little different!  But first I needed to paint the walls behind the toilet and mirror.  I also elected to change the obscenely-ugly 1991 box light fixture and paint behind that, as well.

The wall behind the toilet needed painted.

As did the area behind the vanity.

Ready to paint!

Well, everything was going well...until it wasn't.  I found the grey paint and painted all of the white spots.  And then I decided to paint the scuff marks from my very abrasive construction crew that left some nicks and scuffs on the wall back when the floorboards were replaced.  I also searched for light spots in the living room and bathroom and touched up those spots, too.

It all sounds great, right?

Except for one very minor (HUGE!) problem:  I grabbed the wrong color paint.

We have a problem here.  The darker color wasn't because it was wet...

My efforts were all a waste!

I can't even make that up!  I painted my downstairs with a very light grey, and I painted my Master Bedroom with a slightly darker grey.  And, just as luck would have it, I grabbed the wrong gallon from my garage.  It was just off enough that when I painted, I merely thought the darker color was the paint being wet.  As with most paints, it would dry a slighly different color.  Well, my paint never dried (it did, it just looked like it was still wet!).  But it was a different color!

Agh!!!  That was my failure.

Of course, I realized my mistake, grabbed the right paint, and painted again.  But what a fiasco.  And what made it all the worse was all of the places I had "touched up" in the living room and bathroom.  I now had different color paint all over the house!

A touch-up to the right of the light-switch.

Touch-ups in the living room.

Touch-ups and painting along the baseboard.  It ALL had to be re-done!!!

How could I be so stupid?!  Well, it was an honest mistake...here are the two colors of grey.  One is right...and one is wrong.  Of course, I 100% chose the 50% wrong one!

Foreclosures (life) can be so frustrating at times!!!  It would all have to be re-done.

Well, the day wasn't all a failure.  I headed outside and did something I am good at:  installed more shutters!  Mom and Dad came over to help on this unbelievably sultry day.  I didn't even wear a shirt and STILL had to take breaks from the heat.  And I was working in the shade!  It was seriously so hot.

But the shutters went up, and the house looks sooooooooo good!  What a HUGE difference such a small change can make!!!

What a difference!!!

Such a simple change.

The house is becoming a home!!!

The house as I started today...

And the house at the end of the day!

The house as I purchased it in July 2016.

What a difference!

The house in July 2016.

I just LOVE the new look!

After the shutters, we headed inside to work.  After re-painting the bathroom walls the RIGHT color, I decided to install my vanity.  And then yet another setback!!!  The vanity has drawers on the right side, and the drain line was lined up right next to the drawer!!!  I was so disappointed!  I had searched forever for a vanity, and I finally found one I liked!  And now it appeared that it would not work!!!

The vanity going into place.

But I had a problem!!!

The drain line appeared to line up directly with the drawer.

What a day.  I started with a frustrating paint fiasco, had a successful shutter install, and ended with a vanity that won't fit!!!  Aghhhhh!!!  There is always something!!!  People think flipping houses is so easy.  Let me be the first to say, it's work!  And it's full of surprises!!!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the vanity.  It's just so frustrating!

But at least on the outside, the house now looks like a home!  Now if I can just figure out how to get that vanity to work.  I really want a warm, inviting exterior to lead to a modern, inviting interior!

We will see what tomorrow brings...