Mellow Monday after holiday

Rainy days and Mondays sometimes get me down. Not today, though! This was a good day, considering it was back to work after (almost) having four days off. (I did have to work a bit, but not too stressful.) Had breakfast with CP sales exec John M this morning, good talk and company. Then back to the big bath by the bay, which had at one time seemed interminable. The job has shaped up beautifully, saying so myself.

Today I attacked the last and separate part of the contract: tear out the flower tiles! That's what the contract says, "tear out the flower tiles..." So I did, and attack was the right verb. The only way to remove individual ceramic tiles from within a field of tile is to use brute force. Seriously. I used a large mechanic's screwdriver and my trusty Estwing hammer. The trick is to destroy the bad tile without causing any collateral damage. Not so simple, since the job requires a jack-hammer style approach. Worse yet, four of the designated tiles were directly against a large, glue-in bathroom mirror. Talk about potential for disaster! I even told Mr. Palmer at first that I was unwilling to hammer out the mirror-area tiles. Then I got some practice on the other ones, and that made me bolder. Made a lot of noise, and a pretty fair mess, but without hurting any innocent nearby tiles or mirrors. The customer is happy to see those flower tiles gone (with plain ones in their place), and the job is all but complete. (Special-order doors still to come, a ten-minute job.)

Got done a bit early, met with Tom M (the plumber) and stopped in at a couple of the stores to say good-bye to some good people. The stores were in blow-out sale at Christmastime madness mode. I said my "hope to see you again"s and avoided the crowds otherwise. Home before dark today. How can you beat that?

Tuesday is a holiday Friday!

Today was Friday for me. Wednesday I have the boys with me, and I won't be working. The forecasted winter weather hit later than expected today, which was fortunate. Man, I had a ton of driving to do! Left at six-forty-five this morning in a driving rain, drove across the city, picked up only half the product I needed (a sales mix-up), drove back across the city past a four-car accident, figured out how to load more stuff than my truck would safely carry, and got to today's customer's house by nine. Whew! Had to pull a storm-door, demo- a forty-year-old entry door, and install a lovely new door. Not a tough job, despite a couple additional hiccups, but one that could have been unbearable in wind-driven snow--which is the current condition.

Yesterday was a real bear. Spent the morning (sunny and fifty degrees!) doing a job very similar to today's. Then had to track down a "missing" vanity top for the Palmer bath. Lost about two hours, needlessly. Had enough left to do there that I ended up staying well past dark, since I had to cut-out mid-evening to go quote a shower install nearby. (Don't think I'll get that one...) Can't wait to be done with all the little odds & ends at the endless bath job: it's stressful. But my "weekend" is here now, so it's all good. Back to work after Thanksgiving day, though. Nothing too taxing, but work just the same. That's life, isn't it?

Back to the Big Bath for Friday

There's snow in the air, and I was driving cross-town again today. Fortunately the white stuff stayed just a bit to the north and west. The sky was wintery, though. And it was cold. Very. So all the exercise of jogging up and down the long stairs helped keep me warm. A little taste of hot-temper fueled the fire, too! But I'm getting ahead of myself. The day started out wellwith a breakfast meeting with John Metzger, sales chief (for now) of CP Installed. We had a good talk. John saved me some legwork by tracking down a couple mirrors for the job, which I took along with me when we finished.

It was pretty much downhill from there. The big job today was to install the "custom" shower door from Sterling. I do a lot of Sterling doors, and find them mostly user-friendly. Not this one. Even the directions suck, which is very un-Sterling-ish. Long to short: what should have taken about two hours took almost the entire day. I was not pleased. When I last looked at this door system I didn't even think it would fit the opening. I was wrong about that; it fit just fine. But what a crummy design -- way too reliant on tight fits between parts to make things work. I don't know if I've ever struggled so much with something that should have been so basic. Engineers... sheesh. (That's not the language I was using earlier today, however.)

With all that lost time, I'll have to return next week to finish things there. No clue right now how I'll find the time, since I'm booked solid. Some weeks there really aren't enough hours in the day. For now, it's Friday. Thank God.

Pass the Top-stretcher, please

Thursdays are usually buckle-down get-it-done days. I hardly ever set appointments for Thursdays, and almost never have the boys then either. I knew I had time today to finish this kitchen job, even though I'd originally allowed it to flow into Friday on the schedule. Now I need Friday to get back to the big bath. I didn't feel time-crunched, but I did have plenty to do. Some plumbing, a cabinet to set, some cleating and a panel to install. And countertops. Today was definitely a big-splash kind of day. I started it nice and early at the Home Depot (doesn't that feel strange?!). Mike had mentioned last week that HD had a sleek little air compressor for about a hundred dollars, one that would be lighter and quieter. Since my big hoss AC'r was all the way out on the other side of the city, I figured at worst I'd buy the smaller compressor and return it at day's end. Well, let's just say it ain't goin' back! What a pleasure it was to carry air power one-handed, and to run it indoors without scaring the pets.

Everything was running along just perfectly until I tackled the last job of the day, and of this whole contract: the sink-side countertop. The smart move is always to measure first, move second. That's when I discovered an unsolvable problem. Somehow the kitchen designer, Tammy R at the Brockport store, had forgotten to add the last three inches on the long wall layout. My countertop was, therefore, three inches too short! Yikes! I can make 'em shorter, but I can't make 'em longer. The stretcher's been broken for years. So a new top is on order, with a fairly long lead time. Had to make-do with the materials at hand. What I ended up doing was to pad the short "L" end of the top, which is conveniently shielded from view by the refridgerator. In the end, the too-short top looks damn good, and would fool most casual inspectors. It'll do just fine until the new one comes in. The customer's happy, and so am I. (sound of dusting-off hands) Friday means back to the east side, and the long uphill climb to the Palmer bath.

Blissful Wednesday

New day, new job, new town. No, the other job isn't done yet, but I had finally come up to the promised-date for the next customer. I didn't want to put him off, and I needed a bathroom-break anyway (bad pun). So today I pointed the truck north and west instead of south and east. Shorter drive, no city traffic. That was the first reprieve. This one is a kitchen, actually about half a kitchen since there are no new upper cabinets to install. Kitchens are great because they are almost always on the first floor and close to an entrance. This one is no exception. From driveway to garage to kitchen is a trip of only about twenty paces, with a climb of just one step! Amazing how much more work I can get done without the huge travel distance on-site. Major progress on day one included all tear-out, and all the new-location cabinets set. The home-owner seemed truly pleased and impressed. It was a nice clean job with lots of visual progress (always a good thing). Tomorrow will be day two, and should also be "day done"!

Loooong day Tuesday

Tried to finish today and failed. Seemed like I had a handle on it, but there was still so much to do. Had to nail in pine baseboard over the tile floor, which is always touchy. Plumbers arrived late afternoon instead of in the morning, which was fine but muddied my schedule ideas. There was so much to clean up, too! Tools were still stored back in under the eaves, and everywhere else as well. The foyer area still needed a fair amount of plasterwork. That was fun, and tedious. I did get the little desk area built finally, but installed the drawer section upside-down at first. (sigh of disgust) Sam the carpet man is due in Wednesday afternoon: that will spruce up the foyer a lot. Can you tell I'm running out of steam on this one? Over one hundred trips up and down the stairs does tend to add up eventually. Almost done, though. I'll be away from this one for a couple days, to build a kitchen. Should be a nice break.