The curious case of the Christmas shopping list.

While most were frantically shopping for the last Playmobil dragon and castle set , the last Urban Decay Naked palette or a new pair of Fiorentini Baker boots this Xmas, I also was shopping... but mostly at Home Depot, in the lumber section, and my latest Xmas list looked like this:

1. Rimboard -2 pcs.
2. Kantstrip - 46 l.f.
3. 2x6x10 -150 pcs.
4. 2x6x14 - 40 pcs.
5. Black paper - 4 roll.
6. Red tape - 4 roll.
7. Glue PL 400 -2 tube.
8. LVL. 6 at 10' 11"7/8

Pretty exciting, I have to admit... Especially since I do not know what half of the things on that list are. I thought for a moment that the LVL might have something to do with Louis Vuitton but no, it is a nice strong wood plank to support some areas of the house. I called a couple of stores with that wish list and I was told that they were SOLD OUT of most of the items: 

- SOLD what??? O_O 
- Sold out!
- Are you sure? Are you making it up? Really? It's impossible! *_*

Well, it wasn't. We had to call around to find everything that was on that list. Holy shit cow! We finally got all the stuff we needed and the workers were able to put a roof on the house... BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Pretty accurate timing from our builder I have to say. These Russians don't fuck around sit on their hands to say the least. They were working so hard (it was kind of scary...) to try to make the deadline and they did. I am impressed. 

Anyways, Christmas came and Santa hadn't forgotten that I love purses and here is what I got:

Thank you Santa for not bringing me just rimboards and LVLs for Christmas. I am impressed. Very impressed indeed...

˚*。˚★Merry☆* 。 • ˚ ° ★。
•。★Christmas*˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •˚*。˚ ˚*
★ --Π___*。*˚ ★˛ ˚° 。 °★
//_____ / ＼\。˚ ˚ ˛。 °˚ ˛ ˚° 。 °
l｜田田｜門｜.and ★ Happy New Year★
......★˚˛ *__Π___*˚。 ˛ ★* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛★ •
˚* / / _----- / ＼\。˚ ˚ ˛ ˚° ° Π_____*。*˚ ˛ •˛
• ˚ l｜田田｜門｜ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˚˛•/ /_____/ 0＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• *。*˚ ˚ ˛ ˚*。˚ ˚ ˚ l l 田田｜門lll.˚*。˚ ˚
___--------------______________----------------

The million dollar view...

Over the past few days, the third floor of the house has been built, well, I should say was being built. Yes, was being built and when it was, we got the awesome surprise to discover that from that floor, we are the proud owners of the million dollar view. 

The funny thing is, when you build a house in a rather crowded neighborhood, that you really don't know what you are going to get in terms of view. Our house is at the maximum height allowed by the City by-laws (12 m) but until we built the third floor, we didn't even think about what we were going to see from up there.  It turns out that we have a completely unobstructed view of the entire city, including a somewhat cheesy castle that was built a century ago I believe. The castle itself is not really my cup of tea in terms of design but mixed in with the skyscrapers and city lights, it creates a pretty radical view I must admit. That's always nice to find out that kind of thing. Especially when it comes as a total surprise. In order to benefit from this view, we have made a couple of changes to the third floor, it is going to look amazing when finished... and talking about that, we have had pretty awful weather over the past few days. 

A cold front has been hanging over our heads, still is and will be until at least Friday. This cold front (not to mention the pretty intense snowfall that has come along with it) is a major inconvenience because it is too cold to finish framing. The team of VERY HARDCORE Russians framers have stopped working for now. And these guys are though as nail, they worked last week, when it was -7/8. It was sunny but quite cold, they were still out there putting the walls up. I asked them if they were cold and they said "no, it is not - 20 yet, this is noting". Right, yes, it is nothing, thought I, standing there freezing my ass. Anyhow, yesterday, it must have been -13, -20 with windchill and they didn't show. Of course, I am not going to blame them. Frankly, there is no way I would be able to work on a job site with these polar temperatures. Forget it! However, I would love for this cold front to move out of the way so the workers can come back and finish the third floor AND put the roof on so we can close the house before Xmas, as it was planned. I guess I have to keep on crossing my fingers and hope for warmer - ahem, let's no kid ourselves- less cold weather.

A house built out of wood? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! Really???

So I posted some pictures of the house yesterday on my Facebook wall. I don't do it very often but since people keep on asking me how things are progressing, photos are the best way to show what's happening.

Anyhow, this morning I was on skype with my sister who lives in Paris and she tells me that she and another friend were joking about the North American Construction Technique. She asked me if there was any risk that the house would fly off in case of strong winds and said the pictures reminded them of that reality show called "extreme makeover"... I had a glance at the show and wow... I realized that it wasn't a flattering comparison at all! In fact, none of what she mentioned during the conversation was flattering... It is obvious that Europeans are not impressed with the way houses are built over here.

Although I thought their remarks were very funny, I was like "what's up with those Frenchies, they are so critical!". But then I remembered my initial reaction when I came to North America and saw how houses were built here. My other half and I were driving around in the middle of winter, a few years ago, and we passed by a construction site. I looked at it and all I saw was basically a flimsy wooden structure. I was puzzled and said " WTF, you build your houses entirely out of wood here? That looks kind of cheap. Is it even strong enough? I don't understand. Where I live, we build houses out of concrete blocks. Yeah, we are much better than you". My other half reacted to what I had said but the other way around "What? You build your houses out of concrete blocks... WTF? That's why your houses are so cold in the winter. You don't know what you are doing." 

Yes, on the old continent, we took the 3 Little Pigs story very very seriously. Building houses in wood belongs to the Middle Ages, and nowadays, we only use concrete blocks, okay? Anything else is considered "el cheapo". Meanwhile, in North America, people like their wood and because wood is such high quality, they use it to build houses. And that's that.

So, what's the best way to build a house? Here is a rather superficial/incomplete but non-partisan overview of the two techniques:

From what I understand, a lot has to do with climate. 
In tropical, hotter places, concrete block construction is recommended because it will insulate houses from the heat. Concrete blocks will not be the target of termites and wood rot. As well, concrete blocks are less labour intensive. Once you've installed the blocks, you are pretty much done while with traditional wood framing, you still have to do framing, insulation, siding, drywall, trim, paint... So it can get expensive. 

In a colder climate, it is recommended to use wood framing apparently, and that's probably why most houses in North America and Scandinavia are built that way. Wood has a greater insulation value than blocks, especially when it comes to cold. Another thing is that concrete blocks don't allow a lot of room for electrical wiring, plumbing, duct work. As well, with wood, you don't get the typical settlement cracks connected to concrete block construction.



So, as I see it, it appears each technique has its pluses and minuses but both are obviously good enough, as long as the contractors are doing a proper job putting the structure together. That's key I would say! At any rate, it looks like the Frenchies had a good laugh over the Canadian construction technique. I have to admit I can't really blame them, since I felt the same way a few years ago!

The jerk store called and they are running out of you.

Today, we were holding a meeting at the site. We were examining the steel beams and talking about eliminating the bolts at the top of the beams. At this point, our builder said: "that reminds me of one of the stupidest lines I have ever heard which came out of the mouth of one of your architects". Yes, I remember that line and for some unexplained reason I had forgotten to relay it in this blog, I am not sure why. It is so idiotic and ridiculous, it surely deserves its own post.

Evidently, it happened a while ago when we DID have an architect. So I am thinking it was some time last year, around this time of year. We were sitting in the architect's office looking at the plans. We kept on noticing these poles throughout the house, not very strategically positioned: one in the middle of the living room (really practical), one close to the entrance and one right next to the kitchen island, kind of to the side of it, about 6" away from it. Of course, we had learned by then that if we wanted to question the architect, we needed to sugar coat the "questioning" or he would just get offended. But this time, because this pole business had the "Idontgiveafuckaboutthisproject" attitude written all over it, I simply asked: "these posts... all over the place... what's up with that... I mean especially the one close to the kitchen island, it doesn't seem that practical, does it?". To my question, this is what the architect answered: "well, you could see these poles as punctuation, they could be like exclamation points"....................................................................................................

                                       (O_0)


                                        (*_*)

           What the fuck are you talking about???
 

Exclamation points? Really??? Is that all you've got? Some cheap "poetic" bullshit explanation for yet another fuck-up problem? Needless to say that we were not very impressed/happy with this answer. I told him that I wasn't feeling very poetic and that quite frankly, he had to start figuring out how to get rid of these fucking eyesores, we are not building a loft dude! (have you heard of I beams???). At this point, I lost both: respect and faith in this architect. But now that I look back on it, I think it makes for a really good anecdote and something else we can joke about on the job site, which is what we did today talking about those bolts. Maybe they could be punctuation, full stops perhaps?

I met a good architect... miracles do happen... sometimes.

A few months ago, I met a friend for coffee. I was telling her about all the troubles we had with the construction and namely the architect. I could see she felt really bad. She said that, if I wanted, she could introduce me to this architect that she was dealing with on a regular basis and who supposedly was amazing and pleasant at the same time... Needless to say that my reaction was kind of like this: O_0... An amazing AND pleasant architect... really, that exists??? Are you sure??? O_0  

Sketch from the architect -slip joint/head deflector -

I mean, I can't hide the fact that I have admiration for many great architects: Mies van der Rohe, Santiago Calatrava, Paulo Mendes Da Rocha, Peter Zumthor, Rogers and Piano, Franck Ghery, Jean Nouvel, Franck Lloyd Right, Marcio Kogan, Herzog and de Meuron, Ieoh Ming Pei, Luis Barragan... but these architects are pretty much fucking geniuses, they have been or are extremely influential and if they were or are difficult, you would have to suck it up because they have an incredible amount of talent. The talent would make up for the craziness sort of. What bothers me is when THERE IS NOT much talent or no talent at all to make up for the craziness or for the lack of respect the architects will show towards their clients. And that's pretty much what I have been experiencing with architects to this day. So obviously, when someone wants to introduce me to an amazing and pleasant architect, I have the right to be skeptical to say the least. But I guess miracles DO happen and my friend was right, her architect is the real good surprise of 2010. 

First, our written communications were pleasant. I exposed the facts really briefly to him, told him I was looking for an architect to CONSULT on the project. Condition which had been rejected by many architects I had met/dealt with in the past (it is almost like you are insulting them if you ask them to be consultants. "What? A consultant, you must be mistaken, I don't do that kind of stuff".). They all wanted to be paid a minimum of 50k to manage the project and quite frankly, I don't think it makes sense or that it is worth it for that matter. To this condition, he said yes no problem. That was the first miracle.

Second, our in-person meetings have been helpful, cordial and attitude free, which had never been the case with previous architects. Their ego was sometimes so FAT that if I said the even tiniest thing in disagreement with them, they would get TOTALLY offended. And that's because they tend to forget WHO is the client. They thought they were the client. But they were wrong, I was the client. Being considered as such by this architect was the second miracle.

Third, he told me when I asked about how he wanted to go about working together that "just pretend I am a doctor, call me when something is wrong or seems wrong and I'll come and help". Again that's sensible advice, because most things can be ironed out with the builder and if they can't, then it makes sense to have someone you can call and trust. This man understands also that money doesn't fall from the sky and that unless he is needed, there is no point making us spend money that he really doesn't deserve. That was the third miracle. 

Lastly, he has provided me with very useful advice and has followed up a lot of his verbal advice with sketches of what needs to be done. He told me he drew them rapidly but they are extremely well drawn and helpful to the builder whose joke has been "Are you sure he is an architect? He seems too nice!!!". 


To make this long story short(er), I am glad I have met him, I know I can rely on him to help me out when things appear a little complicated and I know he is not going to charge me an arm and a leg for his work.

Don't fix the blame, fix the problem.

Something went REALLY wrong today on the job site. It is kind of like: when it rains it pours. Yeah, it is pouring A BIG ass problem at the moment. So what went wrong? Well, a wall collapsed, sort of. I got the news this morning so I drove to the site as fast as I could. I knew which wall it was so I knew it wasn't part of the big structure, which is definitely a good thing (that's to look on the bright side). Anyways, I was expecting to see the wall actually collapsed into the pit but when I got there, everything looked fine. Our super nice builder was there and said "take a look at the wall". I am standing there and quite frankly, I wasn't seeing anything. The wall was still in place. But, as soon as I turned around and looked at it from a different angle, I was able to see the problem and it is pretty substantial. The wall is wanting to collapse so it is bending slowly but surely inside the pit, it will collapse, it is just a matter of time before it does. It has taken this sort of rotunda shape, it is rounding itself in. Totally not the look we are going for. 


Of course, now, we have to decide what needs to be done. To avoid any discussion about whose fault it is, we have asked the engineer to come and take a look. The engineer seems to already know why it happened and will produce a report. Problem is that neither of the trades wants to take responsibility. They are trying to figure out whose fault it is. To that, I simply want to say "I really don't give a fuck whose fault it is, I know it is not my fault so all I need to know here is that someone is going to fix this screw up and that I won't have to pay for any of it". These guys can work it amongst themselves, they can play the finger pointing game, but as far as I am concerned, I want this problem to be fixed and I don't want to hear ANYONE asking me for money. This is not my problem, I am not the mason, I am not the guy who backfilled, I wasn't even on the site when it happened. I am the client here and I am paying each and everyone of these guys to do the job properly and obviously, when a wall falls down, someone, somewhere, didn't do their job properly and needs to redo it FREE OF CHARGE. So it will go down as follows apparently, thanks to the builder's help: the mason has offered to redo the wall at no charge, someone has to come and excavate, and then the wall will be rebuilt with blocks and then supported properly in order to not collapse again. It will take a couple of days to fix this fucking mess. There is a solution to every problem, that's true, we just want to be sure that our wallet is not involved in any aspects of that solution.

While you were out... the sh*t hit the fan.

Unfortunately, I knew that as soon as I was going to say there was nothing to complain about, something would happen that would send us right back to square 1. And sure enough I was right. I am always right, especially when it comes to predicting arseholes' behavior. I always ALWAYS expect that given this really basic fact "once an arsehole, always an arsehole", it is only natural to expect that an arsehole will never leave you alone. Of course, I would like to be wrong once in while but I have to say that, thus far, I have never been wrong once. Very briefly, because there is no point even giving any details about what happened, our NFH (Neighbors-From-Hell) have risen from their recent inertia and are making our life difficult once again. It is almost like a superhero movie where Spiderman manages to get rid of the bad guy (or does he think) and just when Spiderman expects it the least, the bad guy comes back and he is now totally EVIL, has way more power and is really causing a lot of trouble. Yah, today the shit hit the fan big time in the form of:

-a) a nasty threatening letter
-b) bad/adversarial neighbor behavior on the job site

So what to do when shit hits the fan? Well, first, you have to assess if it is really as bad as you think and looking back, I am thinking, it's not so bad, it's just the same despicable behavior over and over again, so nothing we have not seen or dealt with before. When shit hits the fan, you deal with it and you keep going. I was at the job site today talking to our usual Russian crew and they just appeared really calm and kind of like "whatever, who gives a fuck, let's just keep working". I think that's the best approach. Of course, bad behavior always makes me seriously mad and I wish I could do or say something to get them to snap out of their arseholeness but it is IMPOSSIBLE. So basically, they can shove their threats up their asses and if they continue to try and bother us on site, they'll just be ignored. 

To my sister, with love.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Ocean, things are not going so well...

Namely, in France, where, beside the huge fucking fiasco-ey/explosive situation re: the retirement new laws and the demonstrators taking over the country (rightfully so I must say), my sister has also had her fair share of construction disasters. She had just moved into her newly renovated place and was experiencing the typical new house blisssssssss. Until one morning.... when she realized that hot water had become a missing element of her new life in her almost perfect new home. An expert came and stated "the tank is faulty and needs to be fixed/changed". Oh, ok... ahem...

Fixing the hot water tank would not be a problem if it was fully accessible (which it should be, being a very important piece of equipment) but the contractor had the genius - GENIUS I said - idea to hide the tank behind the drywall with no other way to access it than to rip the drywall out. Wow, that is so fucking brilliant... Whoohoo. Party on! Let's make an "elegant" cut in the drywall and see what's wrong with the hot water tank. I mean... Oh. My. God... how stupid is that? The contractor's first measure was to attached a plastic bottle (what a stylish solution. O_o !) on the wall, connected somewhat to the tank, in case water starts to burst out of it. That's really reassuring. Next step is to diagnose what's wrong with the tank. That could be very pricey and time consuming.

What is the point of this story? Construction is the same everywhere: generally, trade people and  architects don't really give a shit about their work. Of course, there are some exceptions: good architects exist, good contractors/trades too. It is just that finding them is like finding a needle in a haystack. We are very lucky we have found an amazing builder who has a team of very skilled workers. Sometimes though, even if they are good, they might still make mistakes that will cost money. Quite frankly, in my sister's situation, it would not have been difficult to plan an access door to the tank, but it was probably too much work thinking about it, too much work building it so the solution was "fuck it, let's do it this way and hope that the tank never fails". Yeah, in an ideal world, it wouldn't have but we live in the REAL WORLD, don't we? So why not plan solutions for the real world? It is not so fucking complicated!!! Now I wish my sister good luck with this, I hope she gets hot water soon because taking a freezing cold shower in November is NOT enjoyable and it was been quite cold over the past few days in Paris.

Nothing to rant about: it's a good thing, right?

As strange and unlikely as it may seem, I have had nothing to complain about over the past few days. Sure, I have had unpleasant surprises of some sort or I have had to deal with kind of annoying situations but nothing so big and irritating that I have to spend an entire post writing about it. I was talking to a very good friend of mine today (who is very helpful and supportive) and he said "you've got nothing to rant about, that's good, you should write about it". He is right. What the hell was I thinking???? As much as we "like" to focus on the adversity of things, it is always good to remind ourselves that good things DO happen and need to be talked about. Right?!?! So there, nothing outrageously wrong went down on the site this week, things are moving along quite nicely, walls are up. We are still waiting for the steel but it should come next week and then we will be picking up some speed and things should really start to happen. At least, the house is now out of the ground................

So because I am feeling happy about this relatively calm week, I want to post those pictures of design ideas that are a source of inspiration for our house. Because I didn't have to deal with anything ridiculous, I was able to do some research and came accross plenty of pretty/cool/inspiring things. Time well spent. Very well spent indeed.

Some progress? I would never have guessed.

I can't really say that things are going very fast on the job site, which I visited today but they are sort of going so I am not going to complaint (too much). We have received several of the steel beams we were waiting for but not all of them so we are not going on full blast (if there is ever such a thing in the construction world) yet. The workers have built the first floor of the house and the nice thing about it is that we can now clearly see how big the ground floor is going to be.

Personally, I think it looks quite spacious. Our builder said that people are often disappointed when they see the actual size of the home compared to the floor plans. It is true that things always appear bigger on paper, and that's because our imagination is running wild and lets us believe that we are building Versailles while we are building something much much MUCH smaller, obviously. It is sometimes hard to figure out what a 8'6" long x 3'6" wide hallway at a 3/16" scale would end up looking like. So, the best to avoid disappointment is to physically measure and template what things would be like in real life. Things will always appear smaller, yes, but at least, it won't be as much of a shock. Now, the walls are not up yet and that will shrink the space a little more. Since, it still seems so much bigger than our current place that I really can't see how I would be disappointed (unless I was a fucking Princess). 



The only thing I am not so happy with is the pace things are progressing at. That worries me "slightly" especially since we have just listed our current house with an occupancy date at the end of March, which is pretty God damn soon. Also it is getting colder and colder every day so the sooner we get that roof on, the better for everyone.....................................

The case of the missing electrician.

So as I said before, I met an amazing electrician a few months ago. I bought lighting fixtures for a client of mine and was looking for someone to install them. I called the store where I had bought the lights from and they gave me his number. Turns out he is extremely qualified and also has a great artistic sense which helps when you have to hang some fancykindoftrickytoinstall chandelier. He will basically tell you how it needs to be done, why it needs to be done that way and the final result of his work is always amazing. Anyways, enough said, the guy is awesome so I really really want him to work in my house. Only problem, as we all know, geniuses aren't perfect and this guy is unfuckingreliable... which really makes me wonder if I should even bother with him. Will his awesomeness make up for his unreliableness (I don't think this word really exists but who cares?)?

As an example, Tuesday night, we were supposed to meet with him at 6:30PM, meeting which he has scheduled himself. Anyhow, around 5:30, I was getting a strange vibe, so I called him and got his voice mail right away (not a good sign). I left a message asking if we were still on. 

6:00: nothing. 6:30: no one at the door (maybe he is late), 7:30: still no sign of him. 8:00: WTF, where the hell is he? 9:00: well, I think we can forget about it. 11:00: should I call the police and report a missing electrician? 

Now, one little question comes to my mind: why not call and cancel? Is it that so difficult? That makes me a little (that's obviously an understatement) mad to say the least. But but but but but BUT... since I really REALLY need him to do the job, I have to be extremely tolerant and realize that, being the genius that he is, these are just flaws I have to deal with and be understanding of. Ugh! Not easy and at this point, I am not totally convinced I am making the right decision with this fellow. Anyways, I spoke to him today and it was like he was reading right out of this little book my super cute little (well not so little anymore) sister got for me called "Excuses and lies, lines for all occasions" (You don't say, I think I am going to start using this book as well). It kind of went like this:


- me: "so what happened to you?".
- him: "I couldn't find my keys anywhere/ I wanted to wait until the laxatives kicked in/I was dealing with a personal matter/ Didn't we cancel that meeting/ I was at a client's until 11PM/ It is not you, it's me (huh?)/ two words - bad clams."
- me: "this sounds awfully familiar". O_o


What I want to say here is this: while it might be tempting to use the complete arsenal of ridiculous excuses you can think of, it might be smart to use caution when ditching a meeting with a potential client.  
Right now, I am very tempted to move on. I am giving him one more chance to prove that he can be somewhat reliable. I am not asking for absolute perfection in the reliability department, I am only asking that if a meeting can not be attended to, I will be given fair notice (via a phone call or even a text message saying "sorry I can't make it" will do... See I am not very demanding). I don't think it is THAT unreasonable, even for the construction industry extremely low standards.

I am my house and my house is me.

I hadn't gone to the site in the past few days because I was stuck in bed with the stupid stomach flu so it looks like I missed out on all the interesting actions such as weeping tile, basement walls blocks, capping, foundation inspection, angry neighbors, back fill. The last operation consisted in filling out the trenches surrounding the house with dirt (the technical term for this is back filling) and that really makes a difference in terms of appearance since the surroundings of the house now are clearly visible. It also allowed us to remove the huge disgusting stack of dirt that was sitting in the backyard and it now looks much cleaner all around. 

So now, what do we do? The next step is framing. However, because we have been waiting around for the structural work to be completed properly (structural drawings will show how steel beams and posts will be positioned based on the work of the engineer. These drawings then go to the Steel factory where the steel technician produces more refined drawings of what these items will look like, then the structural engineer has to stamped those and sent them back to the steel factory so they can start production. (Yes, it is very interesting, I know)). 
Anyhow, since it has to go through so many steps, a huge amount of time is wasted because not everybody is on the ball and also because "you are not our only clients, you know". Alright, got it. Sorry! Usually, it would take a few days for those beams to be fabricated. However, because we are not very lucky, a huge order for 3 shopping malls has come in before us and it looks like we will be waiting for a while. Ugh! Of course, nobody is able to tell us how long it will take. We have to guess it looks like, so I'll guess maybe 10 days.

Another interesting thing I have noticed: my latest interactions with my friends and people that I know which, in essence,  are like this:

Facebook wall posts: "hey, how's the house?"
Facebook chat: "Howdy, where are you at with your new house?"
Text messages: "What's going on with your house?"
Bbm: "Everything ok with the house?"
Emails from France: "Et la maison, ça va?"
Phone calls: "What's up with your house?"
Face to face conversation: "So tell me about your house."


Three words: Oh. My. God. See what has happened here? I have turned into my house and my house has turned into me. Consequently, nobody is asking how I am doing anymore, but rather how the house is doing. If the house is doing well, then I am doing well. That's just pure logic. So pure logic = scary logic? Hmmmm... not really. It makes sense that when you are involved in a DIY house project, it will end up taking a lot of your time. If you have an architect involved, you can probably rely on them to do most of the work (as I am writing this, it is funny but I am not convinced...). But then again, you'll have to pay someone an arm and a leg for a result that might not be very satisfactory (and that's pretty much a fact). So if you have time to take care of your house project, I'd say 'just do it'.

I feel electric.

After the bathroom headache, we are now dealing with the reflected ceiling plan and electrical plan headaches. Without an architect, we don't have a choice but to do it ourselves and as much as I think I am pretty qualified to plan a bathroom, I don't think I have inherited the same set of skills in the lighting and electrical departments. However, because I am lucky somehow, I have met a few months ago an electrician while doing a job for a good client of mine. It turns out that this electrician is a fucking wizard and knows everything about lighting and electricity. He came over last week and gave me a proper lighting tutorial. 

To my great distaste, it appears that the world of lighting is as confusing, even more in fact than the one of toilets and bathtubs (I didn't think it was possible). It also turns out that there are some unspoken rules about lighting here in North America. When it comes to how much light is needed, the rule of thumb is way more is less. What does it mean? It means that you have to plant a stupid pot light every 2cm for a forest of pot lights look. I am sorry but I just don't get this concept: whenever in my current house, if I ever turn on all the lights at the same time in one room without using the dimmers, I feel like I am in a fucking police station being interrogated for drug trafficking. It is so bright, it is like a landing strip. 

See, personally, I like the less is more concept better. Less pot lights, more indirect lighting such as floor lamps, wall sconces but nothing too bright, I don't want to feel like I am in the operating room about to perform some heart surgery with a ton of lights above my head. I like a more intimate feel, a darker atmosphere. At any rate, we have been told that it doesn't matter what we like (huh?), we have to think about resale (WTF?), and unless we sell to someone who has the same light sensitivity as us, we are going to have to put pot lights everywhere, just in case. Not to mention also that those things are not cheap and electricians usually charge per pot light for installation so the more the merrier. Great, again, I feel that I have no control over anything. But quite frankly, it is light that we are talking about and I don't think anyone is going to complain if a house is "reasonably" lit as opposed to a house that is so completely over the top lit that one would have to wear sunglasses when coming inside. So this time, I'll do what I want and what I am comfortable with. 

Turkey anyone?

After having spent most of this Thanksgiving week-end sort of enjoying the last few days of warm weather, here is what I will be most likely dealing with this week:

- messy and completely confusing quotes sent by suppliers.

- lazy suppliers who still have not provided quotes who I am going to have to nag/threat to send me pricing.

- electricians who need to sit down and look at electrical plans and provide me with an accurate and honest quote (almost sounds like a double oxymoron) for their work (that should take about a month).

Yes, surely, it sounds like an exciting week ahead, as I will probably get done about 10% (if I am lucky) of the items listed above. And that's because I have to rely on others to get most things done. And that's also because slowness and unresponsiveness are just two examples of the really high standards inherent to the construction world, an industry that is driven by the highest standards ever.

Like the other day, I get this email (and its attachment) from this supplier (who btw is VERY nice, just not that efficient). I thought the email was THE quote I was supposed to get 2 weeks ago... I open it and what do I see: a fucking recipe for Thanksgiving Turkey... A Turkey recipe, really?? Yes, a turkey recipe, not less. I was speechless for a few minutes but then questions came to my mind. How about sending me a recipe for how much my lighting fixtures are going to cost me? How about taking a calculator and adding the numbers of lights multiplied by the price, is that so difficult? So someone was able to find the time to type a Turkey recipe, but could not find the time to type a quote? O_o... That doesn't make any sense, but somehow it is not a joke, it is reality.

And the other thing is, I don't usually cook Turkey anyways so the email was a complete write-off. Great! Well, at least, it did make me laugh (well, I wasn't bursting with laughter either, let's be honest), it wasn't an email with the usual lame-O excuse about why the supplier wasn't able send the quote (I ate too many smarties so I had a tummy ache and couldn't send the quote, I was part of the group of Chilean mine workers trapped underground for over two month, I decided to take a sabbatical but forgot to send you the quote before I left...). No, it was just a recipe in lieu of a quote. Maybe next email will be the actual quote, who knows? Let's hope.

Absolutely DE-MEN-TED!!!!

It has been a few days since we have not heard from our "lovely" neighbors. This peaceful interlude has allowed me to lose myself in toilet world and I almost forgot about those shitheads idiots. But there is a say in French that goes "il faut se méfier de l'eau qui dort" which literally means "watch out for sleeping water" which of course doesn't translate that well in English. But in essence, what it means is "be careful when things are too quiet, something bad might be coming your way".

Well, I'll start with the funny anecdote of the week which involves #2 and her recent reconversion into a (old) cougar. 

While her husband is too busy trying to find new ways to break our balls even more, he's apparently been neglecting her so she is now flirting with the one of the workers. Way to go girl!!! Wait a minute... What??? Turns out that the object of her affection is our builder's son, C, who acts as a supervisor on the job site. Turns out also that she is 70 years old at least and he is about 24... So, let's see, that's 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9... a 46 year age gap!  

I have no word to describe this behavior. Actually, I have three words to describe it. What. The. Fuck. Who in their RIGHT state of mind would hit (well, most some men would but that's a different story) on a twenty year old while in their seventies??? Obviously, we have determined a long time ago that these people are absolutely fabulous demented but this is just the cherry on the cake. 

And frankly, she is not that type of cougar ...

But rather this type....

 
Anyways, it has been the big joke on the job site this week and, although we are all laughing about it, we are also wondering if we should buy the poor kid pepper spray and a whistle. And I have to say I am really tempted to ask her what the hell she thinks she is doing... Very very tempted, especially knowing the following.

  

We have heard yesterday from our truly-nice-neighbors (to the South of us), that the NFH (neighbors from hell) are now trying to convince them to team up and cause more problems for us on the job site. This could be amusing, but it is sad... So sad to find out that not only they have not given up but they are still out there trying to figure out ways to hurt us. 
Ugh! What terrible way to behave. As I said before, I can't help but wondering why they are so intensely obnoxious, especially now that the worst of the construction is done (demolition and excavation). My conclusion is that they are miserable people to start with and this situation has just accentuated their misery and has become an outlet for their frustration. And that means we have not seen the end of it either... unfortunately... (;_;)

My day is filled with toilets.

I would be lying if I said that building a house so far has been a complete nightmare. It is not really true. In fact, there are many things that I love in this adventure. 

One of them is the search for the perfect toilet. Yes, I am not ashamed to admit that it has become a quest and a very time consuming one indeed. Honestly, I don't think toilets are that attractive to start with. They can pretty much ruin an entire room if they are not picked carefully. So one has to make sure to choose the right W.C in order to save a bathroom from a complete disaster. 

For example this puppy here,
what's the deal with that?

Oh. My. God. What the hell is this?

The world of toilets is wide and intricate, and confusing at times. I have been losing myself for hours (make that days) trying to figure out where to get something nice at a DECENT price. Basically, the one thing that will make a toilet more acceptable is if it is wall hung. Wall hung toilets are a huge improvement from regular toilets. They look slicker, minimal and somewhat appealing. Plus they are much easier to clean and to clean around (this is a key argument for a cleaning freak like me). Only thing is: they are soooo fucking expensive and sometimes are not available in North America... yes, that's right, we only have hideous toilets here... 

I have called a few "toilet" suppliers and every time I was talking about a certain model, I would get shut down right away: NOT AVAILABLE IN NORTH AMERICA!!!! Damn, sorry... I forgot again: only ugly toilets are available here, right, right, I get it. Anyhow, after days of soul toilet searching, I finally found a few models that are available here at a decent (ahem, well a little bit expensive but IreallywanttogetitsoIwilljustsuckitup kinda of thing) price. 

One other thing I have noticed that is a direct consequence of the intensity of my toilet search is that every time I log onto a website, the advertisement I see is always about... TOILETS!!!! Holy sh*t, really??? I am now being stalked by toilets everywhere I go on the internet. This is very disturbing. It used to be purses and shoes (how strange), now it is toilets! Wow, my life is really becoming too glamorous! Next item on the list: freestanding tubs, definitely much more glamorous than toilets, that's for sure.


So here is my top three (check out those beauties) and I will announce the winner when we have made up our minds:

Choice #1

Choice #2

Choice #3

There's been a delay and I want more money. That goes without saying.

Yesterday, I asked my husband what I should be talking about in my next post. His answer was "delays, delays and more delays". To that I added "money, money and more money". 

Let's start with the "delays" part, and the observation that people in the construction world have their OWN sense of time whom nobody else clearly can relate to. A couple of examples to illustrate: 

- getting a quote: "I will have a quote ready for you in a week from now". OK, that sounds reasonable. Except that one week in construction language kind of means more 3 weeks. The only way to get a quote back faster is to ride everyone's ass to death to call/email/call again/email more until the quote finally shows up. In other words, make yourself look like a total pain in the ass because you are asking for something they promised you'd get in a week time.
 - getting drawings back from the various consultants (engineers, draftsmen...). Again, what you are up against here is the quasi-impossibility to get a hold of these guys on their phone, the fact that they almost NEVER return your calls, and the fact that for them too 1 day really means two weeks. How about if you'd call your doctor's office and 1- they would not pick the phone -2 they would not call you back -3 they would show up 2 days late for the appointment??? That would be totally unacceptable... Well, apparently in the construction world, you can do whatever the hell you want and it is just acceptable to all. This is an industry that has extremely low politeness standards it turns out. One way to reverse this tendency: the old  "the-squeaky-wheel gets-the-oil" tactic. Keep on calling, keep on bugging and eventually, you'll get the attention you need. But frankly, it is quite exhausting and frustrating.

Let's continue with the second part of this post: the money issues. Building a house has mostly consisted so far in keeping the budget in line with what we can afford. The problem is, when you are building a house, people seem to think that you have suddenly turned into Bill Gates (the richest person on earth) and that you can afford pretty much everything (but of course). 

It is not like we have a skimpy budget and are asking everyone around us to take a huge loss and give us what we want at the price we can pay. We have a decent budget that should allow us to get most of what we want PROVIDED the suppliers don't try to stick it to us, screw us over , take advantage of us every chance they get. Last one to have tried this on us is the window supplier. His first quote was decent and in line with our budget. Next thing you know... as we are about to order and are kind of pressed by time, he sends us a new quote with a 10% increase (seriously, WTF is that all about?) that apparently took place in September and a 5k increase on top of the initial quote. That's because he forgot to price some windows in his first quote, he said. Ok, two things:

-firstly, why the fuck didn't you tell us about the 10% increase before it actually took place??? Maybe we would have placed the order before. But maybe, you are not a very honest person and thought "hum, now I have these guys wrapped around my finger, how about I fuck them over by adding a 10% increase (that came out of nowhere) that they will have to suck up". Now that's unimpressive and totally slimy.

-secondly, how did you miss windows in your pricing??? Windows and doors are listed in their very own section called Window and Door schedule and missing items in there is like missing several ingredients in a recipe. It is not that difficult to just follow the list and get the price right... unless you are omitting these items on purpose to produce an initial quote lower than your competitors'. Once you have been retained by the client because your quote is so much lower than the others, you pull your trick out of your hat and produce a higher quote based on the fact that " boooo, very sorry but I forgot to price a few windows so it is going to cost you another 5k". How graceful...Frankly I am impressed... NOT! *_*


So now what? Obviously I don't want to justsuckitup and pay this dishonest price so I have to make more phone calls and try to get pricing from other suppliers, crossing my fingers that they will be somewhat honest. But again, they might also get back to me in three weeks (well, 2 days in construction language) and that's going to cause more delays on the job site... That's just terrific!

When the cat's away...

The mice will do FUCK all nothing is happening on the job site. Our builder has been on vacation over the past few days (his annual trip to Europe) and although work was going at a fast pace before he left, we have noticed that nobody has been to the job site in the past three days. 0_O


So the job site looks like this today and it looked like this last week. Now, this would not be a problem if we lived in a place where it is nice and sunny all year round, it wouldn't matter, since the weather would not impact the work at all. However, we live in a nordic cold country where winter is about to start in a few weeks and generally you'd want to have the house closed off before it starts to snow.  So... then... WHERE THE FUCK IS EVERYONE??? how come nobody is there??? Shouldn't they be busting their asses off and get work done instead of neglecting the site? 

Well, it turns out that they have been called and asked why they were not working. They PROMISED that they would be on site this morning at 7. I drove in front of the house at 11 am and who do I see: NOBODY! Lesson learned from this story: when someone promises something in the construction world, it means... NOTHING! That's right, it means nothing at all. When I promise my client or anybody else that I will do something, I do it. No doubt. But for some of these guys, promises are just something they throw in to appease you. Nice try but it is not helping at all.  The thing is, there is not much left to be done, there is maybe another day of work to get to where we need to be. 

But it is like everything else, 90% of the job gets done but to get the last 10% complete, it takes a huge amount of either: threats, bribery, anger, guilt trips, scare tactic, money pressure. That's pretty much our range of options at this point.
It it almost like dealing with toddlers: "c'mon, finish cleaning up your room and I will: give you a candy/buy you a car/take your toys away/put you in your room/give you a time-out/put you to bed without dinner/ cancel your play date/ confiscate your DSI/ buy your ice cream". Usually you end up cleaning up alone while your toddler comfortably sits in front of the TV and eats his chocolate mousse. The big difference is that these guys are not 4 years old and we are paying them to do the work.


What we need right now, is for the cat to come back. The thing is, we are the clients, not the builder so we are not in direct contact with the workers, although I would have liked to be so I could call them and tell them to get their sorry asses back to work.
So next week, our builder is back and hopefully, he can get everybody to shape up and start taking things a little bit more seriously.
MAKE SURE THIS HOUSE IS CLOSED OFF BEFORE SNOW FALLS, THAT'S ALL I AM ASKING FOR!!!

Tens of thousands of dollars... That sounds about right.

The one thing about not having an architect is that we are responsible for figuring out ALL budgets for the interior of the house (which is actually fine). This implies dealing with the suppliers and dealing with the suppliers has somewhat turned into a social observatory of human behaviors. Here are the conclusions of my various encounters:

First case scenario: the perfect supplier (let's be realistic: NOT THAT COMMON). This person will basically bend over backwards (well, not literally, thank God, that would be a little too much) to please you and to fulfill your expectations. You will sit down with them and they will explain the product to you in great details, figure out what you need and get back to you very quickly with a quote, they will also answer your emails and phone calls if you have any questions. Chances to meet one of these perfect sales people: very low. 

Second case scenario: the really-competent-but-somewhat-rude supplier. The "attitude man", so to speak. The first interaction will be a mix of useful information as well as condescending remarks associated with bold and offensive statements, such as: "my product is the best and you'll be lucky if I sell it to you". See, in this scenario, it is like the roles have been reversed. There is no sales pitch at all, of course. It is like bizzarro world, you have to convince the supplier to sell you the product (almost). Chances to meet this kind of supplier: medium.

Third case scenario: the really-competent-but-super-lazy supplier. Again, very knowledgeable and very pleasant, and making promises that obviously they have no intention to keep. When can you have this quote ready for us? Oh, well, how about in two weeks? Well, that sounds great, thanks! 6 weeks later: still waiting for the quote. Wow impact: none. Frustration level: very high. Chances to meet this kind of supplier: high.

Fourth case scenario: the kind-of-competent-but-not-really supplier with a somewhat annoying attitude. This is, of course, my least favorite type of supplier. And although I am amused by all the ridiculous/outlandish selling tricks displayed by this type of individual, I find it extremely difficult to not show my discontent.

Often, this supplier is completely put off by the notion of budget: just like most architects, this individual seems to think that money grows on trees (that goes without saying), that budgets are for losers (thanks for the compliment) and that if you want your house to look good, you've got to spent the big bucks (naturally). Often this supplier doesn't really pay attention to what you are saying, has no idea what style you are really after (cuz they ain't really listenin') and acts like you have been best pals for years.  

So here is an example of conversation that I had today regarding some fixtures I was planning on purchasing for the house:

- supplier: " I have this awesome product which will look absolutely amazing in your house, all your friends will be impressed, man!". (now, why is that the biggest argument used to sell you a product???  Do you really think I am building my house to amaze my friends, I find this kind of insulting in a way. To assume that I am big show off and want to impress everyone with my $$$ stuff is beyond ridiculous, it is simply retarded and irritating. And please don't call me "man", we are not BFFs).

- me: "hum... well, to be honest, I don't really give a sh*t care about that, I am not building a house to impress my friends. Can you show me something else, more in line with my budget?"

- supplier, using some other bullshit cheesy sales pitch: "well, you know, this stuff is expensive, it is Italian... We are talking tens of thousands of dollars here."

- me: *_* (here we go with the European product nonsense). "You know, I worked in a furniture store, selling Italian furniture, I roughly know how much things cost. As I told you before, I am on some sort of a budget. Let's try to figure out a good quality product at a non-extravagant/decent price. Just find me what I need at a price I can afford".

Seriously, WTF what is this? Tens of thousands of dollars???? Please, please, PLEASE, give me some credit here and stop treating me like I am a rookie. Needless to say, I am not impressed with this kind of selling technique. It's really unconvincing.  Chances to meet this type of individual: medium to high.

Same sh*t, different day.

Just as I was thinking that the neighbors had finally moved on with their life, as I was slowly waking up this morning, I hear my phone ringing over and over again. Holy sh*t, who wants to speak to me sooooo badly at 7:30 in the morning??? (Better be Jon Hamm calling to invite me out for dinner!).

Our super-nice builder, whom I could tell was pretty unhappy from his tone of voice, is on the phone and announces that #3 has requested that the Building Inspector comes to the site (what, again???? The City is going to think we are trying to break some kind of a record) because it looks like the shoring work was not done properly. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Is this some kind of a joke???? Our structural engineer has come to inspect the work (on many occasions) and has let us know that the shoring is so strong that we could build a 20 storey building on top of it. In fact, he was extremely impressed. The work done is quite complicated and you'd need to know what the initial plan is to assess if it was or not done properly. Well I guess #3 and his little "snoop-around-and-cause-trouble" engineer have decided otherwise although they don't exactly know what the fuck is going on. This new complaint comes as a surprise for me for two reasons:

- the access to our private property is RESTRICTED... so what are these two doing snooping around on a job site where they are not allowed to be? That rubs me the wrong way big time. Not that we have anything to hide, obviously, but in order to produce a CONCLUSIVE report, the engineer would have had to come down into the pit by TRESPASSING... FYI... TRESPASSING IS AGAINST THE LAW... is it not?
- if they didn't trespass, how could they analyze what has been done without actually seeing anything (the property is fenced off). This means that the report was based on NO FACTS! Ugh! So someone is critiquing a peer's work but without backing his own work with tangible information. What kind of an engineer does that? This is very disturbing. Not to mention highly unethical...


At any rate, we were asked to meet the Building Inspector on site and I can say that he looks pretty pissed off to be called to this location again. He is not impressed at all and tells us that "this is not a very normal way to conduct construction". I hear ya! Unfortunately, what can we do? The inspector can't take side (why?) and has to show up to the site every time there is a complaint, even if the complaint is based on a whole bunch of nonsense. After a quick look at the shoring, he tells us that "Everything looks great, I have no concerns. Keep on working". He also mentions that the report he's received from #3's engineer wasn't very impressive (apparently the engineer said several time "that he believes" that the shoring is not done properly... Hum, yeah... we are going to need more than your beliefs to even consider the seriousness of your report, just so you know...).


Well, again, another case of complete waste of time for all of us. No to mention the stress and aggravation associated with the process. 
I keep on thinking that they (the whack jobs next door) are going to leave us alone but they keep on coming back with something ridiculous every time: it's becoming very frustrating at this point! (*_*). I am trying to NOT blow up, and it is quite challenging, especially for someone with very little patience like me.