Actions speak louder than words...

A month ago, our super nice builder told us that it was time to start laying the bricks at the house. He had quotes from 3 different masons:

- the first guy had a stroke so we couldn't hire him

- the second guy only worked on week-ends

- the third guy was at the same price point as the second one and was available.

We told him that we didn't care and that he could pick whoever he wanted, since they all came in at the same price.

So the third guy was hired to do the job. We met briefly with him before he started and he was sort of bragging and saying that he was going to do an amazing job. Okay, great, that's fine with me. I love when someone does an amazing job.... OBVIOUSLY! We don't pay someone to do a shit job.. well, at least, not willingly. 

The bricks we have picked are a little tricky to install. First of all, the weather needs to be warmer, by that I mean not below 0 degrees Celsius. In other words, it is not recommended to lay the bricks when it is freezing. Also, because the mortar needs to dry before you lay more bricks, you can only do about 500 bricks at a time. If you do more than that, it starts to cause problems. It doesn't dry properly, it moves around. It can easily turn into a disaster. At any rate, masons usually charge a bit a lot more when they work with these bricks because of the labour that's involved. This mason was no exception. His crew started on a Wednesday and was working under the tarp where heat was provided, to keep the bricks at a decent temperature. We couldn't really see what was happening because of that big plastic cover that was hiding the entire operation. On the Saturday, we noticed that they were almost done the entire facade and we thought it was going a little too fast so we stepped under the plastic sheet to inspect the work...

                                  O_O

                                   *_*

Bloody Hell!!! Complete fucking disaster!!! As in WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT MESS?

At first, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was sort of like looking at a Franck Gehry's building, you know with the wavy facade and the weird angles. I mean, that looks great when it is meant to be that way, there is no question about it. But really, in our case, that's not the style we are going for. As well, the bricks were all sliding down to one side on the house and the corners were all over the place, nothing was straight. Talk about an amazing job... Amazingly shitty, that's for sure. 

At this point, we realized we needed to STOP them from going any further. It looked like they had never done this sort of work before... Total amateurs.

We called our builder who sent one of his brick experts to take a look and the expert said "yeah, this is shit and needs to be taken down and redone". Great, that's just great.

The builder reacted right away. Pretty awesome. He fired the mason and hired the second guy, who is an expert with these bricks and has already started the job. Obviously, he is going very slowly and he seems to know what he is doing. It looks pretty good so far. He was actually the person who took down the bricks and he said that the work was done so badly, he had never seen such thing... wow... he also told us that we would have had to probably redo the whole facade 10 years from now. 

Do as I say, not as I do.

Apparently I was caught opening my big mouth yesterday. I arrived at the house to meet the electrician and I noticed that the neighbor-from-hell had parked her car in the driveway, therefore blocking it, which is something that her and her husband have asked us not to do. How ironic given the fact that a couple of hours prior, we received an email from them which was basically a very very VERY long list of all the BAD things we had done over the past few weeks. One of the complaints was that the workers always block the lane way (which is not accurate) and the other complaint was that one of the workers slashed one of their tires out of spite... O_0! Hello, someone's little paranoid.

I find it utterly interesting that while they are complaining about the fact that our workers block the lane way, they do exactly the same thing. Do as I say not as I do! Because we knew that at some point they would start harassing us again, we have been documenting (by taking photos) every case of  lane way blocking by them over the past few weeks. So when we got the email yesterday, we answered back very briefly with an attachment containing numerous photos of their car parked in the lane way. When I got to the house and saw that once again, they were happily parked where nobody is supposed to park, I took a picture and sent it to my other half who forwarded right away to them asking "Is this your car parked in the lane way again?". I guess it came as a very bad surprise to them that we had been photo documenting their parking habits. That's something they were not expecting which makes them look like total hypocrites. At any rate, I was outside with the electrician when #2 came out and rushed to her car gesticulating and screaming. I am guessing that she got a call from her husband saying "What is happening? They have all these photos of you parked in the driveway, now I look like a fool". She then proceeds to come out of the car, approaches me and the conversation sort of goes like this:


- Her: "I am parking in the lane way because I can't turn around like I used to. That's your fault." (Little history on this: they used to turn around by driving onto our property, in our backyard, which they can't do right now because the workers are parked in our back yard, leaving no room for them to turn around.)
- Me: "Really? Well, why don't you back up then, like everybody else?"
- Her: "Well, I have always turned around for years, I am not going to start backing up."
- Me: "Oh well, you better start practicing because we are planning on putting a fence up and you definitely won't be able to turn around anymore after that."
- Her, getting very agitated: "A fence? You never said you were going to put a fence up."
- Me, getting really annoyed :"NEWSFLASH: we have little kids and we don't want them to go run onto the street, hence the fence, know what I am saying bitch?"


At this point, the conversation was getting pretty intense. The electrician was also witnessing and I could tell he was feeling a little uncomfortable. 


- Her: "Well, I can't believe this... blah blah blah..."
- Me, raising my voice at this point: "You and your husband should get a life, you are both crazy and should seek the help of a psychiatrist. I heard that you were accusing our workers of slashing your tire with a knife. That's absurd."
- Her: "Don't raise your voice."
- Me: "Don't raise my voice??? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??? You and your husband have been harassing us for months and you are asking me to not raise my voice."
- Her :"Well, I have only talked to you once in the past and... and..."
- Me: "And this is the last time you talk to me. Don't talk to me ever again and leave me alone from now on".


Now she is furiously walking to the other side of the street and calls her husband: " I just spoke to X (me) and she opened her big mouth".

 .......................................................................

!!!!!!!!! (*_*) !!!!!!!!!

I opened my big mouth? What is that supposed to mean? Am I supposed to just stand there and not say anything? At this point I just added "oh boy, you really can't do anything without your husband, can you?"


I think I kind of crossed the line right there because she said something (some threats of some sort), turned around and left. Good fucking riddance!


Lesson learned from this story: NONE! Getting into an argument is ALWAYS a bad idea, especially when you are a non-confrontational person like me. You usually don't learn much from a confrontation, I don't think. However, if you try me over and over and over again, I am not going to lay low and shut my mouth. I have kept my mouth shut till this point but yesterday, I had to say something. I am not a punching ball and there is a point where anyone has to stand for themselves and push back. At least I didn't use any swear words during this altercation (although it would have been very tempting to tell that foolish witch to just F*CK OFF) but I can't guarantee I won't use swear words next time if she starts talking to me again.

The worst sales pitch ever.

In addition to the construction project, we have been trying to sell our current home for a little while right now. We had an agent which contract we didn't renew so we started looking for a new agent at the end of last week. At any rate, it must have been indicated somewhere on the real estate agents database tool that we were "sans" agent because I got this strange call last week. There were a couple of messages left on our answering machine which I retrieved on the week-end. They sort of went like this: 


Message #1: "Hi, this is So and so, remember me? We were in touch a few years ago when you guys were looking into buying a home. I was wondering what the status on your house is because I want to buy a house for myself and I am very interested in your place".  
A few days later, message number 2: "Hi, this is So and So again, I was wondering if you could call me. This is regarding your house". 


Talk about someone who completely dropped off the face of the earth and resurfaces at an opportune time. Good timing. I thought "hmmmm, that's a little odd... he wants to buy our house. I am not sure what to think". Well, in a way, it is good news since we have been trying to get rid of it for the past 4 months almost. So I called him back and he asked me if he could come and see the house sort of... RIGHT AWAY. Wow... okay, that's fine with me.


He shows up and after we exchanged a few platitudes, we all sit down waiting for him to start. So here is how it goes:


- So and So: "Sorry, I have not had time to get ready for this presentation, so bare with me..." AS he pulls out his marketing material.
- Me: O_o 
- Hubby, looking at me: o_O
- Me: "okay..." (but thinking: "what presentation?  Aren't you here to buy our house? I don't understand what's happening here".)
-So and so: "Alright, so here is a house that I rented to Tom Cruise last year. He is such a nice guy, he was there with Suri and his wife wasn't because she was out shooting a movie."
- Me: "Oh... that's... interesting... I guess." (but thinking :"who gives a shit???? I don't even like Tom Cruise anyways.")
- Hubby sarcastically (he likes Tom Cruise as much as I do): "Oh, yeah, Tom Cruise. Did he bring all his Scientology friends?"
- So and So ignoring the comment: "And this house, I sold to Marc Lemieux. Not that I want to drop names here but you know."
- Me: "Marc Who?" (and thinking "One, you are totally name dropping and two, who the fuck is Marc Lemieux and why don't you get to the point here dude, I don't have all day.")
- Hubby: "Who?"
- So and So: "He is a famous hockey player"
- Me and Hubby: "Ahhhh, okay..."
- Hubby: (kind of taking the bull by the horns at this point): "So aside from trying to pitch a job, what brings you here?
- Me: "Yeah, what was that about you wanting to buy our house?" 
- So and So: "Oh yes, right, right (yeah, you seriously went OFF track here dude). Well, my girlfriend doesn't really like the exterior of your house but I guess I can try to bring her here".


                  .........................................AWKWARD SILENCE........................................


                                                                          O_O


- Hubby: "Ahem. Alright, well, I guess you let us know then."
- So and So, sort of uncomfortable: "You bet!".
- Me: O_o (but thinking "What the hell was that??? Your girlfriend DOESN'T even LIKE our house so there is no way you are going to buy it from us!!! What a waste of time and a tacky way to try and get a listing). 


Hubby walks him back to the door, while I am just sitting there, trying to figure out what just happened. He comes back upstairs and says "well, that was pretty lame, wasn't it? This guy is like... hmmm, like...  that Swiper from Dora!"... Me, *_*: "Yes, he is and what a reference, I can tell you have been watching too many cartoons lately!". 


Okay, a little reminder to agents: next time you want a listing, why not call and honestly say it? There is nothing wrong with that, I'd understand and give you a chance to come and give us a presentation. But to hide your ulterior motive behind such a huge fucking lie, that's just crossing the line and honestly, there is no way I would hire someone like you to sell my house after that. What were you thinking? Frankly, I don't understand people sometimes. 

Battle of the egos (not of the blades).

I couldn't help but noticing that I haven't posted anything for a couple of weeks now. A lot has happened in a short period of time. The house looks great, the framing is 95% complete. 

It has been inspected by the structural engineer who has told us that, apart from a couple of small things, it is extremely well built. That's because those Russian framers are really amazing and have been doing a great job. 
Mechanical has also started and the mechanical contractor is very competent and pleasant to deal with. His job is very precise and neatly executed, which is comforting to see. 

Next item on the list is the plumbing. Now, I can't really say it started on the right foot. The plumbers decided to go to the house last week-end and mark where some of the fixtures were going to be located (for example, the damn toilets). So they went and started cutting holes in the wrong places. The builder noticed it and was quite horrified. It wouldn't have been so bad had I not hired the plumbing crew myself... But I gave the job to a friend of mine and now I am sort of responsible for the fuck-ups... indirectly.


So, since every problem can be solved (well most of the time), I had to sit down with my friend the plumber and figure out how to make things right going forward. The problem was that his guys were working off some drawings which have been revised at least 3 times in the past few weeks. So their set of drawings was slightly outdated, obsolete to say the least. I provided everyone with new drawings today. I also made a list of all the fixtures we have ordered, which I hadn't done before so I'll take the blame for that. The reason why I had not done it is because I still have not chosen the fucking toilets. They continue to confuse the hell out of me. I HATE TOILETS! So far I have picked 2 out of 5... I am failing totally... 


Anyhow, we decided that we would all meet at the job site this morning to go over all the bathroom and plumbing details. It was interesting (from a woman's perspective at least) seeing how these male contractors interact with one another. Basically, on a job site, nobody likes to take orders, I have noticed. The builder is the project manager  and he tells /explains to the trades what to do based on the house plans. He is extremely knowledgeable so would I be one of the trades I would just do as he says. I have witnessed today a bit of battle of egos between all the men present. Some contractors get pissed off when they receive an order, namely the plumbers (it is not that they are openly pissed off, it is more subtle than that, they sort of roll their eyes or shrug their shoulders), some others are fine with it. It was sort of amusing to see... for a short period of time though....  because I just don't want any power issue fucking screwing up the job so I am obviously backing up my builder, who I trust and who I know is looking out for us. Whatever builder says, you do. End. Of. Story.

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!