No news is bad news.

In "normal" life, when someone has been M.I.A for a while, people say "no news is good news". And it is usually right. However, in the construction world, I found out that "no news is bad, VERY VERY bad news".  Back in January, we ordered our floors and a material called Prodema that we are using as cladding on one portion of the house. The floors are manufactured in Germany, the Prodema is manufactured in Spain. Both products typically have a lead time of 10-12 weeks.  Given the fact that both orders were placed in January, the materials should be ready for delivery to the job site this week or next. 


A couple of weeks ago, we had a meeting with our Prodema sales rep who told us that the Prodema had arrived on our continent, was clearing custom and was supposed to be delivered to the site a couple of weeks after. Consequently, we started prepping the house for the cladding which involved putting up blue skin on the sheating and mounting the strapping on which the panels have to be fixed. I emailed the rep last week to find out when the delivery was supposed to take place as we have to make room for it. It sort of went last this:


"Hi A, could you let me know when we can expect the Prodema to arrive to the site. Thanks".
" Hi, I am away on business, someone from my office will call you today to let you know."


Ok, great... The day goes by, then another day goes by.... nobody calls. So I decide to call the office. 


Me -"Hi, I am trying to locate an order. Could you transfer me to A?"
Receptionist (who clearly doesn't know sh*t about anything) - "Oh, he is away on business"
Me - "WTF, how long is he away on business for... I need someone to get back to me asap".
Receptionist - "I am transferring you to his cellphone".
Me - "Noooooooooooooo!" Too late. I get transferred to his voicemail once again.
Well, obviously at this point, I realize that the receptionist is running interferences on her boss's behalf and I also realize that he is avoiding me. That is probably because he has BAD news. But how bad?


Well, it turns out pretty damn bad. The order can't be located at this point. It is either on a boat in a container, so it could be here next week or in three weeks or it is still in Spain in the factory. Nobody knows anything. How is that possible? I don't get it. I mean, shouldn't there be a tracking order number? I worked in a furniture store a long time ago and we always knew where our furniture was. Apparently the best case scenario is for the material to show up at the beginning of May... But really, I don't care about the best case scenario at this point, I care about the worst case scenario and I also care about people a) telling me the truth b) not trying to jerk me around and c) not avoiding me. 


Next item on the list: the floors. ETA for the floors was end of April. Great! We are not ready for them yet but it is good to know that they are available if we need them. Last week, I get a call from the rep saying "would it be really inconvenient if the floors arrived mid-May?". Uh oh... that doesn't sound very promising... What's happening now? At any rate, I told her that mid-May was fine but no later than that. Okay, she says, let me get back to you tomorrow. A week later, I still have not heard back. That is definitely NOT good. 
So I called yesterday:


Me - "Hi, how are you? Have you received any news as where the floors are?"
Rep - "No, I am sorry, I will call tomorrow".
Me - (thinking "but you were supposed to call last week...") "oh, ok... well do you have any idea if the floors are on their way... Have they been shipped?"
Rep - "I don't know".
Me - "OK... are the floors still in Germany?" (which would be a fucking disaster).
Rep - "I don't know..."
Me - (thinking "What the fuck do you know then??????") "Can you please find out and let me know tomorrow".
Rep - "Yes, I will call you tomorrow for sure".


The thing is, the rep is this very very nice woman I have been dealing with for years. We have a good rapport and that's the only reason why I stayed calm. During the whole conversation, I felt like banging the phone on the table and saying "What is going on here???? Get me a fucking answer!!!!!". I know she is not responsible for this screw up but what I would like is for her to get me an answer right now, good or bad. She is supposed to let me know today... but I still have not heard. 




I am very concerned and annoyed right now. 

Everything you've always wanted to know about hinges but were afraid to ask.

Well, in my case, not really. I have never wondered about hinges. In fact, until a few weeks ago, I didn't even care about them... Until I got this phone call from my builder: "Can you go select the hinges you'd like for the interior doors as well as for the entrance door?... Me "O_O.... I didn't know that was part of the job description... Where do I start?". 


Yes, where do I start? Because it turns out that when you start exploring the world of hinges, you are in for many sleepless nights. It is almost like diving deep deep deep into the ocean and discovering all these weird species of fish and sea creatures that you never knew existed. Well, obviously, not quite... In fact, it has nothing to do with it. Hinges are sort of boring, they tend to pretty much all look alike but still there are books and books of reference for them. 
At any rate, I went to the hardware store and befriended one of the owners there, who knows everything about door hardware, hinges, locks and he sort of makes the whole thing interesting. I came in and told him what I needed and he went at the back of his store, brought back a few catalogues, told me what to look for and said "good luck, come back and see me when you have found what you like".... "Find what I like... Did you just hand me the last Anthropology catalogue, because I can tell you, I will find many things I like. "No, no he said. These catalogues are all about hinges...". Gulp... I can't believe this. Anyhow, I went home, and started to look at the catalogues... Pages and pages of hinges that looked almost identical. Talk about finding a needle in a haystack. 


Meanwhile, the phone is ringing... 


Builder: "So any luck with those hinges?"... 
Me: "Say the word hinges one more time, and you are fired"...
Builder: "Ha ha ha! Yes, hinges can be an exciting subject"...
Me: "You bastard!!!! You set me up for this, didn't you?".
Builder: "Ha ha ha ha! Good luck".




Anyhow, I finally took a good look at those catalogues and really, there are only a few things to consider: size (3"x3", 4"x4", 3.5" x 3.5", 4.5" x 4.5"...) ball bearing or plain bearing, extruded, heavy duty or not, finishes, shape square or radius corner, metal, plated steel or stainless steel, made in the US or made in China. In a nutshell, that's it. Once you have the size, thickness and weight of the door, it is sort of easy, you just pick the style you like. And all should work out...


Well, unfortunately, it is not that simple...


First set of hinges I picked and brought to the carpenter for the interior door: "No, they are too big, see the knuckle sticks out, I need smaller ones". Alright. Back at the hardware store, picked up smaller ones. Gave them to carpenter: "Yes, they are perfect". Phew! Mission accomplished. That wasn't so hard, it only required two trips.


Second set of hinges for the entrance door. Now, this is where trouble starts. The entrance door is a big mama, bigger than a standart entrance door (It is heavier and also thicker). Based on my hardware person recommendation, I got a few sets of the 4"x4" heavy duty ball bearing square corner, stainless steel madeintheUSofA hinges. Those babies were brought to the person who was prepping the door.  He said "no, these hinges are not strong enough for that door". Okay. Back to the hardware guy, who is now pulling out the big guns: the 5"x5"... very heavy duty hinges, that should do the trick he said. Builder brought the hinges back to the carpenter. I get an email "the hinges are too big!!!"... Holy cow... Seriously, is there someone in this town that can figure this out? This ain't rocket science for God's sake. I started to do a little bit of research. The ideal hinge for that door is a 5" x 4.5"... only available in the US. Bummer. I finally found a 4.5" x 4" stainless steel somewhere, so I went to pick it up. While reading the label, I realized that this hinge was made in china.  As expected, it worked like absolute crap. We are all standing at the house yesterday afternoon, looking at these hinges and trying them out. Quite a sight. 


Carpenter: "Yes, this one is the right size, but it doesn't work very well."
Builder: "Hummm, yes. But wow, check this one out. The Cadillac of hinges."
Me: "OMG, c'mon now guys...What do we do? Can we cut it down to the chase here, please?"
Builder, asking me: "Well, what do YOU think? You are our hinge expert now."
Me: "OK, that's it you are fired, both of you".
Builder and Carpenter: "Ha ha ha ha".


Yes, they both are really afraid of me! 


At any rate, after a few phone calls back to the hardware store, it seems like we have located the dream hinge. It required about five trips but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Holy shit, thank you. I just was about to give up on that one. 

Bad manners.

Over the past few days, I have been confronted to a wave of bad manners on the job site. Until now, there was never any concern about people acting like dickheads rudely. Everyone works in harmony, is friendly to one another, in fact, when I get to the house, I know that it is going to be pleasant. The trades are always very nice and respectful and it has become more of a team work than anything else. Well... until now. 

First on my list: the central vac guy who apparently is miserable and complains about everything all the time. I had never met him until a couple of days ago. I showed up at the house and there was a truck parked in the lane way. (Because of the neighbours-from-hell, we have instructed the trades NOT TO PARK on the driveway. They are all aware that there is a potential lawsuit hanging above our heads and they usually never park on the driveway unless they have to unload their trucks to bring material in. Anyhow, everyone seems to understand the parking rules expect for central vac guy who has been parking in the danger zone over and over again. He obviously doesn't give a shit). At any rate, I wasn't sure whose truck it was so I asked our heating contractor and he told me it belonged to the central vac dude. There are so many trades in the house right now that I wasn't sure who he meant so I asked him if he could go tell the dude to move his truck since the neighbour was about to complain. Looks like Mr Central Vac got really uptight about the whole thing and started to get very agitated. I didn't see any of this but I saw someone come back up the stairs fuming and talking under his breath. He wouldn't even make eye contact he was so pissed off. I realized I had just met Mr Central vac guy. When I witness such bad behaviour, what do I want to do? Tell the trade to 1- get lost and 2-get the fuck out of the house. Seriously... it is not like the guy works here for free, he is getting paid to do this job and he has to understand and be respectful to the ONE rule we are trying to enforce. That whole scene really pissed me off and I told the builder about it. Builder's answer was:

" Sorry about the vacuum guy. Believe me I will stick a hose up his ass and see if the system works".


I like my builder a lot.


Second on my list: the window guys. The window company is called "Manners windows" (O_o), referring to I guess an outstanding level of customer service (???). Well, first of all, their level of service with regards to scheduling and how to stick to a schedule is very poor. As a matter of fact, they cancelled an entire week of window installation because of ONE snow day. Needless to say it was very irritating given the fact that we are relying on the window installation to continue with the work inside the house. Anyhow, they finally showed up again. The crew doing the work is so SO unfriendly, I am shocked. They barely say hello and if they do, they mumble it through their teeth. You'd need a super powerful hearing aid to hear it. I mean, I don't expect any of the trades to throw themselves at my neck and hug me when I arrive, I am not delusional, but how hard is it to say hi? C'mon, that's called Manners and it should have been taught to anyone from a very young age. And when you work for a company called "Manners windows", shouldn't you try a little harder? I guess they just picked the name without fully understanding what it meant or what the implications of such a name were. They forgot their "manners" on the way to our house.
I told the builder about those guys and here's what he said:


"I have to drop off the front door hardware at Bad Manners then I will go and "speak" to the vacuum guy". 


I like my builder even more. 

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.