Monday, December 7, 2009

When it rains it pours

Today my contractor started to gut our 2nd floor bathroom. Let the dust begin. As we were reviewing what items I want to keep he took some more measurements. Walls were in the way and from past experience these walls are different thickness. I told Mike just put a hole in the wall and run the tape measure thru it. A few hits of the hammer and we soon found out that my architect is off by 16"!!! We can squeeze 4" from Sean's bedroom and have no trim around a window but it's hard to make up for 12" on a 9' bathroom. I called Robert our architect and he came right over. We have had a lot of measurement issues with this house. From room to room the walls are different thickness. Also his assistant quit after measuring our house. Now we have to come up with a different plan for the already tight bathroom. I was going to order the vanity and sink today - I'm glad I didn't do it yet. I do have the shower items, toilet and sink faucet. Oh well.

An hour earlier our mudroom entry door with sidelights and transom was delivered. This was after a 4+ week delay when they broke the frame at the factory after building the semi-custom door. Mike our contractor offered to help the guy unload the door off the truck - knowing that it was very heavy. The driver refused the help and then promptly dropped the door and broke part of the frame. The door went back with the driver. Another wait for a new door. The first floor cannot be buttoned up without it.

Finally our old knob and tube circuit for the kitchen gave up this weekend. This circuit has the refrigerator, microwave, toaster oven, kitchen lights, stove, stove fan and light, wash machine, dining room light and Lauren's room on it. All on ONE 100 year old wired circuit. For 10 years it worked fine (except we knew we couldn't run the microwave and the toaster oven at the same time without tripping the circuit breaker). This weekend it said - no more. We could not reset the circuit breaker. We lived the weekend with extension cords running to the garage and one over the sink light. We couldn't plug it into another outlet in the house since the rest of the house is on the other 100 year old wired cicuit (office, living room, hall, bathroom and the 2 bedrooms). 95% of the house is run off two 15A circuits!! I don't understand why we need the additional 200A service upgrade (oh yeah the pool needs 100A). The electrician Noel is here fixing it and adding a new outlet off of a new circuit in the kitchen so we don't have to run extension cords to the garage and leave the back door open a crack for cold air to enter into the house.

Besides this everything is moving along. I've ordered (and received) most of the plumbing fixtures but I'm a little stuck on lights. I'm trying to get them to flow from one room to another without spending an arm and a leg. I have to make some decisions on tile too.