Jan. 30th, 2009
Home improvement is full of ups and downs
Jan. 30th, 2009 11:05 amThe initial estimate Rick gave me for removing the cedar or pine (not clear which) planking, plus putting in dry wall, mudding, and painting was $1700. Then his wife did the official estimate overnight, and he brought it back the next day. That one was for $2000. I asked why, and Rick pointed out one item that was marked as $100 more. But he couldn't figure out where the additional $200 came from. That was, until I looked at the initial estimate, and checked his math. He had mis-added by $200. So okay, $2000.
Until he started removing the planking. Turned out there was dry wall under there already, so that part of the job wasn't needed. Based on that, he reduced the estimate by $500, and I waited for the next gotcha.
It showed up this morning. He pointed out that there was a definite aroma of cat pee around a couple of the wall areas. I was surprised at that, since I thought Gandalf's incursions into the living room were limited to the carpet, but the evidence was there.
One area was particularly bad, and we agreed that he would remove the dry wall there and replace it with new. He started on that, and shortly thereafter, I could smell cat pee all the way in my office, about 30 feet and a couple of bends distance. It turned out that not only the dry wall, but the insulation in that area was also permeated.
The other places weren't so bad, and I had a vague memory of there being some sort of paint-on barrier. Rick called Home Depot and asked, and sure enough, there's something called Binz (sp?) that should deal with the less-stinky areas. But that one area needed to have the dry wall and insulation completely removed. The good news is that now that that stuff is all outside, I can't smell the cat pee anymore.
We haven't renegotiated price yet, but by the time it's all done, I strongly suspect that extra $500 will turn out to have been fairy gold. Also, I need to buy whatever it is that you put around windows, because I don't want to recycle what was there before -- I want something that matches the oak floor instead of reusing the cedar-stained pine.
On the other hand, the place is looking much nicer, even though it's full of white muddy footprints. And I've settled on a color for the walls, I think -- Behr Shimmer, which is a very light, slightly grayed, green. Carol Collins, my color maven, says it will make the floor pop and coordinate everything else.
Until he started removing the planking. Turned out there was dry wall under there already, so that part of the job wasn't needed. Based on that, he reduced the estimate by $500, and I waited for the next gotcha.
It showed up this morning. He pointed out that there was a definite aroma of cat pee around a couple of the wall areas. I was surprised at that, since I thought Gandalf's incursions into the living room were limited to the carpet, but the evidence was there.
One area was particularly bad, and we agreed that he would remove the dry wall there and replace it with new. He started on that, and shortly thereafter, I could smell cat pee all the way in my office, about 30 feet and a couple of bends distance. It turned out that not only the dry wall, but the insulation in that area was also permeated.
The other places weren't so bad, and I had a vague memory of there being some sort of paint-on barrier. Rick called Home Depot and asked, and sure enough, there's something called Binz (sp?) that should deal with the less-stinky areas. But that one area needed to have the dry wall and insulation completely removed. The good news is that now that that stuff is all outside, I can't smell the cat pee anymore.
We haven't renegotiated price yet, but by the time it's all done, I strongly suspect that extra $500 will turn out to have been fairy gold. Also, I need to buy whatever it is that you put around windows, because I don't want to recycle what was there before -- I want something that matches the oak floor instead of reusing the cedar-stained pine.
On the other hand, the place is looking much nicer, even though it's full of white muddy footprints. And I've settled on a color for the walls, I think -- Behr Shimmer, which is a very light, slightly grayed, green. Carol Collins, my color maven, says it will make the floor pop and coordinate everything else.