Reno Humor: Fly on the Wall

 

Welcome to our monthly Fly on the Wall, a blog post written in snippets. Marcia, Diane, and I invite you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes, at our writing desks, and in our worlds. Come on in, buzz around, see what we've been up to. Bet you laugh! 

In July's blog post, Exciting and Exhausting, I talked about my son's company moving him back here and the whirlwind purchase of his first house. Last month's post, More Diamond, Less Rough, was about the 7 weeks I spent as the general contractor for my son's home while he was back in Boulder finishing up work there and waiting for the movers. It was completely exhausting and often frustrating day after day, but worth every minute.

In today's post, I'm going to share a few stories about some of what happened along the way. Last house renovation post, I swear!

In those 7 weeks as general contractor, I spoke to 27 tradespeople, took estimates, and hired 13 of them. Each had a crew, some small, some large. I had to have met and worked with 35 - 40 people. I thoroughly enjoyed working with and getting to know all of them except one. One guy was an absolute nightmare, but everyone else, from business owners to workers, were friendly, patient as I learned from them, hard-working, interesting, professional, and some just fun to be around.

I got to know some of them so well, we'd text fairly regularly, I was comfortable enough to joke with them.

I was waiting for the floor guy to come, I'd been told he's just be there an hour or two so I intended to just stay until he was done to lock up after him, as I didn't yet have a key for him. When he arrived, he told me he'd be there the rest of the day.

The front and back doors have both a locking door knob, and an upper deadbolt that PurDude had added. I told Raul that when he left he should lock the deadbolt on the front door, then the lower lock on the back door, he could then just pull the back door closed to lock it, and I'd be able to get in the front door.

The next day, Saturday, I went to the house and Raul had locked both front door locks. I was locked out.

I called the owner, who sent and paid for a locksmith to pick the lower front lock so I could get in.

I texted PurDude the story that night, then texted the owner the next day:

Me: I hope you find this funny (I didn't). There is a side door to the house that only unlocks from the inside. There is only one key and I have it. PurDude just told me that it also unlocks the lower front and back door locks. Bottom line: I'm paying you back for the locksmith. Please let me know what I owe you.

Him: Funny, not funny. Don't worry, it's all good.

Speaking of locks, here's a lesson learned. If a doorknob is loose, don't close the door all the way.

We had to get down to the basement to empty the dehumidifier. I was in the living room when I heard:

Hubs: Oh, no.

Me: What?
Hubs (standing by the closed door to the basement holding the doorknob): This isn't good.

Me: Great. You broke your kid's house.

And that's how we learned to take a doorknob apart, jimmy our way in, and reattach the knob.

looks kinda sad, doesn't he?

Much better.

BTW, back at home another lesson learned:

Cinnamon and curry powder may look similar in the spice rack (first thing in the morning and without my glasses on, in my defense), but they taste very different in an Apple Harvest Cake.

'nough said.

Apple Harvest Cake

I talk a lot in these posts about autocorrect and the crazy (but funny) way it changes my texts.

While I was there, I was also getting Pudude's mail. One letter was from his mortgage company, his first mortgage payment would be due and they were listing the ways he could pay.

I sent a text to PurDude telling him about the letter. I should have learned by now to read before sending, but this time I didn't. So this is what I went:

Me: You got a letter from your mortgage company. Your mother is due on the first, there are multiple option for how to pay . . .

In the upstairs hall, there's a door to the attic. Runniing from the front of the house with 3 windows to the back of the house with 2 windows, it is an amazing, beautiful, huge space, perfect for finishing as a future project. Just inside that door is a laundry chute straight down to the laundry room in the basement.

On one of our trips to the house, we saw in the laundry room, a pile of rags. There were multiple trades working in the house at the time, so they could have belonged to any of them, but still, a pile of rags on the floor seemed odd.

I had shown the laundry chute to the floor guys. They were using the washing machine outlet for their sander, and for the upper floors, I told them they could just send their cord down the laundry chute to the basement.

I came in the next day while they were sanding, and they told me they couldn't get the cord down the laundry chute. They stuck a stick into the bottom and found there was a blockage. Pushing harder, the blockage came out. 

It wasn't rags, it was an entire load of laundry: sheets, clothes, underwear and socks.

I gotta wonder . . . who is in such a rush to move away that they leave their underwear behind?

 

I tried to play a joke on PurDude. He has a side door that goes up to the kitchen, or down to the basement. I sent him a picture of crime scene tape the concrete guy had put up at his side door and told him someone had tried to break in the night before.

He wasn't fooled. Not for a second. Of course, I might have had a better chance of fooling him if he hadn't known that Jim was replacing the concrete there the day before.

Or maybe not.

Speaking of that side door, this isn't real terrazzo, right?

And speaking of the basement, it's a large, mostly unfinished space broken up into rooms. There are cabinets for storage all around the space, a work room, a laundry room, a wet bar, lots of space (but not continuous, broken up). 

The former owners left him a free standing freezer, plugged in and working. A wet bar, plumbed and working. A washer and dryer, plugged in and working. A dehumidifier, plugged in and working. 

And a toilet. 

In a box.

We had a kind of a good news/bad news situation with the carpet/tile company. These were more people I thoroughly enjoyed working with. 

Emilie was our contact at the company, and she just had a great, bubbly personality. Horacio was in charge of our project. We were putting ceramic tile in the front entrance and carpet in 3 bedrooms.

The carpet guy didn't put the trim on the carpet at the doorway because he knew the hall floors were being refinished and this would make it easier on the wood floor guys.

The ceramic tile went in on the porch and I was dismayed, the grout was the wrong color. 

I called Emilie, and she said she'd send Horacio over to fix it. She called me later in the day, apologetic. She said it was her fault, she'd ordered the wrong grout color. I told her I appreciated the call but it was no problem since it would be fixed.

The next day I tried to call Emilie and the business phone gave me a message that they were not accepting calls from my number and that I should hang up. Huh?

I called Emilie's personal phone, she didn't pick up, so I left a message, and texted also. I even called from Hubs' phone and asked to have Emilie call me. Nothing.

The next day I saw Horacio at the house. He claimed to know nothing about the message I was getting or Emilie not getting back to me, but at least the tile was now grouted correctly.

Over the next month, I heard not one word from them. 

So . . .

Bad news: Doorway trim was missing on the carpet in those 3 bedrooms.

Good news: Also missing was their entire bill.

Update: more good news, the day before PurDude came to town Horacio trimmed the carpet.

And even more good news, still haven't seen a bill.

On the day the floors were finished, I needed to go in the house. I texted the floor guy, who made it clear that I had to wait 6 hours and . . .

Erik: My team just finished the final coating to the floor. Please wait until 4:00. Socks only today, shoes starting tomorrow.

Me: Thank you so much. I'll be there today at 4:00 with my socks on. By socks only, I assume you mean I can still wear my pants and shirt, right? 

Phew, he left it up to me.

 

Now click on the links below and see what my friends have to share:

Menopausal Mother 

On the Border

Apple Harvest Cake

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

5 apples, cored, peeled, and chopped

5 TBSP butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 TBSP caramel sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 1/4 cups oil

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions: 

*In a large sauté pan, heat the butter over medium heat until melted. Add the chopped apples and cook, stirring for about 3 minutes, until they just start to soften. Mix in 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and the caramel sauce, just until the apples are coated. Set aside.

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt pan.

*Whisk together the sugar, remaining brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, oil, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.

*Mix in the flour, baking soda, salt, and remaining cinnamon until completely incorporated.

*Spread about 1/3 of the apple mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Mix the rest of the apple mixture into the dough and pour evenly over the apples at the bottom of the pan.

*Bake for 35 - 45 minutes, until the center of the top springs back to the touch. Run a knife around the edges.

*Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate. NOTE: some of the apples may stick to the bottom of the pan, removed them with a knife and place onto the top of the cake. 

*Cool completely before slicing.

More Diamond, Less Rough: Fly on the Wall

 

Welcome to our monthly Fly on the Wall, a blog post written in snippets. Marcia, Diane, and I invite you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes, at our writing desks, and in our worlds. Come on in, buzz around, see what we've been up to. Bet you laugh! 

In last month's Fly on the Wall, Exciting and Exhausting, I talked about how, after living in Boulder for 7 years, PurDude is coming home. In a market where, especially in the part of town he wants to live in, houses sell in days, he was missing out on any that interested him.

His realtor, a friend of Hubs' went to an open house right where PurDude wanted to be. He viewed and taped and had PurDude make an offer. I won't repeat the whole story of how that went, you can read it in last month's post. But I will say that Hubs and I later went in to see the house for ourselves. A 106 year old traditional home, it had been loved in the distant past, but definitely not in the recent past. When we walked out we told the realtor that this house was a diamond in the rough.  

After 7 exhausting, frustrating, productive, and rewarding weeks. I think we've accomplished more diamond and less rough.

In the end of May, PurDude flew in on a Wednesday night to see his house in person for the first time on Thursday, and close on it on Friday. He would then be here for another week in which we would try to get quotes for HVAC, painter, electrician, general contractor, appliance repair, plumber, landscaper, radon mitigation, garage door, cement, wood floor, carpet, and ceramic tile. We'd look at some samples so I could get a feel for his taste, but after that it would be all up to me. I'd have to get further estimates, make choices with him through text, schedule, follow up, and pay the trades.

All of this at his house (1/2 hour away from mine), while still maintaining the day to day in my own home.

And speaking of my own home:

Thursday, the day of the walk-through, my bathroom flooded.

Sunday, Hubs tried to back the car out of the garage before the garage door was open.

 

One plumber (me) and a new garage door ordered (me, too), PurDude left.

Week one on my own, while trying to nail down estimates and services and colors and choices:

On Monday, I realized I was missing a check from my checkbook.

On Tuesday, I found out they no longer make the (broken off) knob to his oven.

On Thursday we had a huge downpour and in the middle of the night the tubes to our sump pump separated.

But there were some laughs, too. My text to PurDude:

Dad mowed your lawn. Your lawnmower doesn't like him, it kept shutting off. Probably because he kept trying to mow straight up the bricks around your tree.

Let me explain here that there are issues we are dealing with that came up in the inspection and that the sellers provided some funding for us to remediate. Not fun, but necessary.

Then there is the rest of what we're trying to get done. The things that he wants done to realize his vision for the house, to make it his own. Like the painting, carpet, and ceramic tile. But most important was taking down a partial wall between the living room and dining room, and ripping up the carpets, praying the wood floors can be restored.

Week 2:

We were getting somewhere. HVAC done. Garage door (his, not mine), done. Weeding done. Mulching way more exhausting than I thought so Hubs and I aren't quite done. Painting done, Carpet done. Ceramic tile starts Monday. Concrete scheduled. Radon mitigation scheduled. I even figured out how to get his oven knob replaced. I am on a roll.

NOT.

One step forward 2 steps back is the saying, but it's 3 for me:

The electricians are still here, taking longer than expected by up to 3 days. Everything else comes to a dead stop until they finish. Good thing I wrote that schedule in pencil.

AND 3 different plumbers told me 3 different things. I just don't know. What I do know, however, is that he has to be able to take a shower . . .

AND the contractor (wall) can't get us onto his schedule in our time frame.

But the floors are the biggest priority, we still have a prayer of getting those done.

Week 3: Disaster.

Remember I said that everything is at a dead stop until the electricians finished? We were hoping they'd be done after the first week, but they found more issues so they planned to be done after 1/2 day on Thursday the latest.

Nope. After Wednesday, the electrical contractor we hired pulled his guys from the house and doesn't know when they will be back. WHAT?

The carpet was supposed to be pulled up Thursday to see where we stand with the wood floors. Nope. We're at a stop.

And I am trying so hard not to cry. But then PurDude made me laugh:

PurDude (via text): I never want to see another electrician again. If any electrician comes within 2 miles of that house, I'm going to have them arrested for trespassing.

Don't blame him. 

And me? You know what I do for stress release. I bake. 

Lemon Strawberry Love Cake

Week 4:

So, the electricians said they'd be back in 2 weeks . . . 

Went ahead with pulling the carpet to see what we were dealing with and the floor guy got us locked out of the house . . .

But I think you get the drift. So where are we now?

A picture's worth 1000 words.

 

As I said, the previous owners did not maintain the house or the property.

Front yard before:

And after. Pat on the back here, I did the mulching.

Walk up the steps to the front porch. Look up, that ceiling is one of my favorite features of the house. 

But then look down. Dirty, stained indoor/outdoor carpet.

Carpet gone, we replaced it with ceramic tile. White, with grey veining to go with the grey and white house paint and trim.

Inside the front door to the right is the living room. The doorway closest to the fireplace is to the dining room. Opposite that doorway along the wall to the right (not shown) is the sunroom. The doorway (shown) furthest from the fireplace is the kitchen.

On the floor of all of those rooms except the kitchen, (which had LVP), was dirty, ripped, threadbare carpet.

living room looking iinto kitchen and dining room

sunroom

And what was under that disgusting carpet? Beautiful original hardwood floors.

living room looking into sunroom

sunroom

From the front door to the left is the stairway. You can't tell from this picture, but that wallpaper is shiny, pink, and flowered.

The wallpaper was throughout the upstairs hallway too.

The walls are now grey with a hint of green and the floors are hardwood.

There are 4 bedrooms upstairs. The master is the largest, but also the ugliest.

Now it's the color of the sky, looking out onto the treetops, with a complimentary grey carpet.

The other larger bedroom will be his home office. The third bedroom is very small, and will be his walk-in closet. The last bedroom, a medium size, will be the guest bedroom. And this one had dark orange, yes I said orange, carpet. 

Every scintilla of carpet that was in this house is now gone. Gone! This bedroom got new carpet before I set it up with some furniture from our house.

And although we have the guest bedroom, the bathrooms, and kitchen set up for him, I made it clear that when he comes into town, he is NOT to go to his house, but come to ours.

Me (via text): When you get to town, do not go to your house, come home. Your dad and I busted our asses on this transformation and there isn't a chance in hell we won't be there to see your face when you walk in for the first time!

The back yard is a true oasis. Well, it was an oasis wannabe.

But it's an oasis now. 

We had met the neighbors on both sides of PurDude while he was still here. After he had gone back to Boulder, we had a chance to chat with them now and then as we were working at the house.

As we were about half way through the process, we ran into one of his neighbors. We talked for a while, the conversation ending this way:

Neighbor: You really are great parents, you've done so much for him.

Me: Yeah, we kinda like him.

And we do. We also kinda like having him just a half hour away, too.

 

Now click on the links below and see what my friends have to share:

Menopausal Mother 

On the Border

Lemon Strawberry Love Cake

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 box strawberry cake mix

1/2 cup oil

3/4 cup water 

1/4 cup strawberry syrup

3 eggs

4 strawberries, hulled and chopped

32 oz ricotta cheese

3/4 cup sugar

2 TBSP lemon juice

3/4 tsp lemon extract 

4 eggs

1 box lemon instant pudding mix

1 1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp lemon extract

Directions

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 X 13 baking pan.

*Beat the cake mix, oil, water, strawberry syrup, and 3 eggs for 2 minutes. Fold in the chopped strawberries and pour evenly into the prepared pan.

*Whisk the ricotta, sugar, lemon juice, and 3/4 tsp lemon extract. Mix in the remaining eggs, one at a time. Very carefully, completely cover the cake batter in the pan. Bake for 55 - 65 minutes, until the center is set. Cool completely.

*Whisk the pudding mix and the milk. Set aside.

*Beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and remaining lemon extract and beat until stiff peaks hold. Fold into the pudding mix, spread on the completely cooled cake and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (but best if refrigerated overnight) before serving.