2004-08-24 - 11:02 p.m.
Pipe Dreams
August 20/Friday
The Dudes don't show up until 11:30. They finish the grading and fix the pipe so that it no longer has the "Z" shape that gave it it's uniqueness. The water company guy comes to turn the water off. We go out. We come home. The pipe is no longer "Z" shaped. The water "works." By "works" I mean that there is liquid coming from the faucet, so the water company guy must have turned it back on, BUT it is not water that you would want to drink or shower in because it is black, not rust-brown, BLACK. It eventually lightens enough for us to see that the black comes from all the black sand coming through the lines, until nothing comes through the lines at all. The tub works just fine, so I run the water in the tub until it's clear. I take the screen off the sink faucet but that only works for a minute until the pipe clogs further back in the line. I try flushing the toilet and only succeed in making it so that we can't flush the toilet again because the tank can't fill. The bottom of the tank has a lovely coating of black sand though. As I'm telling JV about all of this Phil comes home and fixes it. (Until he tries to shower the next day - no one bothered to check the shower! But he gets that fixed up before too many showers pass.)Yea for Phil the plumber!
I am told, again, that framing will begin on Monday. I can't even imagine the excuse that could be used this time.
August 23/Monday
No one is here as of 9ish. I tell myself (and Phil) that he might have said "Monday , Tuesday at the latest" or something like that. Try not to panic!
Sometime within that hour JD stops in and says the guys are tying up some loose ends on another job and will be here in a bit. (I can't wait until the guys are tying up loose ends here and someone else is in a panic that their framing will never start!) He says he will call about the dumpster again - they never returned his earlier call.
Shortly Tattoo and a new guy henceforth known as BC or Bitchin Camaro (cuz he drives a Camaro/esque car and I'm fond of the Dead Milkmen's song Bitchin' Camaro. I almost called him Slim Shady since he has similar hair to Eminem's but I'm not much of an Eminem fan.) appear on the scene. OK, panic over, but still . . . TWO guys? How much framing can two guys do in what's left of the day? But they get started moving things around.
To our joy, more guys show up as the day goes on and framing really begins! On Monday even! I run out to do errands while Phil takes the kids to the beach. When we get back there are actually some walls!! On inspecting the walls I notice that a window is missing but it is early enough to add it without any hassle. It's not entirely their fault, it is a window that we added at the "window picking" meeting (we being me, JD and Andy from the lumber company) and it is only penciled in on one of JD's copies of the plans and the guys were going by another set. That was quickly fixed and we let them continue while we went to the Collins' for a visit with everyone's favorite British Race Car Driver/Head Instructor - PHILIP!!!
"Bollocks to the fanfare, just pass me a fag and a purple nasty." (Oh, the international incidents that have been caused by such an utterance. It's just a cigarette and a drink, people!)
Here's what we woke up to (since it was dark when we got home):
Ha! It's THAT view again but with wood.
The other wall.
August 24/Tuesday
JD and lots o' guys here good and early today. We have a meeting with JD at 8ish so he HAD to be here and the meeting is about money so it looks better if the guys are working while we're talking. The result of the meeting: We can't afford this addition but we're too far into it to turn back now, and we should be done in late October. It's not that bad, we're actually pretty much exactly where we thought we were. We have a few places that we can cut back or hold off for awhile.
The guys got a lot done today and it actually almost looks like something now! I think by the end of the week it will look like something to anyone who hasn't seen the plans, instead of just us. I did notice another window missing (and this one was on ALL of the plans), after they guys were gone but I've already mentioned it to JD and, again, it's early enough for it to be easy to fix. The kitchen designer is coming tomorrow to measure for the cabinets, so they have to have the kitchen floor and walls ready by 11. There are floor joists up for 1/2 the kitchen already and the walls below the kitchen are up, so it should be done in time.
I don't hate THE VIEW so much now!
From the front.
From the back.
This angle makes it look like a giant game of pick-up sticks.
Well after the guys went home (and we all played in the "house" - we being me, Todd, Rex and Nevan) JD showed up with another "new" guy who I assume is Luke, his head guy that I haven't met yet. They talked about what will be done tomorrow and dropped off the tool trailer (Have I gone from white trash to a red neck to trailer trash?), and I mentioned the missing window.
We also have a new dumpster, so SOMEONE here must be amazing at Rush Hour.
To all single girls reading this: Matt and "guy assumed to be Luke" are pretty hot (and single-ish - no rings but have girlfriends) and Paul's married but pretty cute too! There's always Tattoo and Bitchin Camaro for the counter-culture/hot rod chicks. Sorry, 12-yr-olds, but I haven't seen Red Shirt recently (or has he just been wearing a different color?).
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