It's only two weeks in to the whole project, already it's getting hard to remember what was done when.
Along with Tom (mostly) and his nephew, Tiger Services installed a new A/C air return (that was Wednesday August 28) and Chambliss plumbing fixed the toilet, added new shower arm diverter (much nicer, this Delta toggle switch diverter is the most wonderful of all) and replaced shower water valve) on Monday.
The biggest pleasant surprise of all was that my bedroom floor has only small superficial cracks (along with some erosion most likely caused by leaky tile in hall bath, a problem now successfully avoided simply by not pointing unused hand sprayer straight at tile in corner of tub). Ever since I bought this house in 1992 along with my mother, I thought I felt and feared a huge crack running from the area near the doorway to the western wall just south of the window. There were a couple of tiny superficial cracks in this area, but that was all. Most of the sense of cracked floor came from folded underlayment. Also, the apparent cracks near the ceiling were actually tears in the mud paper, which had been stretched generously over the wall to ceiling gap by the infamous builder Rayco. That has now been replaced by 20 minute mud.
The fear of a major crack was one thing that discouraged me from spending money on this house. But clearly in last 11 years it hasn't discouraged me much. It was 11 years ago that I spent replaced the original 8 SEER heat pump from 1983 with a 15 SEER unit featuring variable speed blower, non-CFC coolant, and other then advanced features.
OK, what the fear of major crack (possibly costing $20,000 to fix, according to legends I have heard) really did was not discourage me from spending money, but making me feel bad about it. Though probably the main reason to have such fear is more related to the neighborhood. My neighbor, for example, had his TV stolen and window broken in separate incidents in the past two months. He's blaming it on neighborhood decline. I've only had one attempted entry/vandalism in 20 years, and that only resulted in two broken windows and a dented door. (BTW, that was in 2006 at the peak when people in a couple of nearby homes were borrowing about 50% more than they are worth now--so you can't blame that on recession.) The perps were immediately scared by my alarm it seems. My general sense is that the neighborhood is gradually improving, and it has always had huge potential, being next to a wonderful park (often ignored because it's technically part of an adjacent city) and at the top of a local hill (with far more expensive homes below because they were built later). And when you sit in my backyard now, you really feel that this is a nice place, deserving of my title for it, East Alamo Heights.
And if my house foundation doesn't have serious cracks, that is a good sign for other houses around here, though I might have paid mine more attention than some people. Still, I know about a lot of homes in the real Alamo Heights that have had really expensive foundation repairs. From what little I know about this, I might speculate that you might have less risk of needing expensive foundation repairs living in one of these cheap homes in East Alamo Heights.
IIRC the doors arrived Friday August 23 and I called Tom to see about moving into house. He told me they were fine in the garage but came out for a look. Before he left, we agreed to installing both doors and remodeling the King's room for a price. To begin the next Tuesday, August 27 (that's two weeks ago today--and seems like eons).
Indeed, Tom installed the Queen's Door on Tuesday, getting it roughly up on Tuesday, then finely balanced on Wednesday. They were also sanded and primed on Wednesday, I think, and the knob attached. I can't remember if he did any work on Thursday (which could only have been a partial day anyway because I went back to work). Tom then missed showing up on Friday for painting apparently because of how long it took to get his wife an MRI. Then he went to the coast until Labor Day. Meanwhile I and a friend picked up curtains (I ultimately made 3 trips to Anna's Linens), curtain rod, and hooks. I picked up TV for Queen's Room. With some help from my friend, I moved all my stuff (lots and lots) out of King's room and moved bed, clothes, and a few other things into Queen's room. That was defintely 3 day weekend stuff.
Then, on Tuesday Tom ripped out the carpet. I think that was also the day he finish coat painted the Queen's door. He started taking out the moulding (we had just agreed to a price for replacing the moulding and hanging TV and curtains). It was a short day because I had to go to see Ophthalmologist. Actually, he could have stayed longer, my friend showed up (just as I was walking him out the first time) to watch and lock up afterwards, but he only stayed another 30 minutes I was told.
On Wednesday Tom hung the TV and curtains in the Queen's room, and we attached the sealing strips to the door. He finished removing the moldings and cleaned up the related mess in the King's room. On Wednesday night I pulled the wires out of the room. Then on Thursday morning I made special morning trip to Hart Acoustical to get the acoustical caulk.
On Thursday Tom floated all the upper gaps between walls and ceiling, and sealed around the walls and floor with acoustical caulking. Thursday was also the day John Jones came and replaced the security light and the oversized 20A breaker on the King's circuit, and evaluated the ceiling fan bracket (which he could replace from underneath). I recall Thursday was also the day Tom painted the King's room ceiling. Tom painted the room on Friday, and it might have been Friday I got him to add the little panel behind the sweep button on the Queen's door--or that might have been Saturday. Tom was originally planning to work on Sunday but came out on Saturday instead and removed the old door and hung the new door. On Saturday and Sunday I hooked up video to the Queen's room through my whole house networking panel, using a new 4x4 matrix switch, and I hooked up internet to the main hub in the kitchen through the new network also. Then on Sunday night I re-sealed some of the acoustical caulking Tom had done, on the SW and NW corners of the room, where I though it needed resealing the most.
On Monday Tom and his nephew came out. We agreed to new plan with a new price for doing all the trim, including doors and closet shelf, in black. He worked on fine adjustment of door and sealing door jamb with acoustical stuffing sealed in with acoustical caulk. Nephew worked floor, getting most of the underlayment in and about 25% of the actual flooring on. Nephew also put first coat of black paint on the insides of the new door and the existing bathroom door, and on the window sill.
Today, Tuesday September 10, the nephew has come out to paint the doors and trim black, and finish the flooring. Tom is scheduled to be here later.
I got lucky in having both mattress and bed that had been stored in Lyndhurst removed last week in less than a day from the curb by scavengers (after discovering on Sunday that Goodwill does not take mattresses). Then Tom and I got lucky that the two old doors and hundreds of pounds of plywood and MDF used to ship the new doors in a crate--that all got picked up by the city during a special annual pick up on Monday September 9.
Today, Tuesday September 10, the nephew has come out to paint the doors and trim black, and finish the flooring. Tom is scheduled to be here later.
I got lucky in having both mattress and bed that had been stored in Lyndhurst removed last week in less than a day from the curb by scavengers (after discovering on Sunday that Goodwill does not take mattresses). Then Tom and I got lucky that the two old doors and hundreds of pounds of plywood and MDF used to ship the new doors in a crate--that all got picked up by the city during a special annual pick up on Monday September 9.
Along with Tom (mostly) and his nephew, Tiger Services installed a new A/C air return (that was Wednesday August 28) and Chambliss plumbing fixed the toilet, added new shower arm diverter (much nicer, this Delta toggle switch diverter is the most wonderful of all) and replaced shower water valve) on Monday.
The biggest pleasant surprise of all was that my bedroom floor has only small superficial cracks (along with some erosion most likely caused by leaky tile in hall bath, a problem now successfully avoided simply by not pointing unused hand sprayer straight at tile in corner of tub). Ever since I bought this house in 1992 along with my mother, I thought I felt and feared a huge crack running from the area near the doorway to the western wall just south of the window. There were a couple of tiny superficial cracks in this area, but that was all. Most of the sense of cracked floor came from folded underlayment. Also, the apparent cracks near the ceiling were actually tears in the mud paper, which had been stretched generously over the wall to ceiling gap by the infamous builder Rayco. That has now been replaced by 20 minute mud.
The fear of a major crack was one thing that discouraged me from spending money on this house. But clearly in last 11 years it hasn't discouraged me much. It was 11 years ago that I spent replaced the original 8 SEER heat pump from 1983 with a 15 SEER unit featuring variable speed blower, non-CFC coolant, and other then advanced features.
OK, what the fear of major crack (possibly costing $20,000 to fix, according to legends I have heard) really did was not discourage me from spending money, but making me feel bad about it. Though probably the main reason to have such fear is more related to the neighborhood. My neighbor, for example, had his TV stolen and window broken in separate incidents in the past two months. He's blaming it on neighborhood decline. I've only had one attempted entry/vandalism in 20 years, and that only resulted in two broken windows and a dented door. (BTW, that was in 2006 at the peak when people in a couple of nearby homes were borrowing about 50% more than they are worth now--so you can't blame that on recession.) The perps were immediately scared by my alarm it seems. My general sense is that the neighborhood is gradually improving, and it has always had huge potential, being next to a wonderful park (often ignored because it's technically part of an adjacent city) and at the top of a local hill (with far more expensive homes below because they were built later). And when you sit in my backyard now, you really feel that this is a nice place, deserving of my title for it, East Alamo Heights.
And if my house foundation doesn't have serious cracks, that is a good sign for other houses around here, though I might have paid mine more attention than some people. Still, I know about a lot of homes in the real Alamo Heights that have had really expensive foundation repairs. From what little I know about this, I might speculate that you might have less risk of needing expensive foundation repairs living in one of these cheap homes in East Alamo Heights.
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