Fliperati

I’m definitely in the final stages of the renovation process, but it is still overwhelming to think about all the jobs – large and small – that remain to be tackled before the house is ready to show.  Although having the floors refinished was originally going to be the last major project, I still haven’t dealt with the front porch (needs new bead board on the walls and a railing around the perimeter) or the back fence.  There are also a million smaller projects that are constantly ignored in favor of more obvious tasks.  For example, the crumbling medicine cabinet doors (see picture) continue to elude repair and I haven’t figured out how to put new spindles in the upstairs railing. 

It doesn’t help that my once beloved contractor has managed to destroy his spotless record by flaking out on completion of the shower tile job.  He finished 90% of the work and conveniently went “on vacation” the day after I paid him and was supposed to return a week later.  The remaining 10% of the job (touching up the grout and installing the shower trim) has now been sitting unfinished for more than 3 weeks.  I’ve tried to tempt him back to the house by soliciting estimates for work on the fence and the porch, but it’s been three days since I gave him the go-ahead on these projects and I haven’t heard a peep from him.  I was pretty crushed by this turn of events because I had high hopes of hiring Clyde to play a larger role in future investments.  While he certainly wasn’t a master craftsman, he had been doing very solid work in a timely manner at an excellent price.  His recent absenteeism has been a nuisance, but I’m not going to let it derail the last stage of the renovations and I’m moving forward with or without his help.