Phase One Completed

When we were stilling living in California, we had both bathrooms remodeled, in addition to many other jobs requiring contractors of one sort or another. In my experience, it was rare when a work person, showed up on time or even on the day they promised. Sandor, our tile man has been here at 8:00 am each day as promised. Today was no exception. This was the last phase of his work. He had to cut the tiles to create the baseboard and then grout the walls, floors, and baseboards. He was not satisfied when we said not to bother with tiling the baseboard area behind the radiators. They are flat and low to the floor, so it would not be noticeable. He, however was not satisfied with this, so cut them so that they could be slid from underneath and up. By 3:00 pm, he was finished. It looks so good, we are going to have the hallway done in May, matching the tiles from the kitchen to have continuity. We have to rid the place of dust. There is dust everywhere, even in the medicine cabinet in the large bathroom. Tomorrow, the electric gets finished off and the stove is delivered.

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Construction Worker Tango

Good to his word, the tile man was here again at 8:00 am to start putting down the floor. He said that it would be ready to walk on by Wednesday, the day that the cabinet makers were returning to do that installation. This left the stove/oven installation, but first we had to go pay for it. We wanted to give them money when we first looked at it, but they said it would be better to pay when we arranged delivery. Anna, our interpreter called to say we should have the stove there on Wednesday so the cabinets can be installed around it. We walked down to the appliance store; it is just down the street from us. The wonderful gentleman we spoke with on our first visit recognized us immediately and said "I have bad news." Those are four words you don't want to hear when you are trying to coordinate a number of laborers in a language you cannot communicate in and have to use the sister of one of them to translate. The bad news could have been worse. They sold the stove hood, but not the stove. At first they could not deliver on Wednesday due to some mysterious problem. A call into Anna to tell her, but she said it was ridiculous. Her brother the cabinet maker was coming in from the country on Wednesday specifically and could not change their days. We just turned the phone over to the salesman. He finished with Anna and gave us the phone. She would have to call her brother and call us back. Four minutes later, she called and her brother would come Thursday. As she was telling Ron this, the salesman was telling me he did manage to arrange delivery on Wednesday. Yikes! I am so confused now, I am overjoyed that I start school tomorrow and Ron will be here to deal with anything that happens on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Except for the hood, we should be complete by Thursday afternoon. Ron had the foresight to ask our salesman to call the company that would need to hook up the stove. There is only one, not the gas company, who is authorized to do it or the guarantee is void. With an oven with ten different functions, I want it working all the way through its three year guarantee. It has only been days, but it has felt like a whole lot longer. When this is over, I am putting Anna's name in for sainthood. This has turned into a part-time job for her. We gave her a gift certificate for dinner out for two, but we will have to do more by the end of this adventure. The tile man will return tomorrow to do the baseboards and then grout the entire tile work and he is out of here.

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Measure, Measure, Measure

Size DOES matter, regardless of what anyone says. Before we ordered the tiles for the walls, our tile man measured and told us how many square meters we would need. It was after this that I convince Ron we really needed to redo the floor also, but it was up to us to do the measurements. We just showed the tile store the measurements and left it to them to figure out the number of boxes we needed. It was only the day before they were delivered that it occurred to me that our baseboards were also tile, not wood. After searching the tile stores' catalog again, I was assured that they did not carry baseboard tile, so called Anna, our liaison translator in a panic. She assured me it would not be a problem. The tile man would cut tiles and make a baseboard. Whew! Well, relief for a matter of minutes only, when it next dawned on me that we would not have enough tile to cover the floor and to cut up for baseboard. The tile order took two weeks. Today, this trauma was reinforced by our tile man. We decided we would get any color tiles from the Practiker store, like the local version of Home Depot. These would be hidden under the cabinets and then the saved tile from there would then be used for baseboard. We traipsed off to the store today, so he could finish up tomorrow. With our grocery trolley in hand and a giant Ikea heavy duty bag, we set off. Miracle upon miracle, Practiker had the identical wall tiles we already had. We needed two more boxes (30 pounds). We needed to pick up three boxes of grout at 5 kilos a box. For those unknowing, one kilo equals 2.2 pounds. The last item on our shopping list was two more boxes of floor tiles. We found a darker color in the same product line as what we bought for the floor already and thought this would make a nicer accent than monotone floor and baseboard. Each box is 20 pounds. I have to say that the employees at Practiker were beyond helpful and friendly from start to finish. We put the two boxes of floor tiles into the shopping trolley on wheels, but we could only fit one box of the wall tiles on top of it. The three boxes of grout and one box of wall tiles had to go into the Ikea bag. It was too heavy for either of us to lift alone. We had to each grab a handle. Now the trick was getting this on two trams and then three blocks home. By the time we reached the first tram and packed everything on, both wheels of the trolley broke off. Kaput! Never to be fixed again. We seriously thought of a taxi at the end of the line, but neither of us brought our phone. When we did get to the end of the first tram line, one of us was going to go home and call a taxi while the other waited. However, I had a better idea. We found someone waiting for the tram, a really nice African man. Explained what happend and he called a taxi for us. All that was left for us was to drag the stuff upstairs on the elevator. I think both of us were thinking heart attack by the time we finished. This is the progress made today. The electric outlets are wired, the walls were prepped, and Sandor put on all of the wall tiles today.

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The Real Nightmare That Did Not End

This is where they finished off last night. The tile man arrived shortly after 8:00 am to start ripping out the tiles. The good news is that he proclaimed the floors and walls in good shape under the old tile, not causing any surprises or extra work. We are having a number of extra electrical outlets put in so that means coordinating with the electrician. Then there was a problem with the gas pipe to hook up the new stove, so that will be dicey also.

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