PART ONE
I was in the bathroom this morning the contractor texted “Be there in ten minutes.” Surprise! I knew he was dropping by, but not so early. This was only the second or third time he’s been on site, due to travel and quarantine issues. We have a good rapport, and I was looking forward to seeing him.
He seemed pleased. “I hadn’t known how those floors would turn out,” he said in his Actual-Irish-Not-Southie-Irish accent, because that brand of tile was new to them. He looked approvingly at the woodwork and the cabinetry (his partner spent a whole day on it, “it was a pain in the @$$,” he said), and clamored for the countertops to be installed.
On the spot the contractor telephoned the painter to come this weekend. “Well,” he said to him, “the colors are gonna be a little of what you’d call funky,” meaning my ceilings. All that remains is to replace the wooden thresholds of two doors, install the appliances (which can’t be done until the countertops are installed), install the ceiling fan and the pantry light, complete the electrical outlets, finish laying the pantry floor when the next box of tiles comes (next week Tuesday!), screw on the cabinet hardware, position all the cabinet shelves, and dust. Then all I’ll have to do is put in the curtain rods and curtains, move in the furniture, fill all the cabinets, hang the pictures, and raise a toast to the successful completion of the renovation.
PART TWO
Finalmente, the arrival of the appliances! An event worthy of its own soundtrack, but the circumstances could have been more auspicious. The driver called during my 1 PM Zoom meeting to let me know he was half an hour away (a risk I took, scheduling a Zoom meeting during the delivery window) and had difficulty hearing me. (“I SAID, I WILL BE READY WHEN YOU ARRIVE IN TWENTY-FIVE TO THIRTY MINUTES!”) They arrived in the rain and couldn’t park immediately in front of the house. I had to tell the driver twice to cover his nose with his mask.
They were real pros about measuring all the doorways in advance and unscrewing the automatic spring bar thingy at the top of the screen door. The one disagreement we had was about unboxing. Ye Heaumeau Depeau makes it abundantly clear in their documents that there are no returns/refunds of major appliances, and that they needed to be unboxed to be inspected by the customer to be sure they were in good condition (e.g. no dings, nicks, or dents). Three out of four were wrapped in shrink wrap, and I was comfortable inspecting them thus. The stove was in an actual box, but he refused to unbox it inside. That meant unboxing and inspecting streetside. Not an ideal outcome with the rain . . . who knows, I may end up repenting my light blue floor at leisure, LOL!
The goods are here, in good condition, and that’s the most important part. I was also expecting the dishwasher, from another vendor, but it has yet to show up . . .
PART THREE
Afterthat, I returned a voicemail from the company doing the countertops to schedule their installation. The good news is, September 11 is the day! That will be Day 31, just a couple days after the contractor’s original estimate of four weeks. No complaints from me!
The bad news is a brewing disagreement about how it’s done. When countertops are installed, it’s typical for holes to be cut in them on site for the positioning of faucets and things like that. Earlier this week one of the workmen told me “Don’t let them do it inside! Make them take it outside because of all that silica dust. It’s bad for you!” When I mentioned this to the Nice Young Lady handling the scheduling, she said “Well, they don’t usually do that, but I’ll tell them you mentioned it. There’s always a second person vacuuming right there as the cutting is taking place.” When I mentioned it during pre-meeting chatter before my second Zoom meeting*, someone told me that they, too, had used this company, and that there was dust everywhere and just send them outside.
As Joan Fontaine so accurately observed in The Women (1939), “You know Mary hates situations!”
*It’s been a very busy day here! I get to start using my appointment book again!