Stuff

I've been busy with client work and my RL home project.  My SR project remains on the market. With quick sales on my other two projects, this one languishing.  I've been reducing the price--I think that the initial guidance that I was given was too high.   It is a good lesson in being more judicious in price setting.  I need to sell my SR project before I buy another as I have a fair amount of money tied up in two projects. 
The RL project is progressing nicely.  The window in the picture to the left was a 4 week lead time from the Anderson factory.  It is a key component of the master bedroom expansion where we reclaimed a screened porch for additional bedroom space.

When 'it' arrived, my contractor called leading off with the dreaded, "I've got bad news."  All sphincters seized up.... "They ordered the wrong window. The size is wrong.  The color is wrong."  Well, I knew that 'they' (meaning the builder supply) did not order the wrong window, because due to the lead times and my belief that customers need to check what their suppliers are doing, I had reviewed the order carefully.    Accordingly, I knew that it was not an order mistake, but a delivery mistake on someone's part.

A bustle of activity--checking, calling, fussing, etc.--yielded the conclusion that the mistake was not on the part of our supplier, but by Anderson.   A misplaced sticker on our window and a Tennessee-bound window produced windows switched at birth.  I was in unwelcome possession of the Tennessean window and the same for them except it was a Virginian window.  An expensive mistake for the factory, and for me--tick!  tock!  Time is money.

Thankfully the mistake was a sticker v. a manufacturing error.  Both windows were switched, and it is now installed safely.  It was pouring down raining when it was installed and it took 6 people to set it in place.  All the sphincters were clenched again.  I could envision my window slipping through the wet grasps of guys on ladders and hurdling downward.  But testosterone and skill prevailed over my worst fears.

While waiting for insulation and drywall for the interior of the addition, the time was field with the laying down of the floor in the basement.  We pulled up Berber carpet, and put down engineered hardwood.  I'm not a fan of carpet in basements (or any place else for that matter--but we are replacing the existing carpet in the main floor bedrooms).  It's a lovely basement, with 9 foot ceilings, two bedrooms, 1 & 1/2 baths and lots of living space.  My son and Herb are doing this work.  We have another 1300 sqf of this to run in the upstairs expansion space.

I found a lovely Robina red oak engineered hardwood at Wood Floors Plus in  a 1/2" x 3 1/2" plank which is paired with the DVR Floor Muffler (the green rolls that you see).  Wood Floors plus is my go-to supplier.  I find better pricing on quality products there than the 'other' flooring store.  The Robina species is a discontinued product which does not make it unfit--just well-priced.  If you find a flooring that you like, make sure that you get your measurements right--because once it is gone, it is gone.

My electrician (husbando) is working today for 1/2 a day hanging a couple of cool ceiling fans in the upstairs and completing the final wiring needed to get the upstairs heat pump in operation.   The upstairs is turning out beautifully.  The drywallers did an outstanding job making all of the funky roof lines come together well.  However, there are two LARGE squeaks in the floor that have to be fixed before we start laying floor up there. 

My goal is to be done by the end of the month!