The cabinet guy came over this afternoon and spent time with the owners and calmed them down. He agreed to send his touch up guy over on Saturday Thanksgiving weekend to touch up all the paint issues. He agreed to take back two of the maple doors and have them remade in the shop due to very minor imperfections in the finish. Bless his heart, he really calmed them down.
Well, as of Monday afternoon there is no new paint anywhere. I finally begged them to paint the front bathroom so we could try to get in there and start installing everything because they think they are moving in any day now. Good luck without a toilet!! We still cannot get in there and install anything because they haven’t grouted the bathtub tile yet. Of course they told the tile guy ‘Oh, we will grout that to save money’.
At the end of the day today I told them that they have to get the front bathroom DONE and ready or I am sending my guys home. Both owners and brother were working there all day today but the guys were focused on some new toy they bought - paint sprayers. So, they spent the day spraying baseboard and casing (which has NOTHING to do with trying to keep us moving forward)
I finally convinced them that SOMEONE had to start painting the living room and kitchen ceilings because we are installing appliances now. So, I assigned one of my guys and it will get done in one day!
Some photos loaded. Cannot load the final kitchen yet because it is completely covered in plastic
BUDGET UPDATE
We ended Week 6 at $43,800. That includes:
Rewire entire house, except some ceiling lights
Add circuits and 240 to garage
Install new upgraded panel and tie in new wiring
Add exhaust fans and outlets to bathrooms (there were no outlets in bathrooms, really odd)
Jackhammer foundation and run new sewer lines through garage and house
Clean out attic and blown in insulation
Take out kitchen wall and open up with structural reinforcement
Insulate all exterior and interior walls that were opened up
Drywall, patching, mudding, sanding and primed
Move garage door entry to house, close up old hole, install door
Install exterior laundry sink
Replumb bathrooms with new copper
Install new water heater
Install all new flooring
Tear off fireplace hearth
Wire for new exterior lights
Add new lighting kitchen and living room
Install kitchen cabinets and crown molding
Install range hood
Install faucet, dishwasher, garbage disposal, plumb in sink
Install new angle valves everywhere
Dig in grounding rod for new panel
Does not include cost of flooring materials, appliances, cabinets, vanities, shower fixtures, faucets, sinks, toilets, tile and tile installation. She purchased all of those items. I’m guessing that comes to about $20,000
This week:
Install appliances
Install cabinet door fronts and drawers and panels which just arrived
Fix tile in one shower
Prime and paint ceilings and walls
Install vanity, fixtures, light, mirror and toilet in front bathroom
If they ever paint back bathroom (and install the bead board and baseboard prior to vanity), install shower glass enclosure and everything else for that bathroom
Are they planning to move in without a certificate of occupancy?
Your budget is amazing for all you have accomplished. Where I live, that would just about cover a kitchen redo…and maybe one small bathroom…but with no extensive plumbing issues.
In our region, a Certificate of Occupancy is related to new construction permits or commercial construction. It’s simply called Final Inspection. But I’ve yet to see a new construction or remodel where owners didn’t move in before final inspection.
I only have one small project to fix up a rental between tenants after this. I’m starting to get very worried on how I’m going to keep crew busy after Dec 10th or so. I really don’t like this part of trying to hustle to find more work
My ex-husband had a landscaping company. When customers were going to “help” by doing things themselves, he automatically charged more, and he would even tell them that.
Very interesting. It definitely is much harder to work around the helping.
Today the owners showed up in full force. Someone grouted both bathrooms last night but they left the corners and the sides. I guess they are going to silicone them. And they put in baseboard today. They still haven’t painted the other bathroom or installed all the beadboard she wants behind the toilet and vanity (to save the wallpaper)
But we got one toilet installed. We are literally done but just standing there waiting to finish bathrooms. I had to put off three of my guys with no work so far this week and they are not happy
Sorry I haven’t posted. I have been on vacation for a couple of weeks. The guys had to finish a couple of days after I left. We stuck to our 7 week schedule even though a lot of extra tasks were added to our plate. I sent the final invoice before I left but they never paid it. They want to have a meeting this week because they are not happy with a couple of things. No surprise, they are expecting perfection on a low budget.
I’m OK, there is always something and it’s just part of this type of work. Here’s their list
They want to ‘discuss’ the charges for installing the refrigerator cabinets and trim. They think $200 is too high but it’s time and materials so unfortunately it is what it is
They are unhappy that some of the screws inside the cabinets (holding boxes together) are at an angle and not straight
The range hood is too far back and not catching all the steam. I agree it is too far back but we had to work with the existing vent pipe and hole in the ceiling. That pipe was for a microwave type range hood and the island hood is about 6” back from front of stove. It’s going to be really hard to open up ceiling and move it forward
There is a hot spot in their bathroom floor where the hot water pipes installed by original builder are very close to top of the slab. I explained that we cannot do anything about it, house was built that way. But they think there’s a big leak under slab so I have to run a test for them.
I’m not surprised they haven’t paid…and they want adjustments of some kind. Stick to your guns. Your budget was way more than reasonable for what they got done.
I’m glad you had a vacation. You sure deserved it! Best of luck with wrapping this up. It seems rotten that they just didn’t pay at all, instead of paying the bulk of the invoice but holding back a couple of hundred dollars or so until meeting with you. But no surprise, given their pattern.
