Finally, they are working on the shop

[electra225]

We may have to go to Plan B on the flooring. There is at least a 6-8 week lead time to get such a floor installed. Plus, the cost has increased about three-fold since the project started. We are considering options at this point. We don't know exactly when the project will be advanced enough to include the floor. I can't wait an additional two months before I can use it.

[William]

If you are not required to have a "pretty" floor to get inspector approval I would recommend an epoxy floor paint. They look good, are very durable, easy to clean, and you can do it yourself. Just my 2 cents worth.

Bill

[electra225]

The wife and I were talking this morning on our trip out to see the desert blooming. We have officially decided the name for the shop, out of gratitude to the guys on the forum shall be "La Casa Del Consola". Yep, it's official.

Now, we need to find somebody who can make an appropriate sign to go above the door. Burnt wood? Individual letters? Ideas? Remember it has to mount onto the stucco.

[electra225]

No activity on the shop for the last couple weeks. I was the only one working on it, but they were getting paid.

They brought the pegboard out this afternoon and stacked it in the middle of the floor. The PLAN is to have the painter come out on Monday and paint the facia and under eaves so the roofers can work. Then, on Wednesday, they install the pegboard. We hired a company to put an epoxy coating on the floor. This is scheduled for Thursday, the 14th. The interior will be unavailable to foot traffic until at least the following Monday. The contractor thinks the floor can be done for $150. You can't buy two gallons of house paint for that money. If it wasn't for my wife calling every day, they wouldn't be this far. The saga of La Casa Del Consola continues.......

When we planned this project, we decided, since I'm not young as I used to be, it would take me a year to build it. The professionals have been at it for 13 months and we aren't done yet.

We figured it up last evening and found they have worked a total of 16 days out of almost 13 months on this project.

[William]

It's good news something happened today, and if they keep their word something will happen next week. If they can only finish the outside!!!! It's bad news that it has taken 13 months to get 16 days worth of work out of them. I feel so sorry for both you and Mari having to put up with this for that long. I know how bad you want your shop!

Bill

[electra225]

We have a neighborhood website, where everybody can congregate and gripe about workers. We are lucky, I can tell you that. One lady has had her kitchen torn up for almost two years. The people hired and paid to do the work obsconded with the money, the lady is elderly and can't do the work herself and doesn't have the means to pay somebody else to do it. A group of local guys is planning a "Beer 30" type work session to see if they can at least get her kitchen so she can use it. It is absolutely the wild west out here, getting anybody to do anything for you. I heard they are charging $500 to $600 for a front brake job on a Chevrolet. Prices are out of sight. It's scary. Bill, if you were out here this winter, we'd have had this thing done by now. They'll get it. I may be totally nuts by that time, but they'll get it. My wife has her boot up their butt every day.

[TC Chris]

We have a neighborhood website, where everybody can congregate and gripe about workers. We are lucky, I can tell you that. One lady has had her kitchen torn up for almost two years. The people hired and paid to do the work obsconded with the money, the lady is elderly and can't do the work herself and doesn't have the means to pay somebody else to do it. A group of local guys is planning a "Beer 30" type work session to see if they can at least get her kitchen so she can use it. It is absolutely the wild west out here, getting anybody to do anything for you. I heard they are charging $500 to $600 for a front brake job on a Chevrolet. Prices are out of sight. It's scary. Bill, if you were out here this winter, we'd have had this thing done by now. They'll get it. I may be totally nuts by that time, but they'll get it. My wife has her boot up their butt every day.

I don't think it's limited to your region. A number of years ago I tried to find a drywall contractor to finish off the back room on my house, a new addition when I bought the place 2 years ago. And that was before the big outbreak of McMansions around here, the 2nd homes of wealthy downstate people or retirement homes for execs and such. We have a regional magazine that does big photo essays. Each one is described as the owners' place to create timeless family memories. They're usually on the market two years later. In any event, most of the contractors and subs are chasing after the big projects. It's understandable why they're not so excited about my back room. I'm just waiting for the next recession.

I did the hanging, taping, and mudding of my shop drywall and did a damned good job. I painted the walls in semigloss to show it off. But that was 26 years ago and in those days I had time on my hands. Geez, where does time go when you get older? But now, less time, and a bigger job, and I have some bucks saved up, so the idea is to hire this one out... if somebody will bid.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

John is out here today putting up the Tyvek and the pegboard on the walls. If this outfit had a whole crew of Johns, they would have had this thing done months ago. John gets after it. The stucco guys were scheduled for yesterday, to repair cracks in the stucco in preparation for paint, but didn't show up. The floor finishing company is scheduled for tomorrow, confirmed a couple minutes ago by the wife. I don't know what the next step is, nor when it will occur. Let's keep our fingers crossed for continued progress, but don't hold your breath.....

[electra225]

Allegedly the next step is tomorrow the painter will come to paint the facia so the roofers can come put the roofing tiles down on Friday. The painter doesn't have the paint chips yet, so I don't know how he/she is supposed to paint without those. The stucco can't be painted until the stucco guys fix the cracks. Everybody may be here at the same time. The pegboard looks nice. They have to trim everything yet.

[William]

Some good news, and some things accomplished. Hopefully over the next few days things will happen. I'll keep a good thought that it does.

Bill

[electra225]

This job is getting done by the grace of God. No human intervention seems to help motivate this outfit to get on the ball.

[electra225]

The flooring guys are here, hard at work. They started about ten o'clock in the morning. The stucco guys are here, fixing the cracks in the stucco, in preparation for paint. I had a chat with the project manager this morning, and I was not very nice. I can't imagine that had a positive effect on the project, but people are working, so that is progress. I have pictures I'll share if there is any interest in those.

[19&41]

There is, good luck.

[Firedome]

These contractors sometimes seem to forget that construction is a boom-or-bust business. When times are good they can afford to have an independent "take-it-or-leave-it" attitude, and they may get away with that in a big city where there's always another customer to come along, but in a smaller town the world is small and memories can be long.

We're lucky to be right around the corner from a small general contractor who has been in business for 65 years and has an excellent reputation for quality work, not cheap but fair prices, and timely responsiveness. They did a great job on our new roof last year. The work crew of 4 were all Guatemalans: a boss who spoke good English, the others not so much. I went out of the way to praise their hard work and the excellent quality of same to them and the Co. owner and I could see it was much appreciated all around.

[electra225]

Around here during the housing boom, it has been the Wild West out here with contractors. They could care less about customer service. Our contractor is overworked and largely incompetent, but we are luckier than many out here. At least, so far, they haven't totally obsconded with the money and left us high and dry. We have beat on these guys almost every day to hold their feet to the fire to get this thing done. They told us how they don't use Home Depot or Lowes material because of its low quality. Notice the name on the Tyvek.

[electra225]

Pegboard on the walls. It still needs to be trimmed, but it's up. They are going to run a cove molding on the top, four inch baseboard on the bottom, then put trim on each seam, screws every 16" on every stud, and corner molding.

[William]

And it's on upside down! Do you have more photos?

Bill

[electra225]

The flooring guys in the process of installing the epoxy floor treatment. First they sanded the concrete floor so the material would bond. The sanding equipment had a dust collection system that allowed for zero dust emissions, per the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. I was impressed.

You can see the method they used to fill the places where the concrete guys cut in the floor to control the cracks. The stuff they used is flexible.

[electra225]

Now for the first layer of the floor. They put on a gray epoxy type material then tossed the little color beads all over, almost 100 pounds of them. Tomorrow, they put on the clear.

Bill, they tell me it doesn't matter if the Tyvek is on upside down or not. Nobody will ever see it, right?

I'm beyond thrilled that it is there!

My wife chose the color so it wouldn't clash with Magnavox mahogany or cherry. So if it does, don't blame me. My wife has never chosen a bad color in her life. She is the best at color selection I have ever seen.

[William]

Maybe they thought you could not read upside down so you would not notice it came from Home Depot. I'm just glad to see that it is on, and the peg is up. Now the floor. What's next on the list for them to do?

Bill