Its tough to really determine where to start. It has been a tumultuous last few days. The situation surrounding my plumbing, which is now holding up completion, has reached a some what expensive conclusion. Bottom line is that between my shady, untrustworthy ex-plumber and the city of Baltimore, I am going to have to spend way more money then I would like to to finish the plumbing. After speaking with a plumber my realtor recommended, it seems as though I was swindled on many levels. As it turns out, my functional yet very old hot water heater would never pass final inspection no matter what. As it also turns out my unresponsive former plumber who swindled me, let the permit expire and still decided to continue to ignore me. Per several sources, I apparently need to some how get the city (it will probably cost me $80, because why wouldn’t they charge me for something else at this point?) to recognize that my previous plumber is not finishing the job.
It really “grinds my gears” that after all of my hard work doing as much plumbing work as I could, with 0 experience, and it ending up working perfectly fine, I still have to pay a different plumber and extreme chunk of change to get a new permit and hook up the gas to my stove, just to get a final inspection.
That being said, the master bath double vanity, plumbed by yours truly, its installed and working flawlessly…
There were times during the last week, between the screaming between my Dad and I, that it seemed like nothing in the master bathroom was going to come together. Low and behold, here I am sitting on the couch in the year long renovation with a 95% complete master bath just a floor above me.
As it turns out, a tandem effort at grouting is alot more efficient. My Dad and I took about 3 hrs to do the side walls of the tub area and the front of the tub. Its pretty typical that I would figure out the most efficient process for getting the grout removed perfectly as we get to the last set of walls.
Despite the direction of my new plumber (Ricky) to not do any more plumbing work and let him handle it for the fixed price I am paying him to finish the job, I installed the volume and temperature controls in the shower. I am going to try and get the two shower heads installed this week so that there is a usable means of bathing in the house for the time being.
After (well during) an epic argument between my Dad and myself, my Mom knocked out the rest of the downstairs painting on Saturday. I’m glad she loves me enough to help, because quite frankly shes an incredible painter compared to me. The color of all of the walls in the living room is a celery like color. The pictures really don’t do it much justice. The only area a difference is noticeable in these pics I think is between the accent wall at the bar area and the rest of the walls. In person the color is a great calm subtle green.
In other news, the dishwasher was delivered on Saturday. I bought it at Home Depot and it came around lunch time. As it turns out, the unmarked box truck owned by Carlos Mendoza trucking, was infinitely more efficient than the dorks at JB Hunt who broke my fridge.
Its not all the way in place, but I slid it away enough to ensure that it fit the opening and also got it out of the way of the hallway. It ended up that I was able to get the style I wanted for not that much more then what the Whirlpool employee discount (not worth the discount for the stress accompanied by it). It has the hidden buttons…
As it stands now the following needs to be done (things my Dad and I have to do):
1. Hang doors.
2. Paint the bedrooms.
3. Seal the grout.
4. Window sills.
5. Baseboards.
6. Misc. Trim
7. Stain/paint stairs and railing.
I’m sure theres other stuff, but Miller Lite tells me to stop at that many things so as to keep my heart rate down.
Until those things are done and my plumbing is figured out, I’ll keep dreaming of permanently being parked in the above position. My permit expires on September 18th and I don’t intend on renewing it. Its going to be a mad dash…
Stay tuned.
