Shopping for Fixtures

6-20-08


Kelley and I had shopped just about everywhere for bath fixtures. We spend at least 5 different day-trips, going from big retailers to speciality stores. We eventually agreed upon a set of features, and then refined that by price and quality. Then I went online and looked up product name and numbers. I found a site that was constantly low. I priced them and went back to Great Indoors, because they were having an inventory clearance sale, and our product was going for 55% off. After getting a quote from them for the cheapest they could do, it was still cheaper online, even with shipping. So you guessed it, I orderd them from Plumbing Direct, and everything went great. The Tub and Urinal were on back order, but everything else about the order was perfect. This is what the faucets look like.
6-20-08
Kelley and I had shopped just about everywhere for bath fixtures. We spend at least 5 different day-trips, going from big retailers to speciality stores. We eventually agreed upon a set of features, and then refined that by price and quality. Then I went online and looked up product name and numbers. I found a site that was constantly low. I priced them and went back to Great Indoors, because they were having an inventory clearance sale, and our product was going for 55% off. After getting a quote from them for the cheapest they could do, it was still cheaper online, even with shipping. So you guessed it, I orderd them from Plumbing Direct, and everything went great. The Tub and Urinal were on back order, but everything else about the order was perfect. This is what the fixtures look like.
http://www.us.kohler.com/onlinecatalog/newproducts_detail.jsp?section=2&aid=1163361215304

Plumbing woes

4-15-08

I spent the last many months working on plumbing, along with ALOT of other stuff. Some weeks all I got done was a run to the hardware store. It's getting harder and harder to keep motivated. I contacted a few plumbers to give me quotes on the project, and I asked for some advice while they were here. I learned that if you asked 10 plumbers how to do a job, you will get 15 different answers. Some things, like parts of the drain line, I redid, after learning what framing members I could drill holes through. I also had to move the tank-less water heater from my original location because the city inspector would not allow me to put it in the garage, because of venting distances and logistics. I expanded the utility/laundry closet upstairs to mount it there, which worked out great. I added a circulating pump to get the hot water moving through the system near the points of use (Bathrooms, Kitchen sink, Laundry) and I'm building a push-button and LED light system for controlling it from said locations.

The city inspector also noted that my biggest and most expensive window, which happens to be overlooking the driveway and front of the house, did not meet egress regulations. That means I need to buy another more expensive window 6 inches bigger.

Reclaiming the Dining room

2-5-08
Kelley and I were feeling a little bit cramped having to eat dinners on the coffee table in the living room for months. Since I had built false walls to separate the old house from the new construction, the time came to move them. We had also just received our new dining room set and needed a place to put it. We kept the sideboard, and china hutch in their crates, but unpacked and assembled the table and chairs.

As you can see in the background to the left of the french doors, there is an open door. That is the same door that was our Front/Kitchen door earlier, just reconfigured to it's new home.
I would like to mention, that our house is full of holes at this point. Where the front door is eventually going to go is covered in plywood, inside and out, but spiders and cold air find their way in. Also, another reason the moving of the door was good timing; I needed to run the plumbing across the dining room ceiling to the kitchen sink and dishwasher (which we haven't had in months as well), and there now is a hole in the wall where the plumbing makes it's transition to the outside wall.

I had to remove a window in the master bath, because of the new Front door configuration, so I sealed up the interior of that old window space this week with drywall.

The Front door is on order from Lowes, and should take 4 to 6 weeks to get here.

Front Door saga

3-20-07 The saga of the front door starts when Kelley and I had to shop for one. We went all over town looking at doors. We looked in Magazines, and cut out pictures. We knew the size limits of the new doorway, and definitely wanted something wood. We liked the 9-lite grid design in the windows, and also liked the curved top design of the kitchen cabinet doors. We eventually found what we wanted at Lowe's. Mahogany, curved top, 9-lite, with two small sidelights. We paid for it at the end of November 07.

It's been way over the 4-6 week delivery time, and the story Lowe's told me was that it was coming in from Texas, and that they had not built it yet. Kelley is convinced our door got sold to someone else before it ever left Texas. I've been back and forth with Lowe's, and with two salesmen (since our original guy got promoted to a different department), and no one has a straight answer.

We eventually get the door delivered March 1st, and while the delivery guys are off-loading it from the truck (with a hand truck no less), they break a 2X4 crate support, and half of it smashes into our expensive, unfinished, Mahogany window moldings, and dings the wood in 3 places, while I was watching them. I learned a few more Spanish cuss words that day from listening to those two incompetent idiots. They brought the door up the driveway to the front of the house, but told me they could not put it in the garage because the doorway was to low, and they would have to lay the door and crate down to get it inside, which was true. I signed them off, then took pictures of the damage, uploaded them on my computer, printed them, and went to Lowe's.

My salesman told me that I would have to take it up with his manager, who was in a managers meeting, and I could wait for her. I had him make a note on my account in his computer, and went to get the kids, make dinner, and eventually tell Kelley the bad news. Putting it nicely, she did not take it well. To her credit, she did help me get the front door into the garage, with a few more choice words for the delivery guys.

After days of calling and trying to get the manager, I met with the salesman, and he said I could return the door and get a new one, so I agreed. The next day I got a message from his manager, asking if she could work out a refund deal. After a week of trying to get her on the phone, I finally found out her schedule, and cornered her at work. She said she could only offer me a refund, and how much money would I like to get back, in order to smooth this over? I asked for $600+ the shipping costs of $60. She agreed, and said she would authorize it with customer service.

A week or so later, Kelley is going over the credit card statement, and finds Lowe's charged us for the door a second time. She gets totally angry. I gather my evidence, and head over to Lowe's the next day. Luckily, I ran into the manager right away, and calmly but assertively told her of her blunder. She immediately blamed someone else, and said she would take care of it again. She kind of did, but the refund was short almost $100. So once again, I go over to Lowe's, and confront her with the paperwork proof. She sends me to Customer service, and I explain my whole saga to this poor fellow, who is confounded as to why things could go so wrong, and how I got such poor service, All I want is my $100. bucks. He has to call her for authorization to release the cash, and once again she can not be found. While we wait, I walk through the math of the purchase and refund, and the third time he gets it. Just as he's giving me the money, the manager calls back and thoroughly confuses him. He walks through the math one more time with her, and eventually, over and hour later, I got my money. It took almost 5 months of dealing with the door, and it's still not done.

With that trauma behind me, I e-mail the manufacturer with a simple question,"what make and color puddy do you use on your mahogany doors'? Easy question right? Their answer was, "you can buy any quality wood putty filler at your local Lowe's". Riiight.

So when people come up to my house and stop at the top of the driveway, looking around confused at the lack of a Front Door, and eventually knocking on the dining room window, I tell them I have a front door, it's in the garage.

The Other 11 WIndows

1-17-08

Next I hired two of my out-of-work friends to help me. They did great. We spent two days and got 11 windows in! But we didn't stop there, we spend two more days and worked on 3 sets of French Doors!

I have not been working on the plumbing much this month, due to the logistics of family and getting ready for the window and door instalation. Plus there were numerous other things that ate up my time. Kelley tells me not to take it to hard. It'll get done in time. Just relax. "Isn't this what you always dreamed about? Building your own house" she would remind me.

First Windows

12-30-07

My windows arrived in early Dec. but with Christmas and Nathaniel's' birthday, it took me till the end of the year to get some time to install them. I did the three little ones on my own, so I could figure out what it took to do the job. Then I did some shopping to get all the supplies I needed for the other 11 windows. This is the 9-lite grid pattern I was talking about. The installation was relatively easy. I tried to do the next larger window on my own, but it was just over my weight limit. I walked across the street and asked my enthusiastic neighbor if he could help me, since he is usually ready to learn all he can about building a house. I did better without him.

AC Upstairs

10-28-07

The upstairs A/C gets installed, and preston tells us all about it.