Guests using the same bathroom as kids, especially a 13 year old boy!, is really a pain. You have to rush in and clean it every time someone even hints at stopping by:)
We have a black lab, who sheds a lot, so when we remodeled we put in dark hard wood floors to hide his fur. It has made a huge difference.
@coralbrook - My 15 year old daughter complains about sharing with him every day too!
@tx5athome - We dogsat for a brown lab, he may have shed even more than my golden! Although I think it was more that the lab hair was everywhere and the golden hair kind of clubs together and makes big tumbleweeds! I once caved in and bought a navy chair that I loved - bad decision, I have to vacuum that thing constantly!!
We have a red lounger and a white cat. Sigh.
House1 had Swedish finish light maple floors throughout most of the first floor and carpeted living room. Somehow, no cat hair tumbleweeds ever formed on the maple! That carpet trapped all fur, I guess. House2 came with whitewash oak floors on the entire first floor (which sounds outdated, but they photograph so nicely and are in decent shape so we decided not to bother replacing them). I had to get a Roomba to keep the cat fur in check!!
Iām in FL, so I also chose manufactured maple wood floors. Mine are 5ā wide planks, and hand rubbed. I paid more to have a company that uses little variation. Also, they donāt have a yellow or a red tone. I still truly like them. My mistake was not extending into some of the bedrooms.
The kitchen crew did some more veneering while we were out. I like the color of my ānewā cabinets a lot. Plus, the new veneers and putty strengthens the boxes which are 19 years old and still in good shape but begin to show wear and tear.
Seriously want to cry. The cabinets finally arrived and were delivered to the house but despite repeated reminders that they also owed us our drawer inserts, they need to come back for those because āthey are too complicated for the contractors to installā. They had our contractors build entire bases from scratch for our bathroom and they canāt handle the drawer inserts? Come on! When I pushed for when that would happen, the answer was that they are busy and will call tomorrow to schedule something at a later date. I wouldnāt send my worst enemy to this kitchen guy.
And we were supposed to have our electrician here for the final time today but the dining room ceiling was never patched because no one has shown up to work this week, so now he needs to come back once again, and we canāt put the dining room to rights yet which we were planning on doing tomorrow.
The mirror guy never came to measure, our closets are still torn apart, the interior doors still havenāt arrived, and the painter is MIA. We canāt move anything into the new master bedroom until the painter shows.
We are now on tract to more than double the original time line for this project 
OMG, that is horrible. Fall hunting or fishing season? Thatās when a lot of our contractors disappear. Of course, they fish in the summer, too.
Ours disappear when Surfās Up 
The electrician said everyone is overbooked right now so any time there is a scheduling delay, itās super hard to get it rescheduled.
Right now my crew is screaming at each other in Romanian in the kitchen. They arenāt usually screamers so itās clear they are having a problem. Iām trying to hide and not go down until they have a resolution.
@momofsenior1 Iām sorry for your headaches!
My contractor said everyone in the DC area is busy. It took weeks to get a mason to get a brick wall repaired. I was only half-teasing when I said the laborers and tree guys are going to head to North Carolina to make money there.
My bathroom is done and thereās about day of work left on the kitchen. My contractor posted an Instagram story today. SwitzerConstruction.
Iām very pleased with the quality of the work and with the design. Construction time doubled. We blew the budget by at least 30%. Luckily we are thrilled each time we step into the master bath and kitchen.
Do you have a link? I looked at their instagram, thereās nothing recent posted that I could see.
@momofsenior1 if your crew go away for lunch, give the foreman some money so they can get additional pastries or something as a treat for the rough day. If they stay until they are done with the job there, I would go out and bring something back. The gesture will go a long way.
We have had really good workers, and we want to show the bit of appreciation - for example our painter that was working around our high windows - we got him to clean the windows for us. At the end of a job, the crew that worked under our sheetrock/paint sub - I gave him $ for them to have lunch on us.
The sheetrock crew manager had things down pat - they worked hard and took scheduled breaks. He provided them with cold drinks.
I provided a cooler with cold soft drinks and water for the siding crews because the weather was ridiculously hot during that week. I added some snacks like fruit and granola bars, too. The guys really appreciated that. I could not believe how fast they were moving with the project despite the record heat.
The weather here went to the dogs, and it looks like my last staining project could be postponed until next spring.
Of course theyāre busy. And theyāre supposed to be busy at your place.
Itās always a good idea to provide food and beverages to your workers. Often Iāll fire up the grill at lunch time and at the end of the day have a beer with them. Or a michelada, those are very popular at the end of a day of hard work.
In our case, the project manager set up a water station and bottled water for them, but I noticed that the workers brought their own Coke, so I went to the store and picked up some of that plus some Gatorade, sparkling water, and regular water. The Coke was gone quickly!
During our last two major projects I provided a cooler of drinks on ice each day. Unfortunately, the workers didnāt appreciate them enough to take time to throw their empty cans and bottles in the provided trash can. Most ended up tossed into the shrubs, left on the patio or dropped into trenches dug for utility lines. They also left outdoor faucets running after using hoses to rinse off and some ignored the porta-potty in favor of relieving themselves in the back yard.
Weāve been talking about a kitchen remodel, since dh does not want to move, but the thought of dealing with the upheaval and mess is a real deterrent. The cost of the last two projects ended up being more than the original quotes despite settling for less than the original scope of work, and the time was far longer than the contractorsā initial estimates.
Work stopped for various hunting and fishing seasons and had to be scheduled around college football, too. We postponed two vacations during one project, only to have the GC, project manager, site supervisor, framer, cabinet maker and tile guy all take one to two week vacations in the middle of our job. That job was projected to require eight weeks but took nearly nine months. If we ever do any more remodeling, Iāll gladly pay a significant bonus if the work is completed on time and on budget.
Weāve purchased meals for the crew on a few occasions and offered adult beverages at the end of a rough day. We are also planning a āthank youā party when itās actually done.
Kitchen cabinet guy and now the plumbers are not invitedā¦
Our kitchen and basement flooded today. Apparently the plumbers never bothered to make sure the dishwasher was working. Thank goodness we were home but I went through 12 rolls of paper towel and every single beach and dish towel I own. Luckily my husband was also home so he tackled the basement while I tried to salvage the new hardwoods.
One great thing about having a 114 year old houseā¦the floors are not close to level so all the water pooled in one spot between the perimeter cabinets and island. Once the contractor came back and popped off the bottom cover of the dishwasher, there was zero standing water. We have commercial fans going and other than a small part of the toe kick, I think nothing else is damaged. I hope! The plumbers didnāt consider this an emergent situation and arenāt coming until tomorrow morning.
One step forward, three steps back.
PS. My cabinets finally arrived yesterday. They are up, along with my new hood. Backsplash tiling supposed to happen later this afternoon.
āKitchen cabinet guy and now the plumbers are not invitedā¦ā
No kidding!!!
My kitchen guy apologized that he needed to take a day off my job to handle some urgent issues another crew was having at a different job site. So my avatars got a reprieve from being locked up in the laundry room.