More On Outlets

Matt:

Yes, the electricians are aware of the units that can be ordered off the web. They shy away from these sources for a number of reasons:

--You can never be sure you will get what is shown, these parts may not be the true “contractor grade” that you obtain from a local supply house (obviously some negative experience going this route).

--The preference to support local business. For this reason they did, originally, try to get the parts through Interstate Supply, an electrical distributor located in downtown Milwaukee who advised them the lead time would be 7-10 business days.

--Knowing that you wanted the part sooner, the electrician visited ALL the local Home Depot locations to see if he could get it in stock (no luck in the color we wanted, ivory. The reason we have been on the hunt for Ivory is that it matches the switch plates in the kitchen) or through their contractor division. The desk person in the contractor division told him “3-5 days max”. So, the parts were ordered through the contractor division, based upon the lead time we thought they were quoted. You see how that has turned out. Conversations with the department manager have yielded no positive results. Response has been, “There is nothing I can do to help you”. So much for customer service.

--Home Depot Contractor Division is now telling them we should have the parts by Friday. But, in order to give myself some reassurance that we will have something, I am having the electrician also order the parts off of the web site listing you provided AND keeping the item on order with H.D. (Somebody will have to take something back). With my luck they will now both come in on Friday.

--The final result? I am shooting for Friday. Yes, this is very frustrating. Our electrician has acted with every good intent of satisfying your request as quickly as possible. This just proves the saying that “No good deed go unpunished”.

Hope this helps address some of your concerns. I will keep you updated.

Regards,

Jill

Electricians Cheese Me Off

We've been waiting two weeks now for our electricians to fix their mistake. they were to have put in surge suppressor outlets and they just put in standard ones. We can't move in until that's complete.

Jill--

Yes, I got the note from the Pella rep. Everything seems to be working - the screen door is spring loaded to close automatically. Nice.

Those outlets are in stock through a number of places. I simply do not believe that the electricians had to wait what, ten day?, to get them. They could have come from Singapore in less time.

It sounds like you're implying that they won't get it done today. How about gong with another electrical contractor, having the outlets over-nighted so that they can be installed tomorrow?


From: Jill Doss
To: Matthew Piette
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 10:38:37 AM
Subject: FW: Door and other questions

Matt:

I spoke with Pella service this morning. They confirmed that the tech was at your house yesterday and performed the following:

Replaced rollers on screen door

Repaired/readjusted screen door

Also, left note on how to adjust blind within the window—did you receive?

Unfortunately, the electrical service was not completed yesterday as I had hoped. I had a stern conversation with the office manager at the electrician’s office letting her know we have been waiting for the parts for an unreasonable amount of time—have the parts actually shipped from the supplier (a UPS tracker number from the source will prove to me the parts are enroute and as to the location)? She is checking and will call me back. She agrees, and apologizes, that this has been a rather bumpy experience, to say the least. Hopefully I will hear something positive soon.

I will keep you informed.

Jill

Moving Back In

We began moving back in over the weekend. Repopulating bookshelves is harder than you'd think because you need to come up with a system. It's taking me a while, but so far, so good.

I moved one of our Persian carpets down and we will decide if we're going to move another one. Probably so.

The electricians should be done today and we will move the electronic equipment in tonight.

Update

Matt:

The latest from the electrician is that the surge suppressor outlets are expected at the supply house this week. Hopefully, if they are in by Thursday we can have them installed on Friday. As soon as they come in, I will be advised and we will make arrangements to have them installed.

Still waiting on a return call from the window rep…..

Jill

Screen Door Issue & Some Other Stuff

Matt:

There was not enough room, vertically, to get the equipment in place, so there DVD (or Blue Ray) and the cable box need to be placed side-by-side.

We have not placed the shelves back into position (aside from the ones inside the cabinets with the doors), as I was not sure how you intended to shelve your books. I placed the shelf clips on the kitchen table. Phyllis marked the shelves, in the back unpainted areas, with their location to assist in putting them back into the correct position.

The outlets are on order, the electrician is still waiting for the arrival. I have a call into him to check on the status.

A service call was put into Pella yesterday when we noticed the difficulty with sliding the patio screen door. I have just left a message with the Pella rep to see if we can get an eta on the service work and am waiting for his call back. I will let you know what I hear.

Regards,

Jill

From: Matthew Piette [mailto:mjpiette@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 7:48 AM
To: Jill Doss
Subject: Door

Jill-

The shelves for the TV and other equipment looks great. I had assumed that the electronic equipment was going to be stacked, but now I see you interned it to be placed side by side. That works.

The other shelves look good also. I'm looking forward to repopulating them with books.

Any word on the outlets? They must be here by now.

What's the story with the screen door? Will the Pella person be there today? Let me know.

--Matt

End of Week 5

Week five was a lot of finish up stuff - hardware, touch-up painting, etc. Everything will be complete next week.

The outlets are a bothersome delay. The electricians did not install ones with surge surpressors built in and had to order them. It's hard to imagine that they would be more than one day away, though. Nothing is.

Look at the spot for the TV. Per Jill's recommendation, it's black (or maybe "charcoal"). It looks cool. I can't wait to see how the television looks there.

Matt:

Phyllis is here painting the last of the shelves (three coats of oil base paint), so they will be ready to go next week. The last items will then be taken care of by Greg on Tuesday. He will return to do the finish up work (shelves, window, door, hardware, etc.) Please have the items in the dining room moved out of the way so that we can have the sofa back into the family room. I will let you move the TV and related electronic equipment into position. The electrician will return to install the surge suppressor outlets as soon as they arrive. Everything else looks beautiful….Have a good weekend!

Jill

Here are week five photos:

More On Outlets

I'm not sure why there was confusion on these outlets, but there's another delay.

The whole front door thing turned out to be much more expensive than we wanted to spend right now, so we decided against it. We will consider other options.

OK for the door, we put that off for the time being.

I let Phyllis know about the touch up paint, where she can find it.

The surge protector outlets need to be special ordered. None of the electrical wholesale houses stock them. They have been ordered and will take about a week to come in. So, the electrician will not be finishing up that work tomorrow, but rather next week. They will keep me informed as to the arrival of the items and schedule the installation asap after that. I will keep you informed.

Jill

Outlets

From Jill regarding our outlets:

The electrician did not put in the surge suppressor outlets and will return Thursday afternoon to perform the “swap”. Thank you for inquiring! They do look exactly the same…..

Week 4 Progress

Week four was mostly painting and HVAC. The painting turned our really well. The base coat isn't quite as pink as it looks in these pictures, and the finished walls and not quite as yellow as this seems.

Lights

Thank you, I think it looks pretty swell, also.

I am confirming on the question regarding the electrical with the electrician. Will let you know.

Jill

P.S. Greg is at the house handling finish carpentry (baseboards, shelving, door handle, hardware, etc.)

Phyllis will be back this afternoon for touch up painting. Also, Greg will cut the TV shelves, but not install them. Phyllis will need to paint these, and then Greg will return to construct and install the TV mechanism. Phyllis would not be able to paint with everything constructed and in place.


From: Matthew Piette [mailto:mjpiette@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 7:54 AM
To: Jill Doss
Subject: Lights


Jill--

I like the way that the lighting turned out, especially those on the bookshelves.

You had said that the outlets on the east and south walls would have surge suppressors built into them so that the computer and other electronics will be protected. Can you confirm this? They look like standard outlets to me, but what do I know.

Thanks,

Matt

Thursday's Update

Matt:

I am back in the office today and was able to stop by to get a look at the progress of the family room project. It looks really fantastic. Phyllis was just finishing up the family room and was going to be starting on the kitchen wall.

Ray is working on the numbers for the storm door (same one as used on the side entrance) and what it would take to rework the interior door.

Phyllis and I discussed paint colors on the door and have some really interesting suggestions. Speaking of, if you are considering painting the door you may also want to carry it onto painting the vertical trim on either side of the door and the pieces to the right and left. The trim pieces would be a different color than the door. Phyllis suggested stripping the paint off of the mail box slot, it is brass underneath, polishing it up and applying a protective coating. A new larger, front light fixture would also add to the look and ultimately, you may want to consider a larger, more substantial porch railing. Something in black with straight lines would be best. And, of course, we could handle all this work for you……

Let me know your thoughts!

Regards,

Jill

HVAC still scheduled for tomorrow. Electrical finish scheduled for Monday morning. Greg scheduled for Tuesday (trim work and TV shelving.

Project creep

Anyone who has been involved in any sort of project, construction or otherwise, is aware of "project creep,"the concept of the project expanding as it goes along.

"Since we're doing this anyway, we may as well do this too." It's going to happen, so it's important to establish a limit. I was happy that the creep for our kitchen was about 10%, in dollars.

The den will probably be less so. We discussed a lot of other items, from redoing the first floor bathroom to repainting the living room & dining room, to redoing the floors. But that would have been too much.

One thing we do need to to is refinish our front door. Those of you have seen it may remember it. It's the original door, very thick and heavy. We like it (Jill always wants to replace it!). The street-side it very worn, but the inside is in good condition. It doesn't fit very well either.

Jill suggested painting it instead of staining, and we're intrigued by the idea.

Here's the latest from her.

Matt, thanks for the update.

I have let Phyllis know about the baseboards.

An accent color on the front door would look really eye catching from the street. The paint would also wear better, over time, than staining the door. Even using a spar varnish on the door, you will still see fading from the sun over time. The paint, since it is opaque would stand up better, with an oil base product providing the best protection from the elements.

I think a dark raspberry/maroon/burgundy tone, hunter green, or even a very dark navy blue would look great. I will take another look when I am at the house today and also discuss with Phyllis to get her thoughts and let you know. A new, full view, storm door would definitely be needed to show off the door properly.

Stay tuned..

Jill

Begining Week 4

Matt:

A few things from today:

The floor looks totally awesome, I am very pleased with the way it blends with the kitchen.

Phyllis is starting your base color painting today. It is from this that she will produce her finished color palette. Don’t be alarmed when you come home and see maroon on the walls! This is the base that the color is built onto.

Also, we were looking at the radiators. Of course they are very functional but now start to stand out against all of the color. We could have them painted to match the baseboards ($80.00) or, you can have them painted out to match the walls (including the radiator underneath the small window on the south wall) ($230.00). Or, we could leave them “as is” ($0.00). Let me know your thoughts.

The front door, the outside is very worm—I am assuming you just want the outside stripped and refinished, along with planning it down to open and close easier? If you refinish the inside of the door, it butts up against the vestibule closet, which butts up against door trim, etc., etc. And then, where do you stop refinishing? You may want to consider replacing the storm door with one that matches the door on the driveway side at the same time. Let me know…..

See you later this afternoon?

Regards,

Jill