Light Fixture

This is the light fixture we got for the dining room. It's a James Moder model 94164S22.

Artisan kitchen & bath will install it sometime this week. I should have pictures posted this weekend.

Contractors!

Phillis was supposed to be back this week to begin on the living room. Over the weekend we moved most stuff out and that room and the foyer are ready for her.

But Tuesday she didn't come. Wednesday she didn't either and I called, leaving her a message as to why. She didn't call back. When I got home on Thursday, she still hadn't shown up.

I have dealt with with a lot of vendors and contractors professionally, and the one thing that I will not tolerate ("up with which I will not put!") is not being informed. Plans change and things happen. But let me know what's going on so that I can manage it on my terms.

I left Phyllis another voicemail and a terse email.

She returned my call, leaving me a message saying vaguely that something came up she had to do and "forgot" about our schedule, but won't get back to us until next Thursday!

She sent this email as well:
I am sorry. I really goofed -up. What was I thinking. I can not express how horrible I feel.
Sorry for the inconvenience. I will start next week Thursday.

Most sincerely,
Phyllis

We don't have a lot of options and we do like her work. Maybe she will paint a room for free.

Dining Room Complete

Phyllis finished painting the dining room yesterday and it looks fantastic! I will post pictures this weekend after we are finished repopulating everything.

We need to buy and install a new light fixture and Phyllis pretty much mocked the switch plates as not matching anything that we've done to the house. They look like the originals.

Where do you buy switch plates??

Week 1

Phyllis started last Monday. The first four days we spent repairing some cracks in the plaster and smoothing it out so that it blends in with the existing.

I was talking with her on Wednesday morning and asked if she was done with the repairs and would start the painting. She laughed at me and said "Matt, Matt, Matt...I have a lot more to do the make your walls look fabulous and that's what you're paying me to do." Okay, then...

She painted the ceiling on Friday (and politely suggested that we replace the light fixture in there)as well as the inside of the china cabinets. They are dark. She said that the need to be dark in order to show off the glassware. That's not intuitively obvious to me, but she's the professional.

Today she did a second coat in the cabinets and did the first coat on the walls. The red on the walls looks really good.

Got to love those right-brained people!

Start Date: 8-21-2009

Phyllis will start on the dining room next Monday, 8/21/2009. We’re excited that she’s able to start right away.

Of course, that means that this weekend we will need to de-populate the china cabinets and cookbook bookshelf and move out all the inessentials. We’ll need to do the same for the living room during the week, next week.

Here’s her quotation and scope of work:

Date 8/13/09

PROJECT TITLE: Living Room, Dining Room, Front Entrance
PROJECT LOCATION: 2608 Lefeber, Wauwatosa, WI

Cost
Living Room, Dining room and Front Entrance

1. Repair cracks in ceiling and walls. Match ceiling and wall textures.
2. Prime coat repaired areas.
3. Paint ceilings in 1 color apply 2 coats.
4. Paint walls in 1 color apply 2 coats.
5. Apply 1-color faux finish to Dining room walls.
6. Colors: All Ceilings, OC-50 November rain.
• Living room main walls 1663 New born’s eyes, Niche 1664 Sea reflections.
• Dining room base coat on walls 1294 Potters wheel, Faux finsh glaze, HC-64 Townsend harbor brown.
• Front entrance,1103 Camel back.
• Paint brand is Benjamin Moore.

Painting the rest of the first floor

We really liked Phyllis (iPaint is her company. I think it’s just her.) who did the painting in our den and her creativity was very helpful to us. What do we know about that stuff? She had the right balance of providing options but also offering guidance.

We have decided to have her painting our dining room, living room, and foyer. The Dining room will be a couple of shades of red with a “wash,” the living room will be blues, and the foyer will be an amber sort of color. Hopefully she can start next week and be done in two.

She wants to paint our kitchen a grey but we’ll hold off on that for a while.

I’ll start taking pictures and provide updates on this page.

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