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Prepping for our next renovation project… ceiling repair/paint and new flooring… meant emptying the room.
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After stripping it to bare bones, I realized Lord Dudley Mountcatten was not pleased.
Because along with everything else that had to be moved? His scratching post would have to be temporarily relocated as well.
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His Lordship is very attached to said post….
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And did not easily relinquish his grip.
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Bedroom windows complete, work moved back to the living room.
Remember when we redid the beam?
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And replaced all the stained and damaged ceiling?
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It looked so much better..
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But it wasn’t perfect.
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There was a clear line of demarcation between the old popcorn and the new.
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And though the stains had been Kilz’ed, primed and painted… they didn’t match either.
At the time our contractor had other customers waiting for work, and knowing that we’d be replacing the floor at some point…. we opted to wait to fix the line and repaint the whole ceiling then.
Then is now.
You know something will go wrong.
Stay tuned….
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Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m talking about organization.
After four months, our bedroom is finally back together.
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Furniture is in place and windows are awaiting treatment.
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It’s amazing how much you miss nightstands until they’re gone.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten was pleased his world was back in order…
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Too bad it only lasted a few minutes.
Because as soon as the bedroom was put back in order, the living room was emptied in preparation for the next project.
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So now the den is crammed full…
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The spare bedroom has chairs, tables and paintings.
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And the office floor has odds and ends.
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His Lordship is no longer pleased…
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But he’s doesn’t let it interrupt his nap either.
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The long awaited and apparently hard to find doors finally arrived.
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On a rainy day of course, so they were placed in the garage…
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Which is already filled to capacity with the yet to be installed windows and has become increasingly hard to maneuver with my car.
Not wanting to hit anything, we moved them to the bedroom the next day because that room is torn apart already.
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It’s not ideal, but I can stand it for a week until the contractor gets back to work.
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And in case you’re thinking, yay… glad that went smoothly, it actually didn’t.
I unequivocally told the contractor I wanted white painted doors.
He says he unequivocally told the supplier I wanted white painted doors.
These are not white painted doors.
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They’re primed with an off white, pale creamy color called ‘mill finish’ and are clearly ready for stain or paint with special trim tape in place around the glass.
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The contractor doesn’t like painting doors but I don’t care, he’s going to do it because we’re already over two months behind schedule on this simple stupid project and I’m ready to move on.
😡
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I drove home under some ominous skies the other afternoon.
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And woke up to our first dusting of snow.
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It was gone by mid day just in time for our contractor to drop by between jobs and seal up the new windows with some not so attractive foam.
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He’s finishing off a barn next door that’s taking longer than planned but as soon as he’s done he’ll be back over here to finish our nightmare project.
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As usual, Lord Dudley Mountcatten couldn’t care less.
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💕
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This is our living room.
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And as much as I shudder at the idea of another potential disaster, replacing this floor is the next project on my list.
The carpet is old and was put in by the previous owner in 2002.
It’s time.
We’ll be replacing the carpet in our bedrooms, but for the living/dining room and main hall we’re thinking luxury vinyl plank.
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Since I refuse to replace every baseboard, door and piece of window trim as well as the built in bookcases and fireplace mantle …. I’ll need to stay in that honey tone of wood.
Question is – do I go light?
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Or dark?
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I love online stores who have this app. Visuals are everything when choosing floors.
Our contractor says he might be able to install the floor in late December so I need to start shopping seriously now.
Armed with a broken piece of trim, my girlfriend and I hit a few floor retailers.
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Too grey.
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Too brown.
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The frustrating part? I came home with three samples that all looked different at home than they did in the store. Heck, they look different from room to room.
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Nope.
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Ugh. Even worse.
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This has the same hue, though it’s more rustic than I wanted. Pulling it up on the app, it looked muted.
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Though in this picture the color striations are more pronounced.
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I like the color…
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But I’m wondering if it’s too busy a pattern?
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You’re not going to believe this.
I’m having a hard time believing it myself and I live here.
When last we spoke… I still had two new windows with large air gaps, we’d gotten into a pissing contest with the store manager, were waiting on the report from the second supposed expert and our contractor was going to fight management for a full refund.
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Fast forward a week and I’m out shopping with a girlfriend. I get a phone call from our contractor who says the store manager bumped the problem up to corporate… who slid it over to the manufacturer… who wanted to come out and inspect the windows that day, right that minute. Thankfully the husband was home teleworking so off they went.
I heard this second hand, but gather it went something like this –
The top Marvin window guy arrived with the store manager we bumped heads with in tow. Husband wasn’t pleased with that, but managed to be civil.
Our contractor was there and went through all the steps he’d taken to fix the problem. The window parts were examined, measured and proclaimed well within acceptable limits… because hey, nothing’s perfect. The Marvin window guy asked my husband what he wanted… fully functioning windows or a full refund? Since hubby has been spitting mad for over a month I thought for sure I’d come home to gaping holes in the bedroom. But we’d chosen this particular product for a reason… good insulation rating, ease of tilting for cleaning, wood interior, low U factor, etc and no other window we looked at checked all the boxes…. so he said if the windows were installed properly and operated as advertised he’d be happy.
Agreeing that the two sashes were slightly off square, Mr. Marvin said his company would replace them and we could keep the others as spares.
And then?
Then he did something that left my both my husband’s and the contractor’s mouths hanging open.
He removed the right window sash and replaced it with the left.
He removed the left window sash and replaced it with the right.
The result?
No more gaps.
No more air leaking through.
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Oh, he’s still going to order replacement sashes for us… but as of this minute? The windows seem to be fine and my mind is blown. The one on the right is a little stiff and harder to close, but it’s airtight and a little silicon spray on the sides should help it glide more easily.
What the hell!
Was that all it took? Why didn’t the other “experts” think of this! A simple switcheroo solved the problem we’ve been fighting since October 6th and I don’t know whether to scream or cry because it’s so ridiculous.
Needless to say our contractor was dumbfounded. He spent all that time trying to make things right and never thought of swapping sides.
So…
The contractor is the middle of another job for our neighbors which means we’ll have to wait a week or more till he’s free to come back over here and finish installing the rest of the windows and buttoning these up.
I’m shaking my head as I type this and still can’t believe a month and a half of frustration and inconvenience was completely unnecessary.
Someday…. I’ll laugh about this.
But I’m not there yet.
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Thoroughly disgusted with everything about Hammond Lumber due to our ongoing window fiasco, we instructed our contractor never to buy anything from them for us again. This includes the back doors that poorly run excuse for a store couldn’t manage to find after 3 weeks of trying.
The mind boggles.
With those instructions… our poor, beleaguered, probably sick of us contractor went across town to another building supplier called Hancock Lumber and opened an account.
Within minutes they found the odd sized bedroom door with the decorative window we wanted in the correct size.
It’s a miracle!
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They actually laughed when told what an issue we’d been having with it.
And not only did they promptly order that door, but they had the full glass panel door with built in blind we need for the living room…the one that baffled the other place… on the display floor.
Another miracle!
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Our contractor was so thrilled he took photos and texted them to me.
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And that my friends is how it’s supposed to work.
You go to the store.
You tell them what you want.
They order it.
In a matter of minutes.
I’m not religious, but thank you Jesus!
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Oh, sure. We paid more than I expected…but the damn things will here in 10-14 days and with any luck will be installed before it snows.
Finally!
Some good news.
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You know how they say war is Hell? While I’m sure that’s true, I’d like to add an addendum…
Custom made windows are the absolute bottom, flame filled, covered in kale and cilantro, merciless pit of no return, bad hair day Hell.
After waiting a month and half with two faulty windows already installed, and after having two separate store rep / window experts make home visits to tell us the windows were indeed faulty, we went to the store from which they were purchased to seek satisfaction yesterday.
(Please keep in mind both supposed experts suggested we get a refund.)
Our plan was to shop for a similar high grade window made by a different company. After explaining our problem, a nice salesgirl helped us start looking and things were going well until we were interrupted by the manager.
It went downhill from there. And it went downhill very quickly.
Ice covered mountain road with bald tires slathered in butter kind of quickly.
We introduced ourselves politely, stated our issue succinctly and got absolutely nowhere. After a long discussion about quality control at the manufacturing level (it’s non existent), and a longer discussion about expecting to get what you pay for (that was us) we were told –
1. No refund would be forthcoming because it was a special order.
And –
2. I’m quoting here, “Nothing is perfect.”
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To say we were stunned is an understatement.
To say my husband was ready to explode is right on the mark.
Oh, the manager said if the report filed by the second store rep expert came back showing faulty construction they would replace the off square sashes, but chuckle chuckle, hey…. they might be off square as well.
What the utter f*ck?
Are we supposed to pay over $5,500 and shrug our shoulders at defective merchandise? Apparently so.
My husband didn’t punch the manager. He didn’t even curse him out which I felt like doing repeatedly, but he did threaten to get a lawyer as we walked out.
Here’s the problem with that… technically we did not purchase the windows. Our contractor did… for us. So by the letter of the law the store doesn’t owe us anything. I’m having a hard time making my angry as all get out husband understand that, but that’s where we are.
We spoke with our contractor after this fiasco and he will be going to the store as soon as he can to fight for a refund on our behalf. To be honest I don’t see it happening.
But I’ll keep you posted.
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The day finally arrived, as did the supposed window expert.
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We’d had rain, sleet and snow in the morning but by the time he showed up at 2:30 it was just wet and cold.
After a thorough exterior examination with our contractor, the inspection moved inside.
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Measurements were taken, levels were checked…
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Pieces and parts were removed and given a complete going over.
The result?
A determination that the windows themselves weren’t square and one was 3/16ths off plumb. Which is what we told them a month ago.
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Pictures were taken for the report and we were left with two options.
1. Completely new sashes could be ordered for four out of the five windows. This would take at least 7-8 weeks with no guarantee they would be any better than these.
2. A complete refund could be requested and 5 new windows ordered from a different company… which will also take 7-8 weeks.
I can’t stress how much of an inconvenience this has been and will continue to be. Either option will force our contractor to be installing windows in January.
In Maine.
Grrr… not to mention brrr.
We’ve decided to go with door #2 and will be heading over to the store later today to argue for a full refund and begin the entire window selection process again.
Needless to say I’m not looking forward to it.
😡
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River's world..... 