Some People Never Learn

Last year, we remodeled the outside of Carol & Geralynn's house and had, shall we say, a few problems. The lawsuits have all been settled and I think we're friends again. After not learning their lesson the first time, they decided to hire us to work on their kitchen! This time we prepared a 17 page contract, got 200% down and suggested they leave the state.

Believe it or not ...they actually ~~fell for~~ .....accepted our offer. They even fell for the "we'll be done in 2 weeks" BS again! They left for Florida on vacation and they're checking our progress on this page.

Per the advice of our attorneys and Miss Cleo, we're doing one thing a little different this time. We hired a job supervisor/security guard. Since we're charging T & M, we'll just add 15% to his salary and pass it on.

I told the ladies that if we found any lost or forgotten undies somewhere, we would definitely figure out some way to creatively incorporate them into our remodeling project. They must have believed me because when we got there, they had emptied most of the cabinets and even moved stuff into the living room.



We know there's some panties hidden somewhere in this house.		Not in this wall either. Hey Jim, are you sure we can put this all back before they get home?

I was promised that there would be beer in the refrigerator for us and indeed there was. Yepper, Geralynn left us 1 damned Corona. We gave it to the cat and added beer to the material list (plus 15% of course)

We thought the house was a tad bit chilly when we left last night but 4" of snow and 20 MPH winds will do that. When we got there today, the temp inside the house was a brisk 44°. We could have saved the girls $150 for a furnace repair-man if we had thought to check the pilot light. But then again, if someone had told us it went out once in a while, we would have known to check it right? Oh well, not our problem.

Today's goal was to try to figure out what to do with the old wiring with the insulation missing, light switches that didn't turn anything on, and outlets that had been plastered over. After a couple hours of confusion, cussin,' and consternation, we decided the best thing to do was to head on down to Poe Tavern and drink some lunch. Three hours later we achieved the same state of mind as the original electrician and it all made sense! Now if we can just remember tomorrow ......

Hey Jim! I think Fupped found the panties! Good duck!

It seems that the switch behind the china cabinet that everyone thought didn't work actually powered the bathroom. For years, we've had the ability to turn the lights off & on while people were in there and never knew it. Sigh.....what a waste.

The wiring leading to the living room chandelier was so rotted that the insulation was missing. The only way to access it was to either remove the ceiling or cut an access hole in the floor above. Since I'm such a skilled and talented carpenter, I was able to cut a hole exactly above the chandelier.

Click on the hole to see the lovely wiring!

While I was in there, I found the power to the porch light that was always on. I'm happy to announce that the porch light can now be turned off without having to go outside and unscrew the bulb. The stereo though, can only be used when the porch light is on. We'll work on that later. The drywall goes up tomorrow. Today is finish up & haul out the trash day.

Tom & his crew got the drywall up yesterday. What a difference! The best decision we made was to turn over the hanging and finishing to them. Some jobs are best left to the pros and this is defiantly one of them. There was, however, one small setback . It seems Fupped came up missing. The last time I saw him, he was inspecting the wiring near the chimney. "Hey Tom, do ya suppose he's still in there?"

Here, you see Tom removing the section of drywall that he had just put up. Fupped was a little dirty but otherwise unscathed. Now if we could just figure out where in the hell that cat went to.

The finish coat of mud will go on today. I spent Sunday trying to level out the ceiling but without replacing some of the warped joists, I couldn't get it perfect. I really think a light Spanish Lace texture would hide some of the dips but that's not my decision. (hint...hint).

Well I think we're done with our part. The girls got home, declared the house unlivable, and promptly fired everyone. I can't understand why they wouldn't be thrilled with the work that we did. I knew they'd be tired after 2 weeks of debauchery in Key West, so we even painted the new drywall for them. We thought it looked pretty damn good but for some reason they didn't quite agree. I'm sure once they're rested, they'll appreciate our efforts.

I'm happy to say that we've been contacted by a homeowner in Wisconsin who found this page & wants to have us remodel their house. It's a long commute but perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to leave town for a few days.