Archive for the 'Home Maintenance' Category
Contractor Frustrations
We would like to have some work done at our home this summer, so I’ve been busy contacting various contractors during the past few weeks. My experiences with getting people to call me back, come to my house and provide a quote have ranged from surprisingly pleasant to sorely disappointing.
The areas where we need some help are removing a large rotting tree, getting some new windows installed and improving insulation in our basement and third floor area. This means I’ve been calling arborists, window installers and insulation contractors.
The arborists were by far the most responsive and professional of the bunch. I called five companies and all of them called back fairly promptly and came to our house within a few days. With each arborist we explained the work that we wanted to have done and they went over various methods and options because it’s a fairly large job. Each gave us a quote on the spot and didn’t make us wait for days. The prices were quite varied which made me a little concerned. I mentioned to the last arborist (a very respected and well known company) that I didn’t understand why one of his competitors quoted me twice the amount he was quoting me. He explained that the twice-as-much arborist hates working around power lines and doesn’t really want my job, hence the crazy quote price. That made sense to me. We’ve since decided on a company, put down our deposit and will be having our tree removed in the next few weeks. Be on the lookout for a blog post with lots of pictures when that job is taking place. So, hiring the arborist was a snap compared to the rest of the work we wanted done.
Next was on to window installers. They must really be in busy season because I have yet to successfully find someone who will actually give me a quote so I can schedule the work to be done. I called several. One called me back (after I called him twice) and came to my house. That was two weeks ago. I still do not have a quote from this individual, even though I’ve left a few voicemails asking for my estimate. I could understand the unresponsiveness if we only wanted one or two windows replaced. But we’re looking to have 15 windows replaced. It’s not that tiny of a job. Just send me my stinkin’ quote for crying out loud so I can hire you and get my darn windows replaced!
Finally, insulation contractors. I must have called six of these guys. One called me back. He said he was friends with someone that lives on my street. I thought this would be a good sign. He came to my house and spent awhile talking to us about various options and what would be most effective. He told us he would have the quote to us that night and gave us the name of a sheetrocker that would need to help us with some prep work before he could do the job. We called the sheetrocker and he came to our house and gave us a quote 12 hours later. That was three weeks ago. Do I have the insulation quote yet? Heck no. How many times have I called asking for the quote? Three. I could understand if he didn’t want the job, but why the heck would he have us call his sheetrocker friend if he didn’t want the job? Gah!
Perhaps I am a touch more annoyed with this process than I should be. Honestly, I just wish people would tell me outright that they don’t want my job rather than wasting my time by coming over to my house and telling me that they’ll get me a quote which they never seem to produce. I’m telling people on the phone the extent of the work, just say no then if you think the job is too small. You’re not going to hurt my feelings, I’ll just move on to the next person.
Readers, what are your experiences with getting multiple quotes? Do you find some contractors are more responsive than others? Are window installers and insulation contractors always this frustrating? I seem to have fine luck with roofers, painters and masons. Thoughts?
Finding History in Your House
One evening during the second summer that we lived in our house, a stranger knocked on our front door. He introduced himself and said that his grandfather was an architect that recently passed away. He was cleaning out his grandfather’s office and came across some original blueprints to a house that said it was to be built on Oxford Street, but didn’t give a specific number. The man thought it would be a nice gesture to give the blueprints to the owners of the home, so he walked up and down Oxford Street until he found the house that matched the blueprints.
The house on the blueprints was our house.
We were very grateful that he went through the trouble of finding our home. Looking at the prints was like stepping back in time to the early 1900s- seeing the original design and how it changed from the outset and how it’s been modified over the years. What a great piece of history on our house that we didn’t even know existed.
On another occasion, we met some folks at a dinner party that live in a similar vintage house in West Hartford. They mentioned that in one of the drawers in their butler’s pantry they found several vintage pictures of Elizabeth Park and early 1900s living in Hartford. They were also thrilled with their find because it added a little more color to their house and what life was like during the time when it was built.
Recently a friend emailed me that he finished a wallpaper removal project in his early 1900s home and was surprised to see the paper hanger’s signature on the plaster beneath the paper, “papered by Leonard Des Roches, 1988.” He did some online research and found an obituary for the craftsman, who passed away a few years back. The brief article gave details of a family man that also was a well respected paper hanger in the area for many years. My friend remarked that you could tell that “Lenny” took great care in his work and paid attention to detail in the areas that needed special cuts, he didn’t find one flaw in the entire job.
With older houses, we sometimes get these pleasant surprises when we take on remodeling projects or just dig a little deeper in the built-ins and nooks and crannies. It makes me wonder about the craftsmen that built these homes to begin with, as well as those that have worked on them over time, and the families that lived in them. Old houses can be canvases for history, you just have to be on the lookout.
Readers, have you ever had any interesting finds in your home that helped you learn more about previous owners or the people that built or worked on your home over the years?
Picking Paint Colors
I’m willing to admit, I’ve had enough of winter. I’m ready to go for a morning run without worrying that I’ll slip on ice and break my bum. I’m itching to go to the Hartford farmer’s market to get some new annuals and perennials and dig in the dirt. Oh, and it would be nice to be able to have houses photographed without giant snow mounds in front.
One of the things I’ve noticed recently is that it’s time to do some interior painting in our house. We’ve been here about 7 years now and it’s time for a refresh. When we first moved in I was on a kick about color. The living room was red. One bedroom was bright blue, another was a darker green. And who can forget about the back stairway…
Over time, the dark colors started to feel oppressive. We changed the living room to a light neutral color about 2 years after it was painted red because I felt the room was closing in on me whenever I was in it. Not good.
Since we’ve been stuck in the house so much this winter, I’ve been making a list of everything that I think needs repainting. Our master bedroom, the dark green bedroom, another bedroom I use as my closet and *gasp* the beloved back stairway. All of this painting means that there are a series of choices for new colors that need to be made.
That can only mean one thing, a fun trip to the paint store to pick out paint chips! I am sent on my own for this excursion, Kyle just asks that the options come back and I pitch them to him. He has no interest in the nitty gritty details of sorting through thousands of colors.
Since I’ve now moved to the opposite end of the color spectrum (read: boring neutrals), picking chips is pretty easy. Blues, greens, yellows, pinks, reds are all quickly passed by. I’m looking for Serenity Now! That means very light grays, beiges and whites. I can spice things up with fabrics for curtains, bedspreads and throw pillows.
After about 30 minutes I’ve grabbed my fistfuls of chips and make my way home. Each chip has three or four colors on it, with only one or maybe two being acceptable. I go through everything and mark the options, then lay them out for Kyle. He hems and haws. “These all look the same, off-white.” I say “Oh good, so then it doesn’t matter which I choose.” This then makes him make a decision.
We now have our four colors, found at Benjamin Moore- Misty Gray, Whitewater Bay, Swiss Coffee and China White. I will admit that there was a perfectly lovely color named Mayonaisse which I had to pass on, simply because of the name. Who wants to think about congealed fat spread on their walls? Not me.
So, over the next few months I will be busy in the late evenings. That’s when I paint. Usually starting at about 10:00pm and ending around 2:00am. I get a little obsessed about it once I start. But it gets done and everyone else is sleeping, so I can be more productive. Bring on the neutrals!
Readers, how do you feel about picking paint colors? Are you leaning more towards vibrant colors or neutrals these days? And do you usually have an inspiration piece that helps you choose a color or do you choose a color and then design around it?
The Un-Handyman
Here’s a heartwarming Valentine’s Day post…
I’m sure most men, and even some women, like to think of themselves as “handy” when it comes to dealing with their homes. After being married to Kyle for 10 years, I can honestly tell you that he’s really not that handy. He likes to think of himself that way, but deep down I know he realizes he’s not a handyman.
Over time we’ve come to the understanding that with most projects other than painting and landscaping that it’s probably just better for us to hire outside help. The main driver behind this realization came during the second summer we owned our house. Our side porch needed a major overhaul. It had settled over time. There was lots of rotting wood and it was just in general disrepair. Kyle and his father estimated that the two of them could get the necessary work done in a week and his dad offered to come stay with us to help out. Well, the week came and went, the porch was torn apart and the true amount of work that needed to be done was uncovered. His dad had other obligations, so he had to leave. Kyle and I worked on the porch every evening and weekend day for the entire summer, and most of the fall, to try and finish everything. Thankfully we had additional help from his family and my family on many of the weekends. We didn’t really know what the heck we were doing so every task took two or three times as long as it would a “handy” person.
Surprisingly to us, and many of our neighbors, we actually remained married after that summer. But it became clear that we never wanted to go through that again and we really needed to just hire people going forward.
Since that time we’ve unabashedly hired carpenters, plumbers and electricians.
But last week I realized that our hall bath showerhead needed replacing. It was leaking in various spots so the water pressure wasn’t great and our daughter’s incessant pulling on the detachable part during her baths was making the problem worse.
It’s just a detachable bath showerhead. Did we really need to hire someone to do the job? Or would Kyle be able to get it done on his own? I rallied the troops and made my request about a new showerhead known. I was assured that it wouldn’t be a problem, we had all of the tools we needed to get the job done, and it would just be a quick trip to the hardware store to get the showerhead. From there, the install would be quick and painless. So the experiment began…
Kyle and I both agreed that it would take a “handy” person about 10 minutes to detach the existing showerhead and install the new one. For Kyle’s purposes, I figured we should budget an hour. He didn’t reject this time allotment.
The showerhead was purchased and additional supplies were gathered from the basement. The removal of the existing showerhead was fairly easy. Kyle had done this before in other failed attempts at being “handy” to fix other issues with the tub. About only 3 of the 10 minutes had passed. He was optimistic. He may have bragged. The new showerhead was then installed, now we were at about the 10 minute mark. Then water was turned on to the spigot. That worked. The water was then turned on to the showerhead. No water came out. At this point I laughed because I saw where this is going, as always. We are incapable of even the easiest tasks!
Kyle fiddled with the showerhead settings and tried the water again. Still nothing. Then disassembly at various points to understand the last point where the water is flowing to. He removed the entire showerhead fixture and the water easily came from the showerhead-less fitting. Hmm. Must be something was wrong with the showerhead. Kyle messed with the various showerhead parts for about 15 more minutes before reattaching the old showerhead and giving up. Still no progress.
The next step was to go back to the store and buy a different showerhead. We assumed the first one was broken, so we might was well just try a different model. The next install went much better and was actually up and working in 11 minutes.
So, lesson learned here is that we’re still not handy, but “broken” parts don’t help our cause. I’m still wondering if it was really broken or if we’re just awful.
Do other folks find things like this happening to them? Or are we a special exception?
Spring Landscaping Boom
The crushing weight of this winter’s heavy snowfall is taking a heavy toll on area landscaping. After initially focusing on the potential damage to our own shrubs, I’ve begun to notice that others are experiencing similar problems. The subject even came up (unprovoked) at a recent dinner party we attended.
Here at Casa Bergqui, the primary issue is snow and ice cascading off the roof and onto the shrubbery along the front of the house. We have attempted to shovel out the plants to relieve some of the weight, but in retrospect that may have just set them up for another direct hit in the next blizzard. When the shrubs were brand new, we had deployed wooden A-frames over the top of the young plants to protect them from the dangers above. Two seasons of below average snowfall, and my concern about their lack of winter sun, gave me the confidence to skip that step last winter. It worked out well last year … not so much this year.
Other homes in the neighborhood have mature hedges at the front of their properties. Some species seem to be fighting off the snow quite well, while others appear to be struggling. Hopefully the damage looks worse than it really is because they will be very difficult to repair. I imagine it would take years to regrow a particular section to match the rest of the hedge.
This spring looks to be shaping up to be a very profitable time to be in the landscaping business. The damage caused by the snow and ice this winter will create lots of demand for new plants and services. And with the economy no longer completely in the toilet perhaps homeowners will be more inclined to spend on these sorts of non-essential items.
I wonder if it’s possible to corner the market on boxwood in order to profit on the coming landscaping boom?