New Year's Eve

Because most of the upstairs (kitchen, bathrooms, hallway and entry way) was being tiled we wouldn't be able to stay in our house while the concrete dried (no reasonable access to the downstairs bathroom and we wouldn't be able to get in or out of our bedrooms). Mom and Dad H. graciously allowed us to stay at their house while we were kicked out of ours (the 31st and 1st). Thank you so much Mom and Dad!!

Pictures of the metal sheets being laid down in the kitchen (the concrete will go over the top, filling in the holes and giving the tile a solid base to be placed upon).



Today started out with the girls getting dropped off. We spent most of the day running various errands and got to eat lunch with Kent. Then we went to Mom and Dad H.'s for dinner.

As usual Mom had a very tasty meal and we enjoyed it with Kent's Aunt Diane's family who stopped by during their visit to Utah (they live in California).





The night was spent laughing and playing games until the wee hours of the morn (well, for most of the kids, Kent and I went to bed shortly after the ball dropped at midnight ;)).





I hope you had a fun New Year's Eve! I look forward to another wonderful year spent dealing with the ups and downs of life surrounded by my amazing husband and loving family. May your year, as well as mine, have more ups than downs and more joys than sorrows.

Happy New Year!!

Déjà vu

*sigh*

OK...here we go again... :)

Today the new tile guys spent the day ripping up the old tile and preparing the house for the new tile. :)

The Kitchen:





Before shots of the other areas we are also getting tiled (minus the Entryway because for some reason I don't have before pictures of).

The Hallway:

Standing on the West end facing East.



Standing on the East end facing West.



The "Kids" Bathroom:



The Master Bathroom:

Kitchen Nightmares

The Tale of the Tile:

After the frame of the kitchen add-on was completed we still needed to insulate, add electrical outlets and light fixtures, sheetrock, paint and tile the kitchen. We had several contractors come out and give us bids and finally decided on “D” who seemed like a good guy who would do a good job. We got a good deal financially because it was a side job for “D” so he only came to work on our house during the evening hours and on weekends, which we were fine with. “D” started and we were pleased with his work on the electrical things and well as his sheetrock/plastering.

All was going smoothly until about a week before Thanksgiving when “D” approached us saying he had regrettably taken on too much side work and with the holidays coming up would not be able to get everything done. “D” told us he had a friend, “T”, who did wonderful work with tile and would honor “D”’s bid for the tile work and asked it we would we be willing to let “T” do the tile work. We opted to meet with “T” to discuss the kitchen as well as a couple more tile projects in the house. (During the construction process we had decided it would be really nice to have tile not only in the kitchen, but down the hallway as well as in our ‘entryway’ and in both upstairs bathrooms.) After chatting with “T” and “D” and getting a bid for the hallway, entryway and bathrooms we agreed to let “T” do the tile. So, “T” came with a helper and started to work on our kitchen floor.

Again, everything seemed to be going smoothly until Saturday, December 6th when we got a call from “T” (Kent and I were out with Mom and Dad H. for a birthday dinner for Mom). “T” told us the tile in the kitchen was finished but he would not be coming back to finish the rest of the house. (“T” told us that his wife was upset with all the extra time he was spending away from home with side jobs.) Kent tried to talk to him on the phone but “T” just said he was leaving and was done with the kitchen and that we should call “D” if we had any problems. So Kent called “D” and “D” said he would talk to “T” and get back to us.

I am sure you can understand why we were a little upset because he opted to just leave in the middle of the job (if you take on too many side jobs, don’t take on any more but at least finish the ones you started) but still, I was excited to come home and see the floor in the kitchen covered in tile.

Even though “T” told us we could walk on the floor right away we opted to wait about 24 hours before stepping on it. Because of the leftover grout residue we needed to mop the floor several times to clean it all up. While mopping we noticed a few things about the tile and the grout. The grout was flaking up in about 1/3 of the kitchen. One of the tiles was at least 1/4 of an inch higher than the rest of the tile (it would have been hidden by fridge, but still!). The cuts near the sliding glass door were sloppy and some of them weren’t even filled in with grout! (I can understand not having nice cuts near the walls, baseboard is going to cover them up, however, near the sliding door there is nothing that will cover it so the cuts need to be more accurate. And it looked like they cut the tile too small so to compensate, instead of cutting another tile, they made the joints bigger on one side and put grout between the tile and sliding glass door on the other side.) We also noticed when we stepped down we heard a cracking sound and the tiles slightly shifted.

On Friday, December 12th, Kent was walking through the kitchen to the basement when he stepped down and the tile cracked in half. Less than a week after it was installed and the tile cracked in half!

Meanwhile, since we couldn’t get a hold of “T”, we decided to see what it would cost to have the tile issues repaired so started having tile contractors come out and give us bids. Coincidentally, we also learned a whole lot about tile and how it should have been put down and how it was improperly installed in our kitchen.

When installing tile you need to first lay down a layer of thinsulate, which is a thin layer of concrete. This thin layer evens out the floor so there are not hills or valleys under the tile that will cause air pockets and eventually lead to weak areas that will crack or break. (You can sometimes get away with not using thinsulate in new homes, but a home like ours, that is 30+ years old definitely needs it.) Next you lay down something called hardibacker. It comes in large sheets that lay down flat on the floor and provide a stable, water-resistant substrate and a strong surface to bond tile to. Hardibacker has little dots all over it as a guide to where you need to put screws or nails to ensure a flat and stable surface. Next you run glass fiber cement backerboard tape between the joints of the hardibacker sheets to make sure you have a flat surface every where. And then, and only then can you start actually laying the tile.

“T” did not put down a layer of thinsulate. “T” only put screws in the hardibacker around the edges and about 12 inches apart. “T” did not use tape between the edges of the hardibacker. All of these things led to the problems we had in our kitchen. Every contractor that came out said just because 2/3 of our kitchen seemed fine didn’t mean it was. It just meant that we weren’t having problems right away. And each of them said to make sure we didn’t get those problems in the rest of the kitchen we would need to rip up all of the tile and start completely over.

Yes, that’s right. Rip it all up and start completely over.

Continuing on with the story...

Kent finally got a phone call from “T” who was cheery and happy and asked when he could stop by to pick up his check. (At least through all of this we hadn’t paid “T” anything. We were just out the cost of the tile.) Kent explained the problems with our tile, that he had tried to get a hold of “T” and that we weren’t going to pay “T” anything until the problems had been fixed. “T” offered to meet at our house and discuss the issues and to see what he could do to fix them so we set up a meeting time and day.

Meanwhile, “D” showed up to finish his painting of the add-on and looked at the tile in the kitchen. Needless to say he was flabbergasted. “D” said he had seen work “T” had done before that was beautiful but this was no where near that level. “D” actually told us that even though “T” is his friend, he wouldn’t pay for the job that was done in our kitchen and said he would continue to try to talk to “T” for us.

The meeting day and time arrived and “T” showed up at our house and looked at the kitchen. “T” told us that he could just replace the broken tile and the grout and our kitchen would be fine. Kent tried to explain to him that that plan wasn’t acceptable because Kent had researched how to install tile and every contractor we had come to the house had told us the proper way to install tile and that our tile had been installed improperly. Kent explained to him that if “T” was willing to rip up all the tile and lay it down again properly, we would pay him his original bid price but that we would not agree to a patch job that was only going to let us limp along until the rest of the tile starting cracking and coming up. “T” got extremely upset and told us it was our fault the kitchen tile was having problems, yelled and called Kent names and then stormed out. Kent called him on the phone and tried to talk to him but all “T” did was continue to say it was our fault and that we would be sorry if we didn’t pay him the money.

Later that day Kent called “D” to see if he had any advice on how to handle “T”. “D” told us he would try to talk to “T”. We felt bad having “D” get in the middle of everything but we had no other options while trying to talk to “T” reasonably.

Finally, through many conversations with Kent, “T” agreed to walk away from the project (honestly, I didn’t want him touching anything in my house again) if we could prove to him that we were indeed going to rip up the entire floor and start over. (He thought we were just going to have someone come in and repair the grout and the tile that cracked and then we would save all the money we were supposed to pay “T”.) He said if he could have his hardibacker back after we ripped it up he would be satisfied and leave us alone. We agreed to that and told him we would let him know when it was available for him to pick up.

So, we finally decided on a new tile contractor, “R”, that was willing to start next Tuesday, December 23rd. As that day got closer though, I got more panicky. Everything from my kitchen is still in my living-room (fridge, table, dishwasher, moveable garbage thing) and it will be the week of Christmas (we never even got the Christmas tree up, let alone any other decorations in the house). I just didn’t want to have to deal with more construction while trying to have a nice Christmas and running around to all the parties that were planned. Kent, saint of a husband that he is, called “R” today and moved the starting (re-starting?) date to Monday, December 29th.

And they lived happily ever after.

Oh, wait...this isn’t exactly the end of the story, is it? So, I guess for now, we’ll just say...

To Be Continued...

*wink*

Kitchen Construction 17

What it looked like in the afternoon outside:





What it looked like at the end of the day outside:







I think it looks just beautiful and I love it!!

Kitchen Construction 16

Finished Tile!

Kitchen Construction 15

More tile!





What it looked like around noon outside:









What it looked like at the end of the day outside:

Kitchen Construction 13, 14 and 15

For some reason I didn't make blog entries the last couple of days so kitchen construction and everyday life is all going to be jammed onto this one very long post. Hope it isn't too confusing!

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Kitchen Construction 15:
Thursday, December 4th, 2008

TILE!!!





This is what it looked like mid-morning from the outside:







This is what it looked like at the end of the day from the outside:







The plan today was to call Home Depot, hear the tile was in stock, go down there to pay for it and then spend a nice day at home catching up on housework. Alas, the day started out with Kent accidentally taking the car seat with him to work. Luckily one of his employees had to run an errand near our house so brought me the car seat mid-morning. Kent also forgot his Blackberry at home so I traded the Blackberry for the car seat when Jose' showed up. :)

I should have known a day that started out that way was not going to go according to plan... :)

Around noon I was getting my lunch out of the fridge (which is in our living room), (leftover Zub's, yum!), when the brick guys came back from lunch. I put my lunch on the couch and ran out back to put the dogs away. While I was out there the brick guys asked me to take the screens off the new kitchen window so they wouldn't get them all dirty. So I let Teufel in the house and set to work. While I was taking the screens off, Teufel ATE MY LUNCH! I was so upset and disappointed. My tasty lunch consumed by somebody who would never appreciate just how tasty it was. *sigh*

I called Home Depot this morning and the employee told me the tile did not come in during their midnight shipment but that they get shipments between 1-5 so call back after or during that time. So, at 2:30 I called back. I was put on hold for 10 minutes while I waited for someone in flooring to talk to me. The guy finally got on the line asked the name of the tile and put me on hold again for another 10 minutes. For some reason I was then transferred back to the service desk where the woman there tried to track down the tile guy I had spoken to. I was then told he had left. He put me on hold and then left the store?! Apparently...

So the service desk lady tried to help me but kept telling me I needed a sku number so she could look up the tile. I told her I didn't have one and that the person I talked to that morning hadn't needed one from me nor did the guy who left the store. She just kept repeating she needed a sku number. I suggested looking it up by the tile name but I had remembered the name of the tile incorrectly so she couldn't find it that way (I thought it was Britmore Grey, it was Biltmore Grey). By this time I had been on the phone with Home Depot for more that 30 minutes. She told me she would take my name and number, get the information I needed and call me back since I was a little irritated. I started to give her my information and she accidentally hung up on me. *sigh*

I called back, got the service desk, explained my problem (checking to see if a shipment of tile that was supposed to be delivered on Monday had made it, accidentally got hung up on, etc.) and then was transferred to a manager. I guess I was a problem customer but I thought, "Oh well, maybe he can finally help me." He checked on the tile, it hadn't been delivered and then put me on hold while he called the vendor as his records showed it hadn't even been shipped yet. (!!) The manager was only able to get voicemail when he called the vendor. (They are a Florida company that closed at 5 and by this time it was after 3 our time so 5 their time.) But he told me the two closest Home Depots each had more than 40 boxes in their inventory so I should be able to cover the 33 boxes I needed.

Umm...excuse me? The guy on Wednesday said they were completely depleted! *sigh* The manager was very kind and helpful but I think most of his employees are idiots.

I then called another Home Depot and was put on hold for a few minutes while they checked to make sure they had enough tile boxes for me. (I was happy to be put on hold while they did that. :)) They had a whole pallet of the tile I needed! So I called Kent, got the credit card information, called them back and ordered the tile. Phew! Luckily our tile guys were going to pick it up. :) See above pictures for the exciting events to do with tile. :)

As it turned out I ended up not needing the car seat...oh well... :)

Today was spent dealing with a cranky baby and on the phone...family and Home Depot. Even though I didn't do much I feel emotionally taxed.

After so many long days the last couple of days I was just too tired to make it to the Relief Society Christmas Dinner. I feel bad missing it but resting at home is what I really need.

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Kitchen Construction 14:
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

The brick work was started! This is what it looked like outside at the end of the day:





Today was a crazy day for me. Each year at the elementary school the 5th grade runs a Christmas Store. They buy items to stock the store as well as have families of 5th graders donate items. Since Samantha is in 5th grade this year I got to help out with the Christmas Store. (I was near the end of my pregnancy with Kent III when Savannah's 5th grade class did the store so didn't help out then.)

Samantha's class was in charge of running the store today and since I am the Room Parent, the teacher asked me to coordinate parent volunteers to help during business hours (8:30-9:10; 11:30-12:50; 1:45-2:15; 3:30-4:00). Sadly, I only got one parent who volunteered to help before school which meant I got to go during every shift to help. Luckily another Mom saw me before school and asked if she could help during lunch and after school. She could and I was grateful.

I made it just fine to the before school shift and enjoyed walking around helping/watching the shoppers. I had just enough time before the lunch shift to run to Home Depot and pay for the tile so our tile guys could pick it up and start laying tile tonight.

When I got to Home Depot I found out the shipment that was supposed to come in on Monday hadn't shown up yet. The employee also told me that the two closest stores were also waiting on that shipment because their stock was depleted. I was told they hoped it would come in today so I should call back tomorrow. *sigh* Wasting my time was not something I wanted to do on a day in which I had very little extra time to waste.

Because of the rigmarole at Home Depot I made it back home late but had to get something for sweet Kent III to eat for lunch and change his clothes (he had found an open bag of powdered tile mortar and was covered in grey dust) so I didn't make it to the Christmas store until 11:45. I stayed to count the money from the till and by that time it was 1:35 so Kent III and I just stuck around and straightened up the store until 1:45 when they opened for afternoon recess.

For some reason the 3rd grade had a late recess and the teacher opted to stay open for them, which meant after counting the till, I was at the school until 3:00. I would have just stayed at the school until 3:30 except Kent III's diaper leaked so I needed to change his clothes...again. I quickly went home, changed Kent III and made it back to the school to help at 3:30. The store stay opened until about 4:10 but since the teacher didn't need to get back to take care of her classroom, I was able to leave and she counted the till.

I just have to take a moment and thank Shelly and Amy Jo, the parents who came and helped today. I really appreciate you and your willingness to help! Thank you!!

In all the kids made just over $1,000 today. (!!) Which is actually less than yesterday! Crazy! I am excited for them though. After they pay off the inventory costs half the money goes toward a service project and the other half goes toward field trips. It is going to be a fun year for those kids! :)

It really wasn't that bad for me; I just basically spent my entire day at the school. :) It was pretty hard on Kent III though, luckily Samantha was able to keep him entertained a little as did a few of the girls in Samantha's class.

Kent had to stay late at work tonight and since we felt like we didn't get to see each other yesterday he came home right after work to pick me up and take me back to work with him. We were going to get something to eat and then Kent III and I were just going to hang out with Kent while he worked.

If anything my life has dictated nothing is ever that easy, especially today...

As we were pulling out of the driveway we realized we had a flat tire! :)

Good things that happened while having to change a tire:

1- It happened close to home (we parked on the side of the road still within our property line) so Kent was able to run back in and change out of his suit before he got greasy.

2- We got to Big-O tires 5 minutes before they closed.

3- Because it is a Big-O tire, they repaired the tire for free! Customer for life! (They say it looked like a nail hole but didn't find anything in the hole.)

4- Because Kent III was asleep in the backseat they let me stay in the car with him while they raised up the car to get the spare off and the repaired tire back on. Whee! We only went up about a foot but still...

5- The best for last...we got to eat Zub's for dinner! If you have never eaten at Zubs, I feel sorry for you... (Ok, so that has nothing to do with the flat tire but I still had to add it as a good thing. :))

Because we didn't have any tile, the tile guys couldn't start laying tile tonight. That actually worked out kind of nice for them though as one of the guys needed to fix his wife's car for her. Little blessings I guess.

I know I will get tile soon...I just know it... :)

A crazy day, that's for sure, but a fun adventure nonetheless. :)

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Kitchen Construction 13:
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

The hardibacker flooring. Next level, actual tile! Hooray!





I got a phone call this afternoon from Savannah. She told me today was the day that her 4-H clubs were having a Parent Showcase and asked if I could come over to the school right away. I said of course, however, since I had literally just stepped out of the shower, I was going to need a few minutes. I ended up getting there right as it started.

We all got to eat a cookie Savannah made in Cooking Club. (I didn't want to lug around my big camera case so I borrowed Savannah's camera to take these pictures.)



Take special notice of the Cooking Club sign behind Savannah...she made it! :)



The memory box Savannah made in Crafts Club.



In the Treasure Hunt Club Savannah learned how to use a GPS unit for geocaching. As part of the Parent Showcase we got to go on a little mini hunt. We got the GPS unit and the coordinates and we were off!





Savannah with her Cooking and Craft Club teacher Andrea:



Savannah with her Treasure Hunt Club teacher James:



Savannah with the 4-H Coordinator Whitney (Whitney and James are married):



Next week is the last week Savannah will be going to 4-H clubs after school. She has really loved the classes she has been in and the teachers have been great. It is a wonderful program and I am happy Savannah had the chance to participate.

Tonight Kent and I went to a student conference for Savannah. We had a meeting time set up with Savannah at the Junior High and she got to show us different things from her various classes. I am very proud of her and her desire to do well in school. It was fun to see all the different projects and things she has been doing in school.

As soon as we got home Kent had to leave for scouts and he didn't get home until around 9. So with rushing off to the student meeting with Savannah as soon as Kent got home and then him rushing off to scouts as soon as we got home from that and him getting home late I feel like I hardly saw my husband today! I wonder if this is God's way of preparing me for the craziness that is going to be life as soon as Kent starts school...

Kitchen Construction 12

They've removed all the layers of the floor they need to and are now ready to start rebuilding it with the necessary things for tile.





I mowed my lawn today...on December 1st...in Utah! That is just messed up!

Samantha's reading tutor called and cancelled today (she is sick) so the girls and I got to spend a lazy afternoon together at home.

Not much else to say...so I'll stop. :)