Thursday (The blooper reel)

 If you're not interested in reading about the bloopers from our renovation project, you can skip today's blog. Nothing but champaign problems today.

This morning our contractor boss came by to address one problem and measure the back bath for the next project. It was going to be a quick trip. He ended up staying until noon after we raised a number of issues. He patiently listened and wants to address them all. He says these things are normal; it's just part of the process. His original purpose was to raise the outlet above the vanity again after it had been raised yesterday. After conferring with the designer, they decided that 2 inches would not be enough to embed the outlet in the backsplash. He said that if the countertop folks can't do it after raising it again, then he would cut the hole himself in the backsplash and install it. I think this is the fourth time this outlet has been moved.  

Then, we hit him with additional issues. This collection of switches in the living room was supposed to be upgraded by the electricians yesterday, but it got overlooked on their list. I referred to the contract and discovered why: we had a two-part contract. The first part was for the primary bath and bedroom. The second part was for the floors and molding. The switch upgrade was in the second part of the contract where no one would expect to see electrical upgrades when they were making their list for the electricians.

The toilet exhaust fan was supposed to be replaced, but it got overlooked. The boss said that they could install that. [An aside: Interestingly, in the beginning, I thought it didn't need replacing because it still worked. Our designer laughed and said a 33 year old exhaust fan won't even hold a piece of one-ply tissue paper to the unit. She was right. It simply made noise, which is a virtue in itself considering the location, but the fan simply couldn't meet its primary function: removing odors and humidity.]

This one was a head scratcher. The demo folks accidentally left the original baseboards in this closet. The original baseboards were set in the mortar directly on top of the slab. The tilers should have removed the baseboards before tiling, but didn't. They tiled up to them. The construction guys who installed the new baseboards finally removed the old baseboards and installed the new ones you see above, but now there is a gap and nothing for the baseboards to sit on. So they got attached to the wall with a gap showing between the baseboards and the tile. Without turning back time, there was no way to do it correctly, short of removing the baseboards and ripping up tile and then re-tiling and re-grouting, and then re-installing the baseboards. Since it's a hall closet, the simple solution is to add grout in the gap to disguise the error. Grout is like caulk: it covers a multitude of sins. The boss was not happy with the number of people who should have caught this mistake and didn't.

The next issue the boss addressed was the plug for the bidet. In the red circle above, you can see that 3/4 of the outlet is embedded in the baseboard and 1/4 sticks out above. You can imagine how it looked once the electricians wedged an outlet plate in there. There was a gap at the top with raw wood on the bottom. It could have been improved with caulk, but the boss said it looked like crap and set about to fix it immediately. I know how this happened. Originally, the toilet closet had a tile wall, which didn't get entirely removed by the demo crew at the beginning because there was a toilet in the way. When the electricians came to install the electrical line, the tile and wallboard had been removed, along with the toilet. I suppose they assumed there would be tile on the wall, so they placed the outlet as low as possible. Had they known there would be a tall baseboard there, they would have placed it higher on the wall to avoid any contact. 

The boss removed the existing baseboard and oriented the outlet horizontally so that it could sit entirely on the surface of the baseboard and low, as you see above. He will come back later and patch the drywall, cut a hole in a new piece of baseboard and re-install the board and outlet. An added benefit is that we can use the other plug for a nightlight. In the previous orientation, the plug had to go in the top outlet because the board was in the way of the plug; therefore, the cord covered the bottom outlet, rendering it unusable. 

Even though we discussed with the designer the need for dimmer lights in the bathroom, it didn't get included in our contract, and we didn't notice until after the electricians left. Normally, a dimmer wouldn't be necessary in a bathroom, but with the decorative wall it's important to have one for accenting it at night without it blinding you. Same with the lights above the sinks. They are super bright. The boss was understanding and said he could replace these two switches with dimmers himself. (The third switch goes to the closet.)

Okay. This blooper is still a mystery. In the pre-construction picture above, you see the ceiling fan control knob at the top. Below are the switches to the fan light on the left and the bedside lamp outlets to the right.

The living room had a similar configuration before we consolidated the fan knob and fan light into the one unit on the right above. That control acts like a remote for the fan and light. The switch to the left is for the uplights in the living room. 

Back to our bedroom. We went from the configuration above . . . 

. . . to this. When the electrician boss came in to add an outlet to the vanity, I asked him what was going on here. How did we go from a knob and two switches to three switches? I pointed out to him how the living room was combined, and I pointed out that the third switch didn't control anything. He shined a flashlight in there and said it was wired to something. We checked all the other outlets and couldn't find anything. He said maybe it was for uplights above the shelf over the bed. I checked there. Nothing. He said that his crew would figure it out when they came to install the final outlets.

I came in to look at their work yesterday and found three switches and asked them what the third switch was for. I was met with a shrug and sigh. Maybe this, maybe that. I said, nope. None of that was true. Then they explained that it had to do with the fan light. The other switch was for the fan speed, the former knob. I explained that the first switch did both and that the knob got eliminated in the living room. Why not here? Shrug. "It's just a dummy switch. It doesn't do anything," he finally said. I explained all this to the  construction boss who called the electrician boss who's going to talk to his crew and find out why we have a dummy switch. One of our goals in replacing the ceiling fan was to simply the controls. Having a dummy switch works against that goal.

Meanwhile, I inadvertently painted the reverse side of a piece of base molding and complained to the construction crew installing it that that piece was filled with divots that I couldn't sand out. They politely asked why I didn't flip it over and paint the other side, which was flawless. I laughed and thought I was losing my mind. 

But they admitted that the previous batch did have a flat front while the backside was notched out. I had just assumed they were all like that and never flipped the flawed piece around. The lead crew member generously said, "If you're not making mistakes, you're not working." And that's a life lesson and the last word on the bloopers.