New Floors - Day 5

So, okay, I shouldn't leave you hanging, right?

There is just so much . . .

First off, you have to respect a little bit how we are living right now.

We have no real seating.  And although SPF hooked up our entertainment center again, we can only spend so much time on the ground before our bones begin to groan.  Yes, it's a first world problem, I give you that, but it doesn't make it any easier.  Okay, maybe a little easier.  I'm not made of stone.

What surfaces we have available are covered to capacity.  This is not only a visual clutter that I am not fond of (though live with more often than I'd like to admit) but it makes things difficult to find.  And things that are breakable are, well, breaking.  But we have adopted a relatively ruthless approach.  It's broken?  It's trash.  Even the kids pitch in.  When we ask them to take something to the trash, they do.

We also have no dining space right now.  Or really a functional kitchen.  So even though this isn't a kitchen remodel, we are having to eat out.  Now we have been trying to be good about this - eating picnic lunches from the grocery store comprised of a deli sandwich, a bag of chips, a fruit bowl, and something sweet to eat) but that actually still costs more than buying individual ingredients for those things and then making them yourself.

And this is the only toy in the house.  Short-sighted, perhaps, but we needed the floor space for the demo.  The only reason this thing is in the house is because it was stuck somehow in the couch.  (Most toys fall through and we find them under the couch.)  When the demo guy moved the couch, this little guy popped out.

It is now the favorite toy of the children.  They fight over "the car" constantly.  They do have about a thousand of these in the garage, but we can't easily get to them.  There are materials and tools and saws and blades in the way now.  Not a great environment to go hotwheels hunting.

Keep in mind that the project was supposed to be done in one week.  We are pushing day 9 of the project when this even starts.  So, nerves are probably thin.  But I don't think we are overreacting to what I am about to tell and show you.  We are just, reacting.  Calmly and rationally.  Like adults.  I have not pounded my fists, pouted, pulled my hair out, screamed, cursed, or flat out punched anyone in this story.  Just FYI.

The demo guys were, as the head guy called them, "rhinos."  Okay.  No worries.  They're demo guys.  I don't expect the Moscow ballet.  They asked me if I would mind if they played some music while they worked.  The other workmen had done the same thing, so I thought it wouldn't be an issue.  Of course I said, go ahead.  They warned me that they like hard core gangster rap, and I said that nothing really offended me, so whatever they wanted.

I guess I should have added the qualified that I would like it to not be so loud that I couldn't think straight while trying to work in my home office.  Or that I would feel more comfortable if they didn't sing along at the top of their lungs to each of the more vulgar stanzas.  Or that it would maybe endear them to me more if they avoided the songs where "we be killing them b@#%$es."  Um, okay.  It was weird to me how oppressed I started to feel.  How very unwelcome and even unwanted I was in my own home.  In my own work space.  And, truth be told, the songs I think are stupid, but they don't really offend me.  It's the clear idolization and karaoke of them that became more . . . threatening.

To be fair, in their direct dealings with me, all four of the workers were very respectful.  It's just that they seemed unaware that their actions would affect someone out of their visual range.

At any rate, I felt so oppressed, I only got a few images of the progress.  For the first time in this project, I didn't ask them if I could photograph them working (albeit anonymously represented) and just grabbed images when I didn't think they were nearby.

I grabbed this from my office.  The carpet came up pretty quickly, as expected, and this is the very worn and tired carpet pad.

I didn't get any other images of the bare floor as I stayed mostly to myself and then actually left the condo to go and get lunch anywhere but in my home.  This is some of the cork that was laid down for sound control.  I haven't the slightest idea why they would cut out the cork around the old newel.  If we wanted the floor to go around it, wouldn't we have left it in?  We caught this on one of the rare occasions when we poked our heads out and SPF told them that wasn't necessary.  They didn't fix this one, but they also didn't cut out the other, so I guess that's a half win?

They didn't really finish things that would take a tiny bit more work.  (This, by the way, after they arrived almost an hour late (and their original start time was already an hour after what everyone else started at . . .) and decided that they didn't want to do any more work for the day.  It was 1:41 pm.  I looked.)  This section was where some of that old brown tile was, so it needs to be built up to be level with the other areas of the floor.

The bulk of the floor actually looks okay and the cork is down, but they pretty much said, well, we've done what we can do for today and vacuumed very little and then put a few of our things back in the house (like the couch) but didn't really put things in a way that would make them livable.  And while doing this, one of them started screaming out our balcony window at a woman across the street.  Apparently she had left either her house door or car door slightly ajar and he believed he was trying to help.  When the head guy (I really don't know if he was the boss or not) asked him what the hell he was doing in a loud, hoarse, panicked whisper, he replied "I'm helping b@#$#es."  And then he laughed a sort of pinched, nasal, weasel laugh.  I could feel my cheeks growing red from the fury that was raising my blood pressure.  Honestly, I don't know what kept me from marching out to him and just telling him to get out of my house and not return.  But they left shortly after.  I didn't really sleep that night.

This floor is prepped for the next stage, I believe, because it is concrete and doesn't need the cork.  (It's the ground floor.)  It's just hard to celebrate progress with such an ugly day.

And once they left, we found all the debris all over the house.

These are perhaps the two worst examples, but I am more concerned with the nails, sharp pieces of broken mortar and tile, and old carpet pad that a two year old would step on/eat/pick up/jam in his ear.  It was just a shoddy job.  And our expectations had been set so high by Mike and Travis, who left the house cleaner than when they found it, despite the demo.

Oh, and that top piece has another story, as well.  That top image is their main excuse for not finishing any more work.  It shows the trails and eating habits of the termites.

The termites.

You do realize we are planning on installing hardwood, right?

It is also going to be our next installment - Entryway Closet New Floor and Wall - Day 1.