New Stairs - Day 6

This was a fun day.  This is the day that the "impossible" stairs were created.  This is the day that we were vindicated in asking the stair company to install the stairs because the flooring guys were clearly incompetent.

I started the day off grabbing some extra images of the previous work.  The beautiful work that Travis did laying the stairs.  You can't see it here, but he even managed to maintain the varied length pattern of the wood flooring in the stair treads.  It's really great work.

But this little beauty made our hassle worth while.  You see how the tread wraps around that edge and returns back into it?  That's how it is supposed to be.  That is what the other guy said was impossible.  His exact words were that the flooring piece would be "too small to return" so he was just going to chop it off straight at the riser.  What?!?!?!?  We aren't experts (more so now, maybe) but we knew that wasn't right.  So we fired him.  I can honestly tell you that I have been feeling a little better every day knowing his mistakes aren't going to haunt us.  And this little, beautiful detail will make me happy for a long time to come.

Oh, and each of the stairs in the second run has one.  So that's a lot of impossible work that Travis is doing.  I think one of my favorite things about Travis is that he is humble.  The other guy was so arrogant and clearly not very good or willing to try and problem solve.  He just wanted to get in and out, not caring about doing a good job or not, which made us dislike him even more.  Travis, on the other hand, would never be so narcissistic as to say that a mistake of his was someone else's fault or couldn't be fixed.  He would never let it get that far.  He would see a potential problem a mile out and start trying to find a way to fix it.  Arrogance just proves that there is a lot you don't know but aren't willing to learn.

And here it is.  The floor on the stairs with all the pieces in place.  Not complete, per se, because we still have the staining to do on the custom nosing, but it's really lovely.  And sturdy.  And straight.  And level.

Under the apron and the now completed custom nosing to finished nosing transition there is a finishing piece.  (I was happy with it just as an apron, so seeing this piece made me really happy!)

The edges of the stairs, where there is a gap between the riser and the apron on the stringer now has a little finishing piece as well.  Travis was telling us that flooring guys never do stuff like this.  They just throw some caulk in there and call it quits.  They also wouldn't have used the MDF for the risers, but some sort of other wood that is really hard to repair if it gets dinged. 

The pretty intersection where the apron and the skirt meet as you round the landings.  This one is a pretty standard miter, though well done.

This one, however, is more of a trademark of Travis.  Most guys won't cut this crazy miter (which ends up being something like 117 degrees) because you have to hold it out away from the saw and your fingers get really, really close to the blade.  Most guys (even good stair guys) will have the apron and skirt meet up in a straight down orientation.  So it would come in from the apron, have a 90 turn, and then turn again into the skirt.  I think this looks incredibly elegant.  And I watched him cut it, so I am also very impressed with the level of difficulty of my staircase.  (If only there were stair Olympics . . .)

This is another tricky one.  It ends up being a sort of three dimensional miter, because it has to be cut at two angles at once.  Since that it impossible (I actually trust Travis when he says something is impossible) he cuts it as close as he can and then sands the majolies out of it until it is nice and smooth.  Smooth move, Travis.  Smooth move.

New Stairs - Day 5

After the fiasco of the ordering process from the flooring company, we had to wait a while before the stairs could be installed.  (Not this long, admittedly, I am a bit behind on blogging.)  We had enough of the wood (too much by two boxes, actually) but not enough of the nosing, which had to be reordered so that the stairs could all be done in a matter of a few days back to back rather than getting some of the work done and not the rest of it.  So even though this is technically Day 5 of actual work, it is Day 23 of having no banister.  The kids are starting to get used to it.  And less afraid of it.  So work must be done and sooner rather than later.

Luckily for us, that work was started by Travis and Mike, who, as we all know, do amazing work.

And fast, as it turns out!  By the time I got back from teaching my morning class (I was home by about 11:30) I had already missed a good deal of the work.  But it wasn't a bad thing to walk into the first run of stairs looking as lovely as this.

I was able, however, to capture the guys installing the custom stair nosing that they made to run the length of entryway and repair the work that the flooring guys screwed up.  It's smooth, beautiful work that Mike milled for us based on the wonky specs that they had due to the shift in sizes of the wood that the flooring guy had created.  So over the course of 8' it gets 1" wider.

But you can't really tell.  And it looks amazing.

By the end of the day, they had the first run and both landings completed.  SO PRETTY!

New Floors - Day 9

I suppose life is a mixed bag.  Today was a mixed bag.

On the one hand, nothing bad happened today.  In fact, everything that happened today was good, even if it was a reminder and a resolution of bad things or a revelation of bad things.  (I will explain.)

But first things first.

SPF had to work in Riverside, so I got up early, got the kids up early, and was back at the house by 8:00.  I finished the last little bit of prep just as I heard a light knock at the door.  The carpet guys were prompt, professional, nice, and remarkably efficient.  They were on time, and done by 12:48.

They were so efficient, in fact, that I didn't get any images of the demo except for this discarded piece of old carpet that was sitting outside the master bedroom while they diligently worked inside.  Super awesome.  And it had this sort of "reveal" charm to it when I next saw the bedroom.

This is the new, installed carpet next to that remnant once the doors opened up.  Eeeeeee!  So pretty, and clean, and thick!  SPF and I both thought that the bedroom carpets were in okay shape until we felt the new carpet.  Night and day.

And here it is by the sliding glass door.  It's closer to color in the first shot (shame on me) but I like the cleanness of it.  So amazing.  No issues in the master bedroom.

The kids bedroom, however, had some issues.

 At first, there were no issues, just ripped out the carpet no problem.

And then there was this.  The cracked foundation in the closet of the boys room.  This isn't exactly unexpected as the whole complex shifted down the hill during the landslide, and the building itself has been shored up and solidified with an I-beam, but this was disconcerting none the less.  It's about a foot deep.  This is in a closet so it doesn't bear walking weight, and I'm not worried about the house itself falling down, but this is a potential ingress for water, moisture, bugs, etc.  No fun.  Along with this, though I don't have an image, we found that the wood portion of the floor had separated from the concrete all along the length of the room.  Again, not a safety issue, but a problem anyway.

The good news is that Travis and Mike had come back to look at our flooring fiasco and were on hand to guide us into buying a 2-part concrete epoxy to fill and seal the gaps.  It won't hold the house together, which we don't need (I promise you, the house is solid, there are just remnants left from before it was solid) but it will also keep out the moisture and bugs.  We bought 5 tubes of the stuff.  Travis, the angel that he is, installed it for us.

Once it was completed (about half an hour after discovery) the flooring in the boys room continued.  This is the carpet pad.  Yay!  (I'll get finished pictures to you later.)

And now back to the wood.  After looking at it and trying to hash out why the original installer had shimmed the nosing into place when the apron and the sub floor had both been perfectly level, the guys decided that the only way to fix it was to start fresh.  The took out the baseboard (which was toast anyway) and the nosing along the half wall and the entryway, all the way back to the top of the stairs.

Out of curiousity, Travis checked the level of the floor after he did this.  The level demonstrated that the reasoning we had been told for the shimming was false.  We had been told that the floor "plummeted" towards the front door.  Turns out, it's level.  Not just level enough for government work, but way more level than a floor built in 1975 that has undergone a landslide and been propped up an I-beam has any right to be.  LEVEL level.  So why he shimmed it?  Nobody knows.  I bet poor Travis is still trying to figure this out.

And yet another conundrum.  When the installer put the nosing against the top of the stairs, he didn't make sure the nosing was flush.  At all.  So when the nosing is pushed up against the apron that Travis and Mike put in, which is flush and level, it doesn't match up with the cut the installer made.  This is a big problem.  At this point, we've already lost the nosing along the half wall and the hall edge.  If we had to pull this up as well, we'd be in a situation where we would start a domino effect of ripping out the floor.  The new floor.  Way more of it than we want to be messing with.  So Travis and Mike thought about this and thought about this and Mike said the only thing he could think to do was make a custom stair nosing that would be a bit thicker, fit this awkward hole, and fill the entire length of where the nosing needed to go without the horrible tiny strip of wood I mentioned before.  SOLD!

So here's what I learned today.
1. When you are laying a hardwood floor with a staircase in the middle of it, you lay the stair nosing along the longest edge of the staircase first (after checking for a level floor, duh) and then align your full planks in that direction.  THAT becomes your starting point that is the straight line you use to lay the rest of the floor.  This does two things.  First, it makes sure you have a full plank next to your stair nosing, and second, it makes all of your cuts along the walls, which can be hidden by baseboard.
2.  Good quality craftsmen are not a dime a dozen.
3.  When in doubt, make a new piece of stair nosing that can bridge the gap of the poorly installed wood and get rid of the sliver of wood that accentuates the loss of 1" of straight line over an 8' span so that, perceptually, it appears as though the floor was installed correctly even though this is a repair job.
4.  Travis and Mike are superheroes.  With mild-mannered alter egos.  Seriously.  Nicest guys.

And just to pour lemon juice on the wound, if the other installed had just not shimmed the nosing, everything would have fit together perfectly.  That is a board simply lying across the top of the apron (that Travis and Mike installed correctly) and fitting with no additional effort onto the tongue of the remaining wood.

Yep.  This guy created his own problems, and now we are fixing them.  (And recording them.  For all the paperwork we are going to need to get refunded a portion of our expenses here.)

But, I do have carpet in both bedrooms!  You saw the carpet, right?  Pretty, pretty carpet?

New Floors - Day 8 - Part 2

The Install.

Wow.  I apologize in advance if I misspell things.  Fury has a way of making my hands shake.  Admittedly, a lot of the anger is in the stuff I wrote about in the last blog.  But not all. 

No, not all by a long shot.

I am not a flooring expert or installer.  I know this.  I don't claim to be.  But I have learned, over the years of installing our own tile and watching a lot of Scott McGillivray, that you start your flooring on an actual straight line (not a wall, which can be wonky) and you plan to have as large a plank as possible on the edges of both sides, meaning that it would be better to have 4/10ths of a board on two sides than 7/10ths on one side and 1/10th on another.  Or, for that matter, a 1/4" gap between your stair nosing and the next full plank.

That's right, folks.  Preplanning and awesomeness intact, there is what can only be described as a sliver of wood between the full planks and the stair nosing.  The biggest problem with this is that any discrepancies are magnified.

In this case, the width changes between the sliver and the end of the nosing where the shelf wall is because our old house is not square.  We know it isn't square.  That's the way of old houses.  Especially houses that partially slumped during a landslide and were since shored up with an I-beam into the bedrock.  Yep, not square.  But do you have to emphasize it?

And then there's this.  Turns out not only did he not really plan to be sure the FLOOR WOULD BE LEVEL AT THE STAIR NOSING!  LEVEL!!!  Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's something that FLOORS SHOULD BE!  Again, the problem of complete incompetence is compounded by not having a larger section of wood to bridge the gap.  Even though it would have still probably been evident, it wouldn't have that horrible little jog in the baseboard and a 1/4 inch ramp up to the stair nosing.  And then, to top it all off, the installer BLAMED SPF!  SPF DID NOT LAY THE STAIR NOSING!  And the plywood that he did lay was LEVEL TO THE PREVIOUS FLOORING THAT THE INSTALLER LAID! 

Deep breath in two three, out two three.  In two three, out two three.

Sorry for that outburst.  I didn't mean to start screaming.  Which I am, by the way.  Pretty much always right now.  And SPF, who is a significantly better craftsman, gentleman, and human being that the installer corrected him nicely, with the logic I just provided, and said "Make it the best you can."  At which point he, nicely, excused himself from the situation before his head exploded.

That night, I wrote an email to the AMAZING STAIR GUYS (to the rescue, again) and told them the situation.  The next day, they agreed to help us rip out this monstrosity (to which Travis, upon seeing an image, replied "That's just sad.") 

And it is.  But, truthfully, it isn't the saddest part.

This is.  This is the blue tape that the lead installer put down to mark the area where the floor had to be built up with shimming and glue.  That's not the sad part.  I get it, not a square or level house.  Over large areas, I understand there are going to be issues.  No, the sad part is that the tape isn't for us.  Or for our one- and three-year-olds.  No, the tape is for his co-worker, who kept stepping on it just after it was laid.  The head guy initially said, "Dude, be careful over here."  To which his counterpart said, "Oh, yeah."  But he kept stepping on it anyway.  Over and over and over again.  Even after the tape was laid down.  And when, at the height of his own frustration (and clearly seeing SPF's face turning red from fury (he's working literally right next to this area, BTW) the head guy snapped at him, "Dude, stay away from there!"  At which point his counterpart dangled his foot over the marked off area and made wobbly gestures and noises like he was going to fall.  Like a child would do.  Not a teenager or even a boy, but a toddler.  Someone who thinks games are fun when you say "Don't do that, please" and take it as an invitation to do it more.

I honestly don't know how SPF didn't stand up, punch the guy in the face, and say, "This is my home, you get that, right?  My house, where I will be living that you're trying to screw up."  And then demand that he leave.  I don't advocate violence of any kind, but I would really, really, really have liked to punch that guy right in the face.

So I'm angry.  I'm angry because ignorant, sexist, foolish people were sent to my house and they did a mediocre job.  I'm angry that our budget is shot because we are having to order more stair nosing and baseboards on our own dime and hire better people to fix the mistakes of worse people.  I'm angry because this change is transformative.  The space looks amazing and we can't enjoy it because we are slogging up remodel hell mountain.  Where all they had to do was stomp on some wood planks and shove them into place with the tongue and groove system, the house looks great.  (That is what they did, by the way.  Honestly, just dropped a piece of flooring down, and slammed it into place with a shoe, sometimes going back with a hammer and one of those metal wedges that helps encourage the pieces to lock together more tightly.)

But this looks great.  The tile accent is amazing, the baseboards, where installed correctly or at all, look so finished and nice.  Why couldn't they take pride in the more difficult areas of the job and stand behind their work?

Oh, yeah, and in a side conversation SPF mentioned that the stair guys were coming on Friday (this would be last Friday at this point) which is when the carpet people were supposed to come.   We were given strict instructions that no two disciplines should be there at the same time, so we called to move the stair install back to Monday (two days ago).  The floor installer took it upon himself to reschedule the carpet install.  So, unbeknownst to or approved by us, the carpet was delayed a solid week.  They don't even come until tomorrow morning.  No one ever thought to call us and be sure that the flooring installer was correct in his assessment.  Come to think of it, since I paid the down payment, no one has bothered to contact me about anything, or return my calls or emails, and I have to call and call and call and talk to whoever I can get to stay on the line with me. 

So, despite the wishes of the flooring company in regards to multiple disciplines working simultaneously, the carpet is starting tomorrow and Travis and Mike are coming to fix the bad flooring and, hopefully, start the stair install at the same time.  Travis already knows that we won't have all of the stair nosing, but they agreed to come anyway.  I think at this point they feel badly for us. 

I am a bit nervous about the carpet installers, because I was given the impression that the hardwood floor installers were the best of the best that this company had to offer, where the carpet guys were a bit more harsh.  So wish me lots and lots and lots of patience and luck.

New Floors - Day 8 - Part 1

Okay, I spoke to soon. 

Clearly.

I know I haven't checked in for a while, and there's a reason for that.  I haven't been able to stop the stream of obscenities that started on Day 8, which was a week ago tomorrow.  I haven't really gotten a good night's sleep since then, either.  And I have written and rewritten this blog post in my brain about a thousand times so that I can get ready for the Yelp review, the Angie's List post, the BBB complaint.

So.  Many.  Things.  Have.  Gone.  Wrong.

Let's start this shindig off with the beginning of the process.  Consider this whole line of blogs, all seven other, as an in medias res storyline.  Meaning I started somewhere in the middle and am now going to go back to the very beginning.  Back to the day we stepped into the first flooring shop with wide eyes and big ideas.

That day we met a very perky, very friendly sales woman who eagerly showed us around the sales floor and we fell in love with dark, distressed wood and warm, multi-tonality carpet.  We scheduled the in-home flooring measurement right then and there.

A couple of days later, she showed up, measured all the rooms where there was to be hardwood or carpet, chatted away with me as she took notes, counted the stairs, asked if we wanted the carpet to go into the closets, if we wanted the wood in the upstairs closet, if we wanted the flooring to be floating or nailed or glued, if we wanted the tile removed everywhere, or just in front of the fireplace.  I answered all of her questions, we smiled and got more and more excited, she promised a quote soon.

The answers were yes to the carpet in the closets, yes to the wood in the coat closet, glued flooring over cork for noise control (that's what we do for a living.  We are noise consultants!  Noise abatement matters to us and we understand it!)  Yes to the tile removal. 

She informed me right away that the wood could not, by code, go up to the fireplace, that would need to be tile.  No problem!  I assured her.  That actually sounded fun, a nice accent for the space.

A few days later, the first quote came in.  I would paste it here to show you how very vague it was, but I'm not using this blog to make enemies.  Anyway, my opinion of that might be with hind sight.  At the time, it seemed like all the I's were dotted and T's were crossed.

Then, we had our quote with the Stair Guys.  The glorious, wonderful, thank you God for having them in our project, Stair Guys.  Kevin suggested we notch out the stringers, wrap the stairs, and use white MDF instead of wood on wood to get a nice, clean look.  (You can see this part of the story in New Floors - Day 6 - Part 1.) 

After some further discussion with the flooring company, it turns out that the same saleswoman didn't order enough stair nosing.  Or base boards (you read that right, BASEBOARDS.) And ordered bonkers amounts of too much wood.  It seems as though she took part of the first measure (wood stairs with wood facing between the stringers - hence the too much wood) and part of the second measure (some more stair nosings, but not enough stair nosings) and flew off into fairyland (you want baseboards on all your floors?)  Um, freaking yes I do!  She said, "Ok, that's another $400."  Um, no, it isn't.  Because we told you exactly what we wanted and you didn't order it.  After talking with her boss, the owner, I assume, she relayed to me that they would "absorb the cost." 

So, at this point, we have to specialty order new stair nosings, order (and find somewhere to paint?) new baseboards, and find someone to install the new baseboards because the original quote from the subcontractor was only for carpet demo, disposal, and install.  Not for baseboards.

And I haven't even gotten to the actual install yet.  I'm going to need a good editor for my Yelp review.

New Floors - Day 7

If you're a mother, you know that after hours of labor and struggle and pain, everything fades away the second you see that beautiful little face for the first time.

I'm not going to say today was as powerful as that, but I think I probably will remember it for a long time.  I could forgive a lot of the trauma we've been through to see what I saw when I got home from work today.  (I taught a morning class, so I got to see the evolution a bit and I just got happier and happier.)

It's actually starting!  This is the landing at the bottom of the stairs.  Look how beautiful!

After a bit more work, this is what it started to look like.  It is done now, and sitting under some heavy boxes (of more wood) to help the glue set properly.

Upstairs things are going smoothly as well.  Despite our extraordinarily not square house, everything is being installed with nice straight lines.  There will be strange little gaps that will need to be worked on with small little pieces of wood, but so far that work has proven successful.

They laid the straight line first (the third board out) and then fixed in the other boards to follow the crazy wall.  They did a really nice job.

This is a good portion of the living room with a swath of glue for the next portion.  

And the first of the stair nosings!  These are wrapping around the upstairs overlook.  It's starting to look so very polished and finished. 

Here's where we're at right now.  Even our old, saggy couch looks better!  (It is going to get a face lift, after the new door and a little more savings . . . )

Tomorrow, they will come back and install the rest of the flooring and the baseboards.  On Friday, the stair guy comes in to lay the wood on the stairs.  Then I have the awkward conversation with the flooring company about when they are going to come out and do the carpet.  After that is all done, I will call the stair guys back for the new banister.  Eeeeeeeeee!!!  We will then be able to officially record that our one week floor remodel project took three weeks.  (Here's hoping.)

New Floors - Day 6 - Part 3

Well, if there is one silver lining to finding the termite damage and delaying the project, it's that I had the opportunity to paint all of our new baseboards.  It was in the fine print of the contract that they will install the baseboards, but not paint them.  So when the demo guys were done for the day, they ran to Home Depot and picked up the baseboards and brought them back to us.

So, now I had this wide open space, a bucket of paint, some new paint brushes, and 12 baseboards to paint semi-gloss white.

So I laid them out on the new cork (which I was assured wouldn't hurt the cork or the final wood install) and I painted them one at a time, pulling the next one in and shoving it as far over as I could.  I did this in the early afternoon so that they would be dry by the time the kids got home.

New painting supplies.

Unpainted boards.

Painted boards!  Because it was clearly that fast a process.  Yep.  One, two, three, done!

Honestly, it only took me an hour and forty five minutes.  My knees and ankles are sore, but they were coated with the first coat of paint.  The real pain was having to do it again after the kids went to sleep.  It was another hour and forty five for the second coat, as well.  But they are done and ready to be installed!  (And they look really pretty.)  :)

New Floors - Day 6 - Part 2

Okay, so that last post was about conversations and the icky parts of doing business.  But now let's get to the part where we end up fixing some things ourselves.

The sort of accent wall in our stairwell had horrible white tile on it that we ripped out.  What we found underneath was a piece of drywall.  The demo guys didn't pull this out.  The logic was "since no one is going to walk on it, it doesn't really matter if it is plywood or not."  We've been getting stuff like that a lot with these guys.  The "don't worry about it, I'm a professional," answer.  But we do worry.  And we are paying a lot.  And we are smart.  And SPF continued to think this wasn't the best solution to this area.

When Chris the handyman was here fixing the first of what I'm sure will be many projects for us (we have already slated him to replace the front door once it goes through the HOA process) SPF asked him if that was okay.

Chris looked sideways at him and said, "What are they going to glue the wood to?  Drywall paper?"

Huh.  Yeah, that doesn't sound good.  Actually, that sounds bad.  Like, the cat will jump up on it and it will come crashing down ruining our stairs, the stair nosing, maybe the cat . . . so we ripped it out.

Okay, so this is the wall with the old piece of drywall still mostly intact.

When SPF pulled the drywall off, unfortunately the new apron came off as well.  It was glued to the corner bead of the drywall, which really did need to come out, so we will have to put it back later.  I think it's okay, though, because it will be easier to fix the other part without have to work around the apron.  After he ripped it out, SPF measured and cut new plywood strips (that Chris just happened to have in his truck, so he gave it to us) and then put down liquid nails to secure it in place.

In went the new plywood.  Because he already had out the saw, extra plywood, and liquid nails, SPF proceeded to install plywood in all of the places that had been left untouched by the first day crew.  We have exceptional confidence in those areas now.  It isn't that we don't have some confidence in the other areas, but the attitude of "eh, it's good enough" isn't really how we work.  And we would rather that the people we work with don't have that attitude either.

New Floors - Day 6 - Part 1

Day 6 of the new floor project is mostly frustration mixed with fighting mixed with changing installers mixed with doing things right ourselves.

It's a long story, but I will try and narrow it. 

You all know what happened on demo day, but what I didn't mention were the conversations about the stair install and the accent wall "shelf" that follows the entry way. 

First, the stair install.  When we originally spoke with the flooring people, we had asked for wood stairs with wood risers between our stringers.  Then we met Kevin, the guy who quoted us the stair alteration, and he had such amazing ideas about notching out the stringers and wrapping the stair nosing around the walls so that they would be visually interesting.  He also had some beautiful images of dark wood stairs with white risers, which is what SPF had always wanted, and I immediately conceded that it was a gorgeous look. 

So, like good consumers, we called the flooring company and asked for them to come out, remeasure, and re-quote based on the new criteria.  Which they did.  We thought.

When the installer was talking to us about the problems he was going to have wrapping the stairs, we couldn't understand what he meant.  We had Googled "stair nose returns" and made sure we were speaking in the same language.  We sent pictures to the flooring company explaining what we wanted.  We were told they couldn't do it.  (This isn't a specialized install, by the way, this is the standard way that things are done with stairs in this fashion!)

I felt an ulcer growing and went to bed.  I can handle some things like a champion, but for some reason this sent me over the edge.  SPF, thankfully, assured me that he could take care of it the next day and that all would be well.

I was in a professional development training all morning, panicking constantly that he would get in a fist fight over the install.  The night before he had told me, "This is our house.  We have to live here and I will do what it takes to get it done right."

That involved, it seems, a rather snarky conversation with the woman who sold us our stairs, her argument was "There were miscommunications on both sides," to which SPF replied, "Google 'stair nose returns'.  This is what people expect."  Apparently the conversation wasn't terribly cordial and he ended the conversation asking for a credit for the stair install.  This he did before he had confirmed that the stair guys (who you know we love) would be able to do the wood install as well.  If I had known this, I would have been escorted out of my 300 person professional development meeting by men in white coats.  Luckily, before I was aware of the full situation, he had contacted Kevin, who, albeit reluctantly, agreed to send one of his guys to do the wood install on the stairs. 

SPF said Kevin sympathized with our position once explained.  "That's floor guys, for you!" he laughed.

So now the stairs are being pushed back so that the original installers can finish the standard wood laying and the stair guy can be on his own on Friday to do the stair install.

The sad thing is, when we spoke to the actual installer today, he said he could have easily done what we were asking for, but what had been explained to him was that wood risers would still be used, and he would have to rough cut those edges.  We didn't understand what he was trying to tell us.  What I'm wondering now is if we ordered boatloads too much wood.  Because each of those stair fronts is actually going to be a white, MDF riser.  Hmmmmmm.

Entryway Closet New Floor and Wall - Day 2

Although they were a tiny bit late, Handyman Chris and his brother, Mike, arrived and started working on the tiny closet with the huge problem.

They started by removing more of the wood and wall so that they could really see what was going on and where the damage started and ended. 

That driftwood looking piece of material in the middle there is supposed to be supporting the whole frame.  It has been decimated by water and termites.  It isn't even wood anymore.  I don't think we could even call it splinters.  It was just . . . gone.

After they cleared out the bad stuff, they sprayed everything down with a product intended to stop any further water damage and seal off the stuff that is no good.  It might even protect against termites?  Maybe I dreamed that.

They sistered the joists with heavy, pressure treated wood and replaced the formerly driftwood section of the frame.  SPF then put some new plywood down so that the flooring guys could return and work on their cork in the closet.

Here is a better image of the new treated wood, which I am very comfortable with.  Luckily, the damage seemed to stop before it went under our wall and into the neighbor's unit.  I really don't know what would have happened then, but I'm pretty sure the project would have been delayed by a few days to seven years.

That light sneaking through from the left is our new project.  Pretty much as soon as we can muster paying off the stairs (come on shareholder distribution!) we have to replace this puppy.  Not only can you see through it when closed, it was the original problem.  When it was built, in order to raise the door's threshold a little, the builders used particle board.  I'm sorry, did I say particle board?  I meant SPONGE BOARD.  So every little bit of water that kicked up was sucked straight into the board and distributed, plentifully, for the thriving termites.

So now, new door.

Entryway Closet New Floor and Wall - Day 1

Yeah, so once we found the termite damage and the workers stopped for the day, we called the number provided to us from the flooring company of a "handyman" that they frequently use.  He should, they told us, be able to figure out what to do next.

 So, this is the telltale starting point.  The damaged wood with the termite trails.

This is the floor beneath that wood.  It appears water damaged, as well, though it doesn't extend far, and the wood itself is fairly solid towards the door, but less so as you press on it moving into the closet. 

Really less so.  It's basically gone.  The handyman, a hilarious, stocky guy who crumbled a bit of the wood in his hand, told us it was basically "returned to dust."  Poetic, true, but not what I ever wanted to hear about my subfloor!

He decided to call his grandfather, an A and B class contractor (apparently that means he can build a doghouse all the way up through a skyscraper.)  So after some brief discussion, Chris, the handyman, asked if he could cut open the wall to see what was happening.  We, of course, agreed, and he took out a good chunk of floor and wall.

 At which point it became painstakingly clear that framing was compromised.  On the outer wall. 

This is him pushing his hand through the wall and shredding the "wood" there to splinters. 

The good news?  The termite damage is from a long departed/deceased colony, so we don't have to get anything treated or tented.  We just need to repair the framing on the outer wall.

"Sure.  No big deal," I think, seriously losing blood to my apendages.

"Nope."  He says. 

"Nope?  Nope it's not a big deal, or nope, it can't be fixed and we're screwed?"

"Nope, it's not a big deal."  He assures SPF and I he will be back in the morning with the appropriate tools and materials and he'll be able to fix it in half a day.  The blood started to return to my limbs, I think, but I'll know more in a week or two when the project is done.

This does, of course, push the flooring back at least one more day.