Well Enough Alone: Denise’s Wall

It took me a few days to get outside with a mallet and chisel, and when I took down the frame, I found this.

Not too bad, but the inside had some issues.  Remember, I had run out of wood and was filling in with Styrofoam left over from some Adirondack chair packaging. But the real flaw was that one side didn’t quite cover the concrete pad that had been there before.


So I rebuilt part of the frame, mixed up some more cement, and a few days later had something marginally better.  I think it will only get worse if I play with it much longer, and I’m ready to move on!


Right above that area, I planted a little veggie garden, with Kyla’s tireless help.  And by that I mean “help”.  Sigh.  Later, I will editorialize about my latest motto: No good parenting goes unpunished.

Dwayne’s Not the Only Wall Builder!

After a dump run, we only had a few scraps of wood to build a frame for a small concrete retaining wall I wanted to build around an outdoor faucet we have.
I’d actually like to blame the lack of supplies on the handy work, but I could have all of McLendon’s at my disposal and still would have created something similar to this Frankenstein-ian frame.


I’ve never built a frame (um, clearly) or used concrete before, but Dwayne can’t have all the fun.  This is my two-wall frame.


And here it is filled with concrete.  I hope to blog tomorrow about how it turned out!  Actually, I hope to blog tomorrow that it did turn out.

(Kyla decorated the blocks with chalk for a more appealing construction site.)

But no matter how well my little project turns out, it won’t be able to hold its head up high at a party with Dwayne’s latest (and on-going) projects. He did all but four bricks of this today.  He’s building a wall down on part of our garden and then following a set stairs next to it.

Dining Room Ceiling Finale

This is our ceiling before Christmas when the branch harpooned our dining room ceiling.  I had the usual hassle, grief, and multiple phone calls using a roofing service different than my usual, but eventually the roof was fixed to my satisfaction.  Then I gave myself the excuse of “letting the hole dry” so I could procrastinate a little bit.



But then Christmas was coming quickly and we were hosting.  It seemed like poor hospitality to have a hole about our guests during dinner time.  And besides, I love doing these sort of projects.  Unlike parenting, it was fast, uncomplicated, and I did a pretty good job. 

Can you tell where the patch is?
Excellent.

Ghosts of Home Repairs Past

We’ve had lots of problems with our roof since we moved in 8 1/2 years ago.  My first (but not only) mistake was hiring this guy on a neighbor’s recommendation.  He’s #1 on the list of bad Seattle contractors, though he didn’t make it onto the worst it the nation. It’s been fun running into his mugshot occasionally, most recently on Angie’s List of Worst Contractors.

We’re lucky—we only lost about $5000 to this guy and still had a leaky roof.  Could have been worse.  (Since then, I’ve found a roofer I would recommend to anyone. And another one I won’t let touch my roof again.  Let me know if you want names!)

 

Worst Seattle Contractors of 2010

Date Published: December 21 2010
Home Curb Appeal | Covington, Wash.

John Mulinski, owner of Covington-based Home Curb Appeal, faces up to 10 years in prison following his September arrest on 15 counts of felony theft. King County Sheriff investigators say Mulinski bilked homeowners, subcontractors and a business owner out of more than $1 million. No trial date has been set.
According to court records, Mulinski allegedly contracted with homeowners — and a restaurant owner in 2010 — for large-scale remodeling projects in Woodinville, Chelan and Bellevue that he didn’t complete, and he failed to pay subcontractors.
In June, deputies arrested Mulinski on three misdemeanor counts of unlicensed contracting. Two months prior, Mulinski admitted to violating consumer protection laws and agreed to pay consumers restitution and more than $12,000 in penalties.
“The guy is absolutely a thief,” says subcontractor Chris McIlrath, owner of AA Plumbing in Everett, Wash.
The state revoked his contractor registration in 2009 following numerous civil complaints. “We take these cases very seriously,” says Dan Donohoe, press secretary for the King County prosecutor’s office.
Mulinski, who’s released on bond, also faces 13 misdemeanor charges in California. His phone numbers are disconnected and his defense attorney could not be reached.

Funny Story Not About the Kids

[This is long because I am wordy.]
Because of the dire predictions of a really cold winter, Dwayne thought it would be a good idea to make sure our upstairs fireplace is in working condition.  Since we haven’t used it in the 7 1/2 years we’ve lived here, it seemed like a good idea to have it cleaned and inspected.  We knew the exterior was fine because had had it complete resurfaced in Spring 2007, when Dwayne noticed that bits of brick had fallen from the chimney.  We had it looked at and decided upon a company that did all things chimney, including resurfacing.  We chose the brick to go with the patio and retaining walls we had built the year before and one week and $7000, we had a new-looking chimney.
Before:                                                           After:
         
Pretty nice, huh?  (Again, all style and vision credit goes to Dwayne.)


We needed to make sure the chimney interior was as good as the exterior.  I researched my usual 5 best fits from Angie’s List, called 4 of them, and got inspection appointments with three of them.
Company A came out, thought the damper was still in decent working order, just needing a bolt to fix it. Then Company A climbed up on the roof to take a look outside and found that the crown and caps had been done incorrectly and needed to be redone.
Company B came out and decided the damper needed to be replaced and he swept the chimney. Then he climbed up to take a look and found the that crown and caps had been done incorrectly and needed to be redone.
Company C came out and decided the damper needed to be replaced, and a few interior cracks should be filled in. Then he climbed up on the roof and found the that crown and caps had been done incorrectly and needed to be redone. Then he took me out the the front deck so he could show me everything that had been done wrong on the entire chimney as well as the crown.
By this time, I am hating this whole process. I felt so stupid for not knowing that the top of the chimney had been been done so badly. What kind of estate steward am I? I should have learned all about chimneys and crowns and gone up a ladder myself (with a 6 month old) to make sure the work had been done correctly back in '07 and...and...well, I had failed my duties.
Company C was still going on about how poorly the dry stack had been done and how unsound that process was---can you just hear the blah, blah, blah? He asked me a few times who had done the work and I couldn't remember, of course. But finally I went down to the office and grabbed my chimney folder. And guess who had done the entire chimney resurfacing, crown and cap work 2 1/2 years ago?
Company C.
By this time, he had taken pictures so he could show his boss.  After I showed him the paperwork, he stepped outside to call his boss.  In private. 
Boss is coming out this week to take a look.  If it stays interesting, I’ll update.