Yesterday (Tuesday) I got an email from a young and very pregnant laywer in the office:
Do you know of any painters or plaster experts that you can recommend? I have gotten myself into a real pickle. I live in an old house and the dining room had many layers of old wallpaper on the ceiling. My husband tackled the job of scraping, which is done, but it is a much bigger job than we ever imagined. The ceiling isn’t flat and someone has told us that we need a “skim coat†of plaster or something on the ceiling before it can be painted. My problem is that I am giving a party next weekend so I need to get this done ASAP. We’ve made a bunch of calls to people already and are having a very hard time finding someone who can do it. I’m willing to pay a premium at this point to get it done on time. Do you have any ideas/references?
“Put your creed in your deed.” Emerson
“When asked if you can do something, tell’em “Why certainly I can”, then get busy and find a way to do it.” T. Roosevelt
Replies
Hey....with a name like FastEddie, ya gotta expect these things. LOL
Come on. You were sitting around waiting for this call weren't you? ; )
Democrats.
The other white meat.
Let's see.........
You're "Fast Eddie".
She's pregnant.
Dang, that sure sounds fishy for some reason.
(-:
87782.3 in reply to 87782.1 "Let's see.........You're "Fast Eddie".She's pregnant."And probably a little disappointed, him being fast and all. :)
It's not clear what the problem is with the ceiling. Certainly it can be painted regardless of the condition. A skim coat would help if it was torn up by wallpaper scraping, but I would think that just some spot patching would suffice if a flat (or perhaps lightly textured) paint is used.
A pre-mixed spackle like Zinnser "Ready-Patch" is good for the spot patching, and quite easy to use.
What's the issue?
Sounds like:
spot patch
Skim coat
Prime
Paint
With a time limit and a pay extra to move to the top of the list.
Run with it...
don't piss of a pregnant women...
We had a string of them last year, 6 in a row.
I learned fast and hard to keep them happy.
trust me
for your own sake
I had one a couple years back. She got PG about the same time we got the permit, and delivered shortly before moving in. So on top of the normal last minute stuff, we had to deal with a hyperdrive nesting instinct and a sudden switch to post-partum yuckies.
One day after hitting me with a LIST, as I sucked in my breathe, she realized herself, and said just ignore me, I'm all full of hormones right now.
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I had a string of them all getting ready to pop out the child in a matter of weeks, maybe 2 months, and they all wanted their project finished prior to the baby coming home...
Basements, bathrooms, kitchens, etc..... telling a women she can't have what she wants is bad enough, with one in the oven it's even worse.
Now I use it as a sales point to preg. women... "I can give you the number of at least 6 other women we worked for while they were pregnant" ;)
I did a job last spring , remodel of new to the owners house. 6 weeks to gut the kitchen, add windows, re-roof, paint inside and out, remodel lower floor plan to suit new owners.
Tear out carpet , new hardwood finish in place floor, all new bath fixtures, replace tub with new one, tile floor.
Twins , high risk pregancy , beat the kids out the door by less than a week. Haven't been able to work since, case of nerves the doc says. ;-)
"I can give you the number of at least 6 other women we worked for while they were pregnant"
I laughed out loud when I read that one. Great line.
For some reason, when I saw this thread I thought of Robin Williams in the "Patch Adams" movie. There was one line in the movie where he was showing some guys around the hospital and said something like:
"Let's go down to the OB ward - We KNOW those girls put out"
(-:
Am I getting older, or is the music they play in elevators getting better?
pregnant laywer in the office
Hmm, sounds like a potential bit of misery on three counts. Uhm, four, no, Five; yes, Five counts.
1. Pregnant
2. Lawyer
3. You've been singled out as the "construction guy" in the office.
4. Since you are "family" (in the same office), you'll naturally give a price break, too.
5. Oh, you have less than a week to level a plastered ceiling (and any undiscovered uh-ohs) and paint it to suit a pregnant lawyer from the same office before said worthy gives a party (so it can't smell of paint or plaster).
I'd be running a fever, think it's the flu; here, you're pregnant, I'll jsut move over here in case it's contagious . . .
Cap'n has a good grip on the situation. The lawyer actually sent it to three of us in the office, desperately looking for help.
I was amused by the short time frame and the fact that DH acknowledged it was too much for him.
Someione else solved the problem for her."Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Go kiss that person and send an invitation to dinner as a reward for taking this off your shoulders
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I was amused by the short time frame and the fact that DH acknowledged it was too much for him.
My initial suspicion was that was the primary thing you were sharing with us. (Shoot, y'don't need a carpenter, anybody c'n swing a hammer, they do it on them shows alla time . . . )
That is until the horror of a preggers lawyer expecting family discounts at warp speeds kicked in . . . <G>
Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Someione else solved the problem for her.
Good, now I don't have to duck-n-run after offering the "ideal" answer--popcorn the ceiling . . . <g> On one day, dry the next, cash check quick.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Someione else solved the problem for her.
OK, so please tell us what the other person found as a fix that the preg. JD found to be a good solution.
Somebody in the office new a plasterer who could fit her into his schedule. maybe I'll hear more next week after the party."Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
That will be interesting since plaster needs thirty days cure time before paint.Maybe they have Campbell's Condensed Plaster in a can and Reader's Digest Condensed paint...;)
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
"That will be interesting since plaster needs thirty days cure time before paint."that peaked my curiosity.aren't frescoes painted on wet plaster?
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter WFR
"But when you're a kibbutzer and have no responsibility to decide the facts and apply the law, you can reach any conclusion you want because it doesn't matter." SHG
Dunno.
I've never done a frescoe
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""Affresco ( In English usage, “fresco” ). Painting done on freshly laid wet plaster with pigments dissolved in lime water. As both dry they become completely integrated. Known as “true” fresco, this technique was most popular from the late thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries. The common assumption that all mural painting is fresco painting is an erroneous idea. It is true that one can in fact paint on fresh plaster, or intonaco, to make a painting in affresco or a fresco. In true fresco the artist must start applying his colors on the wet (or fresco) intonaco as soon as it has been prepared and laid on the wall. The colors can thus be absorbed by the wet plaster. When it dries and hardens, the colors become one with plaster. Technically speaking the plaster does not “dry” but rather a chemical reaction occurs in which calcium carbonate is formed as a result of carbon dioxide from the air combining with the calcium hydrate in the wet plaster.""
I knew an artist who did frescos--he said he used marble dust in the plaster. Seems like it would be an expensive and time consuming process--make a mistake or let the plaster dry out before you get the paint on and you scrape that part off and do it again.
The time constrains reminds me of jobs where I agree to do it, then the owner springs on me--"Oh, by the way, I'm having a party Friday and this needs ro be done before that." (Told to me when I was painting supposedly just the living room and dining room ceilings in a house and started on a Tuesday, just after they added the master bedroom and the hallway ceilings. They had masked (which I don't bother with), but hadn't moved any furniture.) Turns out I had more than enough time.
Another one I was putting in new wall sconces in a bathroom after the husband couldn't do it and had assured the wife he could--after they had hired someone to put up new wallpaper. After I finished, I found out the previous lights had been wired in series and I had just hooked the new ones to the old wires (I had made it clear to them that I am not an electrician). As we're looking at the one bright light and the other dimmer light and I'm scratching my head, the wife informs me they are having a party that night and need this done for that. I suggested she put different wattage bulbs in and call it good and then hire an electrician.
Edited 3/29/2007 2:18 pm ET by Danno
Sounds more like an episode of Boston Legal rather than TOH. Where does the midget come in to this?
Cigars and brandy when you're through?...The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it. -Mark Twain...
Be kind to your children....they will choose your nursing home.
...aim low boys, they're ridin' shetland ponies !!
Being that what I get paid for is building theater scenery... how about something very tempory. Just off the top of my head - luan and 1x "trim" nailed up and painted? A fake coffered ceiling?
Phat
I remember back in the day, when everything was shiny new. Now, instead of being polished, it just kinda chafes.
I was thinking thumbtacks and a sheet!;)Sereiously, I have pulled off stuff like this before, schedule wise, but not with a PG woman living in th e same house.This is plaster not SR, so all the asbestos, lead, and dust issues add to my worries
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Phat's got a good idea. Here's one I saw in a home magazine. Tell her to buy X yards of any fabric she likes, get it sewn into a rectangle large enough to fit the ceiling and then drap it like a sultan's tent. I did this for a client who had the same problem with an old lath and plaster ceiling in her bedroom. She loved it. Can't see why it wouldn't work in a dining room for one night. Quick fix.
There was a restaurant in my town that used fabric on the ceilings--hung it so it draped into sort of half-tubes (like parallel waves) as it went across the ceiling and they put lights where the fabric haung down--looked pretty good, actually.
wonder if D-Mix would work?
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter WFR
"But when you're a kibbutzer and have no responsibility to decide the facts and apply the law, you can reach any conclusion you want because it doesn't matter." SHG
No need to sew -- just fold the cut ends under and staple.But fabric can be pretty expensive, and you need enough that you won't find it on the roll ends discount table. Not a cheap "quick fix".
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
staple. But fabric can be pretty expensive, and you need enough
I'm having an incomplete memory moment from one of those half-hour shows and the silly girl had squares cut from about 20 bushels of thrift store jeans, swingline stapled to an entire wall . . .
That made for an odd mental image on the ceiling . . . <g>Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Sounds like a job the dmix.
Better grab a cup of coffee.
blue
"...
keep looking for customers who want to hire YOU.. all the rest are looking for commodities.. are you a commodity ?... if you get sucked into "free estimates" and "soliciting bids"... then you are a commodity... if your operation is set up to compete as a commodity, then have at it..... but be prepared to keep your margins low and your overhead high...."
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