Done! ….the best Christmas present!

It was supposed to be a typical Master bath gut and remodel.

I’ve done this so many times, it should’ve been a cake walk. Not to mention, it was for the daughter of one of my best clients.

She works full time and is raising two wonderful kids by herself who are just starting college.

I worked on her parent’s kitchen, replaced their deck and remodeled all three of their bathrooms. They came out really nice and we finished on time.

Very nice family…Excellent reference and a great client to work for.

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But this small bathroom took forever to finish.

We signed the contract Feb. 2nd …..that’s right, almost a year ago.

Right from the start, we opened up the walls and found all kinds of issues. Nothing new really, we are surprised if we don’t find something wrong or at least a bees nest or a few dead mice.

The electrical was a disaster. We had to rip it out and replace two cheap recessed cans, the  toy ceiling fan and install two GFI outlets to code.

The 2 ft. deep, blown in insulation in the hot attic made that job fun.

The plumbing must have been installed by a carpenter, wanna be plumber. Everything was replaced.

The original plumber butchered the 14 ft. 2×10 joist in half to make room for the drain assembly.

The bathroom was remodeled back in the mid 80s.

Pre cast shower wall panels, brass shower door, semi transparent glass, black and white tiled floor, a white melamine vanity with a cabinet sitting on the 42″ one piece counter top

…. Yep, that was the style back then.

There was a seat in the shower that pushed the shower door towards the toilet and made it difficult to enter.

We discovered an old door opening in the walls too. Apparently, this used to be a Jack and Jill bathroom. The framing was sloppy and had to be reworked, several protruding studs were shaved flat.

We weren’t even planning on opening this wall until we saw the bad electrical and plumbing.

We also discovered there was no insulation in the outside wall. They removed it and didn’t replace it.

No wonder that shower seat was cold in the winter!

The walls were full of drywall cutoffs and demo debris, never understood why someone would do that.

The sub floor had to be replaced. The 1/4″ underlayment was glued down and crown stapled every 2 inches.

What a mess.

At 57, I’m getting too old to do these bathrooms myself, like a lead carpenter with a crew. It’s hard work.

I love being in the middle of it, tool belts an all, but the body says it’s time to hang it up.

It’s a never ending argument, and the body usually wins.

That’s why I have Mariano, a Mexican tile contractor (who has 8 – 30+ cousins) that will lay the durock, level floors, pour the shower curb, replace sub floors, hang drywall – anything, and he’s a 5th generation tile man.

But, just as we finished the demo, he called and said he couldn’t get to the job for another month because the job he was on just tripled in size.

My other tile man moved and there was no way I was going to bring a stranger in here at the last minute.

I can do this myself, I said. here we go.

And that’s where Randy comes in….. my other project.

Randy has worked off and on for me for over 8 years. He helps me maintain my large gardens and koi ponds, work on my house and Halloween displays, cleans the shop and occasionally, helps on the jobsites, if needed.

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I’m sure everyone knows a guy like Randy.

A good soul but a walking train wreck in every way.

40 years old, lives with his mom in a trailer, no DL, alcoholic but has slowed his drinking because he’s broke, can’t give him tools ’cause he’ll pawn them for a dime bag and a 40, skull tattoos on every arm and leg from 9 years of prison for stabbing a guy in a fight when he was 19.

He’s loud – you can hear him laugh on the other side of the jobsite, I try to keep him away from the clients but to be honest, he’s polite and even charming, clean, a true gentleman when he has to be. He’s a likable guy and for some reason, I have a soft spot for him…. He’s my friend.

He’s fun to work with and a hard worker – when he’s doing what he wants – how he wants, but this tiny bathroom was too small and got the best of him.

We gutted the bathroom and discovered all the problems which pissed him off. It was that glued down floor that did him in.

He walked off the job and left me to finish it….. some friend.

I made a few phone calls to find some help but to no avail. In these situations, I find the best thing to do is do is ….

Quit lookin’ at it. Just get it done and don’t stop till it’s done.

The small bathroom job didn’t feel like it was that big a deal anyway. After all, the demo was already done.

So, I decided I will finish this job myself, even if it kills me.

I finished the shower tile quickly and was pleased the way it came out…. Mariano would approve. She loved it.

Dan, the glass man did a nice job hanging the 3/8″ glass door, the shower was done, We set up the old sink and vanity and hung the medicine cabinet temporarily while I built the custom cherry vanity.

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The Vanity

I wanted to keep the contract price low and give this client the very best deal possible.

She would purchase the vanity, granite c top, sink, plumbing fixtures, mirror, medicine cabinet, towel bars and cabinet pulls.

This avoided paperwork and was supposed to make it simpler.

But,….. She decided to buy a 40″ white porcelain farmer’s style, wall mounted sink which wasn’t designed to sit on a standard cabinet in the corner.

She couldn’t even find a 40″ wide cherry cabinet, much less find a matching framed mirror and inset medicine cabinet.

So, I offered to build it for her. How hard can it be? I can do it all, right?

I picked up the cherry and prefinished maple plywood for the vanity but, I waited to start until I had the sink she ordered to see how it sat on top.

Good thing as it completely changed the design and drawer layout.

The maple cabinet case went together easy. I added 1/4″ cherry plywood and 1×2 1/2 solid cherry stiles to create the recessed panel on the side.

The cherry face frame is attached with biscuits and it sits on 4″ square feet. You can’t see it but I built a 4″ toe kick base just behind the feet so stuff doesn’t roll under the cabinet.

Despite the nasty demolition, added framing, drywall, electrical and plumbing, …. I’m on a roll.

The cabinet’s built, face frame is on, dovetail drawers are made, all that’s left is to make the 2 mission style recessed doors and drawer fronts and finish it.

But, … I guess life had other plans:

I built the recessed panel doors and drawer fronts and had them assembled in record time. piece a cake.

After sanding and drilling the hinge cups, I quickly cleaned the shop and set up a spray booth.

I applied the stain, let it dry and sprayed two coats of oil base poly but the finish sagged on the sides and took forever to dry like I’ve never experienced before

…. as if the varnish was bad.

I had to gently scrape off the excess on the back edge and wait for it to dry before I could sand it down. I bought new varnish and re sprayed them. They came out OK but I can still see the sag a little…grrrr.

More sanding and another coat.

But, when I tried to install the doors and drawer fronts …… I suddenly realized, during assembly I switched the 2 door rails with the two drawer rails. The doors were ¾” too wide and the drawer fronts were ¾” too narrow.

I could’ve died, right then and there.

I felt like I was gonna hurl. All that work for nothing. I didn’t hang the doors and double check the fit before I stained it…Geeez.

And, I didn’t have enough matching cherry to rebuild them and the hardwood store is two hrs. away.

It completely took the wind out of my sail.

I was already beat, working by myself, so far behind, so many distractions like spring gardening, opening the pool, starting seeds, finishing my own cherry kitchen, etc.

I couldn’t even look at those doors…..threw them in the trash. I didn’t even care about the scrap.

On the way to buy more wood…..

I ran in to the back of a dump truck with its gate down going about 5 mph in stop and go traffic.

It took out my van’s hood, grill, both fenders, windshield, radiator, and head lights. I was without a work truck for a month.

Also, we were having major issues with the painter’s new crew on another jobsite. I had to stop everything and spend over a week finishing the job. It was a simple bedroom paint job. We hired them so I wouldn’t be distracted from finishing this cabinet.

It was for a very good client and of course, the project grew into a week’s worth of Honey – do projects and I certainly couldn’t say no.

The vanity can wait.

Then,…… my new strawberry patch was being attacked by chipmunks! I had to build a cedar 20 x 6 ft. strawberry bin, ASAP!

Then ……we lost a huge silver maple next to my house during a storm. The fence had to be fixed right away. We were out of power for almost a week. So I bought a house generator – that had to be installed.

The sump pump failed, 4 motion sensor lights had to be replaced, the pool solar panel sprang a leak, The pool pump had to be replaced, a new tree installed, replaced wife’s car, a new koi pond liner,

….. it was one thing after another.

And the cherry cabinets I started for my own kitchen were sitting on my work bench, begging me to finish them.

Then,…. I got a call from a carpenter friend from the past. He’s a custom trim and millwork rep now.

He had a job he thought I might like to take a look at, a custom stair railing. It shouldn’t take that long. How can I say no?

The vanity will just have to wait.

During all this, we lost our 20 yr. old cat, Tess

and 17 days later, we lost Jack, my 9 1/2 yr. old Golden retriever.

It was hard enough to say goodbye to our dear old cat who’s lived a long life, but Jack took us by surprise.

Christmas just wasn’t the same without him, we didn’t even put up a tree, normally we decorate the house.

On a good note, we ended up getting a friend for Hunter – a new golden puppy named Tyler. He is adorable!

He is my little shadow and the new shop dog.

He just turned 6 months and has become quite a handful! ha!

I finally got the wood and finished making the doors …again. All I had to do was stain, finish and install the vanity.

There was 2000.00 left in the final payout.I was so close.

But now, it’s October 1st…. something weird happens to me.

I start thinking about nothing but Halloween props. It’s a 20 year tradition around here and I have a huge reputation to keep.

What vanity?

The phone rings ….it’s Randy.

He apologized and says he felt bad about walking off the job. Says he’d like to help me again with the Halloween display.

Even though I was very disappointed with the way he acted, I did miss him. So, I said, sure.

It was a huge undertaking: The Haunted Halloween Corn Maze.

We had been planning this for a year.

It had over 100 carved pumpkins, 400 corn stalks, dead trees full of crows, spider webs and skeletons, three black light dark rooms,

spooky sounds, animated characters, fog machines and a laser show.

The first thing we had to do was cut stake points on 12 – 8 ft. long 2x4s. I had them laying on the pool deck already painted black.

All Randy had to do was hold the boards while I rotated the blade guard up and cut the angles.

He wanted to argue about it – insisting we bring them in the garage and use my new sliding miter saw.

I explained that the stakes needed to be sharper than a 45 but he got pissed about it and just stood on the board with his hands in his pockets

instead of holding it and feeding me a new board to cut, like I asked.

For some reason, he shifted his weight and the board jumped.

Next thing I know I’m holding my middle finger together while it’s gushing blood.

40 years on the job as a carpenter, never once cut myself with a skill saw.

It cut right through the nail, just above the cuticle and took out the middle of the tip bone.

We left the hospital around midnight, didn’t eat all day, exhausted, stabbed and stitched up, but feeling no pain.

I had to finish the Halloween display….I was too far in to it.

We just unloaded the 400 stalks of corn and out of the van including all the dead trees for props.

We already bought the storm fence and metal stakes.

The animated Halloween characters had been taken out of the attic and were waiting in the dining room

Randy tried to be more helpful after the accident, but it rained nonstop for days and we could only work inside the shop or when the rain slowed down. We got wet.

It didn’t take long before he’d had enough and walked off the job… again. Haven’t seen him since then.

I finished the display as best I could and took it all down by myself. I was numb and couldn’t feel much pain,

thanks to those wonderful little white pills they gave me, otherwise I don’t think I could’ve done this.

Then, my finger swelled up and the doc said there was a 50/ 50 chance I could lose it if I didn’t completely stop working for a week to give it time to heal. Great…..just shoot me now.

It’s been two months since the accident and my finger is much better.

It amazes me how the body can heal itself so quickly, if you let it.

The vanity…..what about the vanity?

Well, I finally finished it and installed it the day before Christmas eve.

She had her parents over on Christmas day so I was really glad it was done by then. It came out really nice.

I was embarrassed it took so long. And, they were so nice about it, I didn’t want to give her the invoice right away.

I took 400.00 off the final bill.

Done…..big sigh.

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Merry Christmas and happy new Year everyone.

I Hope your projects run smoother and on time next year.

…. and watch those fingers, will ya?