Stair Parts at a Standstill

Jesus made a mistake with the stair installation. As the box newels and hand railing were installed it wasn't looking right. We caught it and stopped any further progress in time so that it's not a total loss.

On Wednesday morning before the crew arrived for the day, Will and I took a closer look and determined that the starter step was just too high. Upon closer investigation it did indeed measure a precipitous height of 9", with each following step at close to the 7" mark as drawn in the plans. I called Jesus to tell him there was something wrong with the measurements and to stop all work on the stairs.

That afternoon I came home to talk to him about it. I asked him questions but didn't really get any satisfactory answers. My feeling is that the stairs are beyond his skill level and experience, and he can't admit that. I understand, and I'm sure he can do them and they'll probably look ok, but they're just not right.

I talked to Will about calling in someone else to install the stair parts and said I would call Bill Paul, my guy at Anderson Molding who was so helpful when ordering the stiar parts. Then I would search Angies List if needed. So I called Bill Paul and he gave me two referrals. I called the firts one, Dave Massey, and we set up an appointment for saturday to come take a look at what we're dealing with.

He arrived promptly and assessed the work. We talked about what needed to be done and he expected all the parts could be salvaged and his crew could get it done in a day. We talked about his schedule and I looked at his portfolio. He said he would email me a proposal by the end of day Sunday and we were looking t the week after next to get it done. Since then I have not received the email proposal, I have left 4 messages on his voice mail, and I have not received a return call or email. He just disappeared. I'm very disappointed in this approach. For whatever reason he can't do the job, just let me know so I can find someone else. Jeez.
In the meantime Jesus and his crew are tiling and painting. So it's been an exciting week seeing it come together. The colors are beautiful and they are working well together, just the right amount of contrast between the wall color and the ceiling color. It's transitioning well from the existing downstairs colors to the new stairwell color too.

Of course there's more to see on Flickr